BiFan 2017 Review: SUDDENLY IN DARK NIGHT Goes Bump in All the Right Places

By Pierce Conran

From Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid in 1961 all the way to Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden last year, Korean cinema has delighted in torrid tales of disruptive house servants. Whether as a way to contrast social classes or explore illicit sexuality, it has remained a compelling source for bold filmmakers. Ko Young-nam’s 1981 erotic psychodrama Suddenly in Dark Night, though less complex than the aforementioned, is another fine example of the sub-genre.

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Busan 2014 Review: CART, Women's Rights Take Center Stage In Social Drama

Part of MKC's coverage of the 19th Busan International Film Festival

By Pierce Conran

Following hot on the trail of recent Korean dramas seeking to depict the plight of Korea's common class is Cart, a David vs. Goliath, based-on-fact tale detailing the injustices of Korea's labor system and the harsh treatment of women in Korean society. With her latest film, Boo Ji-young returns to the director's chair five years after her indie feature Sisters on the Road, with a bigger cast and a far more pointed social agenda.

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Busan 2014 Review: ENTANGLED Gets Caught Up in Its Own Depressing Narrative

Part of MKC's coverage of the 19th Busan International Film Festival

By Pierce Conran

Following the blistering debut Fatal, a gritty rape-revenge thriller that bowed at the Busan Film Festival in 2012, Lee Don-ku returns to Busan with the disappointing family drama Entangled. Though it seeks to inspire a similar sense of shock and outrage with its raw family dynamics and desperate plot turns, Lee's matter-of-fact mise-en-scene and his narrative's inherent histrionics combine to form a humdrum and overly familiar Korean indie.

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