Five Senses of Eros (2009)

It's difficult to rate this "movie" because it's not really a movie in the traditional sense of the word. Rather it's a compilation of short films which explore the theme of erotic love. Two of the stories are very loosely related whilst the other 3 are independent of each other.

Some stories were better than others in both content and acting ability. The first two were quite enjoyable and philosophical. They asked deep, thought-provoking questions that I pondered appreciatively.

My favourite of all 5 was the 2nd story. Very poignant, but also a very sweet manifestation of (erotic) love.

The 3rd and 4th stories were a bit bizarre. Think murderous wives, blood sucking vampires and lesbian loving. I liked the 3rd story the least. Though darkly comedic in parts, I found it boring and uninspired in others. The theme of Eros was not very well conveyed, in my opinion, and the acting was off.

The 5th and final story about partner swapping could have been interesting, but the narrative was somewhat nonlinear, making it difficult to keep track of who was really boyfriend/girlfriend with who.

If I had to rate each story individually:

Story 1: 9
Story 2: 10
Story 3: 3
Story 4: 5
Story 5: 6

The average comes out to about 7 so that's my overall score for this anthology. I enjoyed it while it lasted. This movie is suitable for mature audiences, but nothing about it felt gratuitous. In fact a lot of the sexual encounters were pretty PG. I'd say it's a good date movie to watch with your long term partner, if you have one.

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I'm not going to touch on the synopsis because each story has its own and they're published on every website. I added it to my watching list long ago because of the gorgeous cast. When I read many hateful comments I hesitated a bit. Honestly I don't like such works that have different stories but I decided to watch it and I'm glad I did. There's a depth to each story; at least four of the five. The fact that the very general concept in love can be interpreted in so many way and is as personal as height and weight is amazingly depicted. It's all called love; your version, their version and my version. There's no one definition and there's no wrong or right. And as Jang Hyuk says in the first story: '' I'm loving sex not because it's sex but because it's her I'm having sex with.'' I loved the film in every way. There's nothing complicated about it. It touches the inner and shows us what we say is not the definite true but it's what we opt to see.

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