Highschooler Sohee is required to complete an internship before she can graduate. She is placed in a local call centre with a stressful metric-driven environment so toxic it drives one of her colleagues to suicide. July Jung’s compelling drama exposes the harrowing impacts of capitalism, particularly on the young and disadvantaged. Content warning: Contains scenes … [Read More]
Director: Jeong Joo-ri (July Jung)
The Sight and Sound top 100: what’s buried in the detail?
Back in December 2022, Sight and Sound released its updated list of The Greatest Films of All Time. This list, which was first presented in 1952, is prepared every ten years. For the first time, in this most recent iteration a Korean film made it into the top 100. There are no prizes for guessing … [Read More]
Korean interest at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival
Details of the five Korean movies and one Korean American movie in this year’s London Film Festival follow. For completeness, and not listed below, there’s a zainichi Korean character in Kôji Fukada’s movie Love Life. Decision to Leave (헤어질 결심) South Korea 2022, 138min Director-Producer: Park Chan-wook Screenwriters: Chung Seo-Kyung, Park Chan-wook Cast: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il … [Read More]
Love without Boundaries: A Girl At My Door
The first screening in the Love without Boundaries season was the hit of the 2014 festivals: A Girl at my Door (도희야) Director: July Jung (2014, 119 mins) Cast: Bae Doona, Kim Sae Ron, Song Sae Byuk Thursday 4 July 2019, 7:00 pm @KCCUK | Reserve your seat Following a personal scandal which disgraces her … [Read More]
Festival Film reviews: we also went to…
We’ve almost finished clearing the London Korean Film Festival backlog, the only major review outstanding now being Park Chan-kyong’s fascinating documentary Manshin. While I’m polishing that, here are a few brief reviews of the films I didn’t feel moved to write dedicated articles about. Han Gong-ju A heavy and depressing story redeemed by the sensitive … [Read More]