Weekly Review Round-up (11/19-11/25, 2011)

A wealth of reviews for current and past films this week from many sources including multiple write-ups on A Better Tomorrow, The Front Line, and The Yellow Sea.

CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

Spellbound

(The Korea Times, November 24, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(moviecynics.com, November 18, 2011)

(Wildside Cinema, November 22, 2011)

Bleak Night

(Ali Quail, November 22, 2011)

Blind

(Modern Korean Cinema, November 22, 2011)

In Love and the War

(hancinema.net, November 19, 2011)

King of Pigs

(hancinema.net, November 19, 2011)

Leafie: A Hen Into the Wild

(Hangul Celluloid, November 22, 2011)

Moby Dick

(Film Business Asia, November 20, 2011)

Poetry

(rainydaymovies, November 24, 2011)

Secret Reunion

(VCinema Show, November 3, 2011)

Sector 7

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 24, 2011)

Sunny

(Far East Films, November 13, 2011)

The Front Line

(Japan Cinema, November 25, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, November 24, 2011)

(Next Projection, November 19, 2011)

The Unjust

(Korean Class Massive, November 19, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(London Korea Links, November 22, 2011)

(subtitledonline.com, November 24, 2011)

(The Huffington Post, November 23, 2011)

Through Korean Cinema

(New Korean Cinema, November 23, 2011)

White: The Melody of the Curse

(Film Business Asia, November 23, 2011)

PAST FILMS

3-Iron, 2004

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 22, 2011)

Arahan, 2004

(Mouth London, November 23, 2011)

Assassins, 1969

(London Korean Links, November 20, 2011)

A Sister's Garden, 1959
(koreanfilm.org, November 2011)

A Tale of Two Sisters, 2003

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 17, 2011)

Crossing, 2008

(asianmovieweb.com, November 21, 2011)

Dachimawa Lee, 2008

(Mouth London, November 23, 2011)

Day Off, 1968

(London Korean Links, November 20, 2011)

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, 2002

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 23, 2011)

The City of Violence, 2006

(Mouth London, November 21, 2011)

The Good, the Bad and the Weird, 2008

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 20, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

48th Daejong Film Awards

The Daejong film awards are the oldest and most prestigious film industry awards in Korea.  They are essentially the Korean oscars and they will soon be celebrating their 50th edition.  Just like the Oscars, they feature musical performances, celebrity presenters, and a host of other similarities.

Tonight the ceremony for the 48th Daejong film awards took place in Seoul.  A very even field battled it out this year as many films walked away with multiple awards and there was no outright champion of the event.  That said, while the films represented in this year's nominations were more-or-less all worthy contenders, they did not compare favorably to the stellar lineups of years past.  Last year's big winner was Lee Chang-dong's formidable Poetry,  while Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil and newcomer Jang Cheol-su's Bedevilled were among the other films that ranked high on the nominations list.

This year, the most nominated films were (wins in parentheses):

The Front Line - 12 (4)

The Yellow Sea - 11 (2)

Sunny - 9 (2)

War of the Arrows - 8 (4)

Blind - 7 (2)

The Unjust - 7 (0)

Hindsight - 5 (0)

Late Autumn - 4 (1)

Hello Ghost - 4 (0)

Late Blossom - 4 (0)

Detective K - 3 (1)

Romantic Heaven - 3 (1)

Moby Dick - 3 (0)

Poongsan - 3 (0)

The Last Blossom - 3 (0)

Bleak Night - 2 (2)

The six most nominated films were all big performers at the box office, each scored over two million admissions.  Currently I have only seen seven of the films listed above but it does seem like a poorer than usual roster.  As excited as I am to see The Front Line, War of the Arrows, Sunny, and Blind, I am not expecting them to make significant impressions on me like other Korean films have, but I hope I am wrong!

That said, this year's films are all solid and I am especially happy that Ryoo Seung-wan's brilliant The Unjust wound up with 7 nominations, although it is unfortunate that it wasn't able to bag a single win.  I thought it would pick up Best Screenplay at the very least but this went to Blind.  

I was also happy to see that  Late Blossom score 4 nominations even if it didn't win anything.  Personally I think it should have been nominated for Best Cinematography which  is always a great category for Korean film.  So far I've only seen one of the nominees so I'm exited to how the rest look, including winner The Front Line.

