It′s not unusual to witness surrealistic images in Kim Ki-Duk′s films, as they often cross the line between reality and the imagination. Even with such a title as ′state of reality (the direct translation of the original Korean title), the circumstance unfolding in his fifth feature is in fact a fantasy, a ′real fiction′ to be exact. The hero ′I′ is a street artist drawing portraits at University Street who is constantly being harassed by low-life thugs. One day a girl shows up and captures his every movement on her digital camcorder. She takes ′I′ to a local theatrical stage. There, ′I′ runs into another version of ′himself′ with the memories of his own painful past. Exploding with rage upon his continuous ′self-insult,′ ′I′ murders his other self and heads out on the street, beginning a merciless revenge on those inflicting pain upon him. This extraordinary film originated from a bold idea of "shooting one man′s 100-minute flight in one take, in one place." Eight 35mm cameras, ten digital camcorders and two 35mm steadycams are used by 12 sequence directors and assistants, while more than 120 staff members participated in shooting Real Fiction in just over 3 hours. Although the film features an easy to follow storyline that is relatively precise in development, it′s also an intriguing experimental feature at the same time. (Han Sang-Jun)