Review: MEMOIR OF A MURDERER Forgets to Untangle Its Intriguing Premise

By Pierce Conran

Just two weeks after V.I.P., Korean cinemas are getting another twist on the serial killer story with Won Shin-yeon’s new work Memoir of a Murderer, based on a 2013 novel by celebrated writer Kim Young-ha. Its name evokes the greatest Korean serial killer thriller of them all (though the Korean title actually translates to A Murderer’s Guide to Memorization), but this cat-and-mouse murder mystery and Alzheimer’s drama combo shares more in common with Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil.

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Revenge Week: Reader's Top 10 Korean Revenge Films

Part of MKC's Revenge Week (July 8-14, 2013).

We began Revenge Week with the MKC's Top 10 Korean Revenge Films and now as the feature comes to an end, here is the Top 10, as voted by you! Thanks to all who took part and if you leave a comment with your favorites, we may still just include them in the list. ;)

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Revenge Week: Seeing Devils - Violence and Revenge in Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil (Part II)

Part of MKC's Revenge Week (July 8-14, 2013).

By David Bell

Released the same year, Jang’s Bedevilled offers a more delicate approach. Hae-won, an unsympathetic Seoul bank-worker, is forced to take time off after aggressive behaviour towards a colleague and visits her childhood friend Bok-nam on the fictional island of Moo-do. Appalled by the mannerisms and cleanliness of the farming islanders, she passively bears witness to their horrific treatment of Bok-nam and murder, and denial thereof to (again) useless police, of Bok-nam’s daughter. Frustratingly, Jang persistently plays with our expectation to see Hae-won emerge from her clean middle-class apathy and intervene in Bok-nam’s suffering under the abject, conventionally Othered, islanders. But just as she previously failed to act after witnessing Bok-nam’s gang rape as a teenager by those same men as youths, Hae-won, indifferent, arranges her return to Seoul. In turn, Bok-nam’s manic massacre of the islanders takes on a decidedly, and cleverly achieved, tone of despair. Had Hae-won intervened, as her need for redemption combined with the wretched islanders’ need of punishment appeared to signpost she would, the ensuing carnage might have taken a more traditionally cathartic mode – one more in keeping with the violence performed in I Saw the Devil.

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Revenge Week: Seeing Devils - Violence and Revenge in Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil (Part I)

Part of MKC's Revenge Week (July 8-14, 2013). 

By David Bell

Spectacles of violence are an important aspect of modern cinema. At times they shock and appal us, at others they attract and excite. Often they are the most memorable moments of a film. To mention Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003) is to remind those, who have seen it, instantly of a man slicing off his own tongue. Our uneasy relationship to screen violence can be traced from the very genesis of cinema. Thomas Edison’s 1903 film Electrocuting an Elephant showed simply that – a scene of violence, the public electrocution of an elephant. That same year Edwin S. Porter took steps with The Great Train Robbery to bring the two cinematic aspects of narrative and violence effortlessly together. Today, spectacles of violence are regularly where cinema is found at its most visceral; where the reality of our corporeal bodies is brought into line with those of the characters on screen. In some instances, it can be deeply uncomfortable; in others, massively pleasurable.

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NYAFF 2012 Retrospective: A Legend in the Flesh - The Life and Career of Choi Min-sik

Part of MKC's coverage of the 11th New York Asian Film Festival.

Biography

In discussing the life and works of South Korea’s legendary actor Choi Min-sik, who is making a special appearance at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival, I feel the first thing that should be mentioned is how very lucky we are that he was given a chance to make any films at all. Choi was born in 1962 in Seoul and during his early childhood he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. His doctor’s prognosis was that he wouldn’t make it but following a lengthy convalescence in the mountains, he beat the disease. I know that I and many others are very glad that he did!

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Weekly Review Round-up (05/26-06/01, 2012)

The Taste of Money, which was presented late last week at the Cannes Film Festival, gets a big serving of reviews this week but Im Sang-soo may be eating some humble pie for a while.  A Screen Daily poll ranked his film as the least popular among the competition's 22 offerings.

