After a rocky start with Netflix, I’m now coming round to it. I started subscribing to the online service in order to watch Okja, the Netflix-only feature film by director Bong Joon-ho. Although that particular experience was a big disappointment, I continued the subscription in case I was tempted by any of the other movies … [Read More]
Director: Im Pil-seong
Scarlet Innocence (마담 뺑덕, 2014) review: from illicit desire to ruthless revenge
While this present day reinterpretation of classic Korean folktale ‘Simcheongga’ deviates from the original story, the intricately twisted, deeply involved and emotional nature of Yim Pil-sung’s sexually charged thriller positively screams of its pansori origin. A cautionary tale perfectly wrapped within a story of revenge and retribution, Scarlet Innocence is as unpredictable as it is gripping. [Read More]
Antarctic Journal: a promising start, a confusing end, and a film to be avoided
Antarctic Journal (Im Pil-seong, 2004) screened at the KCC on 24 April as part of the Year of the Film Professionals. The second professional to be so featured was cinematographer Chung Chung-hoon, who gives Park Chan-wook movies their distinctive look. Antarctic Journal is one of Chung’s rare films with another director. Given the poor reviews … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Behind the Camera — the Q&A of the feature of the documentary of the making of the …
British cinema-goers are used to a short commercial before the main feature in which a film director is pitching his latest movie idea to some corporate suits whose only interest is that the film should promote a certain mobile phone network at every opportunity. So it’s not such a strange idea that a well-known Korean … [Read More]
K-film at the BFI London Film Fest: Doomsday Book is really not worth the effort
Doomsday Book, the first of six Korean films to screen at the 56th BFI London Film Festival is a set of three short films based loosely on a science fiction theme. The two outer segments, gentle comedies directed by Im Pil-seong (임필성), sandwich a semi-serious but nevertheless meagre filling by Kim Ji-woon entitled Heavenly Creature … [Read More]
Daily screenings associated with the Jeonju film fest
After last month’s daily screenings of films associated with Jeju-do, this month’s daytime screenings downstairs at the KCC are all associated with the Jeonju International Film Festival. The films include Bong Joon-ho’s debut feature, Barking Dogs Never Bite. Korean Films at the KCCUK Celebrating the JEONJU Int’l Film Festival Through the rest of May the … [Read More]
Hansel and Gretel opens in London
Hansel and Gretel screens at the ICA from 16 January, and moves to the Prince Charles on 30 January, before getting a selected nationwide release. It made an appearance at the BFI London Film Festival 2008, so if you missed it then, now’s your chance to see it. Following a car crash on a country … [Read More]
Korean film – a review of 2007
Jason Bechervaise, founder of koreanfilm.org.uk, gives his perspective on the ups and downs of the Korean film industry in 2007 By all accounts 2007 was a year that has been difficult one for the Korean film industry where it seems that the golden years of the Korean film industry has passed. Rising costs have meant … [Read More]