London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Noryang: Deadly Sea – UK theatrical release

In 1598, the seven-year Imjin War nears an end as Wae invaders prepare to withdraw from Joseon. Admiral Yi Sun-shin leads an allied fleet of Joseon and Ming ships to annihilate the Wae army. Joseon, Ming, and Wae forces clash at Noryang Strait, the deadly sea where Admiral Yi fights his last valiant battle. Director: … [Read More]

Escape from Mogadishu – UK Theatrical Release

Escape from Mogadishu is a nail-biting political thriller based on a true story starring Kim Yoon-seok (The Chaser) and Huh Joon-ho (Netflix’s Kingdom). Rival diplomats from North Korea and South Korea become trapped as civil war rages in Mogadishu, Somalia. With no aid from either government, their only shot at survival requires uniting with bitter … [Read More]

Festival Film Review: Dark Figure of Crime

In a standard police procedural about a serial killer, a detective – maybe a bit of a loner, often with a drink problem – goes from crime scene to crime scene, from victim to victim, trying to fit together the pieces of the jigsaw that will eventually lead to the murderer, before the next crime … [Read More]

Review: 1987 – When the Day Comes

1987: When the Day Comes is one of those movies which could not have been made a couple of years ago. It would have got the director and its all-star cast included on the infamous blacklist of suspected lefties who would not get government support in future. And to have the director of this film … [Read More]

UK Premiere screening: 1987: When the Day Comes

After Save the Green Planet (2003), one of my own favourites from that decade, director Jang Joon-hwan took a long break. I’m afraid I missed his second feature, Hwayi: A Monster Boy (2013), something that I’m going to have to rectify, because his third film, coming to the Picturehouse Central this month, has been getting … [Read More]

Brief review: The Priests – another excellent LKFF16 teaser

The second of the KCC’s “teaser screenings” for the 2016 London Korean Film Festival, which screened last night at the Picturehouse Central, was another hit. Let’s hope they keep this up. Jang Jae-hyun’s The Priests was a hugely fun (and suspense-filled) exorcism movie, and an impressive full-length debut for the director. It will win new … [Read More]

Festival Film Review: The Classified File

As goodwill ambassador for Sancheong County, I was delighted when Sancheong’s most famous Buddhist monk, the late Seong Cheol sunim, got name checked in The Classified File as the Seon Master of the Buddhist-trained fortune teller who unofficially assisted the police in the real-life 1978 kidnap case that was the subject of the movie. One … [Read More]

Catch Na Hong-jin’s Chaser while you can!

Saharial advises you to go see The Chaser on the big screen while you can. I was delighted when I discovered, at long last, a Korean film showing again in a city centre cinema, something that seems very rare these days. The basic story that I knew before I went in, was that it concerned … [Read More]