Korean Cinema 
Tale of Two Sisters(12)
Another “old” video review of Kim Jee-Woon’s brilliant film. Here’s a link to the trailer -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anF5XiN8QY8 Enjoy!
Hansel and Gretel aka Henjel gwa Geuretel (2007): South Korean Grimm Tale
Directed and co-written by Pil-Sung Yim, Hansel & Gretel is a South Korean masterpiece that uses a Brothers Grimm palette to paint a dark fantasy/horror film. Driving through a mountainous area by a forest, Eun-Soo (Jeong-myeong Cheon) is on the phone arguing with his pregnant girlfriend about his decision to see his sick mother. In mid-argument… Read More ›
R-Point (2004): Ghosts & Ghoulies Vietnamese style
This 2004 South Korean horror “war” film was the first horror film I’d seen set during a war. More importantly it was the first horror film set during the Vietnamese war. This highly unpopular war (protested vehemently in the US on university campuses across the country and more draft dodgers than all the wars ever… Read More ›
Missing (Sil jong) 2009: Grinding Gore
This South Korean horror/thriller film is based on true events. Between August and September in 2007 a 70-year-old fisherman murdered four women in Bosung South Korea. Notes from the entry of the film in AsianWiki state that the events have been fictionalized. Directed by Sung-Hong Kim (Say Yes 2001) and starring Moon Sung-Geun, Choo Ja-Hyun… Read More ›
200 Pounds Beauty (2006): Life in Plastic, it’s Fantastic
Directed by Yong-hwa Kim (who also co-wrote the screenplay with three others) 200 Pounds Beauty (Minyeo-neun goerowo) is a ‘feel good romantic comedy’ that really hits the spot. We had seen a trailer for this film about four years ago. It was on a Tartan Extreme DVD and it looked funny as hell. Unfortunately we could not… Read More ›
Bedevilled (2010): A Bitter Pill to Swallow
It is not often that I find a Korean film that angers me as much as this film did. Directed by Chul-soo Jang it is his first time at bat in the motion picture arena. Starring Yeong-hie Seo, Seong-won Ji and Min-ho Hwang, Bedevilled starts off slow, like a roller coaster moving up the long climb before dropping like a stone… Read More ›
Oldboy (2003): The First Cut is the Deepest **contains spoilers**
With Oldboy (Oldeuboi) about to get the “Hollywood” re-make treatment I decided it was time to talk about what I thought about the original film. Directed by Chan-wook Park as part two of his ‘Vengeance Trilogy‘ (the first being Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the last being Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Oldboy is based on the Japanese manga written… Read More ›
Thirst (2009): It’s In the Blood
There are a lot of people who watched this film simply because it’s by the iconic, cult favourite, South Korean director/auteur - Chan-wook Park. Chan-wook, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Seo-Gyeong Jeon which is based on the book Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, has not disappointed us with his version of a vampire tale. This is completely unlike any… Read More ›
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008): A Kimchi Western
Written and directed by Jee-woon Kim (I Saw The Devil, A Tale of Two Sisters) and starring Kang-ho Song (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, The Quiet Family), Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and Woo-sung Jung (Demon Empire, Daisy) The Good, The Bad, The Weird is Jee-woon Kim’s loving homage to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone…. Read More ›
I Saw the Devil (2010): A Clash of Wills
Starring Byung-hun Lee ( A Bittersweet Life, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and Min-sik Choi (The Quiet Family, Oldboy, Crying Fist, Lady Vengeance) and directed by Jee-woon Kim (The Quiet Family, A Tale of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life, The Good, the Bad, the Weird), I Saw the… Read More ›
