3 Iron (2004)

When you are not managing your Netflix queue with any kind of vigilance, things that you read about and were intrigued by tend to creep up to the top without you really being aware of it. So when two films by Kim Ki-Duk, the Korean director, came one day I have no idea what I was in for.
The movie has almost no dialogue--so if you are loath to read subtitles and are not fluent in Korean, this could work for you. Tae-Suk is our main man. He has no home and very little money. All that he has to his name are the motorcycle he ran in on, a digital camera, and the clothes on his back. He plants brochures for Chinese food restaurants on people's doors and waits 24 hours before returning. If the brochure remains on the door knob, it indicates that its occupant is away. Tae then picks the lock, lets himself in, and lives in the house for one to two nights. He eats their food, uses their water, watches television, and cleans himself. In return, he fixes subtle aspects of the home. He washes stray clothes, he waters plants, he cleans the bathrooms; he repays the occupant back without them even knowing it. Before he departs, he makes sure to find a picture of the owner and their family and take a picture of himself standing next to it. He attempts to find a home for himself in the pictures of other families. He gets wrapped up in one house and one woman, which is the path we follow with him.
Kim Ki-Duk is a director who went to the 'show and not tell' school of filmmaking. His direction is pitch perfect, as he frames each shot with a delicate composition. His film slowly moves deeper and deeper into it's character's psyches without them saying a word to one another. The film isn't necessarily entertaining, but it is utterly fascinating throughout its entirety. It is atmospheric and thought provoking. Why does this woman stay with her abusive husband? Why can't he see how miserable she is? How does the silent stranger get a foot in her emotional door? The film feels like it was lovingly made, and then presented to the audience on a soft pillow for us to watch and learn decidedly unlikable things about marriage.