Unlike the harsh critics of this movie, I find it to have far greater depth than it has received credit for possessing.

Let's get past the obvious, which is that the film is most assuredly erotic. Examine instead, the fact that in this, it is also exquisitely filmed, and very intense.

Something that is missed regarding this film is the fact it is surreal. When viewed as surreal, Mi in reaches an entirely different level. It must be processed through intellect first. Surrealism demands that of the viewer. It keeps you saying to yourself, did I really see that? Am I understanding this thing, or am I totally off base? What does this mean?

Well, in this case, it's erotica with a story that could be simply told. Man meets woman. Woman is a nude model. Woman loves another, an abusive man who cares very little about the fact she exists, and uses her only for sex. Man becomes obsessed with woman to the degree that he no longer functions in his professional capacity as a writer. Eventually they both go down the tubes.

End of story.

But...

Mi in is a dip into a pool of sensuality, courtesy of the fine eye of the director, Yeo Kyun Dong, and the masterful work of a choreographer who coached and choreographed the love scenes. Unfortunately, I do not know his/her name. The combination of the actors, the director, the choreographer, and the composer/pianist responsible for the score, acting in concert with each other, gives us a beautifully created view of the sex act in it's many variations, and tones.

The film opens with a shot of a writing desk and chair. The camera approaches slowly, finally showing an open book with a fountain pen (how utterly elegant) lying across the page. The doorbell rings several times. We hear the voice of a man. He says, "She's back". And so it begins….

The male lead, played by Oh Ji Ho, is the writer utterly obsessed with the nude model, played by Lee Ji Hyun, with whom he is having an affair that is sexual in nature, but devoid of any real connection, and therefore, ultimately frustrating. The gratification of the act of sex dissipates quickly enough, and the man is left empty. He wishes for the love he has for her to be reciprocal. It is not. He fantasizes about her being the woman he wants her to be in apparent real-time scenarios, that are woven into the actual scene being played out as he copes with the truth. She is not who or what he longs for her to be.

The woman, on the other hand, gives herself entirely to the lover of her choice, an abusive man who beats her, and treats her in an offhand way. She is only desired as a sex partner at his whim. She lives for her cellular phone to ring. She waits for the sound of his voice summoning her.

This is witnessed time after time by the writer, whose home she has moved into at his invitation. She has nowhere else to go.

As part of the legends of vampires, it is said that you must invite the vampire to cross your threshold, after which, all is lost....

As the film progresses, we do not know at any point if the entire story is a figment of the vivid imagination of the writer, or, if it is really happening.

The ending, an exact replica of the beginning, leaves us with a puzzle. Was it real? Was it not? We might hope it is imagination at work, as the last scene before the movie draws to a close is a heartbreaker.

It was impossible for me to disengage myself from Mi in once it had gripped me, which it did in a very subtle way. By the final couple of scenes I was completely involved emotionally with the characters.

The woman, while I pitied and understood her, put me off initially. Upon viewing the movie for a third time, without subtitles to distract me, I found myself saddened equally for the man and woman. Each one is caught in the trap of love in it's most virulent and pernicious form.

The English subtitles are poor, and concentration is needed in order to relate to the dialogue. This distracts the viewer from the visual aspect of the film, which is unfortunate.

Knowing finally what the dialogue was about, made me able to relate far better to the woman and her unhappiness. Many times she expresses the wish to die. To simply be dead - not here any longer. To be set free from her pain. In one scene she says these things so wearily, I felt total sympathy for her at last. She is at times, obviously mentally unbalanced, or drunk, or hysterical, or anxious and distressed.

These afflicted lovers have one terrible verbal confrontation with each other that degenerates into sheer destructive behavior by the woman. At last she wails and weeps, and hurls accusations at the man who has sheltered her. She often returns after visits with her chosen lover, drunk, and once, beaten physically. Always, the writer is there, and always he eventually takes care of her in spite of his desire to be shed of her. Her perception of him is weakness. He sees himself this way also, and is filled with loathing.

When viewed through the intellect first, without expectation, but with the mind open to the surreal, this becomes a gem in it's own right. Bear in mind, the majority of gems taken from the earth are flawed. It goes without saying that it is a most beautiful film physically, but also that it is flawed.

One of the more interesting things about Oriental carpets, especially those made by nomadic peoples who move their looms from place to place, gathering the natural substances for dyes as they travel along their paths, are the irregularities and flaws that give the carpets their character.

