As delightfully deranged as its main characters, The Insect Woman veers between horror, the Korean hostess genre, melodrama, and exploitation to manifest the disjunctures of rapid modernization. Schoolgirl Myoungja goes from braids to bouffant in one cut when her destitute mother makes her a bar hostess/prostitute to earn money. She cures impotent and schizophrenic Professor Lee, becoming his concubine. His entrepreneur wife is initially outraged, but soon accepts the arrangement as if it were childcare. Look out for the rat-eating baby! And don't miss the classic sex scene on a glass table covered in boiled candies.-Chris Berry