Review: BAD GUYS ALWAYS DIE Suffers A Slow Death

By Pierce Conran

One of the more high profile among the many China-Korea collaborations of the last few years (prior to the THAAD-related meldown in relations), Bad Guys Always Die teams Taiwanese star Chen Bolin with top Korean actress Son Ye-jin in an action-comedy (leaning more towards the later) set on Jeju Island, an extremely popular holiday spot for both Koreans and Chinese tourists.

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Review: ANGRY PAINTER Presents Artsy Revenge Erotica

By Pierce Conran

Following his trip From Seoul to Varanasi in 2011, arthouse filmmaker Jeon Kyu-hwan took a bigger leap overseas with Angry Painter, an indie tale of revenge and despondency that spends much of its running time trapping through the cold climes of Estonian capital Tallinn.

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Busan 2017 Review: BUTTERFLY SLEEP Flutters Gracefully Over a Well-Worn Path

By Pierce Conran

It's been a full 12 years since director Jeong Jae-eun helmed a narrative feature and the Japan-set Butterfly Sleep is a welcome return, if not a patch on her 2001 debut Take Care of My Cat, still her best work.

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Review: The Slick But Baffling Thriller GENOME HAZARD

Part of MKC's coverage of the 18th Busan International Film Festival.

By John A. Riley

Illustrator Taketo (Nishijima Hidetoshi) returns home one evening to find his wife’s dead body. The telephone rings, breaking a tense silence, and Taketo is baffled to hear his wife’s voice on the other end of the line. Before he can even properly process this tragedy, men arrive intent on killing him, and he is drawn rapidly into a conspiratorial web where the only person who he can trust is Korean reporter Ji-won (a wide-eyed, incredulous Kim Hyo-jin) who, sensing a story, is dragged into the labyrinthine plot herself.

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Breezy Rom-Com A Wedding Invitation Rings A Little Hollow (分手合约, 2013)

In the film business these days, China seems to be the word on everyone lips as its market is in the midst of a breathless expansion. However, strict quotas on foreign imports mean that only 35 international films get to share in the spoils. To get around this system, a number of foreign companies have begun co-producing films with China, though the results thus far have been mixed. The Korean media giant CJ Entertainment has been investing in the mainland for quite some time but they have just scored their biggest hit with the romantic comedy A Wedding Invitation, their first fully-produced film for the Chinese market.

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