Just as the 3-Iron of the film title is the seldom used club in the golf bag, protagonist Tae-suk (Jae Hee) is a human being that does not fit into society. Though well-educated, honest and intelligent, Tae breaks into empty houses where he cooks, washes, sleeps and etches a comfortable living. He steals nothing and performs a useful service like repairing broken items. There is the odd time when he gets caught, but whether he runs away or gets beaten up, he survives and lands on his own two feet. That is till Tae-suk meets up and falls in love with a beautiful woman, Sun-hwa (Lee Seung-yeo) an abused wife, whose house he breaks into.

Tae and Sun hardly speak. This is hardly novel in a Kim Ki-Duk film. His protagonists – the gangster that also did not fit into society in BAD GUY; the young monk at the floating monastery SPRING, SUMMER, WINTER, FALL … AND SPRING hardly utter a word.  Once again, as in all his films, love is the element that breaks the status quo. Sun follows Tae around till they are caught in the act of the house breaking and held suspect for murder. Violence, again, though to a less extreme (compared to fish hooks down the throat and vagina in THE ISLE and eye-poking pencils in ADDRESS UNKNOWN) is used to emphasize points like Sun’s love for Tae (the golf ball bashing through another lady’s head instead of hers or the prison guard clobbering Sun every time he discovers a new act of disappearance). If the protagonist in BAD GUY survives multiple beatings and bullets to emerge unscathed, so Tae gets to live as a spiritual force in the life of his new love.

3-IRON breaks no new ground for director Kim. He has and continued to tread water in all his films. The silent protagonist who is unfit for society and forced out of his shell by an innocent love. He survives immortally for some reason or other. Only the situation is changed. It is time for Kim to break out of this mould and offer his audiences a break. Monotony becomes boring even though the film is reasonably well executed.