I was surprised that neither Quick nor the much-Ballyhooed Sector 7 managed to score nominations for Best Visual Effects.  The films were not well-received but by all accounts the effects were very impressive. War of the Arrows ended up taking the prize.

The biggest successes of the night were the big blockbusters The Front Line and War of the Arrows with 4 wins each, including Best Film for the former.  That result was not surprising as it is also the Korean selection for next year's Oscars.

In the face of some pretty stiff competition, Kang Hyung-chul won Best Director for the small but wildly popular Sunny, which also won Best Editing.

The acting categories all went to different films this year. Best Actor and Actress went to Park Hae-il for War of the Arrows and Kim Ha-neul for Blind, while Jo Sung-ha and Shim Eun-kyun walked away which the Supporting Actor/Actress prizes for The Yellow Sea and Romantic Heaven.

Bleak Night, which has very well-received critically but failed to draw much of an audience in Korea, was a big success tonight, winning its two nominations for Best New Director (Yoon Sung-hyun) and Best New Actor (Lee Je-hun, also nominated for The Front Line).  Meanwhile, best New Actress went to Moon Chae-won for War of the Arrows.

Best Production and Best Lighting went to The Front Line, Best Song went to Late Autumn, Best Costume Design went to The Yellow Sea, Best Art Design went to Detective K, and Best Sound Effects went to War of the Arrows.

Won Bin, who won last year's Best Actor for his role in The Man From Nowhere, was the recipient of the  Popularity Award.  This year's Lifetime Achievement Award went to actor Lee Dae-Geun.

Special thanks to Asian Media Wiki, which live-tweeted the results.

48th Daejong Film Awards Winners and Nominees:

Best Film
Winner:The Front Line
Nominees:
The Front Line
The Unjust
Sunny
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Director

Winner: 

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Nominees:

Jang Hun (The Front Line)

Kim Tae-yong (Late Autumn)

Ryoo Seung-wan (The Unjust)

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea)

Best Actor

Winner: 

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Nominees:

Kim Yun-seok (The Yellow Sea)

Ryoo Seung-beom (The Unjust)

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Yoon Kye-sang (Poongsan)

Lee Soon-jae (Late Blossom)

Cha Tae-hyun (Hello Ghost)

Best Actress

Winner: 

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Nominees:

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Kim Hye-soo (Villain and Widow)

Bae Jong-ok (The Last Blossom)

Yun So-jeong (Late Blossom)

Choi Gang-hee (Petty Romance)

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: 

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Nominees:

Ko Chang-seok (The Showdown)

Kim Sang-ho (Moby Dick)

Ryoo Seung-ryong (The Front Line)

Yu Hae-jin (The Unjust)

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Jo Hie-bong (Blind)

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: 

Shim Eun-kyung (Romantic Heaven)

Nominees:

Kim Soo-mi (Late Blossom)

Kim Ji-young (The Last Blossom)

Seo Young-hee (The Last Blossom)

Shim Eun-kyung (Romantic Heaven)

Jang Yeong-nam (Hello Ghost)

Cheon Woo-hee (Sunny)

Best New Director

Winner: 

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Nominees:

Kim Sung-hoon (Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!)

Kim Young-tak (Hello Ghost)

Min Yong-keun (Re-encounter)

Park In-je (Moby Dick)

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Best New Actor

Winner: 

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Nominees:

Kim Hwan-young (Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!)

Yoo Yeon-seok (Re-encounter)

Lee Je-hoon (The Front Line)

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Jang Ki-beom (GLove)

Best New Actress

Winner: 

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Nominees:

Kang So-ra (Sunny)

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Baek Jin-hee (Foxy Festival)

Shin Se-kyung (Hindsight)

You Da-in (Re-encounter)

Best Screenplay
Winner:
Choi Min-suk (Blind)
Nominees:
The Unjust
Blind
Sunny
The Front Line
Hello Ghost

Best Cinematography
Winner:
The Front Line (Joo Woo-hyung)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Late Autumn
War of the Arrows
Hindsight
The Yellow Sea

Best Lighting
Winner:
The Front Line (Kim Min-jae)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Blind
Hindsight
Poongsan
The Yellow Sea

