Despite the film’s absurdist streak, there’s no mistaking its subversive edge, and comparisons to Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder, and Mother, are clearly on point.

The pre-cellphone, pre-internet setting is a satisfying time capsule back to an era when on-screen detectives worked on hunches and their wits. In this enigmatic tale, they may not be enough.

It was really atmospheric, melancholic, and visually arresting...

Shot on 16mm film, the result is a highly cinematic and subversive exploration of order and disorder, where the film-making breaks all the rules of the genre it draws on.