Review: HORROR STORIES 2 Slightly Improves Upon Its Predecessor

By Patryk Czekaj

At first glance, Horror Stories 2 looks like a more mature and self-conscious version of the original film. Though the chapters are still uneven and often come close to being simply absurd, the directors seem aware of the predecessors’ mistakes and ultimately create a gripping and penetrating atmosphere of terror, grounding their visions both in dreams and in a three-dimensional reality. This clarifies the structure of all the segments and gives them a much-needed touch of intrigue. Less cheap thrills based on jumps scares and nonsensical gore material makes Horror Stories 2 a serviceable allegory for the soul and its journey towards redemption.

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Review: THE BOOMERANG FAMILY Swings For Your Heart

By Rex Baylon

The concept and role of family has gone through several evolutions in the history of man. At first being just an institution for the birthing and raising of offspring. Back than, it took, as the old saying goes, a whole village to raise a child. As populations increased and values shifted away from group think into a more individualistic mode the definition of family became more constrained.

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Review: Hong Sang-soo's Beautiful But Slightly Strange OUR SUNHI

By John A. Riley

Some critics have characterised Hong Sang-soo's latest film as evidence of a prolific director running out of steam. In fact, Our Sunhi demonstrates a refinement and distillation of the director’s technique as he approaches an Ozu-like mastery of his craft.

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News: Three Wins for South Korean Cinema at this Year's Berlin Film Festival

By Rex Baylon

As the Berlin International Film Festival closes its doors for another year Korean cinema was not completely left out of the loop, even if no films from South Korea made it into the main festival competition. Two documentaries A Dream of Iron and Non Fiction Diary both took home a NETPAC Prize for Best Asian Film and Sprout was awarded the Crystal Bear for Best Short in the Generation Kplus section.

Having both premiered at last year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) Non Fiction Diary, a harrowing documentary about South Korea in the early 1990s when true democracy was still in its infancy, won the Mecenat award for Best Documentary and Sprout, a charming tale of a little girl’s quest to get some bean sprouts for her grandfather’s funerary rites, received a special mention for the Sonje Award. While A Dream of Iron, a stylishly done picture about the POSCO steelmaking factory in Pohang, had its world premier at this year’s Berlinale Forum section.

Last year, other South Korean films like Cheong, Shin Su-won’s Pluto (2012), Hong Sang-soo’s Nobody’s Daughter Haewon have all received awards and accolades at the Berlin Film Festival and this year continues the trend, proving that South Korea’s indie film scene is still going strong.

Source:

Korean Docs Split Berlinale's NETPAC Prize

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 Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Korean Reviews, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (Korean Standard Time).

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News: Kino Lorber Purchases Tartan 'Asia Extreme' Catalog

By Rex Baylon

For film fans of the early aughts their first introduction to the violent but beautiful world of Korean genre cinema most often came from the UK-based DVD label Tartan Films. Known for their Asia Extreme sub-label in the early days of DVD the company curated a unique catalog that showcased various genres and talent from all over Asia. From South Korea, Tartan was responsible for being the first English language company to release films by Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-woon and Kim Ki-duk as well as titles such as Memento Mori (1999) and Nowhere to Hide (1999). By 2008 though, the company facing financial trouble sold most of its catalog to the Palisades Media Group and its Asia Extreme catalog was left to go out of print.

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Review: BETWEEN THE KNEES Lies Korea's Sexual Awakening

By Pierce Conran

While eastern and western sensibilities co-exist somewhat happily in Korea these days, this wasn't always the case. Faced with independence after a long spell of colonial rule in 1945, albeit divided from the Soviet-controlled North, South Korea, through the presence of the US military, was presented with the trappings of the West for the very first time. Ever since then, there has been an uneasy relationship between respect for established local tradition and cravings for imported comforts.

Many films have examined this dichotomy, including Early Rain (1966). However few have done so as aggressively as Lee Jang-ho's Between the Knees (1984), a fascinating and frustratingly paradoxical work from the Korean New Wave. Both progressive and surprisingly conservative, it's a little hard to peg exactly what director Lee's angle is at different points of his film.

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Berlinale 2014 Review: SPROUT's Short and Sweet Seoul Odyssey

Part of MKC's coverage of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival and the 18th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

A little girl’s trip to the market becomes a charming journey through modern Korea in Yoon Ga-eun’s delightful short film Sprout, which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival last October. Korean indie cinema often makes a point of demonstrating what’s wrong with society while many of the values most prized by citizens are typically found in the nation’s commercial output, albeit through rose-tinted windows. Thus it has been treat to see some younger, low-budget filmmakers explore the positives of their country in recent years. Films like Koala (2012) have not forgotten the realities of the society they inhabit, but they have also placed the good right alongside the bad.

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