There was such a giddy sense of anticipation for Bong Joon-ho’s first English language film that ultimate disappointment seemed almost inevitable. But, where his countrymen Park Chan-wook and Kim Ji-woon failed to transplant their unique cinematic perspective into Stoker and The Last Stand respectively, Snowpiercer is by comparison a monumental triumph of dystopian science fiction. […] Read more »
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve largely allowed the films of Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong to pass me by until now. I did catch Poetry (although I much preferred Bong Joon-ho’s similarly-themed Mother) but that’s it, despite having both Peppermint Candy and this award-winning effort on my shelves for quite some time. While I will […] Read more »
The last film in my Park Chan-wook retrospective is his utterly bonkers vampire film from 2009. Song Kang-ho plays Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest who volunteers to help find a cure for a horrific virus, only to contract it himself. After receiving a life-saving blood transfusion, Sang-hyun develops an unhealthy craving for human blood, sensitivty to […] Read more »
When a South Korean soldier (Lee Byung-hun) stationed with the garrison that guards the 38th Parallel on the North/South border staggers back across from the other side with a bullet in his leg, it sparks a military investigation into why he was there and how he was involved in a shootout that left two North […] Read more »
As part of a future (as-yet undisclosed) project, I’m currently re-visiting the films of Korean director Park Chan-wook. I was planning to begin with JSA: Joint Security Area, but neither of my Blu-ray players seemed willing to play my VCD (I know!) last night, so I jumped ahead to Park’s 2002 revenge masterpiece. It’s been […] Read more »