The closing film at PiFan this year was this modest, yet mostly effective thriller starring Ha Jung-woo as a shamed TV anchor, now radio DJ, who is forced back on the air when a terrorist calls into his morning show. Falling somewhere between Phone Booth and Talk Radio, the action takes place entirely within the […] Read more »
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 »
Intriguing Korean thriller about the pressures of studying at an elite boarding school and the lengths the top students will go to in order to maintain their grades and get into the best universities. This reminded me a little of Donna Tartt’s novel, The Secret History, which trod similar ground in the US school system, […] Read more »
While Fernando is otherwise engaged relocating himself somewhere new in Asia, James is joined by special guest Pierce Conran () from Twitch and Modern Korean Cinema, to discuss the highlights of this year’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival and also Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated sci-fi epic, Snowpiercer. Podcast: Play in new window | Download 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 »
I had heard decidedly mixed things about Ryu Seung-wan’s latest Korean action thriller, so was pleasantly surprised by this neo-Cold War tale of duplicitous North and South Korean agents working in Berlin. Ha Jung-woo is the North Korean agent who is told that his wife (Jeon Ji-hyun) is under suspicion of being a double agent. […] Read more »
Slick Korean revenge thriller starring So Ji-sub as a stylish, yet solitary assassin, whose company operates behind the facade of a legitimate metal merchant. When he fails to liquidate a young freelancer, however, and discovers the lad’s mother is a former singer whom he idolised, this once by-the-book badass has no option but to protect […] Read more »
Kim’s output reaches a stunning climax here in a film that marries strong characterization with glossy production values in a story that could only come from this singular filmmaker. A silent young man (Jae Hee) breaks into people’s houses, eats their food, wears their clothes, does their laundry and then leaves. But when he is […] Read more »
When a highschooler’s efforts to prostitute her best friend end in tragedy, Yeo-jin (Kwak Ji-min) resolves to sleep with the clients herself and return their money. But when her cop father (Lee Eol) finds out, further violence is just around the corner. Teenage rebellion, religious delusion, parental responsibility and bloody-minded revenge all jostle for attention […] Read more »
Kim addresses faith, human nature and free will head on in this beautiful film, which charts the evolution of a Buddhist monk through the different chapters of his life. Located entirely in and around an isolated water-bound temple, and told at an unhurried meditative pace, this easily qualifies as Kim’s most tranquil film, but nonetheless […] Read more »
In Kim’s most extreme portrayal of “tough love”, a low-level pimp (Jo Jae-hyeon) targets a respectable college student (Seo Won), forcing her into a life of prostitution, only to become fiercely protective of her. A brutal examination of a modern society still burdened by archaic sexism and a gaping class divide, the film is also […] Read more »
At a remote fishing resort, the beautiful yet mute Hee-jin (Suh Jung) services her guests with tackle, alcohol and even sex, for the right price. When she intervenes to stop reclusive fugitive Hyun-shik (Kim Yoo-suk) from killing himself, a passionate yet deeply dysfunctional relationship begins between them, that in time leads to jealousy, murder and […] Read more »
Stoker is the first English language film from acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-wook. The film brings together Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode in a terse, sexually charged and artfully constructed thriller. Many reviewers have pointed out the way this film exegetes themes of teen angst. It certainly does that. But, Stoker explores […] 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 »
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) tries his luck in Hollywood, with the help of Mia Wasikowska, Matthew Goode and Nicole Kidman, in an erotically-charged and beautifully-filmed modern-day noir. Read my full review here. Read more »
Following the international success of his “Vengeance Trilogy”, Park Chan-wook shifts gears completely with this good natured, day-glo coloured romantic comedy set in a mental institute. Lim Su-jeong plays a troubled young woman who is committed following a suicide attempt. She believes she is a cyborg and refuses to eat, which only makes her condition […] Read more »
South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s English language debut is a sultry and languid noir set in the American Deep South. At the funeral of her father, who died on her 18th birthday, India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) learns that Daddy had a younger brother, her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode), who proceeds to ingratiate himself into the […] Read more »
Lee Young-ae stars as a convicted child murderer, released from prison after 13 years, who heads out on a trail of revenge against the man she believes really committed the crime in the final part of Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy. Read my full review here Read more »
Re-watching this film for the first time since it played at the HK Asian Film Festival in 2005, I was finally able to check out the “Fade to Black & White” version, which was Park’s original vision for the film. Although shot in colour, the film slowly fades to black and white over its duration, […] 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 »