Monday, December 28, 2015

Korean Directors Take on STAR WARS!


By Kyu Hyun Kim

In the midst of global Star Wars mania, MKC contributor Kyu Hyun Kim imagines what a Star Wars Episode VIII might look like if the reins and total creative freedom were given to some of the biggest names in Korean cinema.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Top 10 Korean Films of 2015


By Pierce Conran

Sales have been impressive as box office admissions reached a new peak and local films maintained a +50% market share, but looking at the quality of what was on offer, it must be said that 2015 was not the best year for Korean cinema. Big budgeted, maudlin affairs dominated the charts, though there were a few bright spots (such as Veteran), and the year's best commercial films were mostly not rewarded with healthy box office returns (The Exclusive: Beat the Devil's Tattoo comes to mind).

Friday, October 9, 2015

Busan 2015 Review: COIN LOCKER GIRL Offers New Perspectives on Standard Thrills


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Against a parking lot bursting with saturated colors, a person lies on the ground, at the mercy of another standing above them who wields a sashimi knife still dripping red from its last kill. Dark, bloody and stylish, this could be the beginning of just about any Korean noir. But Coin Locker Girl is trying something new, as these two characters are played by none other than Kim Hye-su, one of Korea's most glamorous leading ladies, and Kim Go-eun, its latest fresh-faced starlet.

Busan 2015 Review: RECORDING Chronicles Charming Cast In Forgettable Story


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

It’s the small moments that work in Recording, a story that is low on ambition but infused with a winning charm even as it drags in the scripting department, particularly in the back half. Sweet and unaffected, Park Min-kook’s debut follows a woman in her early 20s who chronicles her losing battle to stomach cancer with an omnipresent home camera. Even with the end drawing near, she continues to wear a bright smile and tries to spend some of her last carefree moments with her partner and friends.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Busan 2015 Review: A COPY OF MY MIND Sells Itself On Romance And Intrigue


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Acclaimed Indonesian filmmaker Joko Anwar returns with his fifth feature, A Copy of My Mind, a tale of love, passion and how to get ahead in the back alleys of sprawling Jakarta. Made with the help of CJ Entertainment, as the Korean major continues to industriously wean its way into developing Southeast Asian film markets, this romantic thriller, which teeters back and forth between the worlds of DVD piracy and local politics, is suffused with ample wry commentary.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Busan 2015 Review: OFFICE Works Up an Intriguing Salaryman Chiller


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Life is hard for the average Korean salaryman, and sometimes that engenders a need to blow off a little steam. For many that involves drinking to excess, but for others it can spill over into the homestead. New Korean horror-thriller Office takes this to a disturbing extreme as a diligent and seemingly placid cubicle worker returns home from work and quietly eats dinner, before taking a hammer to his wife, mother and handicapped son. Intercut with statics shots of the homogeneous residential blocks surrounding the apartment, the instrument comes down again and again, raining crimson over the blank white walls.

Busan 2015 Review: ALONE Winds Its Mystery Through the Backstreets of Seoul


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Four years after his experimental 3D shaman mystery Fish, Park Hong-min returns to BIFF with another singular work that offers one of the most compelling examinations of gentrification in Seoul. Alone follows a single character as he hops from one terrible dream to the next, unable to wake up and incapable of escaping nestled alleys of his small, dying neighborhood.

Busan 2015 Review: THE PIPER, A Satisfyingly Grimm Fairy Tale


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Step away from the city and it isn't long before you fall in with bad company or into a mystery in Korean cinema, with remote islands and mountains being among the favored haunts of the country's more macabre filmmakers. Taking its cue from a Brothers Grimm fairly tale (itself a take on an old German legend), Kim Gwang-tae's debut The Piper hums a familiar tune, yet this fable of mistrust and deceit remains engrossing and entertaining thanks to a few wicked twists.

Busan 2015 Review: STEEL FLOWER Offers Wilted View of Korean Youth


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

A year after Wild Flowers, Park Suk-young returns to the Busan International Film Festival with Steel Flower. Gritty, intimate and centering around a young girl lost in a harsh urban world, Park's latest kicks off on the same foot as his debut, with a raw immediacy and a tangle of youthful anxiety.

Busan 2015 Review: VETERAN, Who's Gonna Protect Gotham When Bruce Wayne Grew Up to Be an Evil Super-Rich Punk?


Part of MKC's coverage of the 20th Busan International Film Festival.

