by SARAH ROWLAND

While 3-Iron may creep along a little too slowly for some, it's still a great film for extreme golfing fans, the hearing impaired and anyone patient enough to wait for one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful endings in recent cinematic history.

In Kim Ki-duk's latest soul-searching exploration, Jae Hee plays Tae-suk, a mute pretty-boy who looks like he could be in a Korean boy band. He spends most days cruising affluent Seoul neighbourhoods, distributing bunk restaurant flyers. The idea is that if the phony ad is still there 24 hours later, then the occupiers must be out of town - which gives Tae-suk the green light to break in. But he's not your average burglar. In exchange for food and a place to crash for the night, this genteel neat freak does your laundry and tidies up the place.

In most cases, the outgoing message on the answering machine conveniently confirms when and for how long his unsuspecting hosts will be away. Not always though, and that's where our love story begins. One day, Tae-suk stumbles into an occupied residence where a beautiful young woman Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeon) hasn't bothered to clear her junk mail off the front porch because she's too busy cowering in the corner after one of her husband's daily tenderizings.

When the wife beater returns home to finish what he started, Tae-suk tests out his killer 3-iron swing on the bastard and pelts him several gut-wrenching blows to the abdomen. (This is the first of many violent golfing acts that take place throughout the film.)

Then without exchanging a single word, Sun-hwa decides to take off with her home-invading hero. In between picking locks, exchanging looks and putting around, the two speechless and damaged souls fall in love.

Although the supporting cast yammer on throughout, Ki-duk, who won best director for 3-Iron at the 2004 Venice film fest, keeps his central couple in an isolated bubble of silence. Thankfully though, both leads are strong enough to convey a wide range of melancholic emotions using only facial expressions.

And just think: you can crunch your popcorn as loud as you like without missing a word.

3-Iron opens Friday, May 20

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