Showtimes: 6/26, 9:00pm and 6/29, 8:30pm at the ImaginAsian [BUY TICKETS]

Why won't anyone release SAMARITAN GIRL? Directed by the ever-controversial Kim Ki-Duk (THE ISLE; SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER, FALL...AND SPRING) this movie is part of our spotlight on Tartan's Asian Extreme line, and they'll be releasing it on video, but why hasn't it hit US screens? The truth is, most American distributors are a little scared of a movie that's so frank about sex. We can handle blood and gore, but sex? No thanks. It's too bad, because audiences will be missing one of the most compulsively watchable films of the year.

Jae-Yeong and Yeo-Jin are high school students and best friends. They're saving up to get the hell out of Korea, and their money is coming from the afternoon sessions Jae-Yeong has with her male clients who are always eager for some under-age nookie. Yeo-Jin acts as her manager, but her jealousy is killing her: Jae-Yeong is supposed to be her best friend, so why is she sharing herself with these stupid guys? Things come to a crisis when Jae-Yeong kills herself one afternoon. As an act of closure, Yeo-Jin decides to sleep with every one of Jae-Young's customers and return their money. But things get sticky when her dad, a police detective and born-again Christian, discovers what she's doing and decides that it's his duty to take action.

Told simply, and radiant with a quiet, hard-won spirituality, SAMARITAN GIRL is an overlooked gem from 2004, a movie no one should miss, but which everyone has.