CURRENT FILMS

In Another Country

(Seongyong's Private Place, May 31, 2012)

The Taste of Money

(Indiewire, May 26, 2012)

(moviefone, May 29, 2012)

(Movies With Butter, May 30, 2012)

(Scene in Korea, May 26, 2012)

(Screen Daily, May 26, 2012)

(The Hollywood Reporter, May 26, 2012)

(Time Out London, May 30, 2012)

(Variety, May 26, 2012)

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Top 10 Korean Films of 2010

2010 was a great year for Korean cinema and as here at Modern Korean Cinema I'm going back through Korean film to get a sense of what were the best and most important films through the years.  I'm thrilled to present my top 10 for the year to coincide with the Korean Cinema Blogathon.  I have seen a lot of films from 2010 and the only major omission is Cafe Noir which has yet to find a DVD release, here's hoping there'll be one!

This follows on from January's Top 10 Films of 2011 and I hope to make my way back through to the 90s.

Without further ado, scroll through the top 10 below, followed by some honourable mentions and the year's biggest turkeys:

Intro - 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 - Best of the Rest

Top 10 Lists

Year  2020 - 2019 - 2018 - 2017 - 2016
2015 - 2014 - 2013 - 2012 - 2011 - 2010

2010s (Top 50) - All Time (Top 25)

Genre

Gangster - Horror - Revenge

How Korean Cinema Fared on 2011's Year-end Lists

Top 10 or end-of-year lists are one of my great guilty pleasures.  I know that ultimately they don't really mean very much and are guaranteed to be subjective, arbitrary, and divisive.  Yet I am always eager to discover other people's lists come year's end.  To see how my favorites films fared, to discover some things I may have missed and to generally scrutinize the palaver of this enduring critic's ritual.

I thought it would be fun to see how Korean films did on 2011's lists, if only to see what and how many Korean films generated international attention.  So I went ahead and tracked down every list I could find which featured a Korean film.  I found 70, including 7 which only considered Korean cinema, a pretty solid number which is spread over an impressive array of worldwide broadsheets, film websites, and a panoply of blogs.  I was also surprised to see over 30 films make it onto these diverse lists, a reflection of the depth of Korean cinema, from thrillers, horrors, and action films, all the way to melodramas and a large selection of low-budget indies.

The results of this ranking are in no way supposed to reflect some sort of objective standpoint of the best Korean films of last year.  For one thing, only a handful of films got any decent kind of exposure in the west and they were by and large 2010 releases.  Some of 2011's best films were only featured on a smattering of lists as they have not really been seen outside of Korea.  As I've said this is just a little bit of fun!

The system used for the below ranking is very simple.  1 point for making it onto a top 10 list (or the odd top 11), 2 points for a top 5 finish, and 3 points for taking first place.  The lists are available below, divided into Korean-only and international lists.  If you are aware of anything I've missed by all means let me know either here, on twitter, or by e-mailing me at pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com.

How Korean Cinema Fared on 2011's Year-end Lists

1. Poetry (53)

2. I Saw the Devil (34)

3. The Yellow Sea (17)

4. Sunny (12)
5. The Day He Arrives (10)

6. The Journals of Musan (9)

7. Bleak Night (8)

8. Silenced (5)
9. Night Fishing (5)

10. Arirang (4)

10. King of Pigs (4)
10. Re-encounter (4)

13. Poongsan (3)

13. Punch (3)

15. Bedevilled (2)

15. Come Rain, Come Shine (2)

15. Dangerously Excited (2)

15. Pong Ddol (2)

15. Quick (2)

15. The Front Line (2)

21. Animal Town (1)

21. Barbie (1)

21. Blind (1)

21. Dooman River (1)

21. Haunters (1)

21. Invasion of Alien Bikini (1)

21. Late Autumn (1)

21. Late Blossom (2)

21. Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild (1)
21. Moby Dick (1)

