The Film List KOREA
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Tell Me Something Crime Thriller Rad and really bloody. In this murder mystery, the killer keeps leaving body parts in plastic bags for people to discover in generally very unpleasant ways. The garbage bag in the grocery store elevator was AWESOME! Can I stress the amount of fluids in this film? Can I stress further that the fluids and gore are handled with the sophistication of Silence of the Lambs, not the least bit schlock. And it has a cool resolution at the end. Not for the squeamish, but a damn solid piece of work.
Killer!
Yellowhair 2 Crime Awesome and completely messed up. Three main characters: A man hating cashier girl, a bleach blonde young man with a perpetually rolling video camera and a transsexual woman prone to acts of sudden violence against abusive older men. The first third of the film uses the convention of playing the event that joins the characters, then rolling back time to let us see the events in each persons life that lead up to the event. The second third of the film lets these now joined characters deal with their fate, and the final third resolves the issues (ghosts) for the transsexual woman with the now resolved cashier in tow. The ending is disturbing and really rather disappointing, even though there was a little bit of set up for it. This film has it all, from embittered flashbacks of unrequited oral gratification to lesbian love (a transsexual woman counts as lesbian, right?), to loads of plays on the concept of voyeurism and living vicariously through someone else, to justifying murder of assholes, to finally the need for making sure you aren't dressed just like someone else for fear of being shot in the head while on the phone with your previously abandoned mother by the other person's dumped boyfriend. Yup, two and a half hours of agonizing joy! Oh, and there is a trend for overbearing men to tap women into submission by hitting them with an object or their hands on the forehead repeatedly. This typically leads to the tapper getting beaten down or killed by the tappee or her friends. Happens on at least 20 different occasions in this film.
Rad!
Yellowhair 1 aka "Sex & Murder" Crime The English title kind of says it all. 2 girls find an unlikely lover, wear him out, then eventually kill him because either he's sick of them and wants to leave, or because they're bored of him and would rather kill him, toss him out of a speeding train or through a third story window, and then roll around in a bloodied nude lesbian embrace until the cops arrive. Oh, and if that schmuck they picked up has a girlfriend, forget about it, she's toast. Here's the weird thing, though: the film has Oscar worthy cinematography. It's BEAUTIFUL! The sequences are sharp, the narratives sublime, the events paced and executed with jaw dropping style. So while the story is decidedly tweaked and often harrowing, especially since the nearly twin girls are seriously SYMPATHETIC characters until the very last scenes, the beautiful way the film is composed, shot and scored makes it one worth tracking down at any locally owned Korean video outlet.
Brilliant!
Chunhyang Historical Korean classic story narrated by painful sounding yodel for most of the two plus hours. The pace is agonizingly slow, though the scenery is beautiful and generally well shot. The story is the typical government brat secretly marries local girl, then goes off to get his college degree, and while he's gone his wife gets beaten for not putting out for the local governor, and so the husband has to return home, save the day, overthrow the corrupt governor, and proclaim his marriage to the woman. Oh, and don't forget a half hour of seeing the faithful wife getting beaten in the public courtyard for refusing to become a concubine while the narrator passionately yodels proverbs of explanation. This wasn't a bad film, just an exhausting one.
Long.
Nightmare Horror Though heavily inspired by The Ring, this film works because of the wonderful background story that gets revealed through the course of the film. From the one creepy little girl to the odd college classmate to the haunting ghost seeking revenge, this film is wonderfully shot, solidly cast and delightfully aggressive in parts while deliciously quiet and spooky in others. Although the soundtrack sometimes lurches out of no where and occasionally feels overtly manipulative, as a whole this film is well layered and really does a nice job of creeping me out, which at this point is fairly rare. There is a sweet homage to Jacob's Ladder in a shot of a train passing in front of the protagonist early on as she gets introduced to us, followed by an equally unnerving shot of her walking into her foyer hallway while the light fades in and out of black, and we are introduced to another major character who through out the film seems to be a prime candidate for the blame. The shot is brilliant, with a soft base hum in time to the pulsing light, we can see down the hall, we see the Protagonist approaching, and we notice a woman with a great bob haircut sitting on a chair by the apartment door, her back to a small inlet wall that shields her from the view of the protagonist. The protagonist approaches, the light pulses, the bob-cut girl doesn't move, just sits there like a broken doll. The protagonist rounds the corner, stops when she sees the bob-cut femme, the light pulses, neither figure moves or says a word, the light pulses, the protagonist is still in the same spot, but when the light rises enough for us to see again, the bob-cut girl is looking up at the protagonist. Scared the crap out of me. No big sounds, no words, just use of light and camera angle to establish a system, and then deliver a visual punchline that worked better than anything fancy or loud that I've seen in a long time. And you only have a few seconds to register the change in the bob-cut girl's position, as the next light fade out transitions us into the next scene.
