New Korean Films: Love is Overdue (2015 Week 2)

Love Forecast

(오늘의 연애)

Jun-su was once a young man who had just fallen in love with Hyeon-wu. They started to date, but he couldn’t work up the nerve to confess his love. His feelings have been stuck in his mind for a long time… Like, for a very long time. Eighteen years later, Jun-su now has a job as an elementary school teacher, but he still cannot make his relationships last longer than a few months. Part of the reason is that he still sees Hyeon-wu every day; they have meals together, go to the movies, hold hands, always rely on each other and even know the door codes of each other’s apartment. While Hyeon-wu’s rising popularity as a weathercaster makes her surrounded with suitors, Jun-su wishes to get out of the so-called “friend zone” and make his move.

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New Korean Films: Platonic Romance or Edonist Pleasure? (2015 Week 1)

by Fabien Schneider

After an excessively long break, I am pleased to announce that I am once again ready to make you discover every week the latest productions that find their way to South Korean theaters. Let me remind you the principle of this section: for each film I will briefly present the synopsis, then I will share my own commentary on the expectations that these films generate, the response of the public and critics, the way the film is promoted, and anything that might be relevant to assess the value (or lack thereof) of the film. It goes without saying that these comments are based solely on the information available at the time of writing. Of course, for the vast majority of these films, I would have not seen them before their theatrical release. Do not be surprised then if a movie that I would have viciously criticized turns out to be a wonder. So let's start this week with two very different movies.

Casa Amor: Exclusive for Ladies

(워킹걸)

Bo-hee is a business woman who places her career as the marketer of a toys’ brand before her family. Her husband is sexually frustrated, and his son feels abandoned. But following an unfortunate mistake during a presentation, she finds herself unemployed. As if it wasn’t enough to spoil her day, she comes back home only to find a note from her husband announcing their separation. Hopefully, she’ll attempt to retrieve her fortune by taking an unexpected job. Nan-hee owns a sex shop, and has become a true reference in matters of sex. According to her, the world is divided between women who take pleasure and those who don’t. But despite all her knowledge and experience, she still fails at selling her products. She decides to hire Bo-hee to promote her new line of “toys”.

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New Korean Films: Censorships and Restrictions (2013 Week 36)

The Spy

(스파이)

A secret agent working on a delicate issue menacing the security of the country is sent to Thailand to dislodge a terrorist group. He hides his mission to his wife, an air hostess, making her believe that he’s going on a business trip to Busan. His astonishment is then huge when he stumbles on her in the streets of Bangkok, accompanied by another man. Suddenly aware that she may too hide things from him, he then tries to continue his investigation while keeping an eye on the activities of his wife.

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New Korean Films: (Too) Close Encounters (2013 Week 35)

Playboy Bong

(아티스트 봉만대)

A producer visits one of his directors on his shooting location in Bali, and is clearly not satisfied with the first scenes shot of that erotic horror film. He then takes the decision to call for help another famous director, Bong Man-dae. But the team gets soon annoyed by the authoritarian leadership of the new director, and his will to picture more nudity stirs up a revolt from the actresses. But hiding in the shadow lays the former director who is just waiting for the right moment to take revenge on the pushy playboy.

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New Korean Films: Hauting Memories, Revenants and Regrets (2013 Week 34)

Fatal

(가시꽃)

An unpopular high school student is lead by a band to break into a girl’s place and forced to rape her with them. Ten years later, he finds her by chance at the church. She did not recognize his face, and naturally he doesn’t dare to remind her of this painful memory and thus confess his identity. He seeks at all costs to redeem himself, but when he realizes that she is still overwhelmed by the trauma, he decides to take action by finding the other attackers and confront them.

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New Korean Films: Impending Contagion in Theaters (2013 Week 33)

The Flu

(감기)

A new disease occurs overnight and causes confusion in all hospitals. It spreads particularly fast because the virus is propagated through the respiratory system and only needs 36 hours of incubation to cause death. Physicians, researchers and ordinary civilians are fighting to eradicate the outbreak before it is too late.

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New Korean Films: Indie Films Never Die (2013 Week 32)

Oldmen Never Die

(죽지않아)

Ji-hoon went to the countryside to live with his grandfather to discharge him of farm work, but also to make sure to make a good impression to get a large share of his inheritance, thinking that he may die very soon. But it's been three years since Ji-hoon gets exhausted every day, and his grandfather seems instead to rejuvenate with each passing day. After taking a long-awaited break for a day spent in Seoul, he returns to the village and comes upon a young woman standing in front of his place who claims to be his grandfather’s girlfriend.

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New Korean Films: Snowpiercer Belongs to the Front (2013 Week 31)

Snowpiercer

(설국열차)

In the near future, while an attempt to stem global warming results in a deadly new ice age. everyone is fighting for one of the few seats on a train destined to contain what’s left of humankind by traversing the world with an inexhaustible energy source. Seventeen years later, the population of passengers is split between the elite who occupy the luxurious first-class carriages at the head of the convoy, and the common people who live in the rear of the train. This is too much for Curtis and Gilliam who are fomenting a revolution whose aim is to take control of the engine, which became a sacred place with time and that only Wilford, the creator of the train, knows how to work.

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New Korean Films: Showbox Is Going All Bananas (2013 Week 29)

Mr. Go

(미스터 고)

A director of a circus troupe in China dies leaving all his inheritance to his daughter, Weiwei, 15. Among the menagerie is a gorilla named Ling Ling with which the director often played baseball and who seems to possess great playing abilities. A South Korean recruiter hears the rumor and rushes to China to hire the gorilla along with Weiwei as a coach in a team of the South Korean professional league. Very soon, Ling Ling becomes a celebrity in the sporting world, which does not take long to attract the lusts of several opposing teams.

