Tuesday, April 7, 2015

New Korean Films: Balls Delivery (2015 Week 13)

Foulball
(파울볼)


By Fabien Schneider

Kim Sung-keun has been a baseball coach to many internationally successful players. Along with many young people who dream of becoming a professional player, he also created South-Korea’s first independent baseball team, the Goyang Wonders. Their training is really intense and demanding, but this is what it takes if they want to one day join the national league. During the first three years of their existence, they surprised a lot of experts with their impressive record: 90 wins, 25 ties and 61 losses. So far 31 players have been able to sign with professional teams. However at the beginning of 2014 season, the Goyang Wonders announced to the public that they would soon be disbanded.

Yet another film about the local history of baseball, you say? One of the posters swears that “this is not a baseball film but our life”, as if the distributor knew that the picture's baseball theme may limit its audience to diehard fans of this sport. I don’t expect many of you have ever heard of Kim Sung-keun; neither have I. He was a pitcher in his younger days and has since been active as a coach and a manager in many teams, but his most successful job, without a doubt, has been his work with the SK Wyverns (based in Incheon) from 2007 to 2011. Not only did he lead this team to win the Korean Series three times, but he also lead them to victory 23 times straight, which is the second longest winning streak worldwide. Despite this success, Kim was fired by SK in 2011 over a disagreement after which he then decided to found a team outside of the Korean Baseball Organization. This film , directed by two rookie directors, Kim Bo-kyeong and Cho Jung-ra, was made using footage shot during the team's entire lifetime. The local critics are moderately positive about this film, and it could even dig its way to the box-office thanks to a surprisingly large distribution throughout the country.

Delicious Delivery
(맛있는 택배)


After the bankruptcy of his father’s company and breakup with his girlfriend, Im Hyeok decides to take a break from school. In order to help his parents, he starts working part-time at a delivery service company. But he soon offers far more (and for free) to the bored housewives whose only pleasure in life is to receive packages they ordered. Some of them living in the same apartment complex form a group, the “Chili Pepper Sisters”, so they can fairly share Hyeok’s “services”. Among them is Hee-seon, his sexy ex-girlfriend, and Tae-hee, an innocent-looking girl who keeps a secret.

As is very common for these erotic flicks, the information about it is meager and I can barely confirm that it’s actually getting released this week. This film is directed by Ki Dae-ho, a debuting director, and is played by actors who have already appeared in other films of the same kind. The release will be limited to a few independent theaters scattered in the country.


New Korean Films is a weekly feature which provide an in-depth look at new local releases in Korea. For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office UpdateKorean Cinema News and the Weekly Korean Reviews, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (Korean Standard Time). Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

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1 comment:

  1. The reason you can't find information verifying the movie's release is because these kinds of erotic movies are primarily intended for digital distribution. How did you even find out about it? They're are never discussed in trade publications. Erotic films are listed on the usual registries mainly for legal reasons.

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