Brilliant!
Honeymoon Horror Thriller Starts of strong, and remains entertaining, but lacks umph at the end, and the intro teaser is really irrelevant, if not plain old misleading. Lots of nudity, and a lot of great comedy in the set up. Plot: put a bus load of honeymooning couples in a resort island hotel with 2 thieves, a lot of interpersonal back stories, some agonizing karaoke, a former mental patient and at least one organ doner ghost in somebody's closet.
Entertaining anyway.
My Wife is a Gangster Action Comedy Absolutely kick ass film! Action, comedy, beautifully cast, shot, edited. Eun-Kyung Shin is amazing as the female Big Brother of a branch of organized crime forced by her sister's dying wishes to get hitched ASAP, lots of cool tom boy virgin macho naiveté versus femme counterpart sensitivity. And her full back tattoo is astounding.
EXCELLENT!!
The Isle Thriller Gorgeous and traumatizing. I'll never look at fish hooks quite the same way again. A beautifully nasty story of a mute woman who runs a hotel of sorts, a bunch of gaily colored floating huts on a large lake near the ocean, you know, the nice kind of rural timeless spot where you can fish, have prostitutes visit on cherry red mopeds, or just make sculptures out of brass wire while lying low from the boat cops. Great location, often breath taking poetic visuals and ambiance, and wonderful storytelling with extremely little dialogue. Caution, though, beautiful as this film is, and it is, this film also has some of perhaps the most jarring if not simply downright disturbing moments of cruelty and self-mutilation in ways I have never seen before, and that, my friends, is saying something, especially when this film never becomes exploitative, cheesy or anything less than deliciously poetically loaded and dramatically charged.
Pivotal and majestic!
Joint Security Area (JSA) Drama A wonderful story of four border guard friends friends who happen to come from opposite sides of the dividing line between North and South Korea, and the misery that follows after one of them gets killed and the UN sends their neutral cops in to investigate before a border incident sparks another civil war. The UN sends in specifically a beautiful woman who's North Korean father defected after the Korean War to Argentina and married a Swiss woman. So for a military crime drama, this has a tremendous historical backdrop, and affords an American like me a fresh perspective on a war that really I only knew about largely from reruns of MASH. Note for the squeamish, the blood, headshots and forensic examination of the victims are gnarly.
Excellent!
La Belle Erotic Drama Overly obtuse "hi-brow" tale of a couple that prefer to mope around, have a lot of painful looking sex, mope around some more, whine a lot, mope around some more, attempt to tell a story, realize there is no need for a story, lots of unappealing nudity, more moping around, some more whining, more nude man ass (or woman ass, frankly these effeminate waifs are indistinguishable most of the time anyway), more whining, more moping, then they go to the beach so he can kill her and make love to her corpse, and even that doesn't redeem the film, maybe this inevitable trough should've happened sooner, and maybe I'd have been happier if he'd died instead. C'est la vie.
Insipid.
Libera Me Firefighter Drama Really top notch cinematography and fire effects, what Backdraft should have been.
Excellent!
The Quiet Family Black Comedy Not really a laugh riot, but well shot, scored, and almost always as engaging as off center. The family is a rich collection of varied character archetype, and as the body count mounts I'm left to solely wish the resolution of the story had been more decisive and less anti-climatic. The youngest daughter is wonderfully portrayed. A good set up, just wish this had gone further and had more layers via greater character development.
Fun!!
Killerdeului suda Guns & Talks Black Comedy Action Drama Brilliant yarn about four hitmen who act more like a dysfunctional and often naive family of brothers than crew of killers. Of course they have the heart of gold, but the journey is dashing, the resolution is aesthetically splendid, and the ride is often genuinely hilarious. I love this film!
Brilliant, needs to be released in North America immediately, then remade in English for all the cats unwilling to read subtitles!
Gonggongui jeog AKA Public Enemy Cop Drama In the vein of anti-hero cops that break the rules, but with loads of new twists that really make this film rather endearing. A solid ride with lots of excellent twists despite revealing the identity of the killer from the get-go, making for a rather strange reversal on the notion of stalking a killer.
Fun!
Heugsuseon AKA Last Witness Thriller Very strange, wonderfully shot, laden with political and social backstory, cool though disheartening resolution, and loads of extremely interesting characters and situations. Really like that this film pulls off a story that spans decades within the framework of a murder mystery without doing anything cheesy or overly overt expositions. Excellent locations, tension, story arcs, beats and intermittent violence.
