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)
Joong-man (Bae Seong-woo) labours at his job working at a city sauna, while caring for his ailing mother at home. When he finds a bag packed with money in an abandoned locker he thinks all of his problems have been … Continue reading REVIEW: Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020)
Up-and-coming attorney Tae Soo (Ahn Jae-hong) is given an opportunity for promotion within his firm – and all he has to do it take over the management of an ailing private zoo and bring it back to financial health within … Continue reading REVIEW: Secret Zoo (2020)
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)
FictionMachine 