An online talk to go with the recent online short film screenings. Online talk with directors Kim Soy and Kim Kkobbi Thursday 1 April 2021, 12:00 – 13:30 BST Venue online; register via EventBrite An online talk with Underground Salon directors Kim Soy and Kim Kkobbi, part of our Spring KFN season exploring short film … [Read More]
People: Kim Kkobbi
Festival film review: This Charming Girl
Lee Yoon-ki (이윤기) This Charming Girl (여자, 정혜, 2004, 99 mins). Review by Robert Cottingham. You know how people talk about reality TV, even though there is nothing ‘real’ about it? Well, if you wanted to see actual reality, the sheer day-to-day mundane-ness of the average person’s life, then this film is the closest you … [Read More]
Pluto (명왕성, 2012) review: fear, power and violence in Korea’s elite classrooms
While several of Pluto’s storyline elements will likely combine to bring Yoon Sung-hyun’s Bleak Night (2010) to viewers’ minds, Shin Su-won’s low budget thriller nonetheless manages to stand on its own as a dissection of fear within a dark and twisted tale laced with social commentary; ultimately feeling far more a companion piece than a derivation. [Read More]
King of Pigs (돼지의 왕, 2011) review: the cost of becoming a monster
Through fractured memories of brutal school bullying King of Pigs explores how rigid hierarchies, violence, and desperation shape identity. While the ideas of ‘violence begets violence’ are indeed inherent to the narrative, they really are just the tip of the iceberg within this dark, brooding and brutal dissection of humanity itself. [Read More]
Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater (삼거리 극장, 2006) review: eccentric spirits, musical mischief, warm-hearted horror
Regardless of your particular preference within Korean Cinema, there are times when we all just want to be warmly entertained, and if that’s what you are hankering for, Jeon Kye-soo’s eccentric tongue-in-cheek gothic musical really is something to make a song and dance about. [Read More]
Kim Kkobbi interview: Flowerain – finding the characters within herself
Kim Kkobbi talks candidly about Breathless, her approach to acting, violence in Korean cinema, working across film and theatre, and her creative life beyond acting in this wide-ranging interview. [Read More]
Breathless (똥파리, 2009) review: fractured families, inherited violence
Breathless is a visceral discussion of the legacy which violence can create and the ease with which it can span generations, infecting everything and everyone in its path. Utilizing a gritty, low-budget aesthetic, Breathless is an outstanding film which truly packs a punch and will take your breath away. [Read More]
Breathless: can there be any escape from the cycle of violence?
Breathless (똥파리) is Yang Ik-june’s debut feature, in which he is also lead actor, and the film has deservedly won numerous awards. As the film opens, a man is beating up his girlfriend in the street. To the rescue comes Sang-hoon, played by Yang, who subdues the offender only to turn to the woman and … [Read More]
This Charming Girl (여자, 정혜, 2004) review: isolation, memory and the need for connection
This Charming Girl peels away the layers of an ordinary, everyday woman to reveal a character much more interesting and complex than she appears on the surface. An incredible film with astounding realism, This Charming Girl deftly shows that everyone has a story worth telling. [Read More]
Diary of June (6월의 일기, 2005) review: above average serial killer fare let down by poor pacing
Though certainly not a perfect film (if such a thing exists), Diary of June still has much more to offer than standard serial killer fare, detailing, within its story, a fairly taut critique of the school system, bullying and the pressures placed on children by parents, and vice versa. [Read More]