Great!
Bloody Beach Slasher Except for some fun characters, sweet location and an oddly realistic sex-in-car scene, this is otherwise wholly stupid. Even the gore is pretty lame. Could have been great with a bit more thought to story and pacing, all the elements were there to be exploited.
Disappointing.
Bad Guy Drama Confusing at times, largely visual and often unsettling, this yarn explores the strange bond between a victim and her antagonist. Wonderfully shot with loads of clever visualizations of reflections real, pretend and metaphorical that range from the immediate two sides of the looking glass to the macroscopic layers of social class within contemporary Korean society. The plot notion of a slighted thug entrapping an unwitting young woman into a life of prostitution is perhaps a stretch beyond believable, especially the red tarp roadside brothel on wheels film resolution, but there are enough interesting and meaty characters and situations to make this film worthwhile to watch on several levels. Also worth noting is the lead male character having to navigate the entire film relying on facial expressions, body language and defining actions to communicate his character as his voice had been diminished to a minute whiny squeak by an incident that'd left a monster scar across his throat. And yet another sweet moment of bonding through bile, something Korean cinema accomplishes like no other.
Impressive yet bewildering.
My Sassy Girl Romantic Comedy I hate romantic comedies. I abhor them. Keep that in mind as you read this: I LOVE this film. The comedic moments have teeth, the set ups are sublime, the story has beats within beats and the film is reward upon reward for patience, attention and acceptance, nigh, surrender to its reversals on all conventions relevant to the genre. The leads are atypical casting choices that help to sell the characters to the hilt. The films within film actualization of the girl's scripts are sheer genius. The film's tangents and recurrent gags are delicious. I could go on for hours, really. Damn. And here again, a bonding through bile moment, although this is perhaps the most hilarious chuck scene I've ever seen, and that is saying something considering how many I have seen. At least on par with Caddy Shack without being completely beyond realism like Bad Taste. In other words, apparently not everyone chews ramen before they swallow it, and toupees are not nearly as moisture absorbent as I'd initially reckoned. Amen.
Bloody amazing!
Afrika Action Comedy When you empower four Korean women with firearms and unleash them into a male dominated society, chauvinists beware. Laden with amusing gags and lots of pretty people, this film is a fun romp that amounts to finishing a bag of Doritos in one sitting, you feel bad for the mass junk consumption, but damned if you don't still feel inclined to wish you had some more left to consume.
Silly fun.
Whasango aka Volcano High Action Kung-Fu Post-Apocolyptic High School Unbelievable! Stylistically cutting edge, simply the best CGI and wirework I've seen to date from Korea, loads of brilliant color and compositional choices that are like a crash seminar in how to do dynamic shots for action cinema. Costuming is sublime, simple yet perhaps the best ensemble of classically driven school uniforms and work out scrubs I've seen since Shanghai Triad. And lets not forget one of the consistently most stunning elements of this film, the fantastic collection of tremendous females driving half of the story (oh, there really is one, albeit mondo archetype driven). Never, and I mean NEVER have I witnesses so many women that are all well defined, strong and dynamic. Not a bunch of one dimensional high pitched screamers needing to be saved, oh no, this is a truly awe inspiring eclectic cast of women who I only wish could have their own sequel films, so that we might learn what happens when a 2000 love letters have finally been written, or how will the fox of nine tails that eats young men's livers fares as a new transfer student? To quote 2001 "My god, it's full of stars..." And I give this tasty piece of schlock a bunch, can you dig a 10 out of 10? Yeh.
Christmas in August Drama Produced through the Arts Center in HK, this is a very touching story of a dying man making a close friend with an incredibly self-absorbed & insecure female traffic cop. Well shot, acted and edited. The relationships with the man's family feel very real, and I wish that there had been more time looking at those.
Lovely.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance Drama There aren't to many times when credits roll on a film and I want to immediately start watching it through again. This is one of the rare exceptions. Visually stunning with artistic merit to every shot, every frame composition, every unflinching moment on screen is lit, angled and deeply staged to support the story narrative. Dialogue, though minimal, is always apt and loaded. Sign language feels like Tai Chi, delicate here, fierce there, somehow clear I believe even without subtitles. This gem is horrific, a complete study of tragedy and of theater grotesque. Like Scarface the film is laden with stomach clenching non-gratuitous gore which is somehow infinitely more disturbing. The light and textures on screen are lush and rich and the focus generally deep like Seven or Silence of the Lambs. Solid DOP, solid Cinematographer, solid Production Designer, Solid Art Director, across the board this film stands up as tight, smart, unexpected, sometimes abusive and always engaging like a car wreck in all the charmed ways. The driving narrative is about vengeance, layer upon layer, constantly underscored by social commentary both direct and sub-textual addressing inequities, rights, justice and the cruelty / fairness of commerce, fate and basic karma. You can guess by the simple fact that I refuse to discuss the plot that I want this to be as virgin an experience for the viewer as can possibly be. Was for me, I just bought it because something about the relatively innocuous cover caught my eye. I had no idea what I was in for. Money well spent and now I'm going to go watch this again as a student.