21. Mother Is a Whore (2)

21. Out of the Cave (1)
21. Romantic Heaven (1)
21. War of the Arrows (1)

21. White: The Melody of the Curse (1)

Lists of Korean Films

Asia Pacific Arts - Rowena Santos Aquino

Complex - Jaeki Cho

koreanfilm.org - Darcy Paquet
Modern Korean Cinema - Pierce Conran

Seen in Jeonju - Tom Giammarco

Seoul Beats

Lists Featuring Korean Films

Boston Globe - Wesley Morris

Boxing Uwe Boll

Chicago Reader - Ben Sachs

Chicago Tribune - Michael Phillips

Cineawesome! - Jeff

Cinema Salem - Kereth

Cinema Salem - Peter

Cinetology - Luke

Cleveland Plain Dealer - Clint O'Connor

CNN - Tom Charity

College Times - Aaron Tavena

Culture Mob - Matthew Wayt

Dad's Big Plan - Mr. Sparkles

Film Freak Central - Angelo Muredda

Film Freak Central - Walter Chaw

Film School Rejects - Brian Salisbury

Film School Rejects - Luke Mullen

Film School Rejects - Rob Hunter

Film Threat - Don Lewis

Film Threat - John Wildman

Film Threat - Mark Bell

Film Threat - Noah Lee

firstshowing.net - Jeremy Kirk

Front Room Cinema - Tom Bielby

Hollywood Hubbub - Frantic Monkey

Hydra Mag - Jose-Luis Moctezuma

indieWire - Anne Thompson

insidepulse - Robert Sutton

Left Field Cinema - M. Dawson

Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan

Living in Cinema - Michael Phillips

Miami Herald - Rene Rodriguez

Mile High Cinema - Jason Cangialosi

Movie Reviews by Tom Clift - Tom Clift

MSN Movies - Sean Axmaker

NOW Magazine - Radheyan Simonpillai

Palo Alto Online - Susan Tavernetti

playbackstl.com - Pete Timmermann

playbackstl.com - Sean Lass

Rich on Film - Rich

Salon - Andrew O'Hehir

Shock Till You Drop - Jeff Alard

Slant - Diego Costa

Slant - Nick Schager

Sounds Like Cinema - Greg Bennett

southcoasttoday.com - Alexis Hauk

St. Louis Today - Joe Williams

The Austin Chronicle - Marc Savlov

The Cinema Snob

The Daily Texan - Alex Williams

the-dispatch.com - Matthew Lucas

The Globe and Mail - Liam Lacey and Rick Groen

The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw

The Hollywood Reporter - Todd McCarthy

The Montreal Gazette - T'cha Dunlevy

The New York Times - Manohla Dargis

The Screening Room - Mark Humphreys

The Suffolk Voice

Time Out New York - Keith Uhlich

Total Film - Sam Ashurst

Twitch - James Marsh

Twitch - Kwenton Bellette

Wildgrounds - Ki Mun

Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (01/21-01/27, 2012)

Another slew of The Front Line reviews and much else besides including a number for current Korean films and the longest review of Penny Pinchers that is ever likely to be written!

This edition of the Weekly Review Round-up marks the 6-month anniversary of the weekly feature and I'm happy that it has met with such a strong reception over that time.  Thank you all for supporting it!

CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

Jam Docu Gangjung

(The Jeju Weekly, January 20, 2012)

Perfect Game

(Seongyong's Private Place, December 24, 2012)

Unbowed

(Seongyong's Private Place, January 18, 2012)

RECENT RELEASES

Cyrano Agency

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 22, 2012)

From Seoul to Varanasi

(Film Business Asia, January 22, 2012)

Hindsight

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 24, 2012)

I Saw the Devil

(Film Smash, January 22, 2012)

Penny Pinchers

(dramabeans, January 24, 2012)

Poetry

(Business Week, January 19, 2012)

Silenced

(The Banana Times, January 25, 2012)

The Day He Arrives

(Modern Korean Cinema, January 25, 2012)

The Front Line

(Chicago Tribune, January 20, 2012)

(Cole Smithey, January 15, 2012)

(exclaim.ca, January 19, 2012)

(Glendale News Press, January 20, 2012)

(Movie Buzzers, January 20, 2012)

(New York Post, January 21, 2012)

(Time Out New York, January 17, 2012)

(Toronto Now, January 19, 2012)

(Village Voice, January 18, 2012)

PAST FILMS

A Bittersweet Life, 2005

(Init_Scenes, January 20, 2012)

Failan, 2001

(New Korean Cinema, January 26, 2012)

M, 2007

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 25, 2012)

Pulgasari, 1985

(London Korea Links, January 23, 2012)

Rough Cut, 2008

(flixist, January 23, 2012)

Save the Green Planet, 2003
(New Korean Cinema, January 24, 2012)

The Chaser, 2008

(blogcritics.org, January 22, 2012)

The City of Violence, 2006

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 23, 2012)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (01/14-01/20, 2012)

Lots of reviews this week with The Front Line being released in the US.  Four movies also came out this week in Korea though as of yet only review has surfaced, expect more to come.

CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

Dancing Queen

(The Korea Times, January 19 2012)

My Way

(hancinema.net, January 14, 2012)

RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(Varied Celluloid, January 13, 2012)

Bedevilled

(Init_Scenes, January 18, 2012)

Choked

(Film Business Asia, January 16, 2012)

Come Rain, Come Shine

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 13, 2012)

Countdown

(Modern Korean Cinema, January 19, 2012)

I Saw the Devil

(examiner.com, January 14, 2012)

Moby Dick

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 16, 2012)

Mother Is a Whore

(Hangul Celluloid, January 18, 2012)

Poetry

(Empire, January 18, 2012)

Sector 7

(Haunted Hell, January 19, 2012)

Spellbound

(Beyond Hollywood, January 15, 2012)

(The National Post, January 12, 2012)

The Day He Arrives

(Beyond Hollywood, January 13, 2012)

The Front Line

(Entertainment Weekly, January 19, 2012)

(Film Journal, January 19, 2012)

(Libertas Film Magazine, January 19, 2012)

(Movie Line, January 19, 2012)

(Slant Magazine, January 16, 2012)

(The A.V. Club, January 19, 2012)

(The Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2012)

(The New York Times, January 19, 2012)

The Man From Nowhere

(cinemageekly.com, January 15, 2012)

(g33k-e.com, January 14, 2012)

The Servant

(Dramas Whoo!, January 16, 2012)

You're My Pet

(The One One Four, January 14, 2012)

War of the Arrows

(Beyond Hollywood, January 19, 2012)

PAST FILMS

A Man Who Was Superman, 2008

(Rainy Day Movies, January 13, 2012)

Chaw, 2009

(Movie Mobsters, January 15, 2012)

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, 2003

(Otherwhere, January 13, 2012)

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, 2005

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 18, 2012)

The Coast Guard, 2002

(boxofficebuz.com, January 16, 2012)

The Isle, 2000

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, January 15, 2012)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Cinema News (12/29, 2010 - 01/04, 2011)

As 2012 gets underway there are many top 10 lists floating around, I was planning to include them all here but there are so many that I will only include a few and I will do a separate post on them a little later this month.  Plenty of other news this weeks, with some features, interview, and trailers to boot.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

The Year in Film: 2011 Brought Large Successes from Low-Budget Movies
It was another tough year for the film industry.  According to the Korean Film Council, 136 Korean films and 278 foreign films were released as of late November, but just a few of them became box office hits and a handful of them were remembered by the audience.  The most expensive film flopped, and the least-anticipated film became a sleeper hit of the year.  (Joong Ang Daily, December 30, 2011)

