Showing posts with label thriller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thriller. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Review: ANGRY PAINTER Presents Artsy Revenge Erotica


By Pierce Conran

Following his trip From Seoul to Varanasi in 2011, arthouse filmmaker Jeon Kyu-hwan took a bigger leap overseas with Angry Painter, an indie tale of revenge and despondency that spends much of its running time trapping through the cold climes of Estonian capital Tallinn.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Review: TRAIN TO BUSAN Rides the Rails With the Undead


By Pierce Conran

For his live-action debut Train to Busan, indie animation director Yeon Sang-ho, whose films The King of Pigs and The Fake have drawn international acclaim, has taken the zombie thriller, stuck it into the claustrophobic confines of a train, and taken aim at Korea's government and its hierarchical divides. A tense and inventive mix of genre thrills and social anxiety, Train to Busan is a Korean blockbuster with an unusually clear focus.

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Review: UNWANTED BROTHER Puts Onus On Characters In Familiar Setting


By Pierce Conran

After nearly a decade away from the director's chair, Shim Kwang-jin returned with an unhurried take on a common tale of a lowlife manipulating those around him to pay a debt. Propped up by a few fresh spins on the well-trodden material and some earthy performances, Unwanted Brother is a worthwhile character study with subtle yet clear social overtones which debuted at the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2015.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

News: Choi Dong-hoon's Period-Thriller ASSASSINATION Wraps


By Pierce Conran

Choi Dong-hoon's much anticipated period action-thriller Assassination wrapped its shoot on January 31st in Paju, Korea, after having begun in Shanghai back on August 27th last year.

Monday, January 19, 2015

News: Seol Kyung-gu and Ko Soo Search for Clues in LUCID DREAM


By Pierce Conran

Seol Kyung-gu and Ko Soo are teaming for upcoming thriller Lucid Dream. From first time director Kim Joon-sung, the film will also star Kang Hye-jung. The story, if I understood it correctly, deals with a father who goes searching for his kidnapped child. He enlists the help of people who can find clues through lucid dreams.

Monday, January 12, 2015

23 Most Anticipated Korean Films of 2015


By Pierce Conran

Last year was a rough one for Korea's mainstream industry, at least creatively speaking. There were some big hits but not a lot of memorable fare, though the independent sector thrived. Thankfully, 2015 has a much more exciting lineup right off the bat. Major filmmakers like Park Chan-wook, Na Hong-jin, Ryoo Seung-wan, Im Sang-soo and Choi Dong-hoon are set to return and though period films and thrillers once again dominate, many upcoming projects feature promising combinations of talent and content.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Busan 2014 Review: A HARD DAY Is Easy-to-Love Genre Cinema


Part of MKC's coverage of the 19th Busan International Film Festival

By Pierce Conran

If you feel that tough genre fare in Korea has been spinning its wheels of late, you're not alone. While generally well made, the élan of yesteryear's hardboiled Korean thrillers has recently been replaced by a growing sense of familiarity and an alarming whiff of complacency. There have been exceptions, but by and large those have come from name directors afforded more creative freedom in an industry dominated by financiers unwilling to give new talent much autonomy. Things started to look a little better last year with the release of Cold Eyes and Hide and Seek and bucking the trend once more is A Hard Day, a terrific new mid-level genre offering that was invited to the Director's Fortnight sidebar at Cannes this year.

Busan 2014 Review: Bleak and Gripping, HAEMOO Prizes Character over Spectacle


Part of MKC's coverage of the 19th Busan International Film Festival

By Pierce Conran

To date, the summer of 2014 has seen the majority of mainstream Korean films fall into either of two categories: the noir thriller or the period blockbuster. While a handful of terrific genre pieces, namely A Hard Day and Confession, have succeeded in spite of this inertia, it's been high time for something a little different. Along comes Haemoo, a character-driven blockbuster set on a boat that is based on a play which is itself drawn from a real life incident.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Review: Bleak And Gripping, HAEMOO Prizes Character Over Spectacle


By Pierce Conran

To date, the summer of 2014 has seen the majority of mainstream Korean films fall into either of two categories: the noir thriller or the period blockbuster. While a handful of terrific genre pieces, namely A Hard Day and Confession, have succeeded in spite of this inertia, it's been high time for something a little different. Along comes Haemoo, a character-driven blockbuster set on a boat that is based on a play which is itself drawn from a real life incident.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Cannes 2014 Review: A HARD DAY Is Easy-to-Love Genre Cinema


