Showing posts with label biff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biff. Show all posts

Monday, November 2, 2020

Busan 2020 Review: SELF-PORTRAIT 2020, Long yet Riveting Odyssey of a Drunk Savant

Part of MKC's coverage of the 25th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

I’ll admit I went into Self-Portrait 2020 with a fair amount of trepidation. Here is a nearly three-hour documentary that follows a man who has given up on life, turned to the bottle and now roams the streets of Central Seoul, drunkenly rambling about whatever strikes his fancy. Little did I know what a fascinating journey I was about to embark upon. This sophomore feature effort from young non-fiction filmmaker Lee Dong-woo is overlong to be sure, but it’s also a rich portrait of a confounding individual and the surprising and alarming path his life has taken.

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Busan 2020 Review: LIMECRIME Tunes Up Coming-of-Age Drama with Sick Beats


Part of MKC's coverage of the 25th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Sometimes all you need is a beat and a rhyme. Based on the past experiences of its first time directors, Limecrime is a winning coming-of-age drama that largely sticks to the basics as it confidently explores a youth underground hip hop scene. Measured performances and rhythmic rap scenes allow it to overcome its more prosaic elements, such as a tepidly explored class divide.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Busan 2020 Review: FIGHTER, Compelling Character Study Pulls Its Punches



Part of MKC's coverage of the 25th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

After opening the festival in 2018 with Beautiful Days, director Jero Yun returned to Busan this year with his second narrative feature Fighter, which once again focuses on a North Korean defector’s difficult experience adjusting in Korea and how it tears apart her family. As a sports film and a social drama, Yun’s latest is a by the numbers affair, but it succeeds as a character study, largely thanks to Lim Seong-mi’s formidable lead performance. Yun actually had two films at the festival this year, along with the documentary Song Hae 1927.

Busan 2020 Review: SPEED OF HAPPINESS Delivers Soothing Snapshot of a Unique Profession



Part of MKC's coverage of the 25th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran

Documentary filmmaker Park Hyuck-jee, known for the charming documentary With or Without You, is back with his latest non-fiction work, his first to be invited to Busan. Set in the mountainous Oze region of Central Japan, the pleasurable and satisfying Speed of Happiness explores an unusual profession and the hardy folks who make their living from it.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Busan 2020 Review: YOUNG ADULT MATTERS, An Explosive and Frequently Engrossing Runaway Teen Drama


Part of MKC's coverage of the 25th Busan International Film Festival.

By Pierce Conran


Three years after his abrasive debut Park Hwa-young (2017), director Lee Hwan returns to Busan with Young Adult Matters, an intense and frequently engrossing follow-up set in the same world of foul-mouthed, unpredictable and violent runaway teens. While it inherits many of the same problems that plagued his first effort (at least for this reviewer), Lee has grown in leaps and bounds as a stylist and crafted something fresh and vibrant, while lead Lee Yoo-ri - reprising her supporting role from Lee’s earlier film - is manic and magnetic as a character that could easily be at home in a Tetsuya Nakashima film.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Review: SPECIAL ANNIE Awkwardly Switches From Subject to Artist


By Pierce Conran

Ten years after her feature debut What Are We Waiting For?, documentarian Kim Hyun-kung returns with an intimate film that is both a portrait of a HIV-positive New Yorker and a filmmaker uncertain of her aims. Awkwardly straddling the border between human interest story and self-interest, Special Annie is a lively if curiously narcissistic sophomore effort.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Review: BAD GUYS ALWAYS DIE Suffers A Slow Death


By Pierce Conran

One of the more high profile among the many China-Korea collaborations of the last few years (prior to the THAAD-related meldown in relations), Bad Guys Always Die teams Taiwanese star Chen Bolin with top Korean actress Son Ye-jin in an action-comedy (leaning more towards the later) set on Jeju Island, an extremely popular holiday spot for both Koreans and Chinese tourists.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Review: REACH FOR THE SKY Goes There and Beyond


By Pierce Conran

The last few BIFFs have each afforded us one great documentary (Non-Fiction Diary, Factory Complex), and 2015 proved to be no exception with the discovery of the timely Reach for the SKY, a compelling look at a common but disastrous problem at the root of modern Korean society - competitive education. Constructed like a thriller and featuring a taut and ominous mise-en-scene, this joint production between Korea and Belgium is gripping from the start and builds to a devastating climax.

