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)
In a small South Korean town alongside the demilitarized zone, an entire local economy of bars, clubs and brothels has built up around the ever-present American soldiers. Sang-kook (Kim Dan-yool) works dutifully in his father’s photography studio, taking ID pictures … Continue reading REVIEW: America Town (2017)
An explosion at a drug manufacturing laboratory takes out an entire level of a drug syndicate’s management. In the wreckage, the police find a low-level syndicate member still alive. Arrested and detained by a special investigation team, he agrees to … Continue reading REVIEW: Believer (2018)
Narrative cinema is a broad medium with seemingly endless potential for disrupting common tropes, experimenting with form, and subverting audience expectations. That said, the further a filmmaker strays from the accepted mainstream the more challenging their work will become for … Continue reading REVIEW: A Korean in Paris (2015)
Ahn Gooc-jin makes one hell of an impression with Alice in Earnestland (2015), a pitch-black South Korean comedy. At times the film feels a more more pitch-black than it does a laugh-out-loud comedy, but it uneven tone aside this is not a … Continue reading REVIEW: Alice in Earnestland (2015)
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