By Pierce Conran

If you feel that tough genre fare in Korea has been spinning its wheels of late, you're not alone. While generally well made, the élan of yesteryear's hardboiled Korean thrillers has recently been replaced by a growing sense of familiarity and an alarming whiff of complacency. There have been exceptions, but by and large those have come from name directors afforded more creative freedom in an industry dominated by financiers unwilling to give new talent much autonomy. Things started to look a little better last year with the release of Cold Eyes and Hide and Seek and bucking the trend once more is A Hard Day, a terrific new mid-level genre offering that was invited to the Director's Fortnight sidebar at Cannes this year.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Review: Jang Joon-hwan Returns With Dark Thriller HWAYI: A MONSTER BOY


By Pierce Conran

Korean cinema has become known for its thrillers, and though the genre is one that is popular around the world, there is one particular take on the genre that Korea has excelled at: let's call it the emotional thriller. By blending thriller and action elements with melodrama, a cultural mainstay, the emotional thriller is something we come across time and again in Korean films. Characters in these films are often scarred by their pasts, which are invariably colored by events from Korea's dark contemporary history. Coinciding with narrative elements, these backstories invariably play a central role and prime the gears for enormous emotional releases in the final act.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Busan 2013 Review: Cold Eyes Looks to the Best for Inspiration


Part of MKC's coverage of the 18th Busan International Film Festival.

Korean thrillers have earned a reputation for consistency over the years and though there may only be a few great ones, the majority of them are solid efforts. However, we’ve come to expect a lot of the same tropes as a result of this consistency, so much so that they have begun to feel too familiar over time. One of the latest offerings from the genre is Cold Eyes, which set the stage for a summer full of Korean thrillers (others included Snowpiercer, The Terror Live, The Flu and Hide and Seek). With an innovative approach to location filming in Seoul and by featuring three stars playing against type, Cold Eyes may seem familiar but it’s also a fresh and exciting addition to the genre.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Review: Hide and Seek Is Worth the Look


The thriller genre, one of the hallmarks of contemporary Korean cinema, seems to be as strong as ever on the peninsula these days. Many of the country's best commercial films are knee-deep in crime, sex and death, and gussied up in slick atmospheric aesthetics. This summer, as with many before, has seen its fair share of high profile thrillers grip the nation, such as Cold Eyes, The Terror Live, The Flu and now Hide and Seek.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

PiFan 2013: The Terror Live Can't Quite Go the Distance


In an era of oversaturation at the cineplex, with countless retreads and follow-ups dominating the marquees, sometimes a gimmick is just the trick to freshen things up. A clever and well-executed hook can seem fresh and original, but if poorly done, it can easily torpedo a film. In the case of new Korean action-thriller The Terror Live, a chamber piece that takes place entirely in a radio recording studio, the gimmick in the premise is both its saving grave and its downfall.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Lack of Focus Hinders An Ethics Lesson (분노의 윤리학, Boonnoeui yoonrihak) 2013


Ensemble casts and high concept scripts seems to be all the rage these days in Korean cinema and An Ethics Lesson, billed as an erotic thriller, is the latest addition to this trend. But as wonderful as Korea's multi-genre concoctions have been in the past, these days, in an effort to push the enveloped ever further, there has arisen a disturbing trend of films which, through the application of an all but the kitchen sink approach, have become whitewashed and bland.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today 2012 - Ideological Barriers and Invisible Borders in Poongsan (풍산개, Poongsangae) 2011


Part of MKC's coverage of the 3rd Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today event at NY's Museum of Modern Art. (previously published).

Kim Ki-duk is one of the filmmakers who initially drew me to Korean cinema.  The first film of his I saw was The Isle (2000), which was, in a French DVD edition, packaged together with Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy (1999).  While the films may have been very different they were also a fantastic double bill that complemented each other in many ways.  I wasn’t as shocked by the violence as I may have been because I had already seen Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and before dipping into Korean cinema, had more or less exhausted Takashi Miike’s catalogue up until that point (around 2003).