Jo In-seong Comes Back With Cold
Having finished his military duty, Jo In-seong is currently in the final stages of negotiating terms and conditions for a new project.  Cold is the first movie in nine years by director Kim Seong-su, who directed There is No Sun (1999), Beat (1997), Musa (2001) and 2003's Please Teach Me English.  Kim Seong-su had been making One-Armed Warrior, a Hong Kong co-production . Cold is going to be produced by Jo In-Seong and Sidus HQ.  It is about a man and a woman who look for the host of the virus that is fatally spreading.  (hancinema.net, December 29, 2011)

Spotlight on Indie Films

The Korean film industry was more diverse than ever before.  Amid an array of high-budget blockbuster films, a couple of Korean independent films achieved the10,000-audience mark, a figure compared to 1 million viewers for commercial films.  The rise of independent films started with Re-encounter in February.  (Joon Ang Daily, December 29, 2011)

Best of 2011: Korean Films
It has been a year of great debuts, be it in terms of format or first-time narrative feature helmers, coming from both the more established generation of filmmakers that emerged in the mid-1990s and those that represent the newest crop of interesting filmmakers to watch.  There were also surprising domestic box-office hits for small films this year.  Not small in terms of output or inferiority, but rather in blockbuster terms: low-key works that unlocked just as many – if not more – emotional keys and engaged the spectator in subtle and surprising ways.  (Asia Pacific Arts, December 28, 2011)

Low-Budget 3D Films?

In a larger feature on 3D movie sand Hollywood, there was a quote from Choo Sang-sok, the director of Persimmon 3D:  “Budget doesn’t matter, it is story that matters in cinema and its the same when you are using 3D.”  After the high profile failure of Sector 7, perhaps Korean filmmakers could make a name for themselves by revolutionizing smaller-scale use of the de rigueur technology?  (The Malaysian Insider, December 27, 2011)

I Saw the Devil Deemed Best Foreign Film by Austin Film Critics

In its annual evaluation of the year's best and worst in film, the Austin Film Critics Association has seen fit to award Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil with the Best Foreign Film Prize.  In addition, the revenge pic also landed at No. 8 on their top 10 list for the year.  (Film School Rejects, December 28, 2011)

My Way to Open in Japan
Kang Je-gyu’s World War II drama My Way is due to open in theaters in Japan on January 14, 2012.  Leading Korean distributor CJ E&M says the film will be released on 300 screens.  Starring Jang Dong-gun and Odagiri Joe with a strong supporting cast which includes Chinese star Fan Bingbing and Korea’s Kim In-kwon, the film is Korea’s most expensive – made for US$25 million.  Although My Way has been doing less business than expected in Korea, the film has so far taken in more than 1.17 million admissions for co-distributors CJ E&M and SK Planet. (KoBiz, December 30, 2011)

Arirang Invited to Kuestendorf Film Festival
Kim Ki-du's comeback film Arirang will be playing at yet another film festival, this time invited to screen at the Kuestendorf Film Festival in Serbia.  (AFP, December 28, 2011)

Korea’s Lotte Cinema Opens Fourth Vietnam Multiplex

Major South Korean exhibition chain and affiliate of major Korean distribution company Lotte Entertainment, Lotte Cinema is opening its fourth theater in Vietnam on Dec. 31.  The new five-screen multiplex will be in Hanoi, with 848 seats and 3D projection.  Lotte Cinema has been in the Vietnamese exhibition sector since 2008 when it acquired the Diamond Cinema Joint Venture Company (DMC).  (KoBiz, December 30, 2011)

Who's the Busiest Actor of 2012?
Who is going to be the busiest actress or actor in 2012?  Looking at the movies that are being released or are planning to go into production this year, we can see several names that appear often.  (hancinema.net, January 2, 2012)

Questions About Korean Cinema...