By Kyu Hyun Kim, Associate Professor at UC Davis and koreanfilm.org contributor.

Seo Do-chul (Hwang Jeong-min), a veteran of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, busts a ring of foreign car smugglers with his teammates, the muscle-bound Detective Wang (Oh Dae-hwan), ass-kicking Miss Bong (Jang Yoon-joo) and the cute rookie Detective Yoon (Kim Si-hoo), under the leadership of the perennially frustrated but bizarrely eloquent Chief Oh (Oh Dal-soo).  Do-chul, a pit bull of a cop, in the process of investigating the smugglers, befriends a trucker, Mr. Bae (Jeong Woong-in). Later, he is invited to a private party as a "consultant" to a hit TV series and witnesses the sponsor corporation's young heir Jo Tae-oh (teen heartthrob Yoo Ah-in) behaving cruelly to one of the partygoers. When Mr. Bae is found to be unconscious and critically wounded from an alleged suicide attempt, after directly confronting Tae-oh's corporation about his unfair firing, the cop smells a rat and starts an investigation, despite pressure from the higher-ups to look the other way. 

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

New Korean Films: Coming Late at the Party (2015 Week 34)

Untouchable Lawmen
(치외법권)


By Fabien Schneider

In order to capture the boss of a powerful criminal organization who has connections with the authorities, the special investigation section has called two agents with exceptional records. While Jung-in made his arms as a criminal profiler at the FBI, Yu-min graduated from one of the best academies but is now seen as a player with women. Of course, both of them will have to go past their differences to fulfil their mission.

New Korean Films: The Inner Beauty of Cinema (2015 Week 33)

Beauty Inside
(뷰티 인사이드)


By Fabien Schneider

Wu-jin has a very strange condition that makes him wake up every day with a new appearance. If ordinary life is already difficult when your face changes daily, having a relationship seems nearly impossible. But Wu-jin decides to confess both his love and the truth to Yi-su.

New Korean Films: Women's Condition (2015 Week 32)

Alice in Earnestland
(성실한 나라의 앨리스)


By Fabien Schneider

Thanks to her skilled hands, Su-nam has been able to get no less than 14 typing certificates, which makes her one of the best secretary one can imagine. However, she cannot compete with a computer, and thus loses her job for a machine. She manages to find a new job, and also find a boyfriend. But when they decide to get married and buy a house, they have no other choice than taking a loan. Now that they have to pay off the loan, Su-nam suddenly has an idea to solve this situation once for all.

New Korean Films: The Return of the Veteran (2015 Week 31)

Veteran
(베테랑)


By Fabien Schneider

While celebrating his recent successful resolution of an international auto theft scheme, a detective, Do-cheol, has a serious clash with Tae-oh, a high-level gangster from Sun-jin Group. Determined to make him fall by pinning him any crime, Do-cheol starts investigating despite his boss’ disapproval. But suddenly a boy comes to ask for his help, as his father, who helped Do-cheol in his last case, has just been severely beaten up by Tae-oh. Do-cheol then decides to get Tae-ho at any cost.

New Korean Films: Let's Make Up the Delay Part II (2015 Week 26-30)

After more than two months of silence, I'm finally back for more discussion about Korean films getting released every week. Since I've missed a lot of interesting films and that I couldn't make my mind to just resume my weekly article as if nothing happened, I've decided that it was better to still present every film released during that period and to add my usual commentary only for the most important of them. This is the second part, covering the films released between June 22nd and August 2ndd, and you can read the first part here.

By Fabien Schneider

Director's CUT
(디렉터스 컷)




After spending a decade making independent short films, Haegang is now ready for his debut long feature. But his life is becoming a mess: his girlfriend just broke up with him, and his former team doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. As he has to work with a new producer, he’ll have to stay strong if he wants to keep his own vision in his film.

New Korean Films: Let's Make Up the Delay Part I (2015 Week 20-25)

After more than two months of silence, I'm finally back for more discussion about Korean films getting released every week. Since I've missed a lot of interesting films and that I couldn't make my mind to just resume my weekly article as if nothing happened, I've decided that it was better to still present every film released during that period and to add my usual commentary only for the most important of them. This is the first part, covering the films released between May 18th and June 21st, and you can read the second part here.

