Showing posts with label jiff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jiff. Show all posts

Monday, July 9, 2018

Review: ISLAND, An Elegiac Arthouse Mystery


By Pierce Conran

A man travels to Jeju Island, planning to kill himself in his grandparents' abandoned home, in the most intriguing Korean film to grace the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2015. A lushly filmed and thoroughly engrossing mystery channeling local family melodrama norms along with surprising genre tropes and themes of the loss in a hermetic urban society, Island is a deliberately paced and ambitious arthouse production from sophomore auteur Park Jin-seong.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Review: Grand and Mysterious, THE AVIAN KIND Soars


By Pierce Conran

A great many gems have emerged from the Korean independent scene of late, but some worry that the milieu lacks the unique voices that it used to cultivate 10 to 15 years ago. Director Shin Yeon-shick may already be on his fifth film, but with his latest work The Avian Kind, the filmmaker has positioned himself as a fresh and distinct voice, challenging the realist aesthetic that defines the contemporary indie field.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Review: Meditative POHANG HARBOR Doesn't Quite Connect


By Pierce Conran

In a country with so many hardships out in the open and an unspoken swell of pain swirling just beneath the surface, there needs to be a release valve for the frustrations of ordinary citizens. In Korea, that role is often taken on by cinema.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Review: Unsettling I AM TRASH Revels in Depravity and Dysfunction


By David Bell

Following earlier instalments of Mother is a Whore (2010) and Father is a Dog (2012), Lee Sang-woo completes his thematic trilogy of family dysfunction with I Am Trash (2014), an unflinching depiction of a Seoul street sweeper’s plight to liberate his brothers from sexual deviance after their convicted-paedophile father returns home from prison.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Jeonju 2013: Lee Sang-woo's Thrilling EMERGENCY EXIT is a Poetic Gutpunch (비상구, 2013)


Every year, the Jeonju International Film Festival commissions a pair of omnibus features. The longest-running and most famous of these is the Jeonju Digital Project, which has featured a number of star Asian directors over the years. The other is the Short! Short! Short! series, which focuses on young Korean directors helming experimental works. This year’s edition of the latter featured three shorts and four directors tasked with adapting the works of popular local writer Kim Young-ha. Based on Kim’s idiosyncratic stories, the works, each original in their own right, all featured a strong sense of style. Of course, as with many omnibuses, they didn’t all hit the mark. Lee Sang-woo’s opening segment Emergency Exit was my favorite of the bunch and also the best thing I saw at Jeonju this year.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Jeonju 2013: The Ethereal Dear Dolphin Explores Guilt and Grief (환상속의 그대, 2013)


Part of MKC's coverage of the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival.

The most anticipated film of the Jeonju International Film Festival’s Korean Competition this year, Kang Ji-na’s feature Dear Dolphin, was also the most polished. With its themes of love, loss and loneliness, as well as its vibrant colors, strong mise-en-scene and well-judged flights of fancy, its appeal is universal.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Jeonju 2013: Lebanon Emotion (레바논 감정, 2013)


Part of MKC's coverage of the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival.

In the world of cinema, things aren’t always as they seem. A film presents itself to us in a certain way, its details on screen carefully selected by its director. The new Korean film Lebanon Emotion takes a risky approach with its narrative. It puts forward two main characters, immediately giving us a few details concerning their recent past. Beyond this, however, their backstories remain clouded and it becomes clear early on that the story may largely be allegorical. Mystery and surprise are among the most potent elements of any narrative, but too much (or too early) and they can have an adverse effect.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Jeonju 2013: Cheer Up Mr. Lee (힘내세요, 병헌씨, 2012)


Part of MKC's coverage of the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival.

If you watch a lot of films, it’s hard not to get at least a little excited when a new film about filmmaking comes along. While not a golden recipe for surefire success, the subgenre yields a surprisingly strong crop of works, in part due to their self-deprecating nature. The Woodman and the Rain, This Is Not a Film and The Woman in the Septic Tank are among the many recent films to successfully go down this route. Not to mention that the old adage holds, you should write about what you know.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Jeonju 2013: Groggy Summer (그로기 썸어, 2013)


Part of MKC's coverage of the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival.

As viewers, sometimes we take for granted the decisions made by filmmakers that affect their works. A lot is decided in pre-production and one particularly important element is a film’s shooting style. Outside of a few highly stylized works, the language that a film’s crew uses to tell a story is remarkably similar from film to film. A wide establishing shot opens a scene, mid-shots introduce characters and relationships, and close-ups get down to the nitty gritty of details and emotions. In fact, we’ve become so accustomed to this style of shooting that anything else is jarring.

Jeonju 2013: December (디셈버, 2013)


Part of MKC's coverage of the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival.

These days, in a bid to stand out from a crowded field, a lot of young filmmakers experiment with their chronologies. While there’s nothing wrong with experimenting with form, it’s very important to have a strong narrative before playing around with it. Jeonju competition film December follows this trend, but does it get away it?

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

14th Jeonju Film Fest Reveals Lineup!


The Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) will be returning for its 14th edition next month when it gets underway on April 25th with its opening film Foxfire, the new film from Laurent Canet, who was behind the 2008 Palme d’Or winner The Class and will also serve as the president of this year’s international jury. JIFF will come to a close on May 3 with a screening of Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda, the first Saudi Arabian film to be directed by a woman.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

KCN: The Thieves Cracks 10 Million and JIFF Gets a New Director (08/16-08/22, 2012)

The Thieves made history this week by becoming only the 6th Korean film to cross the 10 million admissions mark and is now bearing down on the all-time record. In other news, some important castings and appointments, not to mention some festival news, posters and box office.


KOREAN CINEMA NEWS


Samuel L. Jackson Steps Aboard Spike Lee's Oldboy
Veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson is the latest star to join the remake of Park Chan-wook's classic Oldboy (2003), which is being helmed by Spike Lee with Josh Brolin in the lead. Bruce Horsnby has also recently joined the cast. (Modern Korean Cinema, August 22, 2012)

The Thieves to Screen in Hong Kong from September
The summer blockbuster The Thieves will begin screening across Asia from next month. On Sept. 6, the movie will premiere in Hong Kong and Indonesia before opening in Singapore on the 13th, and Malaysia and Thailand in October and November. (Joong Ang Daily, August 22, 2012)