Park’s film, while harrowing, was a pure piece of cinema brimming with adrenaline and the pure pleasure of filmmaking.  Lee’s poignant drama was elegant, realistic, literary, and propelled by social issues and recent Korean history.  Kim’s effort was slow and laconic, it was violent while at the same time elegiac.  The Isle had an artist’s touch and was unlike anything I’d seen before, just as the previous two films were.  Indeed I was very lucky to have selected the three Korean films that I did as my introduction to the nation’s cinema, the hooks were in deep from the start.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today 2012 - Blind (블라인드, Beulraindeu) 2011


Part of MKC's coverage of the 3rd Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today event at NY's Museum of Modern Art. (previously published).

First impressions are important and as film viewers we are particularly prone to making rash decisions based upon the opening moments of anything we watch.  This is perhaps even more important in this day and age as multimedia is so readily accessible.  Our already short attention spans are dwindling ever further as we can easily switch between TV channels, on demand, stored digital, and portable media.  Those first few minutes of a film can dispense a large volume of information but even so, they cannot always prepare you for what you are going to see.  Opening scenes are important but not every kind of film can benefit from a flashy beginning.

One of this year’s most successful Korean films, Blind does not get off to the greatest start and blunders on through the first act with heavy feet, trampling through the early stages of the plot.  Subtlety is not the film’s strong suit and the quicker this is accepted, the better.  Once I got used to the heavy-handedness of the proceedings I was able to enjoy myself but the film walks a dangerous line from the start.  It doesn’t really announce itself properly and seems like a relatively sober affair at first, it is only as it continues in unsubtle fashion and when things become even more ridiculous that you begin to understand the intent of the film, which is to be a trashy and entertaining potboiler.  It does succeed on that last count, but it takes a while to get there and is not without its fair share of problems.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Howling (하울링, Hawoolling) 2012


In Korea, genre is a dish almost never served by itself. Rather than use tried and tested formulas, local cineastes tend to concoct more bizarre and seemingly unworkable combinations. One of the enduring appeals of Korean cinema is that they are often (but not always) able to make them work. Director Yu Ha is an interesting figure: he used to be a poet but for the last ten years he has been one of the country’s most reliable genre filmmakers. First impressing audiences with his successful foray into romance (though I use the term loosely) with Marriage Is a Crazy Thing (2002), next with one of the peninsula’s best high school films (Once Upon a Time in High School, 2004), following that he made, for my money’s worth, the best Korean gangster (or ‘jopok’) film (A Dirty Carnival, 2006) and most recently he produced a gay period epic (A Frozen Flower, 2008).

Following a slightly longer break than usual, Yu is back with his fifth feature and I was excited the moment I heard about the project. Not least for his involvement but also due to the participation of Korean thesps Song Kang-ho and Lee Na-young and the premise which was initially loglined as a procedural about spontaneous combustion. Though not an outright failure, the film did not find an enormous audience in Korea when it opened in February and has since picked up a number of detractors but as far as I’m concerned, though a flawed film, it is one of the best genre efforts of the year to date.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

PiFan 2012: The Heineken Kidnapping (De Heineken ontvoering, Holland) 2011


Part of MKC's coverage of the 16th Puchon International Film Festival.

Rutger Hauer’s heyday may have come before my time but as a film lover it still feels as though I grew up with him. My teenage years were spent awash in the dream of cinema and amidst the blur of it all, some films stood out. Among them was Blade Runner (1982) which, I must admit, was a film that I did not immediately warm to but the villain of the piece has stayed with me for the decade since I first I saw it. Horror may not have featured prominently in my cinema diet but I’ll never forget The Hitcher (1986), a film that could easily have been unremarkable were it not for the terrifying presence of its antagonist.

With his pellucid blue eyes, wavy blond hair and harsh features, Hauer has always been a formidable presence on screen. However, more than his physiognomy, it is of course his talent and intensity as a performer that has made him so memorable. He seems to lose himself in his best roles. I hesitate to say that he was a method actor, a term that is ill-suited to genre cinema, but he throws himself so fully into his marginalized characters that he often seems to be in a trance.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Blind (블라인드, Beulraindeu) 2011

The none-too-subtle opening sequence

First impressions are important and as film viewers we are particularly prone to making rash decisions based upon the opening moments of anything we watch.  This is perhaps even more important in this day and age as multimedia is so readily accessible.  Our already short attention spans are dwindling ever further as we can easily switch between TV channels, on demand, stored digital, and portable media.  Those first few minutes of a film can dispense a large volume of information but even so, they cannot always prepare you for what you are going to see.  Opening scenes are important but not every kind of film can benefit from a flashy beginning.