Alive
(산다)


By Fabien Schneider

Jeong-cheol tries to make ends meets despite all the odds against him. He has to keep an eye on his mentally ill sister who wishes to leave for Seoul and he tries to fulfill his niece’s wish to play piano, while he’s not even sure to have a job to feed them and repair their house. When his coworkers suspect him when an associate runs off with the pay of everybody, Jeong-cheol offers them to take a job all together at a bean plantation.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Coming Attractions: Keep Your Friends Close But Keep Your INTIMATE ENEMIES Closer


By Rex Baylon

It's been awhile since we've heard from Im Sang-Soo. Having made big waves in the early aughts with critically acclaimed films like A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003) and The President's Last Bang (2005), it's been three years since one of his films was released, and sadly a lot of his latter work leaves much to be desired. Intimate Enemies, with a projected release date of June 25th, seems to be yet another meditation on the ways money and power corrupt the human animal. Though instead of the dour oppressive atmosphere that was present in works like The Housemaid (2010) and The Taste of Money (2012), Im has Ryoo Seung-Bum to inject his picture with Ryoo's trademark rakish charm. I love the conman subgenre and from the trailer it looks as if Intimate Enemies has the requisite colorful characters, sex appeal, and elaborate grifts that are the hallmarks of the genre.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Cannes 2015 Review: OFFICE Works Up an Intriguing Salaryman Chiller


By Pierce Conran

Life is hard for the average Korean salaryman, and sometimes that engenders a need to blow off a little steam. For many that involves drinking to excess, but for others it can spill over into the homestead. New Korean horror-thriller Office takes this to a disturbing extreme as a diligent and seemingly placid cubicle worker returns home from work and quietly eats dinner, before taking a hammer to his wife, mother and handicapped son. Intercut with statics shots of the homogeneous residential blocks surrounding the apartment, the instrument comes down again and again, raining crimson over the blank white walls.

Coming Attractions: THE SILENCED Is Not Keeping Quiet Anymore


By Rex Baylon

What the hell is it about boarding schools that make it such prime real estate for horror films? I doubt Lee Hae-young is keen on trying to answer that question, but his new picture The Silence, reaching theaters this June, seems to be in no short supply of the requisite scares that this unique sub-genre is well-known for. Starring Park Bo-young, of A Werewolf Boy (2012) fame, as a young girl named Joo-ran who is transferred to an all girls boarding school that is suffering an epidemic of vanishing students. Why are they vanishing? Are they being kidnapped by some demonic force? Or just the typical human villains? I guess you'll have to wait a few more weeks to find out.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Cannes 2015 Review: MADONNA - A Riveting Tale of Sorrow and Redemption


By Pierce Conran

Following her accomplished sophomore film, the absorbing high school revenge tale Pluto (2012), Shin Su-won returns in glorious fashion with the searing Madonna. Meticulous, layered and yet seemingly effortless, this rewarding tale of mingled sorrow and redemption should go a long way towards establishing its director as a major talent on the global scene.

New Korean Films: Disobeying Civil Servants (2015 Week 19)

The Chronicles of Evil
(악의 연대기)


By Fabien Schneider

Detective Choi has been decorated with a president’s mention, one of the most prestigious awards that a police officer could have. But on the way back from a celebratory party with his coworkers, he gets physical with a taxi driver and eventually kills him by accident. Thinking of his newly-found prestige, he decides to hide the body and cover the crime. But on the next day, the very same body is found hanging from a crane in front of Choi’s police station. He now has to investigate his own crime, while trying to know who is trying to make him fall.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Cannes 2015 Review: THE SHAMELESS Delivers Hardboiled Melodrama with Top Drawer Performances


By Pierce Conran

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist"
Pablo Picasso

Today's Korea, whether looking at its entertainment, fashion or culinary scenes, is a society awash with fusion. Nowhere is this more true than in its cinema, as since the late 90s Korean filmmakers have never shied away from playing with genre. Many artists and artisans would do well to take note of the above quote by Picasso (though I imagine he wasn't the first to say it) before dishing out cookie crust shrimp and potato pizzas or dumping a motley crew of genre fare into a blender and calling it a script. However, while these hybrid experiments have frequently backfired, a surprising amount have been successful, including modern classics like Bong Joon-ho's The Host (2006) and Jang Joon-hwan's Save the Green Planet (2003).

