Two young girls, Jin and Bin, are unexpectedly sent to live with their aunt while their mother leaves to find their absent father. Before leaving she gives her daughters a piggy bank: when they behave, their aunt will give them … Continue reading REVIEW: Treeless Mountain (2008)
For almost twenty years South Korean cinema has been on a prolonged run of bleak, emotionally challenging thrillers about wounded middle-aged men seeking revenge or hiding secrets – often both. Many have seen commercial success, some internationally, but they have … Continue reading REVIEW: Seven Years of Night (2018)
A family of Filipino immigrants living in Seoul have their lives thrown into disarray when their father Don (Nonie Buencamino) hits and kills a pedestrian while driving home. While Don angsts over whether or not to give himself up to … Continue reading REVIEW: Sunshine Family (2019)
Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-sik), a young man living in poverty, miraculously scores a part-time job tutoring mathematics for a rich Korean family. When that family needs an art tutor, Ki-woo knows of an excellent choice. When the family fires their … Continue reading REVIEW: Parasite (2019)
Il-ho is a defunct satellite originally sent into orbit to take photographs of the Korean peninsula. When she hears a young man named Kyung-chun singing down on Earth, she is compelled to land in Seoul – only to discover he … Continue reading REVIEW: The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow (2014)
A medical experiment goes disastrously awry, transforming one of its human subjects (Lee Kwang-soo) into a mutated half-man half-fish. When he goes to his ex-girlfriend (Park Bo-young) for help, she instead leaks his appearance onto the Internet and sells him … Continue reading REVIEW: Collective Invention (2015)
A young woman goes to see her grandfather in hospital. He is suffering deeply from depression, and clearly some additional mental illnesses because he is soon chasing a cleaning lady around the ward with a knife. Before long that sequence … Continue reading REVIEW: Love and… (2015)
In 1937 an occupying Japanese regime, in an effort to solidify its control over Korea, banned the teaching of Korean language in all schools. For children going through school at that time, it meant a lifetime of illiteracy. In the … Continue reading REVIEW: Granny Poetry Club (2019)
Joo-ri (Kim Hye-jun) and Yoon-ah (Park Se-jin) are high school classmates who hate one another. Their acrimony only increases when Joo-ri’s father and Yoon-ah’s mother have an affair, resulting in Yoon-ah’s mother Mi-hee (Kim So-jin) falling pregnant. While Mi-hee seems … Continue reading REVIEW: Another Child (2019)
In AD 645, the Goguryeo fortress at Ansi came under siege by the Tang forces of Emperor Taizong. For 88 days the Goguryeo forces defend their homes against the invading Tang, under the leadership of their commander Yang Manchun. Almost … Continue reading REVIEW: The Great Battle (2018)
