VENUS TALK (THE LAW OF PLEASURES) (****)

(2014) Wow.  I'd never really seen a South Korean film get this explicit with sexuality and nudity, but if it were in the States this would easily garner a strong "R" rating.  A good "buddy comedy" (with touches of drama and romance) about three women, close friends for years, who are all over the age of 40 and feel as if  they are in the prime of  their lives even when society and those around them treat them like they're old.  Jung Shin-Hye is a beauty who works at a TV station and has just been dumped by her boss for one of her coworkers he got pregnant; a one-night stand with a hunk over a decade younger than her has her rethinking both her love and her sanity.  Lee Hae-Young is the single mother of a college-aged daughter who, though engaged herself, refuses to leave home and allow Hae-Young time with the kind,soft-spoken man she's been seeing.  And  Jo Mi-Yeon, the outspoken rebel of the trio, is about to kill her husband - who is sneaking Viagra to try and keep up with her demands that they continue to enjoy the kind of sex life they had when they were first married years ago.  Interchanging between the three ladies' storylines - as well as their get-togethers over coffee/tea and the need for advice or to vent - it's really nice to see  a film that treats women over 40 as vibrant, attractive, sensual and sexual human beings who can keep up with women half their age ...if not beat them at their game entirely.  (not rated)