Nearly Perfect.
Phantom Submarine Military Drama

Like Crimson Tide or Hunt for Red October, and particularly apt considering the recent events unfolding in North Korea regarding their nuclear program. The film follows the first Korean nuclear submarine out into international waters where it encounters and destroys several Japanese subs in some very well rendered sequences. On board the drama and conflict unfold as the first mate seizes command through mutiny and murder only to be opposed by the son of the man the now dead captain had shot to death long ago over the need for secrecy from the world and the Korean tax payers about this nuclear submarine. The kind of stuff you'd expect from a film about modern submarine conflict. Well shot, generally well acted, with one sequence involving retrieving a swallowed missile key that might put of some viewers, it's an interesting if superficial film. A couple of keen moments that speak to larger social issues in modern Korea. One is the night out having beer with the fellas before the big submarine launch. The men crowd and drink and cheer in a little bar inside the secret complex compound, applauding the sassy stripper on the stage. In the last moments of the sequence the camera reveals that the curvy legs and lips belong to a man in drag who catches the captain's lingering eye for a long pregnant moment. As this wasn't a sight gag or cheap joke, but rather handled with stylish restraint, I can't help but wonder at the outcry a similar sequence in Hunt for Red October or Crimson Tide might have sparked. The other interesting notion was the agenda from the antagonists to pay back the Japanese. This is speaking to a history between the nations that is almost a mystery to me. Neat. Last note, thank fully this film proves that you can have the word "Phantom" in your title and not be crap.
Fun!!
Lightereul kyeora Action Comedy An unemployed loser goes to military reserves day, oversleeps, lacks funds for a cab or bus, finds a cigarette butt, spends what little change he has on a lighter at a nearby convenient store. He hitchhikes a ride into town, stops in the train station restroom to commune with nature, has a smoke in the john, gets chased out by the cleaning woman, realizes he's forgotten the lighter, returns to the now clean stall, doesn't find the lighter, goes to the sink, sees a crime boss pocketing the lighter absent mindedly. He asks for his lighter. The crime boss plays dumb. He asks again. The crime boss' posse shows up, threatens the man to make him leave. He chases after them and asks for the lighter again. The posse beat the man up a little bit. The man musters his strength and chases after them again. This pattern repeats to greater and more insane levels as the man is forced to overcome progressively larger internal and external obstacles to reach the crime boss and ask for his lighter back. For contrast, the crime boss also has a mission, to get the senator on the train to pay off a debt for services the boss provided to help get the senator elected. The two stories escalate together with loads of wonderful characters and humor leading to a hijacked train speeding out of control towards certain doom at the last station where the track ends into a huge concrete barricade. There are even hilarious references to Under Siege. Who knew Korea knows the mighty repertoire of Steven Seagal?
Fun and clever!!
No Blood No Tears Crime Drama Two women unhappy with their dysfunctional lives meet via a car accident and join forces to screw over their oppressors, meaning different facets of organized crime. Often very much in the vein of Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch this flick is a beauty. Great sense of style, humor and a couple exemplary martial arts fighting sequences to boot. Of course this also has the requisite gun battle blow out in tight quarters between all the misinformed parties and the equally requisite beatings women striking back against a man's evil world tend to get to reach redemption ALA True Romance or Thelma & Louise.
Excellent!!
Take Care of The Cat Drama Five women reluctant to embrace adulthood two years after finishing high school deal with changes in their lives, situations, families and each other. Three of the characters have excellent character arcs and that is pulled off using the other two friends, strangely self-sufficient twins, as comedic ballast to keep even the heaviest moments from being too iron fisted. Really a thoughtful, well rendered and visually stunning piece. The shot lists should be bronzed as a model for others to learn from, I'll say that for free. And why is it that yet again it's the tortured artist brooder type that catches my attention most? As opposed to the go getter vainity complex psycho prep brokerage firm worker that I wish had had far less screen time despite her crucial role in the story as the arcing counterpoint. On the visual design tip, the use of the scrolling text superimposed over surfaces framed into the shot simply rocked. It was so subtle and well integrated that sometimes it almost went completely unnoticed, yet made complete sense to the scene, events, mood and narrative without ever seeming to needlessly call attention to itself.
Solid!!!