Jiho (Ji Woo) buys an expensive second-hand electric bike in order to work as a bicycle courier. The job, however, proves more difficult that she thought: incorrect addresses, locked apartment entrances, pounding rain, and customer complaints all conspire to make … Continue reading OAFF: Leave at Door, Bell X (2022)
Hae-won (Kim Tae-ri) returns from a dead-end job in Seoul to her home in a small rural town. Her mother is still missing, having upped and left one day while Hae-won was at school. Alone in a small farmhouse, she … Continue reading REVIEW: Little Forest (2018)
Yeon Sang-ho has become a genre filmmaker well worth watching, most famously through his 2016 global hit Train to Busan but also its live-action sequel Peninsula (2020) and animated prequel Seoul Station (2016), cult work The King of Pigs (2011), and 2020 Netflix series Hellbound. Netflix is … Continue reading REVIEW: JUNG_E (2023)
South Korean filmmaker Park Hee-kwon marks his feature directing debut with Dust and Ashes, a study of an impoverished young woman struggling to make ends meet in the wake of personal tragedy. Produced on a visibly tight budget, and dominated by … Continue reading REVIEW: Dust and Ashes (2019)
It is always a pleasure to see new work from director Park Chan-wook, whose off-kilter and superbly imaginative thrillers played a huge part in bringing contemporary Korean cinema to a world stage. While it was Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019) that became a … Continue reading MIFF REVIEW: Decision to Leave (2022)
Hirokazu Kore-eda is currently one of the most talented and effective directors of feature film drama in the world, and a good measure of that talent is the fact that such claims are not even controversial. His 2018 drama Shoplifters, which … Continue reading MIFF REVIEW: Broker (2022)
Businessman Han Sang-soon (Lee Sung-min) comes home late from a workplace party to witness a brutal murder from his apartment window – and for the murderer to see him doing so. Keeping quiet to avoid becoming a target himself, he … Continue reading REVIEW: The Witness (2018)
On 14 January 1987, student activist Park Jong-chul dies in police custody after being tortured over his suspected anti-government links. His murder sets off a chain of events involving a conscientious prison guard, a young first-year student, an alcoholic court … Continue reading REVIEW: 1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
Hee-yeon (Yum Jung-ah) retreats to the country, with her husband Min-ho (Park Hyuk-kwon) and daughter Jun-hee, in order to better care for his dementia-afflicted mother (Huh Jin). In the surrounding forests Hee-yeon finds a frightened young girl (Shin Rin-a) and, … Continue reading REVIEW: The Mimic (2017)
In AD 1636, Korea’s Joseon kingdom has been invaded by an army the Manchu Qing dynasty. King Injo (Park Hae-il) and his court escaped to the northern fortress of Namham, but are now under siege from Manchu soldiers. Trapped for … Continue reading REVIEW: The Fortress (2017)
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