One of my favourite films of 2018 gets another London screening this month in the Barbican. Well worth a second viewing. Little Forest – Chronic Youth Film Festival 2019 Dir Yim Soon-rye (2018, 103 min) With Kim Tae-ri, Ryu Jun-yeol, Jin Ki-joo, Moon So-ri 24 Mar 2019, 16:00, Barbican Cinema 3 | Book tickets Korean […]
People: Moon So-ri
A look back at some of the films of 2018
A wide variety of genres was presented to the London audience this year, from the return of the romantic melodrama (Be With You) to big budget fantasy (Along with the Gods). We also saw #MeToo beginning to have an impact, not just in the themes of movies such as Land of Seonghye and Testimony but […]
Recording: Screen talk with Lee Chang-dong at BFI London Film Festival 2018
In case like me you couldn’t get tickets to the Screen Talk with Lee Chang-dong as part of the BFI London Film Festival, here’s the recording on the BFI YouTube channel. The interview took place on 20 October 2018, the day of an anti-Brexit demonstration in London – which is mentioned more than once in […]
Korean films at the 2018 BFI London Film Fest
An exciting selection of Korean movies is lined up for the BFI London Film Festival, of which the highlight is undoubtedly Burning. Finally: Lee Chang-dong will be in town! All details below are from the BFI LFF website. Become a member and get access to tickets from 6 September, a week earlier than general release. […]
Screening: My Heart Is Not Broken Yet
Moon So-ri is the narrator of this moving film specially selected for screening close to International Women’s Day 2018. LKL caught it in Sheffield in 2015 – brief review here. My Heart Is Not Broken Yet Dir: AHN Hae-ryong (2007) Venue: Birkbeck, University of London, Room B04, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD Saturday 10 […]
Festival film review: Love And…
Two years ago the revered Korean film critic Tony Rayns asked Moon Sori an awkward question. The question was followed by a sharp intake of breath from the audience who couldn’t believe what they had just heard, and by a few false starts at a response by Ms Moon before she answered fluently. At the final […]
Two masterclasses as part of LKFF 2015
Two late additions to the LKFF schedule, both on Saturday afternoon, 14 November. But you can’t do both. And you can’t do either if you want to watch the classic Chung Chang-wha screenings. Choices, choices … but I think I’ll choose a large dose of muhyeop and Q&A with Director Chung. Masterclass: In Conversation with […]
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 […]
Sheffield conference report – Comfort Women: Listening To Their Voices
Short of bringing some of the surviving halmonis to the UK in person, it is difficult to imagine how the organisers of this weekend’s gathering in Sheffield could have assembled a better line-up of people to discuss the Comfort Women issue. We had Byun Young-joo, director of the trilogy of documentaries focusing on the Korean […]
Festival film review: Manshin – Ten Thousand Spirits
What is it that makes Park Chan-kyong’s biopic of Korea’s national shaman so compelling on so many levels? Right from the start, the narrative grips you. We meet Kim Geum-hwa, the subject of the movie, praying for the success of the film. She also prays for the health of the film crew, and asks the […]
Seven ways in which Hill of Freedom is different from other Hong Sang-soo films
… and some ways in which it isn’t. Hill of Freedom (자유의 언덕) is Hong Sang-soo’s 16th feature, and could not have been made by anyother director. The awkwardness of human interaction and conversation, the bonding over alcohol, the fragmentation of the narrative, the aim to rekindle lost love – all are common features of […]
Hahaha – the first Hong Sang-soo film I’ve enjoyed without trying
OK, it was the second time I had seen it. The first time, I had slept through it. But that was because I had been entering into the spirit rather too much by indulging in a drinking session of Hongian proportions beforehand. The second time round, there was the anticipation of seeing the lead actress […]
I can’t believe he asked her that
The context was this. It was the Q&A after the 4 April screening at BAFTA of Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha, attended by the lead actress Moon So-ri, the first featured actor of the KCC’s Year of the Four Actors. Tony Rayns was talking to Moon So-ri about how she got her first screen role. Moon started […]
Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha to screen at BAFTA, with Moon So-ri Q&A
People who know me will be aware that my sincere appreciation of Hong Sang-soo’s work does not mean that I always stay awake during his movies. But having been to Tongyeong since the first time I went to the theatre when Hahaha was screening, I know I’ll be wide awake for the upcoming screening on […]
The President’s Barber – an awkward film that’s difficult to categorise
Lim Chan-sang’s The President’s Barber (효자동 이발사, 2004) was the first KCC screening of 2013, in which we will be seeing films featuring four actors each of who will be coming to London for a Q&A. The first three months feature Moon So-ri, who will be in London for a screening of Hahaha on 4 […]
Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis screens at the KCC
Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis figures in most people’s list of top ten Korean films of all time, or at least of the first decade of this century: a compelling storyline which is both moving and shocking, with stand-out performances from Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri. It will be screening this Thursday at the KCC as part […]
Moon So-ri is the first of 2013’s four actors. First up, The President’s Barber.
Following on from the year of the 12 directors, we have the year of the 4 actors. The first to be confirmed is Moon So-ri, who for me is pretty high up in the list of my favourites – particularly for her role in Im Sang-soo’s A Good Lawyer’s Wife, which I hope will get […]