Korean Film Review

#crime #drama #child abuse #Gong Yoo #Jung Yu-Mi #Kim Hyun-soo #Jeong In Seo #2011 #recorded in March, 2022 Gang In-ho, who is working to earn money for his daughter’s surgery, is appointed to a school for hearing-impaired children in Gwangju. But what he discovers there is an ugly truth; the children are being physically and sexually abused by their teachers. When he decides to fight for the children’s rights and expose the crimes, he teams up with human rights activist Seo Yu-Jin. But...

#drama #Youn Yuh Jung #Jeon Mu-Song #Yoon Kye-Sang #2016 #recorded in March, 2022 The story takes us through a few weeks in life of So Young (Youn Yuh Jung), an independent, spunky, and experienced ‘Bacchus Lady’ (an elderly prostitute who offers Korean energy drink Bacchus-F to potential clientele) in Seoul. One day, she happens across a young Filipino boy whose mother is arrested for assaulting a doctor for fathering her child and then abandoning them. Taking pity of the boy, So-young...

#comedy #drama #Cho Eun-ji #Ryu Seung-ryong #Oh Na-ra #Kim Hie-won #2021 #recorded in February, 2022 Hyun is one of the most prominent writer since he published a very successful novel. However he has not written any book for seven years. One night, he meets Yoo-jin, a young aspiring writer, and he later reveals that he has had a crush on Hyun for years. Yoo-jin keeps approaching to Hyun as one of the students attending his college class, and Hyun does not know what to do about this tricky...

#history #drama #Eom Yu-na #Yoo Hae-jin #Yoon Kye-sang #2019 #recorded in June, 2021 In 1941, when the use of the Japanese language was forced during the colonial rule era in Korean peninsula, Kim Pan-su(Yoo Hae-jin) gets a job running errands at the secret organization, the Korean Language Society despite being illiterate. Gradually, he realize that recording and preserving the Korean language is a crucial means to obtaining independence. Eom Yu-na used to be a scriptwriter, she is know...

#comedy #drama #Lee Jae-kyu #Yoo Hae-jin #Cho Jin-woong #Lee Seo-jin #Yum Jung-ah #Kim Ji-soo #Song Ha-yoon #Yoon Kyung-ho #2018 #recorded in February, 2022 This is one of the several remake films of the 2016 Paolo Genovese’s film Perfect Strangers(Perfetti Sconosciuti). The story kicks off with seven longtime friends gathered together over a meal at a housewarming party. One of the friends suggests a game; everyone puts their mobile phones on the table, and each call is answered on...

#gangster #crime #thriller #Kang Yun-sung #Ma Dong-seok(Don Lee) #Yoon Kye-sang # 2017 #recorded in February, 2022 Well known for its Chinese immigrants and foreign cultures, the Chinatown of Garibong-dong is a low-rent district outside Seoul. It’s also a breeding ground for both local and mainland Chinese gang activities. Detective Ma and his squad have the dreaded task of restoring peace and prevent bloodshed in this troublesome neighborhood. Overall, The Outlaws is worth two hours...

#noir #drug war #Lee Hae-young #Cho Jin-woong #Kim Sung-ryoung #Ryu Jun-yeol #Kim Joo-hyuck #2018 #recorded in July, 2021 This is a noir film that deals with a drug war. It is a remake of a Hong Kong film, literally, Drug War directed by action maestro, Johnny To. Same as the original, the story follows a detective who poses as a drug dealer to score a major narcotics bust. The director tries to reach the same existential conclusion as To’s film—everybody is a corrupt middleman, justice is...

#lost generation #friendship #comedy noir #Kim Sung-soo #Jung Woo-sung #Lee Jung-jae #1999 #recorded in January, 2022 Simply become one of my favorite. The reason? Not only can I relate to the story and the characters, but every movie-making element is flawless. The acting is superb and the direction is worthy of a standing ovation. Actor Lee Jung-jae was discovered by designer Ha Yong-soo while he was working at a cafe in the Gangnam district, then worked as a fashion model for a number...

#mystery #horror #exorcism #Jang Jae-hyun #Kim Yun-seok #Gang Dong-won #Park So-dam #2015 #recorded in January, 2022 A young girl who belongs to Father Kim’s parish becomes comatose after a hit-and-run accident. Father Kim finds out she is possessed by an evil spirit. He along with a rebellious young seminarian named Choi try to exorcise the demon and confine it in a piglet. The Priests is known to be the first-ever-commercial film in Korea to center on exorcism. Exorcism has long been a...

#drama #heart-warming #Lee Jung-hyang #Yoo Seung-ho #Kim Eul-bun #Dong hyo-hee #2002 #recorded in December, 2021 The film tells a heart-warming story about a grandmother and her city-born grandson who comes to live with her in a rural village. Yoo Seung-ho rose to fame as a child actor in this film. Since then, he has starred as a child and teenager in many television series and movie films-legal drama Remember(2015), historical films The Magician(2015) and Seondal: The Man Who Sells the...

