Kim Jee-woon is a natural-born filmmaker who, with his alluring script-writing, has never been afraid to tackle a new film genre. With eight feature films and six shorts under his belt, he has already gone down in film history as one of the most influential Korean directors. Kim Jee-woon had no formal training in filmmaking; he…
Tag: film
The 21st Busan International Film Festival: Highlights of the Opening Night
The 21st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has finally kicked off with Zhang Lu’s A Quiet Dream; ahead of the opening night, there was a press conference for the film which was attended by the film director Lu himself, Yang Ik-june (an actor and a director, known for his independent film productions) and Lee Joo-young; on…
Introduction to Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)
Busan International Film Festival (BIFF for short) is the largest Asian film festival – and among the most prominent film festivals in the whole of Asia – that is held annually in the second largest South Korean city of Busan. The year 2016 marks already the 21st edition of the festival, even though its future…
In Conversation with Richard Wyllie
Richard Wyllie has been directing documentary films for over a decade, for channels including BBC1, ITV and Channel 4 in the UK, and PBS and Nat Geo in the US. He was part of a team that won the Royal Television Society Journalism award for their Channel 4 Dispatches investigation into the ‘Plebgate’ scandal, and…
The 24th Raindance Film Festival: Five Days on Lesvos
“The world is facing an unprecedented displacement crisis,” European Commission has said. The EU has been discussing the aforementioned issue for months; however, their help is inadequate to deal with the rising numbers of dislodged people who are predominantly refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Many people arrive in the EU after…
The 24th Raindance Film Festival: Running Eagle
In 2014, Gwen Florio – an American writer and journalist – wrote Dakota, a novel which tells the story of the former foreign correspondent Lola Wicks, who investigates the disappearance of one of the Blackfeet Tribe’s girls, Judith Calf Looking. The novel is a fascinating yet distressing tale about the tribe’s living conditions, as well as…
The 60th BFI London Film Festival: The Handmaiden Review
The South Korean film director Park Chan-wook has always been an exceptional writer of seductive and pulsating narratives, like Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and Thirst, to name just a few. His newest production, The Handmaiden, is yet another enchanting piece of writing. It is also a fascinating interpretation of the Welsh novel Fingersmith, written by Sarah Walters; while…
The 60th BFI London Film Festival: The Wailing Review
Na Hong-jin is – in every respect – the maharishi of thriller; when his previous films The Chaser (2008) and The Yellow Sea (2010) were released in Korea and Europe, they put critics and film goers at the edge of their seats, proving that his sophisticated writing and directing is one of a kind. The audience had to wait six…
Train to Busan Review
Zombie film is a “genre that just won’t die,” someone once said. It all started in the early thirties when Hollywood was beginning to try out “iconic-monster” films, and within a short period of time, the first feature-length “walking-dead” movie was presented to the audience: director Victor Halperin’s inexpensively made White Zombie (1932). Since then, zombie…
In Conversation with the Clyde Brothers & Avery Clyde
The Clyde Brothers (If I Could Tell You) have always been interested in television and films, so when they grew up, they have decided to establish their own independent creative production company Squint Pictures. “As writer/directors, the Clyde Brothers love to develop unique characters thrown into sometimes outrageous, but always relatable situations. Their work capitalizes…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 