2013.9.6 NOW PLAYING

SPY (15)

Comedy, Action / 121 / Korean

In a Korean take on the Hollywood film “True Lies” (which in turn was a remake from a French movie), Sol Kyung-gu plays a deadly agent, Chul-su, who has kept his dangerous job a secret from his flight attendant wife, Young-hee (Moon So-ri), for years.

But when Chul-su suddenly takes off on a secret mission to Thailand at the same time Young-hee had scheduled a visit to the fertility clinic, his wife erupts in anger. Coincidentally, however, Young-hee also chooses Thailand as her destination to let off a little steam.

While enjoying a few days in Bangkok, Young-hee meets a mysterious stranger, played by Daniel Henney, who takes a serious interest in her. Chul-su sees this happening, but he cannot reveal himself because of his job and is forced to watch the handsome man flirting with his wife.

But as the stranger keeps bumping into Young-hee, Chul-su begins to realize there is more going on than meets the eye. As Chul-su tries to discover the truth without being identified, the farcical comedy quickly ratchets up.

Cold War (15)

Action, Crime / 102 / Chinese

Writer-directors Longman Leung and Sunny Luk have created an upscale police thriller starring award-winning actor Tony Leung Ka-fai and popular Hong Kong singer and film actor Aaron Kwok Fu-shing.

One night, a Hong Kong police van carrying the force’s most advanced equipment and five highly trained officers is hijacked and disappears. The hijackers leave an anonymous call implying that they have inside knowledge about the police force, quickly drawing the attention of the police’s top brass.

But with the police commissioner (Michael Wong in a cameo) out of town, deputy commissioner of police operations M.B. Lee (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) is in charge, and Lee, as the father of one of the missing cops, is emotionally compromised. An attempted rescue mission soon leads to a huge leadership crisis, as Lee and other top police struggle for control of the force.

The action-packed crime drama triumphed at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April, winning in nine categories, including best film, best director and best actor.

Miss Change (19)

Comedy / 100 / Korean

Jae-chil (Song Sam-dong) is a homely lawyer who has never gone on a date with a single woman. He loses every trial because he gets too scared when he’s around a woman.

Then one day, Jae-chil’s sad life turns upside down when a mysterious event causes him to switch bodies with a woman he found lying passed out on the street.

Body-swapping movies are hardly novel. Hollywood has tackled the subject innumerable times over the years, from “18 Again” to “The Hot Chick” to “Freaky Friday” (twice). Even Korea’s given the genre a try in the 2010 TV drama “Secret Garden.”

But in most of those films, the protagonist is chiefly concerned with getting his original body back. Not so here. Jae-chil never liked his life, so he gleefully takes advantage of the benefits his new body brings.

Director Zeong Cho-sin is well-known for his sex comedies, in particular “Wet Dreams” (2002) and “Wet Dreams 2” (2005). This is his first film in eight years.

Over and Over Again (19)

Drama / 81 / Korean

This is a low-budget, serious film about two down-and-outers, Gaettongi and his troubled friend Changsoo. Having grown up in an abusive home, Gaettongi is pretty messed up, but Changsoo is as loud and proud as Gaettongi is quiet and repressed. But as the pressures of life mount, Gaettongi is gradually heading toward some kind of meltdown.

Director Kim Byung-june made this film while still a university student. Despite his age, it was accepted into the Busan International Film Festival last year, which is only the second time a university student has gotten a movie into the prestigious festival.

The Bling Ring (19)

Drama / 95 / English

Living in suburbia can get boring. The same mundane routine where everything is just above average is almost maddening - until you add a bit of crime into the mix. Based on true events, “The Bling Ring” follows several party-going teenagers as they rummage and raid the houses of Hollywood’s best-known celebrities like Orlando Bloom and Lindsay Lohan. In one of the most famous cases depicted in the film, the teens sneak into Paris Hilton’s mansion while the heiress is hosting a party in Las Vegas and proceed to shower themselves with her clothes, jewelry and cash. The Tinseltown thieves - Rebecca (Katie Chang), Marc (Israel Broussard), Nicki (Emma Watson) and Chloe (Claire Julien) - are not exactly burglary masterminds. Through a few clicks around the Internet, the teens quickly discover when the celebrities are away and where they live.

Director Sofia Coppola, famed for her films “The Virgin Suicides” (1999) and “Lost in Translation” (2003), depicts the vanity and audacity of the less-than-remorseful teenage gang. Not only do they want what they can’t have, but also they can’t seem to understand why.

Forgotten (15)

Thriller / 102 / German

Two childhood best friends are eerily reunited when the anxious Clarissa (Laura de Boer) overdoses on sleeping pills and ends up in the hospital in the care of Hanna (Mina Tander), who has become a doctor. Clarissa decides she wants to catch up with Hanna and the two, along with Hanna’s daughter Lea (Lina Kohlert), set off for an island home that belonged to their families almost 25 years ago. Legend states that a girl’s ghost haunts the island, and the two quickly realize they cannot forget what turns up in front of them.

Directed by German filmmaker Alex Schmidt, the gray images of winter give the movie a cold and frightening look while the two women grapple with repressed memories. Although director Schmidt is known for her short films, this physiological, old-school horror proves to be an unnerving feature-length spook complete with bonuses of a secluded location and childhood flashbacks.

Now You See Me (12)

Thriller, Action / 115 / English

Directed by Louis Leterrier of “Clash of the Titans” (2010) fame, this sleight-of-hand thriller boasts an impressive ensemble cast, including Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.

“Now You See Me” is the story about four talented magicians (played by Harrelson, Fisher, Franco and Eisenberg) who are mysteriously invited to an apartment in New York City, where they find a strange message in the form of a fantastic hologram.

A year later, the magicians have become one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas, calling themselves the “Four Horsemen.” But at one show, their magic trick apparently involves an amazing, international bank heist, stealing money from a Paris bank and then showering the Vegas audience with the cash.

At this point, FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Ruffalo) gets involved, teaming up with Interpol agent Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent) to stop the unusual thieves.

But more than just thieves, the Four Horsemen and their benefactor have reasons for their very unusual magic act.