Yeong-gyeong first meets Su-hwan at a wedding party. She is an alcoholic and he suffers from chronic arthritis. He carries her home after she passes out drunk, in an act of lissom grace. His health complications, her illness and debt, both of their failed marriages and ritualised self-destruction bind them, and the slim promise of … [Read More]
People: Han Ye-ri
Minari (미나리, 2020) review: resilience, sacrifice and the American dream
Set in 1980s rural America, Minari follows a Korean immigrant family divided by ambition, fear and responsibility. Created from a semi-autobiographical perspective, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari is a wholly engaging example of exemplary family drama overall, standing as a virtual definition of personal and familial resilience in its absolute realism, in the process. [Read More]
Minari: a movie re-viewed
After my first viewing, I was wondering whether to recommend Minari to my friends and family. If I’d bought an expensive cinema ticket to see it then I would have only seen it once. However, I bought a ticket that licensed me to view it as many times as I wanted within a 24 hour … [Read More]
Illang: The Wolf Brigade (인랑, 2018) review: stunning spectacle, cardboard empathy in sci-fi actioner
While the action set pieces of Illang: The Wolf Brigade are without exception visually jaw-dropping and grippingly frenetic, it is actor Gang Dong-won’s frozen, slightly pained yet kind of blank expression regardless of what emotion is required to be conveyed that is by far Illang’s weakest link. [Read More]
Sea Fog (해무, 2014) review: desperation and the fog of self-interest
Based on a real life shocking tragedy, Sea Fog is a truly dark tale both gripping and shocking, and having been co-written by Bong Joon-ho frankly guaranteed the narrative would also be thematically rich with social commentary and indeed critique. [Read More]
An introduction to “Love And…” — LKFF’s closing gala film
The London Korean Film Festival’s choice for the closing gala is an interesting one: Zhang Lu’s Love And… (the literal meaning of the Korean title, 필름시대사랑, is “Love of the Film Era”), which only recently opened at the Korean box office. Closing galas over the years have included blockbusters and mainstream movies such as Masquerade … [Read More]