We didn’t get around to writing any detailed reviews of the films that screened at the two big festivals in the autumn of 2023, so it’s time to try to pull some thoughts together before the memories fade entirely, jostled sideways by new ones. There were some sparkly new films which were fun to watch … [Read More]
People: Sol Kyung-gu
A look back at some of the movies in the 2021 London Korean Film Festival
One month after the close of LKFF we’re finally getting around to penning some thoughts on the movies we saw there. We’ve already commented on Im Sang-soo’s latest, which left us with very warm feelings about the festival as a whole. What about the rest of the programme? Let’s get this out of the way … [Read More]
Birthday (생일, 2019) review: a moving tribute to the personal grief of the Sewol ferry disaster
Unashamedly a tear-inducing melodrama, Lee Jong-un’s intimate debut feature is a powerful film that ultimately stands as a tribute to each and every one of the innocent victims of the tragic Sewol ferry disaster and indeed those left in abject despair by their loss. [Read More]
Love without Boundaries: Oasis
One of LKL’s films of the noughties screens as the final movie in the Love without Boundaries season. Oasis (오아시스) Director: Lee Chang-dong (2002, 132 mins) Cast: Moon So-ri, Sul Kyung-gu, Ahn Nae-sang Thursday 8 August 2019, 7pm @KCCUK | Book here Jong-du (Sul Kyung-gu, Memoir of a Murderer), introduced to the viewer as he … [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]
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]
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]
Festival Film reviews: we also went to…
We’ve almost finished clearing the London Korean Film Festival backlog, the only major review outstanding now being Park Chan-kyong’s fascinating documentary Manshin. While I’m polishing that, here are a few brief reviews of the films I didn’t feel moved to write dedicated articles about. Han Gong-ju A heavy and depressing story redeemed by the sensitive … [Read More]
Brief film review: Hope / Wish (Lee Joon-ik, 2013)
One of the more anticipated films of the 2013 London Korean Film Festival was Lee Joon-ik’s Hope, a harrowing family drama examining the long-term effects caused by the traumatic sexual assault on a young girl by a construction worker near her school. It’s a powerful film which one won’t watch for pleasure, or indeed watch … [Read More]
Cold Eyes (감시자들, 2013) review: a high-octane remake of a Hong Kong surveillance thriller
A remake/reworking of 2007 Hong Kong thriller ‘Eye in the Sky’, ‘Cold Eyes’ steps up scale, pace and warmth to stand on its own as a wholly engaging and thoroughly entertaining blockbuster that even largely manages to feel specifically Korean in nature, in spite of never straying too far from the original. [Read More]
Hope (aka Wish) (소원, 2013) review: finding humanity and healing in the aftermath of unthinkable trauma
A devastating yet profoundly humane drama, Hope focuses on a young girl’s journey towards physical and emotional recovery after unimaginable trauma. Director Lee Joon-ik balances heartbreak with compassion, crafting a deeply moving film anchored by an astonishing, career-defining performance from child actress Lee Re. [Read More]
The Tower (타워, 2012) review: high-spectacle disaster and classic genre thrills
The Tower is a visually breathtaking high-spectacle disaster movie that, in spite of predictability, ultimately succeeds in being more entertaining and exciting than many films of its genre; remaining engaging throughout and even managing to be somewhat moving, on occasion… [Read More]
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 … [Read More]
Peppermint Candy (박하사탕, 2000) review: a heartbreaking reverse-chronology epic
Lee Chang-dong’s reverse-chronology masterpiece links one man’s tragic downfall to twenty years of traumatic Korean history in a compelling film which shows how innocence, hopes and dreams can so easily be lost before the heart even realises what is happening. [Read More]