We, as connoisseurs of such things, ought to allow for flaws in film with equal generosity. Look toward the beauty, and you will find it.

The main players are attractive people. Both have excellent bodies. They are agile and graceful and totally believable in the love scenes, which are sometimes incredibly sensuous and caressing, and always riveting.

The director uses visual hints that may or may not be recognized. In one scene the two characters are out walking, one on either side of the street, although they are theoretically walking together. What could describe the separation between these minds, and souls better than such a simple device? He also did certain things with audio, other than supplying us with a remarkable musical background that incidentally stands high on my list of favored film scores.

The story is frequently presented as narrative, using a voice-over technique by Oh Ji Ho, who has a very pleasant speaking voice. This voice gives us a sense of the writer as an intelligent, gentle soul.

The very sounds of the film otherwise--the clattering departures of the woman, her slamming of the door, her frequent shrillness, her noisy occupation of another persons space is jarring opposed to the introspective silence of the writer. Such audio treatment is calculated and clever, because it works on the subconscious, telling us so much about the characters, without words.

If we look at the visual aspects without the sensuality, without the sex, we see a man with beautiful hands tenderly nurturing a plant. A man who sits quietly reading or writing, as the lover sleeps. It’s a subtle sensitive poignant view into the inner heart, as well as the physical self. He lives in serene simplicity.

That is the black and the white of it.

There is no compelling fire that binds these people together, other than sex. Their sadness and longings are endured as separate beings, each suffering on his/her own. Opposing sides of a street traversed.

I've read comments elsewhere regarding the performance of Oh Ji Ho, in that it is not top rate. I would therefore like to point out that this film is his debut effort, having come from a career as a successful male fashion model. He was also quite young when this was made, having been born in 1976.

Were Mi in to be made now, as he approaches the age of thirty, I feel he would handle the role very well. He would be more credible. The character he plays is older than 24. He's serious and mature, and as mentioned previously, a professional writer of some standing.

The interior struggle of the character needs clarification which would have come from better translation via good subtitles. We do not have that. Therefore we can't judge his interpretation of the role very fairly.

Lee Ji Hyun, on the other hand, is unquestionably excellent as the desperate woman filled with longing for a man she loves so futilely, while living with a man she feels nothing less than disdain for, a man she uses as a sexual soporific to quell the pain of her life. Her acting ability stuns, as one would be stunned if dropped into a vat of ice water. She takes your breath away. You will forget the bad subtitles, and the inanity they evince through watching this dynamic actress at work. She weaves a spell.

A perception of this movie is that it is merely erotica qualifying as softcore porn. There's a major difference between the utter stupidity of plot-free soft/hard-core pornography, which relies on the display of overt sexual behavior in greater or lesser degree, and this film, which is erotic art. Ninety-five percent of pornographic work is sans art, sans viable plot, and sans any modicum of sensitivity. No trace of the difficulty presented to the human race as shown ably by Mi in, is present in such movies.

Mi in painfully records the course of an agonizingly debilitating relationship based on sexual obsession and unrequited love that can only end bitterly, leaving behind the dust of shattered hearts, broken lives, and pulverized souls.

Try getting that from Debbie Does Dallas.

At the end of the movie, the doorbell rings, and the voice of the writer once again says, "She's back". Hearing that as I watched this film the first time, I spoke aloud without thinking. I said, "Don't answer it".

I want to believe he didn't.

Forgive me for belaboring a point here, but I must say again that the English subtitles are full of grammatical errors, and translation that kills the dialogue. They're moronic, ghastly, and all but unforgivable. This factor lends unnecessary confusion to the story. If one is able to understand the original language, which is Korean, I believe the viewing experience of this film would be quite different

I suspect it's costly to use a superior translator, and this movie was not made with an unlimited budget. It is so irritating though, when you consider how much care was given to the camera work, which is superb.

The subtitles kept me from rating this movie as a 10 at IMDb. But, I did rate it as 9 because it is a daring plunge into a convoluted tale by a director who was willing it seems, to take a chance. Willing to present a puzzle that requires the thought process. A little much to ask of the average viewer going to see a film presumed only to be erotica, rather than art, and perceived by the dense-minded as qualifying for soft-core pornography status.

For those able to SEE Mi in, it's a good film, and certainly worth the time it takes to watch it. I like it very much. It was the first Asian movie I purchased, and it helped make an addict of me. I consider it a very good start of the collection I hope to own eventually.