Martin Cleary over at New Korean Cinema is fielding questions on Korean film!  (New Korean Cinema, December 30, 2011)

Korea’s My Way Going to Berlin Film Fest
In a move that may come as a bit of a surprise given it's lukewarm reception from audiences and critics in its native Korea, Jang Je-gyu's mega WWII blockbuster My Way, starring Jang Dong-gun, Joe Odagiri, and Fan Binbin, will be featured as one of Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama sidebars this year, the film’s distributor said Wednesday.  (The Korea Herald, January 4, 2012)

Director Kim Jee-woon comes back with The Fall of Humanity

A lot of news items have flown around the internet claiming that Kim Jee-woon is returning to Korea to film The Fall of Humanity, citing an piece by hancinema.net.  However the article is very unclear and from what I understand the film, wich is an omnibus comprising on short by Kim and two by Yim Pil-seong began filming in 2006 and was halted for financial reasons.  Not much else is known but since the release is slated for February/March, I can't imagine that Kim is heading back to shoot his segment.  (hancinema.net, January 2, 2012)

Korean Film Fiesta Dazzles Lagosians
The second Korea Film Festival in Nigeria was held recently in Lagos, with a refreshing experience for the Nigerian movie lovers who thronged the venue.  Korean films have benefited tremendously from the emergence of youthful, talented film directors, as well as the liberalization of the market, leading Hallyuwood to occupy a large percentage of the Korean domestic market and ever-increasing export.  (The Daily Sun, December 29, 2011)

Hong Sang-soo Tops Cine21’s Picks of the Year

South Korea’s leading film and entertainment magazine Cine21 has picked Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives as the Best Film of 2011. In their annual survey, the magazine with its 33 journalists and critics also picked Hong as the Best Director of the Year.  The magazine lauded The Day He Arrives as “a singular experience of time and space and memory”.  (KoBiz, January 3, 2012)

Darcy Paquet's Top 10 Korean Films of 2011

Over at koreanfilm.org, Darcy Paquet has offered up his top 10 for the year which by his admissions is very weighted towards low-budget fare this year.  This seems to be the consensus as independent films were strong this year but commercial fare was weaker than in other years.  (koreanfilm.org, January 3, 2012)

INTERVIEWS

Director Explores Childhood Betrayal
For anyone who has seen Park Chul-soon’s feature debut Lovable, a moving portrait of a young girl with Savant syndrome, it wouldn’t be surprising to discover the director full of playfulness.  The 28-year-old’s debut, which won the best screenplay prize at Persons with Disabilities Film Festival this year, is filled with childhood desires and imaginative adventures.  (The Korea Herald, December 26, 2011)

Michelle Son, Managing Director of M-Line Distribution

Heading up international sales company M-Line Distribution as Managing Director, Michelle Son has in a few short years positioned the company to handle a bulk of deals including foreign remake deals for major local titles.  She spoke with KoBiz over the phone about looking beyond feature films for exciting audiovisual content and the importance of facilitating international co-productions.  (KoBiz, December 29, 2011)

TRAILERS

Nameless Gangster

Papa

POSTERS

Love Fiction

Never Ending Story

BOX OFFICE

Korean Films Outdone By Hollywood as 2012 Gets Underway
(Modern Korean Cinema, January 2, 2011)

Korea's Highest Grossing Foreign Films of 2011

We have seen Korean cinema succeed both locally and internationally this year, but which foreign films made it big in Korea in 2011?  Besides the few international films from Asia and Europe it has been Hollywood that has dominated Korea's consumption of foreign films.  War of the Arrows stood out as Korea's highest grossing domestic film of the year but even that was trumped by over 400,000 admissions to the third Transformers film.  (hancinema.net, December 31, 2011)

Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (12/10-12/16, 2011)

30 new reviews this week including a great write-up on Hong Sang-soo's latest from The New Yorker and a series of reviews on Kim Ki-duk's from the Rainy Day Movies blog where Connor McMorran is hosting a fantastic Kim Ki-duk Week.

CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

Spellbound

(Init_Scenes, December 14, 2011)

(The Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(Shu-Izmz, December 11, 2011)

A Confession

(Variety, December 14, 2011)

Blind

(Beyond Hollywood, December 12, 2011)

Hello Ghost

(Pinoy Movie Blog, December 16, 2011)

I Saw the Devil

(Cine-International, December 14, 2011)

(New Korean Cinema, December 14, 2011)

King of Pigs

(The Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2011)

Marrying the Mafia IV

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 11, 2011)

Poetry

(awardscircuit.com, December 12, 2011)

(Front Row Reviews, December 13, 2011)

(The Telegraph, December 14, 2011)

Sector 7

(Twitch, December 13, 2011)

The Day He Arrives

(The New Yorker, December 15, 2011)

The Man From Nowhere

(City on Fire, December 10, 2011)

The Quiz Show Scandal

(Inti_Scenes, December 14, 2011)

The Recipe

(Init_Scenes, December 16, 2011)

War of the Arrows

(Wildgrounds, December 13, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Address Unknown, 2001

(Rainy Day Movies, December 14, 2011)

Bad Guy, 2001

(Rainy Day Movies, December 13, 2011)

Beat, 1997

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 9, 2011)

Born to Kill, 1996

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 9, 2011)

Castaway on the Moon, 2009

(The Non-Review, December 9, 2011)

Green Fish, 1997

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 11, 2011)

No. 3, 1997

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 10, 2011)

Real Fiction, 2000

(Rainy Day Movies, December 15, 2011)

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, 2003

(Rainy Day Movies, December 16, 2011)

The Coast Guard, 2002

(Rainy Day Movies, December 15, 2011)

The Isle, 2000

(Rainy Day Movies, December 12, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (11/12-11/18, 2011)

A wide array of films reviewed this week, many due to the just-wrapped London Korean Film Festival.

RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(DVD Verdict, November 17, 2011)

(Rock! Shock! Pop!, November 14, 2011)

Arirang

(SBCC Film Reviews, November 14, 2011)

Bedevilled

(fright.com, November 15, 2011)

City

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 15, 2011)

Detective K

(Alive Not Dead, November 12, 2011)

Ghastly

(Nekoneko's Movie Litterbox, November 14, 2011)

Haunters

(Horror Films, November 17, 2011)

Hindsight

(Film Business Asia, November 15, 2011)

I Saw the Devil

(PinoyMovieBlog, November 14, 2011)

King of Pigs

(The Korea Times, November 17, 2011)

Late Autumn

(Otherwhere, November 14, 2011)

Moss

(Init_Scenes, November 14, 2011)

Negligence of Duty

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 16, 2011)

Poongsan

(Variety, November 15, 2011 - Paid Subscription Required)

Promise

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 15, 2011)

Sector 7

(Dread Central, November 14, 2011)

Secret Reunion

(Next Projection, November 17, 2011)

Suicide Forecast

(London Korea Links, November 12, 2011)

Sunny

(hancinema.net, November 12, 2011)

(Korean Class Massive, November 6, 2011)

The Cat

(Film Business Asia, November 18, 2011)

The Day He Arrives

(Init_Scenes, November 17, 2011)

The Front Line

(heyuguys.co.uk, November 11, 2011)

(Wildgrounds, November 17, 2011)

The Hideout

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 16, 2011)

The Unjust

(Eye for Film, November 18, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(beehivecity.com, November 12, 2011)

(heyuguys.co.uk, November 16, 2011)

(movies reviews by tom clift, November 14, 2011)

War of the Arrows

(Korean Class Massive, November 6, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Handphone, 2009

(Korean Class Massive, November 7, 20110

I'm a Cyborg But That's OK, 2006

(moviefilmreview.com, November 14, 2011)

Rough Cut, 2008

(Next Projection, November 17, 2011)

The Host, 2006

(Ticker Talks Film, November 11, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.