Phantom Thread Review

Can any of us really comprehend that Daniel Day-Lewis now ended his acting career? Hear me weep… Daniel Day-Lewis, one of the most awarded (three Oscars under his belt) and the most fastidious – he had always carefully chosen his projects – actors out there, gave his farewell performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread….

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Review

Here we go, the 2018 Academy Award nominations have been announced today – and there is no surprise that Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has earned itself quite a decent number of nominations – 7, to be exact – since they have already reaped a solid harvest among this season’s awards’ shows before the…

The 12 London Korean Film Festival: Warriors of the Dawn Review

In 1592, the Korean Peninsula suffered a surprise attack by Japanese forces, led by Imperial Regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who intended to conquer the Joseon-ruled Korean Peninsula as a gateway to the Ming-dynasty-ruled Chinese territory; the initial invasion started the so-called Imjin War which lasted until 1598, for seven years, and just like any other war,…

The 12th London Korean Film Festival: The First Lap Review

The London leg of the 12th London Korean Film festival came to a close this year with The First Lap, the second feature of an up-and-coming South Korean indie filmmaker Kim Dae-hwan, who is being continuously compared to his fellow SK indie filmmaker and film festival favourite Hong Sang-soo – and yet, it is The…

The 12 London Korean Film Festival: The Merciless Review

What motivates acts of betrayal and revenge, two of cinema’s favourite subjects that have been characterised in popular culture in various ways? There is no direct answer to that, but it seems like the attempts to illustrate them as destructive powers had worked out sufficiently thus far. The theme of revenge became somewhat of a speciality…

The 12th London Korean Film Festival: The Outlaws Review

Gangster themes have been featured in South Korean cinema since the 1970’s, but they only became popular in the early 1990’s. Various productions ‘promoted’ the image of an ‘honourable’ mobster; however, in the past decade or so, films took on a more vicious approach to the subject matter; they became more brutal, with homicides and…

The 12th London Korean Film Festival: Jamsil Review

Lee Wan-min is a young South Korean filmmaker. She directed several shorts,  including Chima (2006), Mensrea (2008), Sang (2009) and Mock or Die (2010), and in 2016, she presented her first feature, Jamsil (2016), which she both wrote and directed, at the 21st Busan International Film Festival; this year, the film was screened in the Women’s…