It’s been five years since Jung Hae-in debuted as an actor. He shot to stardom in 2014 after appearing in a TV drama Bride of the Century, followed by The Three Musketeers, a period drama TV series. Within this short time, the young actor has not only been seen on TV, but also in films, with…
Category: Asian Cinema
4th London East Asia Film Festival: Closing Night Gala – I’m Livin’ It Review
I’m Livin’ It is the directorial debut of Wong Hing Fan. It stars Aaron Kwok as Bowen, an ex–insurance broker, who it seems has been to prison for embezzlement. A frequent customer at a 24-hour fast food restaurant, clearly meant to be McDonald’s, Bowen is the focal point of the narrative, around which a variety…
4th London East Asia Film Festival – In Conversation with Ryu Jun-yeol
Sunny days are rare in the UK during the Autumn, but who needs them when Ryu Jun-yeol is in London and his bright personality and smile brightens up the day? At one of London’s hotels, the actor greets us with a warm handshake. As we sit comfortably on the Victorian looking sofa, he enthusiastically invites…
4th London East Asia Film Festival: Opening Night Gala – Exit Review
Up amongst Seoul’s rollercoaster of a skyline, Yong-nam (Jo Jung-suk) and Eui-Ju (Lim Yoona) are hurdling from building to building desperately trying to outrun and outsmart the toxic fog slowly following them across the city. Opening up this year’s London East Asia Film Festival, Lee Sang-geun’s feature debut Exit is a joyful, lively but somewhat…
76th Venice International Film Festival: Lingua Franca Review
As the Trump reign rages on, the illegal immigrants are solidly placed among the most marginalized and prosecuted groups in the USA, even though the government’s zero-tolerance policy hasn’t quite quenched the numbers of those seeking a brighter future in what used to be seen as the land of the free. In 2017, the estimate…
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite Review
Seeing Bong Joon-ho’s work makes one believe time and again that the art of film excellence has not yet disappeared. South Korean director, known for The Host, Okja and Snowpiercer, gifted the film goers with yet another sublime production of his this year: Parasite; a perverse, comical, contemporary yet daunting film that won the Palme…
Swing Kids Review
Musicals are a rarity in South Korean cinema, even if there are South Korean productions out there with traces of music themes, thrown into the middle of the film or found close to the end credits – but that does not qualify those movies as musicals. Swing Kids, directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol (Tazza: The Hidden Card),…
In Conversation with Lee Min-jae and Uhm Ji-won of ‘The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale’
Uhm Ji-won is a South Korean actress whose career started in the late 1990’s. Her talent’s were first recognized with her performance of a subdued wife in the erotic thriller The Scarlet Letter (2004). She later played the leading role in Hong Sang-soo’s Tale of Cinema (2005), and worked with Hong again on his 2008…
The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale Review
Train to Busan (2016) established that there is both room and potential for zombie flicks in Korean cinema, and there has been a flood of undead-themed films and TV series in the past few years, with their makers hell-bent on achieving the same success as Yeon Sang-ho‘s action thriller. Some of the K-zombie projects, surprisingly,…
21st Udine Far East Film Festival: Extreme Job Review
A fried chicken restaurant and a highly incompetent narcotic squad – what could possibly go wrong? Extreme Job is Lee Byeong-heon’s newest production that has unexpectedly become the second highest grossing film in the history of Korean cinema, with over $120 million box-office profit against a $5.8 million budget – it is no wonder that a Hollywood…
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