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New Korean Films: Strong Women (2013 Week 30)

The Ring of Life

(링)

A boxer with promising talent has failed every time to qualify for the Olympics and eventually attempts suicide by self-immolation. Disabled but still alive, he devotes himself to being a coach and dreams of training the very first Olympic champion in women’s boxing. A 28 years-old scientist, who works in the most prestigious university in the country, stands as a candidate to him for a career change, while she has just successfully passed the official exams for civil service.

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New Korean Films: The Quest For Independence (2013 Week 28)

Big Good

(경복)

Hyeong-geun is nearly 20 years old and has just finished his college entrance exams, but now he is looking for independence. While his mother is travelling, he’s entrusted to keep their apartment in order for a few weeks, but instead takes the opportunity to offer for rent a room adjacent to his mother's store. With his friends, a writer, a musician and a university student, they encounter many candidates while seeking an apartment for themselves .

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New Korean Films: These Are Watching You (2013 Week 27)

Cold Eyes

(감시자들)

The Special Crime Department of the Korean police is led by Hwang Sang-jun, a detective who tracks down criminals thanks to his instinct. A new recruit, Ha Yoon-ju, who demonstrates an exceptional memory and sense of observation, joins his team. Both they must work as a team to capture a dangerous robbing organization headed by the cautious and very discreet "James."

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New Korean Films: Horror Movie? Again? (2013 Week 26)

Cheer Up Mr. Lee

(힘내세요, 병헌씨)

A producer proposes to her TV station the idea of a documentary that follows the trials and tribulations of young apprentices filmmakers in their creative process. She and her team then begin to shoot all the doings of Byeong-heon. But she soon realizes the difficulty of this task. Byeong-heon drinks constantly, takes more than eight hours before starting to write the script and spends more than an hour trying different fonts for the title of the script. Moreover, he then goes out to meet his friends, a producer, cameraman and actor, all beginners, to get further drunk.

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New Korean Films: Surgeon vs. Psychiatrist (2013 Week 25)

Doctor

(닥터)

The cosmetic surgeon Choi has a perfect life: he is one of the best in his profession, and married to the perfect woman. But everything changes when he catches her in the arms of another man while coming home earlier. He will put his talents to use as he prepares a long and cruel revenge.

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New Korean Films: A Short Film Looking Up to the Big Shots (2013 Week 24)

You Are More Than Beautiful

(그녀의 연기)

The father of Cheol-soo, who lives on Jeju Island, is about to die before he seeing his son get married. To fulfill his dream, Cheol-soo calls for the help of a young woman from Seoul, Yeong-hee, who will pretend to be his fiancee. While she is brushing up on the details of their fictional story in the car, Cheol-soo receives a call informing him that his father had been found unconscious. They hurry to get to the hospital and discover the father in a coma. Yeong-hee decides to still act the lie.

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New Korean Films: North Korean Spy To Save South Korean Market (2013 Week 23)

Secretly Greatly

(은밀하게 위대하게)

Ryu-hwan is a North Korean elite spy trained to kill. He was sent two years ago as a sleeper agent in Seoul. He lives in a small apartment owned by an old lady, for whom he also works. He knows everyone in the neighborhood but is only seen as that naive young guy with the mind of a child. Suddenly two other spies arrive in the area: Hae-rang pretends to be a rookie guitar player in a rock band, and Hae-jin a regular student. Ryu-hwan helps them to settle and get used to their new life, until they are ordered to commit suicide after a change of power in North Korea.

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New Korean Films: Behold, K-pop Star in Approach! (2013 Week 22)

Rockin' on Heaven's Door 

(뜨거운 안녕)

A K-pop star, Chung-ui, caused a scandal by being involved in a brawl after consuming too much alcohol, and so sees himself condemned to 300 hours of volunteer work in a hospital institute welcoming terminally ill patients. These people do not comply with the regulations, and the institute is threatened with closure. Only Anna still tries to maintain order, and she doesn’t hesitate to yell at Chung-ui as he always tries to do the bare minimum. When he comes upon patients rehearsing in their own band, he decides to personally get invested to help them improve.

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New Korean Films: Save The Documentaries (2013 Week 21)

Dancing Forest

(춤추는 숲)

At the heart of the temple of globalization and consumerism that is Seoul lies a village created by some irreducible citizens gathered around the mountain Seongmi, who have been sharing during the last 17 years the mad dream of wanting to live in communion with nature. But the hard urban development is threatening in 2010 to raze the mountain to build a school. The community tries to oppose it by all means.

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New Korean Films: Lotte and N.E.W. Join the Party (2013 Week 20)

Happiness for Sale

(미나문방구)

 

Kang Mi-na is making ​​many envious with her position as a public servant in a municipal district office. But overnight, her father becomes injured after falling in his stationery store, and she is asked to take over the management of the shop. She has Ever since her childhood she has hated the store named after her and hopes to sell it as soon as possible to get to her dream job, but she doesn't count on its loyal customers, some elementary school students, who insist that the shop keeps its doors open

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New Korean Films: Local Studios Fight for Second Place (2013 Week 19)

Boomerang Family

(고령화가족)

Following the recent commercial failure of his debut film, a 48 year-old director, In-mo, has no choice but to return to live with his mother. He meets up his older brother, Han-mo, who has never left home and is still not working. But their younger sister, Mi-yeon, was just divorced from her second husband and is coming with her teenage daughter to spend a few weeks with her mother, until the formalities of her upcoming third wedding are settled. All of them will try to coexist as they did during their childhood, but their respective personal comfort has now become much more pervasive than before.

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