Review: THE SUSPECT Eschews Drama for Action, and Lots of It

By Pierce Conran

Thinking back to Shiri (1999) and Secret Reunion (2010), North Korean spies have a history of success at the Korean box office. Local producers have been especially keen to capitalize on their appeal this year with no less than four big budget spy thrillers infiltrating screens. Of the three released to date, two of them (The Berlin File and Secretly Greatly) were big hits (around seven million admissions a piece) while last month's Commitment failed to generate much buzz (barely one million viewers). On Christmas Eve, The Suspect will bring its high-octane cocktail of action and intrigue to theaters, bringing the count to four.

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News: Ha Ji-won Cast in Ha Jung-woo's CHRONICLE OF A BLOOD MERCHANT

By Pierce Conran

Before he makes a decision on his offer to potentially star alongside Lee Jung-jae and Jun Ji-hyun in Choi Dong-hoon's 30s-set blockbuster thriller Assassination, Ha Jung-woo is going to spend some time both before and behind the camera with his sophomore directing gig Chronicle a of Blood Merchant. Joining him in this adaptation of a 1995 novel by Chinese writer Yu Hua will be Ha Ji-won, the actress known for her spunky action roles in Duelist (2005) and Sector 7 (2011).

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Review: THE SATELLITE GIRL AND MILK COW Shows Promise for Korean Animation

By Pierce Conran

There is no shortage of skilled animators in Korea but following the floundering of the local animation industry in the 1970s, most of that talent went into domestic TV production or were sucked into the outsourced contracts of far more lucrative foreign shows such as The Simpsons. Over the last few years, a handful of new feature animations have cropped up in Korean cinema and are serving as embers for what will hopefully become a full-fledged industry in the coming years. 2014 has a few Korean animations in store and the first of those to hit theaters will be The Satellite Girl and Milk Cow, the feature-length debut of Jang Hyung-yun, who previously made a number of acclaimed shorts including A Coffee Vending Machine and Its Sword (2007).

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Korean Box Office: MISS GRANNY, FROZEN Lead Korea's Biggest Weekend

By Pierce Conran

It was a huge weekend for theaters during this year's Lunar New Year, the biggest in fact, with around five million tickets sold. This was above the 3.5 million recording during last year's Lunar Year frame and significantly above the previous 4.5 million viewer record set during late summer last year when Snowpiercer and The Terror Live duked it out. What's more, a surprisingly close battle for first place took place as the two leading pictures swapped places a few times over the course of the week. With Lunar New Year falling on a Friday this year, the holiday stretched over Thursday to Saturday. Figures below are for the standard three-day frame.

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News: HAN GONG-JU Picks Up Yet Another Award in Rotterdam

By Pierce Conran

Following its debut at the Busan International Film Festival last October, Lee Su-jin's film Han Gong-ju has been blazing a trail on the international film festival circuit ever since. It's most recent win came last night at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it picked up the coveted Tiger Award. It is the fifth time a Korean film has picked up the prize in the last 18 years.

After picking up the Citizen Reviewers' and CGV Movie Collage Award in Busan, Lee's film went on to win a minor award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival and the Marrakesh International Film Festival's top prize, the Golden Star, in December. Han Gong-ju also screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival last month.

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Feature: Girls and Dolls - The Many Faces of Bae Doo-na

By Hieu Chau

Emerging from South Korea as one of the country’s brightest and talented stars, actress Bae Doo-na has built a reputable career for herself with diverse roles in both her home country and abroad. Often praised for her naturalistic and sometimes demure approach towards acting, Bae Doo-na has worked with a plethora of talented individuals in her acting career, scoring the chance to work with several esteemed directors including the likes of Bong Joon-ho and Koreeda Hirokazu.

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Review: THE HUNTRESSES Misfire in Poorly-Plotted Blunder

By Pierce Conran

Following the recent hits Masquerade (2012) and last year’s The Face Reader, period films are set to make a big push into the Korean market in 2014 with at least six big Joseon era films poised to flood the market. Getting the ball rolling in the new year is the action comedy The Huntresses, a film initially set to debut last spring but rescheduled by distributor Showbox when the project needed more time to complete digital work in post-production. Entering a crowded Lunar New Year field alongside Miss Granny, Man in Love and Hot Young Bloods, the film is hoping to draw in family crowds with its fun premise and trio of female stars.