Best Production
Winner:
The Front Line (Lee Woo-jung)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Moby Dick
The Unjust
Sunny
Poongsan

Best Editing
Winner:
Sunny (Nam Na-young)
Nominees:
The Front Line
The Unjust
Blind
Sunny
The Yellow Sea

Best Music
Winner: Late Autumn (Woo & Choi Young-rak)
Nominees:
Late Blossom
Romantic Heaven
Late Autumn
Sunny
Hindsight

Best Art Design
Winner:
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow (Chae Gyung-sun)
Nominees:
Late Autumn
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
Hindsight
The Yellow Sea

Best Costume Design
Winner:
The Yellow Sea (Chae Kyung-hwa)
Nominees:The Front Line
Sunny
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Visual Effects
Winner:
War of the Arrows (Han Young-woo)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Romantic Heaven
Blind
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Sound Effects
Winner:
War of the Arrows (Choi Tae-young)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Blind
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Popularity Award

Winner: 

Won Bin

Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: 

Lee Dae-geun (actor)

Weekly Review Round-up (09/24-09/30, 2011)

An enormous amount of reviews this week (53!) due in part to Austin's Fantasia Fest and the release of Poetry in Toronto. I'm sure I've missed a couple though but if you can point me towards any more I will gladly include them!

NEW KOREAN RELEASES

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon

(koreanfilm.org, September 2011)

Blind

(Ain't It Cool News, September 29, 2011)

(andrewmccants.com, September 24, 2011)

(austin360.com, September 23, 2011)

(austinist.com, September 26, 2011)

(cinemablend.com, September 23, 2011)

(fangoria.com, September 22, 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 26, 2011)

(Film School Rejects, September 25, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 23, 2011)

(Twitch, September 22, 2011)

Countdown

(Seongyong's Private Place, September 25, 2011)

(The Korea Times, September 29, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

GLove

(hancinema.net, September 24, 2011)

Hanji

(Twitch, September 24, 2011)

Haunters

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 26, 2011)

(indieWIRE, September 26, 2011)

(insidepulse.com, September 25, 2011)

(The Austin Chronicle, September 29, 2011)

(Twitch, September 25, 2011)

Invasion of Alien Bikini

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 27, 2011)

(klownsasesinos.com, September 26, 2011) - Spanish

(slashfilm.com, September 24, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 23, 2011)

(Twitch, September 23, 2011)

Moby Dick

(Modern Korean Cinema, September 30, 2011)

Poetry

(cynicritics.com, September 15, 2011)

(exclaim.ca, September 29, 2011)

(kdvr.com, September 23, 2011)

(nowtoronto.com, September 29, 2011)

(The Globe and Mail, September 30, 2011)

(The Grid, September 28, 2011)

(Toronto.com, September 30, 2011)

(Toronto Sun, September 30, 2011)

The Servant

(Init_Scenes, September 29, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(Ain't It Cool News, September 24, 2011)

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(Film School Rejects, September 26, 2011)

(Film Threat, September 24, 2011)

(geekscape.net, September 28, 2011)

(hancinema.net, September 24, 2011)

(ifc.com, September 24, 2011)

(indieWIRE, September 26, 2011)

(klownsasesinos.com, September 26, 2011) - Spanish

(Sound on Sight, September 26, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 24, 2011)

(The Film Stage, September 25, 2011)

(Twitch, September 23, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Summer Time, 2001

(Hangul Celluloid, September 16, 2011)

The Sword With No Name, 2009

(buzzfocus.com, September 28, 2011)

Woman on the Beach, 2005

(The New Yorker, September 28, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (09/23-09/25, 2011)

Weekend of September 23-25, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	The Crucible	9/22/11	685,784	914,369
2	Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	149,183	7,042,686
3	Contagion (us)	9/22/11	111,932	133,147
4	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	85,808	848,949
5	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	74,487	2,283,806
6	The Killer Elite (us)	9/22/11	70,238	90,591
7	The Client	9/29/11	61,074	61,074
8	Countdown	9/29/11	32,100	39,279
9	Pained	9/7/11	24,591	673,342
10	Champ	9/7/11	17,824	514,194
-	Leafie, A Hen Into The Wild	7/27/11	10,704	2,171,074
-	Hindsight	8/31/11	5,452	761,276
-	Blind	8/10/11	4,798	2,355,927

Business was once again a little slow with 1.4 million tickets sold overall. That's slightly below last year's comparable weekend which had 1.8 million admissions. 7 of the top films were Korean and this is now the 9th weekend in a row where the top place has been occupied by a local film.

