BFI Flare launched yesterday with a humdinger of an opening movie: Andrew Ahn’s reimagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 The Wedding Banquet. Ahn’s partner in creating this update, James Schamus, also co-wrote Ang Lee’s version. While the original film features a single gay couple and a marriage of convenience, the reboot has two gay couples, which … [Read More]
People: Youn Yuh-jung (윤여정)
Screening: Kim Ki-young’s Angel, Become an Evil Woman
The KCC’s Korean Film Nights for 2022 kick off at the Genesis Cinema on 28 February with the first of a mini season of posthumous works. An Experience To Die For: Angel, Become an Evil Woman (죽어도 좋은 경험: 천사여 악녀가 되라) Dir: Kim Ki-Young (1990, 100 mins) Cast: Youn Yuh-Jung, Hyun Gil-soo, Lee Tammi, … [Read More]
A review of the Korean cultural year 2021
Each year when I come to write this review, I wonder whether Korean culture in the West has reached its high water mark. And every year so far I’ve come to the same conclusion. Korean music and film, TV and food continue to win admirers, and we can expect to see it continue to thrive … [Read More]
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]
Festival Film Review: Heaven – To the Land of Happiness
In recent years the LKFF programmers have been getting into a groove of scheduling indie, minority interest movies for the closing film of the festival. This year, they turned things upside down by programming the festival’s most appealing film (for me, at least,) to end the fortnight. Yes, the opening movie, Mogadishu, is the top … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival 2021: the detailed schedule
Here’s the detailed schedule for the 2021 London Korean Film Festival. Lots to look forward to here. You can find the official press release here. Time Title Strand RSC = Regent Street Cinema | ICA = Institute of Contemporary Arts | PHC = Picturehouse Central | CIA = Cinema in the Arches | ESG = … [Read More]
Minari (미나리, 2020) review: resilience, sacrifice and the American dream
Set in 1980s rural America, Minari follows a Korean immigrant family divided by ambition, fear and responsibility. Created from a semi-autobiographical perspective, Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari is a wholly engaging example of exemplary family drama overall, standing as a virtual definition of personal and familial resilience in its absolute realism, in the process. [Read More]
Minari: a movie re-viewed
After my first viewing, I was wondering whether to recommend Minari to my friends and family. If I’d bought an expensive cinema ticket to see it then I would have only seen it once. However, I bought a ticket that licensed me to view it as many times as I wanted within a 24 hour … [Read More]
Beasts Clawing at Straws (지푸라기라도 잡고 싶은 짐승들, 2020) review: murder and mayhem in a droll game of cat and mouse
Intersecting stories of debt-ridden lives converge around a cash-filled bag, revealing an intricately structured, non-linear thriller. Beasts Clawing at Straws is a twisted cat and mouse tale of betrayal and mayhem with a genuinely droll tone throughout, virtually guaranteeing audience enjoyment and even (guilty) smiles in the face of murder. [Read More]
Home Truths season: Woman of Fire
The fifth screening in the Home Truths season brings one of Kim Ki-young’s remakes of his classic Housemaid. Woman of Fire (화녀) Director: Kim Ki-young (1971, 98mins) Cast: Youn Yuh-jung, Jeon Gye-hyeon, Nam Koong Won 13 June 2019 7:00 pm @KCCUK | Reserve your seat Woman of Fire sees Kim Ki-young remake his stunning classic … [Read More]
Canola (계춘 할망, 2016) review: grandmother’s love and lost innocence
Set between Jeju and Seoul, Canola follows a grandmother and granddaughter torn apart by disappearance and reunited years later. Through stark contrasts of beauty and hardship, and featuring powerhouse performances from actresses Youn Yuh-jung and Kim Go-eun, ‘Canola’ is an unashamed tearjerker that gives a heartfelt and poignant definition of what family truly is. [Read More]
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 … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Behind the Camera — the Q&A of the feature of the documentary of the making of the …
British cinema-goers are used to a short commercial before the main feature in which a film director is pitching his latest movie idea to some corporate suits whose only interest is that the film should promote a certain mobile phone network at every opportunity. So it’s not such a strange idea that a well-known Korean … [Read More]
The Taste of Money (돈의 맛, 2012) review: power, sex and emotional emptiness
While Im Sang-soo’s The Taste of Money’s narrative is without question an interesting concept in its extension of a subject previously dissected in his Housemaid remake, by the very nature of the characters portrayed it was always going to risk falling flat emotionally. And fall flat The Taste of Money does. [Read More]
Actresses (여배우들, 2009) review: mockumentary fiction and celebrity reality
Set during a stalled Vogue photo shoot, Actresses observes six Korean stars across generations as boredom gives way to rivalry, confession and self-exposure. Described by director E J-yong as “a combination of reality show and fake documentary”, Actresses surely contains some truth hidden alongside the scripted scenes. [Read More]
Reality and fiction intertwine in E J-yong’s deliciously amusing fake documentary Actresses
“Which one did you think is the most beautiful?” It was one obvious conversation opener at the bar after the screening of E J-yong’s Actresses, in which six of Korea’s top actresses aged from their early 20s to their 60s, gather for a Vogue photoshoot in a film which its director calls “part reality show, … [Read More]