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]
People: Kim Yoon-seok
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]
Another Child (미성년, 2019) review: when children become the adults
While Kim Yoon-seok’s directorial debut Another Child is a fairly simple story, gentle in pacing and physical depiction, its heartfelt emotionality portrayed by an exemplary cast is its true strength throughout, thematically virtually redefining the film’s alternate title Underage in terms of familial dysfunction. [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]
London East Asia Film Festival 2018 programme announced
As in previous years, the London East Asia Film Festival has a strong representation of Korean films. Although this year there is a focus on Taiwan and the Nara International Film Festival, there’s also a focus on the work of actor Kim Yoon-seok, who also features in the opening movie, Dark Figure of Crime. At … [Read More]
1987: When the Day Comes (1987, 2018) review: a vital chronicle of Korea’s path to democracy
1987: When the Day Comes is an exquisitely realised, multi-layered true-life depiction of life and activism in 80s Korea, and the fact that the events portrayed are far less spoken about than the Gwangju massacre but were equally important to the ultimate democratisation of the country makes the film all the more required viewing. [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]
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]
Will you be there? (당신거기있어줄래요, 2016) review: love, regret and the weight of time
Based on Guillaume Musso’s French novel Seras-tu là?, director Hong Ji-young’s gently engaging ‘Will You Be There?’ fits so well with a number of utterly classic Korean cinema tropes, genres and sub-genres that it wholly succeeds on both a specifically Korean and generally international level… [Read More]
The Priests (검은사제들, 2015) review: demons, doubt and ritual
While many would consider one exorcism horror movie to be much like another, ‘The Priests’ manages to combine ideas of modern Catholicism with far more traditional Buddhist rituals to bring a noticeable originality to proceedings. An engaging horror drama with utterly exemplary cast performances. [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]
Kim Yoon-suk interview: from The Chaser to The Thieves
Kim Yoon-suk discusses his decision to focus exclusively on film, his collaborations with Na Hong-jin, and the appeal of socially grounded, hardcore thrillers. He reflects on the demands of The Thieves, the limits of TV drama production, and why intense genre films travel more easily than Korean comedy on the international stage. [Read More]
Festival Film Review: The Thieves – an exhilarating start to LKFF 2012
What can one say about one of the most popular Korean films ever? It’s slick, it’s got Jeon Ji-hyun and Kim Hye-su; it’s got Lee Jeong-jae, Kim Yun-seok and even Hong Kong megastar Simon Yam. Yes, it’s a real pleasure to combine in one film some of your favourite Korean eye-candy with a couple of … [Read More]
Woochi: The Demon Slayer (전우치, 2009) review — witty wizardry across time
Numerous film genres blending seamlessly with top notch action, well-realised special effects and genuinely likeable characters add up to Woochi: The Demon Slayer being out and out spectacular entertainment from beginning to end. [Read More]