After strong previews last week, The Crucible (aka Silenced) has conquered the local box office with a big 685,784 tally on its opening weekend, that accounted for a 48.9% share of the marketplace. With nearly a million admissions tucked away already it will be interesting to see how far this goes although it will come up against some stiff competition next weekend.

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon took its biggest slide yet as it retreated nearly 50% in its 7th weekend, although its 149,183 admissions were enough to push it over 7 million. While it is unlikely to crack 8 million, Arrow will now challenge for the local number 1 spot currently occupied by Sunny and its 7,369,213 take.

Marrying the Mafia IV took another big dive this weekend, this time over 70%. With 74,487 tickets sold this weekend it remains to be seen whether it has enough to go over its predecessors 2.5 million total.

Pained sold 24,591 tickets after falling nearly 80% and now has 673,342 admissions as it winds up its run. Champ suffered a similar fall and 17,824 for a 514,194 total. Outside of the top 10 Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild, Hindsight, and Blind all posted small numbers.

The Client and Countdown, two hotly anticipated Autumn releases, had their previews this weekend.  They scored 61,074 and 32,100 admissions respectively and all eyes will be on them when they open in earnest next weekend. Also in the mix for the top place will be The Crucible's sophomore frame.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (09/16-09/18, 2011)

Weekend of September 16-18, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	292,931	6,589,663
2	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	258,466	1,917,256
3	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	172,668	640,685
4	Pained	9/7/11	105,016	555,879
5	The Crucible	22/9/2011	80,146	89,201
6	Rise of the Planet of the Apes (us)	17/8/2011	70,467	2,626,488
7	Champ	9/7/11	69,780	421,633
8	Shark Night 3D (us)	15/9/2011	49,646	61,148
9	Final Destination 5 (us)	9/8/11	43,462	206,718
10	Hindsight	31/8/2011	42,814	681,757
-	Blind	8/10/11	29,271	2,304,931
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	7/27/11	23,733	2,141,264
-	The Day He Arrives	8/9/11	4,501	22,966

Following last week's Chuseok festivities, box office receipts have shrunk down considerably with no major new film on wide release. The good news is that just like the last few weeks local fare has dominated on the charts.

Having relinquished its crown to last week's winner Marrying the Mafia IV, Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon is back on top again with 292,931 which represents a sub-30% drop from last weekend. With nearly 6.6 million admissions as of Sunday, Arrow is well positioned to overtake Sunny in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile the latest Marrying the Mafia installment had a predictably steep decline of 55%, taking 258,466 in its sophomore frame. If it manages to level out somewhat it wil easily have enough steam to drive its total above that of the franchise's last entry.

Kwon Sang-woo's lastest Pained saw a standard decline and raked in another 105,016 admissions but after it mediocre opening this may not be enough to bring it over a million.

The Crucible was the only new Korean film to play nationwide but it did so in only 221 theaters for previews and is scheduled for its full release on September 22. Nevertheless it managed to pull in 80,146 which is a good omen for its chances, it remains to be seen how the word-of-mouth will affect its chances.

Cha Tae-hyun's latest comedy Champ took a dive this week and nearly saw its take slashed in half with only 69,780 added to its coffers. It will likely fall out of the top 10 entirely next week.

Hindsight also slowed by nearly 50% with another 42,814 tickets sold. Its chances at one million admissions are all but nil at this point.

Outside of the top 10 Blind and Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild both fell by another 30% and their respective totals now stand at 2,304,931 and 2,141,264. Hong Sang-soo's latest The Day He Arrives added another 4,501 admissions to bring its two-week total to 22,966, a good start for this acclaimed limited release.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (09/09-09/11, 2011)

This is the first edition of Modern Korean Cinema's Weekly B.O. Update and as such is in a trial phase and is subject to changes over the coming weeks. I know that there are other places which provide box office information and analysis for Korean cinema but I believe that I can bring a slightly different approach. I aim to be analytical and thorough as I examine the weekly returns, in addition, I will keep a tab which will collect all of these updates for easy reference.