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Review: Underappreciated THE DEVIL'S STAIRWAY Is a Sinister Psychological Horror

By Patryk Czekaj

Lee Man-hee’s 1964 film The Devil's Stairway is a strikingly sinister psychological horror that, even after all these years, possesses the ability to frighten even the most devoted fans of the genre. What’s unreasonable to me is that the picture never got enough attention and its darkly sensuous powers somehow failed to garner it the critical attention this hallucinatory work truly deserves. Why The Devil's Stairway to this day remains an underwatched gem of Korean cinema is a mystery. Thus, by writing a bit about its many strong points I’d really like to encourage everyone to see (it’s available for free on Korean Film Archive’s YouTube channel) and experience this eerily inviting film.

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News: AVENGERS 2 to Shoot in Korea, Local Actress Cast as Villain

By Pierce Conran

Joss Whedon's blockbuster sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron is planning to shoot some sequences in and around Seoul later this year. When news surfaced and caught fire in Korea last week it seemed like it might have been a rumor as actor Mark Ruffalo denied the news on his twitter account and Disney reps in Korea followed suit. However, now a local actress has been cast in a villain role and Incheon City (a satellite of Seoul) has confirmed that it will be used as a location in the upcoming film.

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Review: Electric Song Kang-ho Leads Courtroom Drama THE ATTORNEY

By Pierce Conran

The combination of politics and cinema has led to some of the most incendiary films the medium has ever produced. Though a tricky balancing act that requires a deft handling of ideologies and a sensitive navigation of contemporary political climates, political works have the potential to transcend both the artistic and diversionary aims of cinema. Be they wake-up calls or calls to arms, or even painful reminders of moments of history that should not be allowed to slip into anonymity, this is one of the few ‘genres,’ for lack of a better term, that can have a real impact on society.

Falling into this new category, or rather bursting into it after swiftly cracking the ten million viewers barrier in Korea, is The Attorney, the promising debut film of Yang Woo-suk, which follows in the footsteps of recent courtroom thrillers Silenced (2011) and Unbowed (2011). The films stars Song Kang-ho, who, following an enormous 2013 that also saw him star in Snowpiercer and The Face Reader, has reclaimed his title as Korea’s biggest star. Fictionalizing the early years of the late President Roh Moo-hyun, when he was a lawyer in the 1980s, this new film, part character drama and courtroom thriller, delicate handles its sensitive subject.

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News: Ha Jung-woo, Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Jung-jae Circling 30s Thriller ASSASSINATION

By Pierce Conran

Korean hitmaker Choi Dong-hoon is back at it again with a new 1930s set action thriller purported to be in the $12 million budget range. Titled Assassination, the project is eyeing some big talent for leading roles. Ha Jung-woo, Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Jung-jae are also considering major parts in Choi's follow-up to The Thieves, the 2012 hit caper film that became the second most viewed Korean film of all time by accruing almost 13 million admissions domestically.

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Review: Endearing Cast Boosts Cross-Generational Comedy MISS GRANNY

By Pierce Conran

Three years after making a big splash in Sunny (2011), young actress Shim Eun-kyung returns in the Lunar New Year's (Seollal) holiday crowd-pleaser Miss Granny, a film that will be looking to sate the same demand that Miracle in Cell No. 7 filled this time last year.

Oh Ma-soon is a grandmother working in an old-timers café who lives with her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. As she nags her family to the end of their wits, they gradually grow tired of her. Then, one night, Mal-soon happens upon a photo shop with a mysterious owner. Shortly after her shot is taken, she catches a reflection of herself and sees that she's suddenly become 50 years younger. Choosing to hide her sudden transformation from her family she takes the new name Doo-ri and ends up staying as a boarder with her café co-worker, whom she harbors a crush for, though he is unaware of her identity. Before long she finds herself in her grandson's band and is scouted by a music show producer who is attracted by more than just her dulcet tones.

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