#crime #heist #Choi Dong-hoon #Lee Jung-jae #Gianna Jun #Kim Hae-sook #Kim Soo-hyun #Kim Hye-soo #Kim Yun-seok #Secretly Greatly #2012 #recorded in December, 2021 Popie, Yenicall, Chewingum and Zampano are a team of professional thieves in Korea. After they score a valuable antique vase, they are proposed from Macao Park to join a highly lucrative new job in Macau. All of them, including Macao Park’s ex-lover Pepsi unexpectedly, head off to Hong Kong, where another four Hong Kong thieves...

#horror #mystery #exorcism #Na Hong-jin #Kwak Do-won #Hwang Jung-min #Chun Woo-hee #Kunimura Jun #Kim Hwan-hee #2016 #recorded in December, 2021 The Wailing is an expansive and often excruciating horror film. Na Hong-jin’s 2009 debut feature, the action thriller The Chaser, made a huge impression not least for its almost staggering flouting of genre convention. The Wailing, about demonic possession, is similarly uncompromising. This film received universally positive reviews-‘operating on...

#drama #history #suicide #Lee Chang-dong #Seol Kyung-gu #Moon So-ri #Kim Yeo-jin #2000 #recorded in December, 2021 The film is a model of ‘national cinema,’ narrating the past 20 years of South Korean society through the saga of its main protagonist. Lee Chang-dong reminds his audience that the postwar history of military rule and repression cannot be so easily forgotten. On the railroad, Young-ho screams, “I want to go back again!” His scream breaks through the deafening roar of an...

#drama #love #Lee Kyoung-mi #Kong Hyo-jin #Lee Jong-hyuk #Seo Woo #Miss Carrot #Family Ties #2008 #recorded in November, 2021 This is the feature film debut of director Lee Kyoung-mi, and also the first film produced by Park Chan-wook. She was Park’s assistant director for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and is well-known for Netflix’s The School Nurse Files. The character Mi-sook should be a hard character to be loved. Her character is profoundly unattractive because she has transformed...

#political #crime #action #Woo Min-ho #Lee Byung-hun #Cho Seung-woo #Baek Yoon-sik #webtoon #The Man Standing Next #2015 #recorded in November, 2021 The film has very graphic scenes of violence, and high level of sexual representation that you might think is too much. But from my perspective, I thought it justified these scenes and choices through its plot. Comparable with Ryoo Seung-wan’s The Unjust in its canny grasp of how the country’s venal social hierarchy thrives, Inside Men...

#mystery #thriller #psychology #Lee Chang-dong #Yoo Ah-in #Jeon Jong-seo #Steven Yeun #Hong Gyeong-pyo #Murakami Haruki #2018 #recorded in November, 2021 The plot depicts a young deliveryman, Jong-su, who runs into his childhood friend, Hae-mi. They soon meet an enigmatic young man named Ben, who Jong-su becomes suspicious of and begins to believe Hae-mi is in danger. This film has been widely regarded by several critics to be one of the best films of the 21st century, among with it being...

#animal #drama #adventure #Bong Joon-ho #Jon Ronson #An Seo-hyun #Byun Hee-bong #Steven Yeun #Tilda Swinton #Lily Collins #Choi Woo-shik #2017 #recorded in October, 2021 A Korean farm girl named Mija, an orphan, lives with her grandfather in a rainforest. Her constant companion is Okja, a pig with a soft pink belly and trusting eyes, which is one of the prototype pigs that the Mirando Corporation seeded the world with. This is an international co-production of South Korea and the United...

#crime #gambler #manhwa(cartoon) #Choi Dong-hoon #Cho Seung-woo #Kim Hey-soo #Baek Yoon-sik #2006 #recorded in October, 2021 The film, arguably one of the best Korean motion pictures based on cartoons, is a film about gamblers. It boldly anatomizes and exposes the underworld of gamblers which seems to epitomize our greedy capitalist society. Director-cum-screenwriter Choi Dong-hoon weaves together all the characters and their stories in a seemingly effortless manner, showing his...

#comedy #drama #radio #DJ #rock star #Lee Joon-ik #Park Joong-hoon #Ahn Sung-ki #The Book of Fish #2006 #recorded in October, 2021 Once a superstar with a music award on his belt, rocker Choi Gon now sings in a rundown cafe. His manager for more than 20 years, Min-soo makes a deal with the radio station producer to have Gon DJ at a remote radio station in the suburbs. Reluctant to work at first, Gon soon finds out that the little things matter the most, and his attitude towards his pal and...

#space #Sci-Fi #humanoid #Jo Sung-hee #Kim Tae-ri #Song Joong-ki #Jin Seon-kyu #Yoo Hae-in #Hellbound #2021 #recorded in September, 2021 It’s 2092, and the earth is dying. The sky is full of dust, the soil is burned and acidic, and humanity is masked up and barely getting by. A massive conglomerate called UTS has developed a floating paradise in space. Terraforming and colonization of Mars is next, but many people live their lives as ‘sweepers,’ scavenging for space debris they can salvage...