Please let me know what you think of this new component of the site, I hope you find it useful!

Title Release Date   Weekend   Total 1 Marrying the Mafia IV 7/9/2011 601,363 806,376 2 Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon 10/8/2011 405,816 5,709,350 3 Mr. Popper's Penguins (us) 7/9/2011 170,400 193,738 4 Pained 7/9/2011 157,389 248,920 5 Rise of the Planet Apes (us) 17/8/2011 125,817 2,401,266 6 Champ 7/9/2011 113,622 161,549 7 Hindsight 31/8/2011 80,855 539,597 8 Columbiana (us) 31/8/2011 68,452 416,033 9 Final Destination 5 (us) 8/9/2011 65,119 87,176 10 Seafood (us) 8/9/2011 42,065 43,307 - Blind 10/8/2011 41,172 2,241,164 - Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild 27/7/2011 37,858 1,057,027 - The Day He Arrives 8/9/2011 8,017 10,964

After a strong start with last week's previews, the latest installment of the immensely popular Marrying the Mafia franchise unseated Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon, which has dominated at the top of the charts for four consecutive weekends. With just over 600,000 admissions over the weekend, Marrying the Mafia IV: Family Ordeal is poised to do solid business through the rest of September unless it succumbs to a strong case of sequelitis. The last entry in the series wound up with over 2.5 million ticket sales.

Arrow continues to do very well having added another 400,000 tickets to its haul this weekend (down just over 10%) which now stands at over 5.7 million. The question now is whether it can unseat Sunny as the best-selling Korean film of the year and Transformers 3 at the top of the yearly chart.

Song Kang-ho's latest Hindsight has crumbled after its so-so opening with a take of 80,000, down over 70%. It is unlikely to hit the  million mark at this point, surprising given the star's stellar pedigree.

Pained, which teams heartthrob Kwon Sang-woo with action director Kwak Kyung-taek had a modest opening with nearly 160,000 tickets sold. Reviews have been strong so this may pick up in coming weeks after positive word of mouth sets in.

Champ, the third platform Korean release of the week, starring Cha Tae-hyeon also had a light opening with just over 110,000 tickets sold. I just hope that this horse-themed sports drama is better than last year's woeful Grand Prix, which floundered at the box office.

Just outside of the top ten, Blind and Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild, nearing the end of their runs, added 41,000 and 37,000 respectively to their tallies to bring their cumulative grosses to 2.24 and 2.05 million.

Hong Sang-soo's latest, The Day He Arrives opened to 8,000 admissions despite positive buzz and a successful festival run which began at Cannes earlier this year. Sadly, this is roughly comparable to his previous films.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-Up (08/13-08/19, 2011)

Lots of reviews this week including a number for Blind, which opened last week in Korea. I should mention that there are always reviews I don't agree with but I try to be democratic and include everything in this weekly update. I mention this because of the particularly off-point NY Times review of The Journals of Musan. However, it would be very safe to say that he is in the minority. If I've missed anything that you know of please let me know!

NEW KOREAN RELEASES

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon

(Seongyong's Private Place, August 14, 2011)

Blind

(gordsellar.com, August 15, 2011)

(Seongyong's Private Place, August 14, 2011)

(The Korea Times, August 18, 2011)

Quick

(National Post, August 18, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

Arirang

(Bright Lights Film Journal, August 2011)

Hanji

(Beyond Hollywood, August 15, 2011)

I Saw the Devil

(Commentary Track, August 16, 2011)

Mama

(nanoomi.net, August 16, 2011)

Metamorphoses

(hancinema.net, August 13, 2011)

Romantic Heaven

(Beyond Hollywood, August 16, 2011)

Shotgun Love

(JapanCinema.net, August 17, 2011)

The Journals of Musan

(The New York Times, August 16, 2011)

The Quiz Show Scandal

(Modern Korean Cinema, August 16, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Secret Sunshine, 2007

(DVD talk, August 15, 2011)

The City of Violence, 2006

(Twitch, August 17, 2011)

The Host, 2006

(Acid Cinema, August 15, 2011)

The Uprising, 1999

(Hangul Celluloid, August 16, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.