Each year when I come to write this review, I wonder whether Korean culture in the West has reached its high water mark. And every year so far I’ve come to the same conclusion. Korean music and film, TV and food continue to win admirers, and we can expect to see it continue to thrive … [Read More]
Author: Paul Quinn
Interview: Cho Jungrae (The Singer, 2020)
I watched Cho Jungrae’s 2020 movie The Singer earlier this year online, after being told by a friend of the director that it was available on Amazon Prime. It struck me as a fresh take on the pansori movie genre: instead of telling a pansori tale more or less straight like Im Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang, it … [Read More]
Off the Wall: Korean movies outside of the mainstream
Those who were introduced to Korean movies in the first few years of this century with the likes of Oldboy and Bittersweet Life can be forgiven for gaining the impression that the majority of Korean movies are ultra-violent. But that’s in part because of the types of movie that distributors such as Tartan chose to … [Read More]