In less than a week, the 19th edition of the Far East Film Festival (FEFF) will open the doors of Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine” in Udine, Italy, and East Asian cinema will reign over the little city in the Italian Friuli-Venezia Giulia region for a full 9 days (21st – 29th April 2017). The FEFF…
Category: Film events and festivals
A Quiet Passion Review
Terence Davies, the director of Sunset Song (2015) and The Deep Blue Sea (2011) has never been interested in Hollywood and rarely casts A-listers in his films. Known for making dramas for a select audience, he is a man “in love with the very idea of cinema”. This year, Davies brought onto the big screen…
“We Are X” Review
“If you put your everything into something, your life … you don’t lose. If worst comes to worst, you die.” (Yoshiki) 1975 was a formative year for one Yoshiki Hayashi, who – despite his life being limited by several ailments (and a severe case of asthma) – was a shining classical music prodigy; at the…
Kushuthara: Pattern of Love Review
The Kingdom of Bhutan is no common place; and while it is one of the smallest countries in the world, its cultural variety and depth are heartfelt. Located in the breath-taking Eastern Himalayan mountain range, it presents the perfect opportunity for the filmmakers, climbers and photographers to experience the extraordinary beauty of the country. The history…
Ben Younger’s Bleed for This
The 21st Busan International Film Festival served us this year with a multitude of great Asian films and with several amazing Western film creations, among which Bleed For This, written and directed by Ben Younger, perhaps stood out the most – not only because Ben Younger himself attended the festival, along with his two all-star…
In Conversation with Baek Yoon-sik
Baek Yoon-sik is a South Korean actor who first made a name for himself in the 1970’s as a film and TV actor, but then focused solely on his TV career – until 2003 when he decided to take a role in the now cult film Save the Green Planet – his film career got…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Alone
Imagine yourself waking up in a nightmare, a nightmare that you can not escape; what would you do? Park Hong-min’s Alone traps his key character Su-min (Lee Ju-won) in the endless ephialtes which occur in silent, hovel and labyrinthine alleys. Su-min, an avid photographer, captures on his camera – while taking pictures from his apartment’s roof…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Breathing Underwater
On the gorgeous Korean islands of Jeju and Udo (and the surrounding islets of Jeju province), almost every day, over 4000 women risk their lives to challenge the sea in order to bring out its treasures – sea urchin, conch, algae, octopus, and the highly treasured abalone. They are called haenyo – sea women – and…
In Conversation with Cho Hyun-hoon, director of ‘Jane’
Cho Hyun-hoon’s professional voyage into filmmaking started when his short film Metamorphosis got invited to Busan Asian Short Film Festival in 2007. In 2013, another short film of his, The Mother’s Family, was invited to Indie Forum Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival; the short was relatively successful; it won the Acting Award during Busan International Short…
In Conversation with Park Hong-min, director of ‘Alone’
After his attention-pulling debut A Fish (2011), South Korean film director Park Hong-min returned in 2015 with his second feature Alone that wowed audiences both in Korea and abroad, winning several awards and making rounds on several global film festivals – it is no wonder that the director got invited as a guest to this year’s…
The Net (그물) Review
Kim Ki-duk. You either dislike him or admire him for his extraordinary – and every so often, repulsive – filmmaking. That said, no matter what subject matter he tackles, he always finds an appreciative audience. Despite his lack of formal education, he has become one of the most prominent film directors of modern cinema; and…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Jung Woo-sung & Kim Sung-soo
During this year’s London Korean Film Festival, we had a chance to meet and interview- along with MyM, Hangul Celluloid- Kim Sung-soo and Jung Woo-sung. Hangul Celluloid: You’re here promoting Asura: The City of Madness, your latest film, why did you decide to set it in a fictional city rather than in a normal Korean…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Inside Men
In the current global political climate, dirty politicians seem to be abound; some even appear to have strong underground connections, so it comes as no surprise that these topics wound themselves into films – in Korean cinema, it appears to be the filmmaker’s favourite topic of the year, along with Japanese occupation era films. Much…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Asura- The City of Madness
In Indian mythology, Asura is a god or a demon. Kim Sung-soo’s new production by no means reveals his film’s characters as gods; on the contrary, they are a group of nefarious people, including an unscrupulous detective Ha Do-kyung (Jung Woo-sung: A Moment to Remember, Cold Eyes) and covetous mayor Park Sun-bae (Hwang Jung-min: The Wailing, Veteran). Asura: The…
