X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

The Hotel Venus

In a strange alienated world there is a secret hotel in a shabby diner called the Venus Café, harboring some unusual people where compelling secrets lie in each resident's heart. Torturing secrets that have broken their emotional boundaries in the past. In this bittersweet, heart-wrenching story, there lives a man by the name of Chonan (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) who lives in the attic and works as a waiter or handyman at the hotel. Room 1 is shared by two residents; an incapable alcoholic and an illegal doctor named Doctor (Teruyuki Kagawa) and Wife (Miki Nakatani) who used to be a nurse but now works as a hostess living in the hopes of Doctor's recuperation. In Room 3 lives a bubbly girl by the name of Soda (Jo Eun Ji), who came from a deserted town where no one flowers flourished and has a dream to open her own flower shop. Finally, Room 4, occupied by a challenging young boy by the name of Boy (Lee Joon Gi), who carries around a gun longing to become a strong man and wishes to some day become a hitman. Then there is the owner of the café, Venus, who is a mysterious transvestite and has only one able leg. Later one day, a drifter by the name of Gai (Park Jung Woo), a quiet man who would avoid verbal communication, walks into the Venus Café with a little girl named Sai (Heui Ko To) who never smiles. He tells Chonan the secret password to entering the hidden hotel and then they became the residents to Room 2. Gai later gets a job at a construction site, while Chonan preserves in comforting Sai to open up her heart and in the process finds his own heart slowly opening as well. Boy, who wants to become a strong man doesn't like Gai staying at the hotel and in the mist of things gets into fight with Gai challenging him to show his worth as a strong man. But in the progress ends up shooting Sai in the leg rendering her feeble. In addition, Soda who is usually bubbly later becomes sad due to the illegal errands she has run for her boss at the flower shop. But Chonan eventually discovers Soda's illegal errands and confronts her to preach to her the differences in right from wrong. In the mean while, Doctor and Wife are constantly fighting over their petty differences and Doctor's alcoholism, which later causes Wife to leave in depression.

Loading. Please wait...

Content not available in your region? ExpressVPN can help you stay connected wherever you are. Get 4 extra months FREE with TV Guide's exclusive offer.

Cast & Crew See All

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi
Chonan
Miki Nakatani
Wife
Park Jung-woo
Guy

Awards

  • 2004 - Silver St. George - Best Film of the Perspectives Competition - winner

You May Also Like See All

The Conformist
Casablanca
Rear Window
Compensation

Popular Movies See all movies

The Devil Wears Prada 2

1 hr 59 mins
Almost twenty years after making their iconic turns as Miranda, Andy, Emily and Nigel—Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci return to the fashionable streets of New York City and the sleek offices of Runway Magazine in the eagerly awaited sequel to the 2006 phenomenon that defined a generation.
63   Metascore
2026 Comedy, Drama

Crucify

1 hr 19 mins
A neon noir thriller that descends into a maze of nightmares as two teens trapped in a haunted crime scene are forced to confront their demons.
2020 Fantasy, Horror, Suspense, Drama

The Devil Wears Prada

1 hr 49 mins
After graduating from college, Andy lands the dream job that "a million girls would kill for": assistant to Miranda - the chief editor of Runway, the top-selling fashion magazine in the industry. It is a job set to fast track her career in journalism if she can survive a year working for Miranda. From here, Andy, with no sense of fashion at all, begins a fish-out-of-water drama as she is thrown into a lifestyle full of the fast-paced, three-inch-minimum heel height, diet Coke and coffee substance abuse. Andy works really hard to deal with Miranda's endless unimaginable demands. She even becomes trendy and classy. However, she gradually finds she is working 24/7, and soon her life with boyfriend, Nate, and best friend, Lily, is slipping away from her. Then, she realizes that she is losing what really matters. She does not want to lose herself no matter how many pairs of Monolos and Jimmy Choos she can score along the way.
62   Metascore
2006 Comedy, Drama

Project Hail Mary

2 hr 36 mins
Middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light-years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: to solve the riddle of the mysterious substance that is causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction... but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
77   Metascore
2026 Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Science Fiction

Man on Fire

2 hr 26 mins
Denzel Washington stars as the bodyguard of the daughter of a wealthy couple in Mexico City who wreaks bloody revenge when she is kidnapped.
47   Metascore
2004 Action & Adventure, Suspense, Drama

Remarkably Bright Creatures

1 hr 51 mins
While working nights at a small-town aquarium, widowed Tova bonds with a clever octopus and an adrift young man in this drama based on the bestseller.
55   Metascore
2026 Comedy, Drama