One of this year’s most successful Korean films, Blind does not get off to the greatest start and blunders on through the first act with heavy feet, trampling through the early stages of the plot.  Subtlety is not the film’s strong suit and the quicker this is accepted, the better.  Once I got used to the heavy-handedness of the proceedings I was able to enjoy myself but the film walks a dangerous line from the start.  It doesn’t really announce itself properly and seems like a relatively sober affair at first, it is only as it continues in unsubtle fashion and when things become even more ridiculous that you begin to understand the intent of the film, which is to be a trashy and entertaining potboiler.  It does succeed on that last count, but it takes a while to get there and is not without its fair share of problems.

Min Soo-ah (Kim Ha-enul) is a young trainee at the police academy and she barges in on an informal dance show and corners her brother, whom she chastises and more or less drags out by the ear.  He is cuffed to the door of the passenger seat of a police van as they bicker, presumably on the way to bring him home.  To cut a long story short: they crash, he dies because he is handcuffed, and she loses her sight.  Flashforward a few years later and she is still adjusting to the life of the visually-impaired and carrying a lot of guilt over her brother’s death. One night she gets in a taxi, or at least she thinks she does, and the driver hits someone and assuming she can’t tell the difference, tries to cover it up then swiftly disappears.  Equipped with her heightened hearing as well as her intuition and cleverness she tries to help scruffy Detective Jo (Jo Hee-bong) at the local police station track him down.  A youth called Gi-seob (Yoo Seung-ho) comes forward with some information but is dismissed as an opportunist out for some reward money.  They soon realize he was telling the truth and he becomes a part of the investigation.  Little do they know that are in fact tracking a serial killer.

Gi-seob (Yoo Eung-ho), the brother stand-in

Although it starts with a big dollop of melodrama, Blind mainly indulge in dribs and drabs.  In fact most of the melodrama that appears in the film relates to that opening scene.  Gi-seob serves as a stand-in for Min’s deceased brother and his relationship with her mainly serves as an instrument for her to forgive herself for her sibling’s untimely passing.  There are a lot of none-too-subtle parallelisms linking Gi-seob and her brother and as a result things play out exactly as you would expect them to.  More glaring is the manipulative sentimentality on display courtesy of Min’s guide dog Wisdom who provides a connection to the world for her.  Besides being cute and protective he will serve one unavoidable purpose which for me amounts to no more than a cheap trick.

Blind features a number of remarkable similarities to the much superior The Chaser (2008):  the principal protagonists both used to be in law enforcement; nighttime chase sequences through decrepit but stylistically lit alleys abound; the villain in both is an amoral serial killer of young women; and the leads don’t realize that they are chasing a serial killer until about the halfway mark.  The tone is admittedly quite different but there is a surprising amount of common ground all the same and it hardly seems coincidental.  Of course it is only natural to ‘borrow’ from something that is proven to work (The Chaser sold over 5 million tickets domestically).

While I certainly enjoyed Blind, the fact that it won both best actress for Kim Ha-neul and best script for Choi Min-suk at the recent ‘Daejong Film Awards’ is ludicrous.  Kim’s performance, while adequate, certainly did not feature the kind of measured, nuanced acting that typically receives such accolades.  In fact, her performance as a blind woman was about as subtle as a brick through a window.  Similarly, Choi’s script managed to holds its elements in place but it lacks any real intrigue or originality, besides the gimmickry, which I admit that I enjoyed. Once again his slightness of touch reminded of a guerilla in a china shop.  I don’t mind campy films, though I find it odd to see them recompensed at industry awards.  What I do need is for the filmmakers to tell me that I am watching one, not to have me suss it out at the tail end of the second act.  

Besides a strong supporting turn from Jo Hee-bong, a fantastic subway chase sequence that could double as a 10-minute ad for the iPhone, and a few clever investigatory tricks, Blind often fails to impress.  However its gusto is admirable and if you catch it in the right frame of mind you may end up really enjoying yourself.

★★★

Sentiment is cheap


Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office UpdateKorean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

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