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Review: TAEGUKGI: THE BROTHERHOOD OF WAR is a Heartbreaking Tale from the Korean War


By Chris Horn

You would be hard-pressed to find a more compelling and difficult to portray subject than war. Having successfully proven himself with his 1999 action film Shiri, director Kang Je-gyu once more took a look at the breakout of violence between North and South Korea in Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War. While comparisons to Saving Private Ryan (1998) are inevitable, Taegukgi cuts to the heart of a different kind of war with less clearly defined lines and much more personal stakes for its characters.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

New Korean Films: The Taste of Love and The Love of Taste (2015 Week 18)

Love Clinic
(연애의 맛)


By Fabien Schneider

Two doctors are opening their cabinet on the same floor. One of them is Kil Shin-seol, an urologist who knows everything about men’s sexuality, while the other is Wang Sung-ki, an obstetrician who knows more about female sexual attributes than their minds. But both of them have barely even had relationships, thanks to their own behaviors and fears. As they become fond of each other, they also start to treat each other as their own patients.

Monday, May 11, 2015

New Korean Films: The Last Stand Against the Avengers (2015 Week 17)

Coin Locker Girl
(차이나타운)


By Fabien Schneider

A baby girl named Il-young has been left in the locker number 10 of a subway station. She’s taken in by a woman who rules Chinatown thanks to her many adopted many children. With the years passing Il-young becomes one of the most efficient members of the gang. One day, she meets the son of one of her mom’s clients, a friendly and charming young man. She suddenly gets curious about this new world outside of the gloomy atmosphere of Chinatown. It’s at this moment that her mom gives her one last mission.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

New Korean Films: Homages To Parents (2015 Week 16)

Clown of a Salesman
(약장수)


By Fabien Schneider

Il-beom worked many jobs in his attempt to pay back his loans but his bad reputation always come in the way. Most importantly, his daughter is in need of a treatment for her illness, and this won’t come cheap. That’s why Il-beom starts working at an “information center” despite his initial aversion, because under this cover lies a PR company that organizes events for older women in the intent to sell them healthy food and daily necessities. But he soon realizes that these women are mostly mothers who barely even get visits from their adult children, and that he’s making their lives merrier. One day, Ok-nim, who lives alone so as not to burden her prosecutor son, joins the center and becomes friend with Il-beom.

Friday, April 17, 2015

New Korean Films: People Who Lend a Hand (2015 Week 15)

Black Hand
(검은손)


By Fabien Schneider

Jung-Woo is a married man, but he also has a secret relationship with Yoo-gyeong, one of the doctors he’s working with in a hospital. He works there as a neurosurgeon, but also does research on bioengineering. One day, Yoo-gyeong gets her right hand cut off under strange circumstances. But thanks to Jung-Woo’s reflexes and his skills, he manages to do the operation to put it back on her arm. During the following days, while Yoo-gyeong seems to have perfectly recovered, she starts to lose her mind. When asked, she pretends that there is now someone else in her.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

New Korean Films: Les Amours des séniors (2014 Week 14)

Salut d'Amour
(장수상회)


By Fabien Schneider

The unfriendly and inflexible old man Seong-chil, who is a model employee at Jang-su Mart and proud of his military career and never thinks of other’s feelings, suddenly breaks his outer shell when a woman moves to his neighborhood. Geum-nim looks young despite her age, always smiling in any situation. She takes him by surprise when she offers to him to have dinner together. Even if he tries not to care, he cannot hide his feelings and soon everybody is in the know, even Geum-nim’s daughter and Seong-chil’s boss, and they try to give them advice for their first date. But after having almost forgotten the date, he arrives late for their rendezvous and accidentally discovers her secret.

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.

Monday, March 30, 2015

News: 2nd Wildflower Film Awards Reveals Nominees


By Pierce Conran

Following its launch last year, the Wildflower Film Awards Korea revealed the nominees of its upcoming 2nd edition last week. Leading the pack with seven nominees is July Jung's A Girl at My Door, while Han Gong-ju and The King of Jokgu following at five a piece and 10 Minutes, Gyeongju and Hill of Freedom each picking up four.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

New Korean Films: First Steps (2015 Week 12)

Twenty
(스물)


By Fabien Schneider

Three friends are spending together the most confusing period of their lives, when they enter their twenties and are confronted with many opportunities but also struggles. Chi-ho is a popular guy who wishes he could live a life of excess without doing much. Dong-wu is a lively and strong man who never stops practicing to become a cartoonist. Gyeong-jae is an excellent student who has all the best qualifications to be employed by a major company but has a problem with alcohol.