The Closet blends supernatural horror with hi-tech shamanic ritual as a grieving father searches for his missing daughter. This wholly engaging, often genuinely creepy, horror deftly uses spiritualism in the fight of light against dark and is also a serious societal critique, the palpable poignancy of which easily raises its worthiness yet further. [Read More]
People: Kim Nam-gil
LKFF 2018 Teaser Screening #2: Memoir of a Murderer
The second LKFF2018 Teaser screening is Won Shin-yeon’s adaptation of Kim Young-ha’s Memoir of a Murderer: Memoir of a Murderer (살인자의 기억법) Dir Won Shin-yeon (2017, 118min) With Sol Kyung-gu, Kim Nam-gil, Kim Seol-hyun Monday 21 May 2018, 7pm | Regent Street Cinema | Book tickets Serial killers are popular figures in South Korean cinema, … [Read More]
Memoir of a Murderer (살인자의 기억법, 2017) review: unreliable memory, moral ambiguity
Director Won Shin-yeon takes Kim Young-ha’s story of an ex-serial killer suffering from dementia and successfully elicits both viewer sympathy for the character in his fight to retain his memories and indeed himself and empathy, to as much a degree as possible, for him in his battle against an even greater monster. [Read More]
One Day (어느날, 2017) review: a nuanced and affecting study of grief and abandonment
With One Day, director Lee Yoon-ki uses his almost trademark ability of showing characters’ innermost thoughts and emotions within outwardly simple stories to create an intelligent, nuanced and genuinely affecting tearjerker that deftly discusses abandonment, both perceived and actual. Understated performances and minimal special effects complement this classic melodrama. [Read More]
Film review: Memoir of a Murderer
Memoir of a Murderer asks us to step inside the mind of someone who is losing his memory, a sufferer of Alzheimer’s disease. The movie opens with a scene focusing on the face of a gaunt and aged-looking Sol Kyung-gu as single dad Kim Byung-soo. As we watch, his face begins to twitch. At first … [Read More]
Event news: The Pirates screens at the KCC
The third screening of the year at the KCC. It would be rude to miss this one. The Pirates (해적: 바다로 간 산적) Dir Lee Seok Hoon (2014) 130 mins 25 February 2016, 7pm Register on the KCC website Just 15 days after the founding of the Kingdom of Joseon, an ambassadorial ship is carrying … [Read More]
The Pirates (해적: 바다로 간 산적, 2014) review: blockbuster spectacle on the high seas
Lee Seok-hoon’s nautical adventure film follows rival pirates, bandits and soldiers chasing a royal seal swallowed by a whale. It’s a big budget, enjoyable romp but there are numerous elements that are less accomplished than others and ultimately the lingering thought is just how easily the film could have been so much better. [Read More]
Portrait of a Beauty (미인도, 2008) review: art and obscenity; morality and hypocrisy
Sexually explicit in both narrative content and imagery, the sumptuously filmed Portrait of a Beauty asks what dictates whether visual depictions of the sexual act are deemed as art or seen simply as pornography, deftly critiquing Joseon-era Korea, in the process. [Read More]