Berlinale 2014 Review: Grand and Hypnotic, A DREAM OF IRON Won't Soon Be Forgotten

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

By Pierce Conran

Early on in A Dream of Iron, a new documentary premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival this year, director Kelvin Kyung Kun Park shows us images of whales moving through the vast blue expanse of the ocean - enormous creatures that were once considered grand and mysterious. Soon after, Park brings us to the expansive POSCO steel-making plant on the coast of Southern Korea and proceeds to show us the process of shipbuilding through a series of arresting visual tableaux. Gargantuan in size, these vessels demonstrate the soaring ambition of the human race, as enormous components are each readied for assembly with minuscule laborers dotting their surface.

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Berlinale 2014 Review: Subdued yet Powerful, NIGHT FLIGHT Soars

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

By Pierce Conran

LeeSong Hee-il returns to Berlin a year after White Night (2012) with his fourth feature Night Flight. While his last film was a subdued but powerful work about lingering memories of homophobia in modern Seoul, his new feature is his most ambitious yet. Retaining queer themes, Night Flight goes beyond the scope of his past works by weaving a wider tapestry of social motifs that touch on many of the issues facing youths and minorities in contemporary Korea.

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Berlinale 2014: Overview - Strong Korean Lineup in Berlin

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

By Pierce Conran

Long recognized as one of the bastions of independent and foreign cinema, the Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale, will kick off its 64th edition later today. Korean cinema has become an increasingly prominent fixture at the event and in recent years has featured in Berlinale lineups with anywhere up to a dozen titles. This year there will be seven Korean films on show, one short and six features, which is a little below average. Yet, in this writer's opinion, it is also one of Korea's strongest lineups to feature at the fest.

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News: Ha Ji-won Cast in Ha Jung-woo's CHRONICLE OF A BLOOD MERCHANT

By Pierce Conran

Before he makes a decision on his offer to potentially star alongside Lee Jung-jae and Jun Ji-hyun in Choi Dong-hoon's 30s-set blockbuster thriller Assassination, Ha Jung-woo is going to spend some time both before and behind the camera with his sophomore directing gig Chronicle a of Blood Merchant. Joining him in this adaptation of a 1995 novel by Chinese writer Yu Hua will be Ha Ji-won, the actress known for her spunky action roles in Duelist (2005) and Sector 7 (2011).

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Review: THE SATELLITE GIRL AND MILK COW Shows Promise for Korean Animation

By Pierce Conran

There is no shortage of skilled animators in Korea but following the floundering of the local animation industry in the 1970s, most of that talent went into domestic TV production or were sucked into the outsourced contracts of far more lucrative foreign shows such as The Simpsons. Over the last few years, a handful of new feature animations have cropped up in Korean cinema and are serving as embers for what will hopefully become a full-fledged industry in the coming years. 2014 has a few Korean animations in store and the first of those to hit theaters will be The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow, the feature-length debut of Jang Hyung-yun, who previously made a number of acclaimed shorts including A Coffee Vending Machine and Its Sword (2007).

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Korean Box Office: MISS GRANNY, FROZEN Lead Korea's Biggest Weekend

By Pierce Conran

It was a huge weekend for theaters during this year's Lunar New Year, the biggest in fact, with around five million tickets sold. This was above the 3.5 million recording during last year's Lunar Year frame and significantly above the previous 4.5 million viewer record set during late summer last year when Snowpiercer and The Terror Live duked it out. What's more, a surprisingly close battle for first place took place as the two leading pictures swapped places a few times over the course of the week. With Lunar New Year falling on a Friday this year, the holiday stretched over Thursday to Saturday. Figures below are for the standard three-day frame.

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Review: THE HUNTRESSES Misfire in Poorly-Plotted Blunder

By Pierce Conran

Following the recent hits Masquerade (2012) and last year’s The Face Reader, period films are set to make a big push into the Korean market in 2014 with at least six big Joseon era films poised to flood the market. Getting the ball rolling in the new year is the action comedy The Huntresses, a film initially set to debut last spring but rescheduled by distributor Showbox when the project needed more time to complete digital work in post-production. Entering a crowded Lunar New Year field alongside Miss Granny, Man in Love and Hot Young Bloods, the film is hoping to draw in family crowds with its fun premise and trio of female stars.

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Review: Endearing Cast Boosts Cross-Generational Comedy MISS GRANNY

By Pierce Conran

Three years after making a big splash in Sunny (2011), young actress Shim Eun-kyung returns in the Lunar New Year's (Seollal) holiday crowd-pleaser Miss Granny, a film that will be looking to sate the same demand that Miracle in Cell No. 7 filled this time last year.

Oh Ma-soon is a grandmother working in an old-timers café who lives with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. As she nags her family to the end of their wits, they gradually grow tired of her. Then, one night, Mal-soon happens upon a photo shop with a mysterious owner. Shortly after her shot is taken, she catches a reflection of herself and sees that she's suddenly become 50 years younger. Choosing to hide her sudden transformation from her family she takes the new name Doo-ri and ends up staying as a boarder with her café co-worker, whom she harbors a crush for, though he is unaware of her identity. Before long she finds herself in her grandson's band and is scouted by a music show producer who is attracted by more than just her dulcet tones.

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Review: Delightful Retro Comedy HOT YOUNG BLOODS Runs Out of Steam

By Pierce Conran

Just as the taste of a madeleine triggers a rush of childhood memories for the protagonist in Marcel Proust’s magnum opus In Search of Lost Time, smells, sounds and images can transport all of us to different times in our lives. This is a trick that can be especially effective in cinema, as it can turn a film into a communal experience for theatergoers. With Lunar New Year just around the corner, the 80s rural-set high school film Hot Young Bloods, the return of Running Turtle (2009) director Lee Yeon-woo, is hoping to do just that.

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Review: MAN IN LOVE Loses Focus in Tearful Finale

By Pierce Conran

The Lunar New Year (Seollal) holiday is just around the corner and that means that studios are looking to draw in large crowds, particular families, during one of the peak theatergoing periods of the year. Making a film that can appeal to everyone isn’t child’s play and oftentimes it means that studios will resort to mixing disparate elements to suit varying tastes. It’s a gamble but one that Korean filmmakers have never shied away from. Such is the case with Man in Love (formerly When a Man Loves a Woman), the new film from studio Next Entertainment World (also behind last year’s breakout Seollal hit Miracle in Cell No. 7).

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Bong Joon-ho to Set Sail as Producer with Sea Fog, Song Joong-ki in Talks to Star

We're all eagerly anticipating Bong Joon-ho's post-apocalyptic sci-fi opus Snowpiercer but while we wait for him to put the finishing touches on his summer blockbuster, it seems the ace Korean director has set his sights on a new project. Bong's career as a producer looks to set sail with Sea Fog, a stowaway drama based on a 2007 play that is in turn drawn from real events circa 2001. Enormously popular Korean Idol Song Joong-ki (A Werewolf Boy) is said to be highly considering the lead role.

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