Monday, September 3, 2018

Review: ORDINARY PEOPLE Offers Tired Gags in Familiar Situations


By Pierce Conran

Three years after his debut Over and Over Again, director Kim Byung-june returned to Busan with a much livelier effort that strives to mix social realism and situational crime comedy. Aping the lowbrow comic efforts of Korea's commercial realm, Ordinary People looks to punch above its weight but by carrying over the issues that marred his debut and juggling a jumble of themes, Kim's latest strikes a discordant tone that is unlikely to move the masses.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Busan 2017 Review: HOME Settles in for Pleasant if Predictable Family Drama


By Pierce Conran


Busan-set family melodrama Home doesn't stray from stock themes of Korean dramas yet its endearing young cast and genuine feelings make it a pleasant debut from newcomer Kim Jong-woo.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Busan 2017 Review: BLUEBEARD, Ambitious Chiller Lacks Tension


By Pierce Conran


Much like her debut The Uninvited, Lee Soo-yeon's latest film Bluebeard teases a dark genre storyline before turning off into more psychological territory through several layered images and a protagonist who isn't quite what he seems, played by Cho Jin-woong of A Hard Day. Unlike her impressive 2003 horror film, her second work feels less fresh and a lot more contrived.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Busan 2017 Review: TAKLAMAKAN, Introspective Drama Dashes Dreams


By Pierce Conran


Ko Eun-ki's sixth film Taklamakan, takes its name from a red desert in China which, as legend maintains, won't let you out once you step inside. In this dark and introspective drama, featuring characters that use the word as a metaphor for their everlasting love, we discover on a dusty hill that sets the stage for an irrevocable life choice that Taklamakan is in actuality a point of no return for the three main characters, played by Cho Seong-ha, Ha Yoon-kyung and Song Eun-ji in committed if dour performances.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: OLD LOVE Mourns Life's Missed Opportunities


By Pierce Conran

20 years after his debut Motel Cactus, Park Ki-yong returns with his 8th feature Old Joy, a contemplative work that proves to be director's strongest since his early days as one of the pioneers of the nascent Korea indie filmmaking scene.

Monday, December 11, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: ROMANS 8:37, a Difficult Theological Tale


By Pierce Conran


Writer-director Shin Yeon-shick returns to Busan for the fifth time with Romans 8:37, a thoughtful if not exactly thought-provoking theological tale of faith, suffering and coverups. Focusing exclusively on the complicated inner workings and relationships of a Korean church, this lengthy film will prove challenging for some viewers, particularly those outside the faith.

Busan 2017 Review: BUTTERFLY SLEEP Flutters Gracefully Over a Well-Worn Path


By Pierce Conran


It's been a full 12 years since director Jeong Jae-eun helmed a narrative feature and the Japan-set Butterfly Sleep is a welcome return, if not a patch on her 2001 debut Take Care of My Cat, still her best work.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: PARK HWA-YOUNG Lashes Out with Foul and Excessive Misery


By Pierce Conran


Among the dozens of local indie films that wind up at the Busan International Film Festival every year, a number tend to be dark social dramas that explore the worst aspects of society. Often set in winter (likely due to the festival's spring submission dates), they can make for heavy viewing but can also be extremely rewarding.

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: METHOD Gets Booed Off the Stage


By Pierce Conran


Bang Eun-jin scales things down significantly for her fourth work, the theater world forbidden love story Method. Lacking any chemistry between its leads, this facile mirrored narrative proves to be Bang's least impressive work as it trudges through thinly drawn and tired themes.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: MICROHABITAT, a Poignant and Lively Debut


By Pierce Conran


Perhaps the most impressive Korean debut at Busan this year, the thoughtful and entertaining Microhabitat is a convincing showcase for star Esom and and an even more impressive calling card for director Jeon Go-woon, who becomes the first woman in the Gwanghwamun Cinema group to helm a feature, and her debut may well be the collective's best yet.

Monday, December 4, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: MERMAID UNLIMITED Offers Limited Chuckles


By Pierce Conran


Indie filmmaker O Muel has been churning out films for around a decade on his native Jeju Island, which each explore the history and society of the popular getaway in different ways but always from the perspective of the local community. For the majority of his career he's vacillated between low-key, parochial comedies and more soberly artistic fare and with Mermaid Unlimited, following 2015's somewhat impenetrable art piece Eyelids, he's firmly back in the former camp, albeit with a little more social examination than his other light offerings.

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Busan 2017 Review: LAST CHILD, a Powerful Tale of Guilt and Grief


By Pierce Conran


Grief and guilt get a thorough review in Shin Dong-seok's debut film Last Child, one of three Korean films competing in this year's New Currents competition in Busan. A trio of powerful performances ground this emotionally gritty tale and lure us into a complex web of suffering but while the director for the most part avoids the overly depressing aura of similar stories, a shoddy climax undermines the measured work that precedes it.