Showing posts with label hwang jung-min. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hwang jung-min. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Review: THE WAILING, A Bone-Chilling, Thunderous Descent Into Hell
Friday, June 29, 2018
Review: THE HIMALAYAS Swaps Snowflakes For Tears
For those looking for an expedition drama, be warned that despite its title, The Himalayas is first and foremost a melodrama. One concerning brotherhood, family and, above all, coping with grief. Himalayan expedition films seem to be in vogue at the moment, with 2015 already yielding Baltasar Kormákur's Everest and Japanese drama Everest: The Summit of the Gods due out in a few months, but Lee Suk-hoon's picture is more concerned with relationships than it is with the technicalities of mountaineering.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Review: ASURA: THE CITY OF MADNESS Unleashes Unbridled Machismo in Brooding Noir
It's a man's world in Asura: The City of Madness, and a rotten one at that. Cops, prosecutors and politicians jostle about with unbridled machismo in a noirish caricature of corruption in the latest thriller to balk at the irresponsible behaviour of Korea's power brokers, following Veteran, Inside Men and A Violent Prosecutor.
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Review: THE BATTLESHIP ISLAND, Impressive Action Torpedoed by Nationalism
By Pierce Conran
UPDATE (Aug 8): Following a rare change of heart after seeing the film a second time, I've decided to change my original star rating The Battleship Island. I can't say that my criticisms are any different, but watching the film without having to sort through the dense story and its characters allowed me to appreciate many of the film's impressive details.
Following a pair of blockbusters, action maestro Ryoo Seung-wan aims to outdo his past successes with The Battleship Island, the biggest Korean release of the year. Set on a Japanese labor camp island, this star-driven, big-budget period escape drama strives for greatness but falls short, with a harried narrative too consumed with nationalist sentiment. That said, a bombastic climax sees Ryoo and his team put their best feet (and fists) forward in an impressive display of choreography and staging.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Review: WAIKIKI BROTHERS, A True Korean Classic
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By Pierce Conran
Yim Soonrye could lay claim to being the first female director to forge a lasting career in the Korean film industry. Indeed, she has one of the most varied filmographies among current filmmakers, yet ironically, or perhaps necessarily, she rose to prominence by making a pair of films that explored Korean masculinity far more successfully than the majority of her male contemporaries. 14 years on, her second feature Waikiki Brothers (2001) stands up as one of the best works of contemporary Korean cinema. Though the movement is generally considered to have ended with Lee Chang-dong’s Peppermint Candy in 1999, it’s also a film that could easily be included among the best of the Korean New Wave.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
News: ODE TO MY FATHER Joins the 10 Million Viewer Club
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After four weeks, JK Youn's blockbuster melodrama Ode to My Father joined the 10 million viewer club last night. It is the 11th Korean film to do so at the local box office and the 14th overall. It's also the fourth film of 2014 to reach the mark (a record), along with Frozen, Roaring Currents and Interstellar, and the first time that a director has breached the barrier twice, since Youn's previously managed the feat with Haeundae in 2009.
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Review: ODE TO MY FATHER Puts Blockbuster Spin On Melodrama
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Family takes centre stage in Ode to My Father, a new Korean melodrama that is every bit as bombastic as this year's naval battle hit Roaring Currents. Directed by JK Youn (Youn Je-kyun), whose last film Haeundae sauntered over the 10 million admissions barrier in 2009, this new epic drama proves to be an expert balance of scale and intimacy that will surely find a huge audience at home.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Review: MAN IN LOVE Loses Focus in Tearful Finale
The Lunar New Year (Seollal) holiday is just around the corner and that means that studios are looking to draw in large crowds, particular families, during one of the peak theatergoing periods of the year. Making a film that can appeal to everyone isn’t child’s play and oftentimes it means that studios will resort to mixing disparate elements to suit varying tastes. It’s a gamble but one that Korean filmmakers have never shied away from. Such is the case with Man in Love (formerly When a Man Loves a Woman), the new film from studio Next Entertainment World (also behind last year’s breakout Seollal hit Miracle in Cell No. 7).
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