The Monk and The Prostitute

Just as we've defined the boundaries of what we consider at the TMD Review, we violate them. Here is a review of the film "1/3" directed by Yongman Kim submitted by guest editrix Artemis Furie.

"1/3" is a wondrously disturbing visual poem about the intersection of two worlds, one of peace, one of violence. The protagonist is a Buddhist monk (Ivo Velon) artist living in the East Village whose day and night are bounded by rituals that create the maximum state of blissful detachment. His antagonist is the prostitute, Lotusia (Diana Gitelman) who lives next door and whose johns are an array of urban archetypes - the detective, the policeman, the photographer, the grocer, and the homeless punk. The Monk sketches Lotusia surreptiously as she passes his easel daily in Washington Square Park. Their worlds are so separate they may as well be living on different planets. Yet her life begins to intrude on his when he literally pierces the material divide between them. With all his monastic reserve, he takes to voyeurism quite avidly. But he is soon shaking and sobbing at multiple and repetitive scenes of her BDSM scenarios with customers which the filmmaker traces in b&w flashbacks to Lotusia's abusive cop mother and victimized Dad. In spite of this, The Monk maintains his detachment until the very last frame. Their final collision is quite random and delivered with a fatalistic punch. The entire film is acted with no dialogue. The closing credits roll with an excellent original song "See What I Told You."


Screenplay by Yongman Kim and Ed Moran. Directed by Youngman Kim. With Ivo Velon and Diane Gitelmam. Distributed by Kino International. Original Music by Dominick Mack and Ed Moran.

- A. Furie