Reflection, a slow pace of life… and life, dictated by the four seasons, are themes, rarely depicted in Korean cinema; instead, more viewers are attracted to the adrenaline-packed productions, full of well-known actors. But 2018 marked a change of tide – the leading female “auteur of Korean New Wave cinema” Yim Soon-rye adopted Little Forest, the two-volume…
Tag: Korean Cinema
Steel Rain Review
Netflix seems to have become every film goer’s Elysium; it has grown into a wholesome VOD platform, with country-specific contents, and has successfully moved even further as a global producer of TV shows and films. Even with some hit-and-miss productions, Netflix provides an easy access to a good selection of films from around the globe….
I Can Speak Review
We often associate Kim Hyun-seok, a South Korean film director and screenwriter, with the 2000 Park Chan-wook feature Joint Security Area, for which Kim co-wrote the script. The audience might also recognize the filmmaker for his feel-good films such as When Romance Meets Destiny (2005), Cyrano Agency (2010) or C’est si bon (2015). The newest Hyun-seok’s production, which received Best…
The 12th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Dae-hwan, Director of ‘The First Lap’
Kim Dae-hwan is an up-and-coming South Korean film director; while still in college, he directed two short films, Picnic (2010) and Interview (2011); he introduced his debut feature, End of Winter, to the audience in 2014, while studying post-grad at Dankook University’s Graduate School of Cinematic Content. Two years later, Jeonju Cinema Projects helped fund his…
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: In Conversation with Kang Yoon-sung, Director of ‘The Outlaws’
Kang Yoon-sung was once an actor with a single credit under his name. He himself stated “I knew I had no talent in acting” – and one could say thank god for that, since because of it, Korean cinema gained a talented writer and film director, whose debut feature conquered both domestic and overseas markets….
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…
The 12th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Lee Wan-min and Kim Sae-byuk
Lee Wan-min is a young South Korean film director; after directing several shorts, including Chima (2006), Mensrea (2008), Sang (2009) and Mock or Die (2010), she presented her first feature, Jamsil (2016), for the first time to the audience at the 21st Busan International Film Festival last year; the film was also screened in the Women’s Voices strand…
The 12th London Korean Film Festival: Master Review
In the world where corruption and scams have become a multilevel maze, it is hard not to notice that the contemporary film industry started making more films that expose the current state of the world’s society, including politics, juridical system and commercial establishments. South Korean cinema is one of those tools that bring the aforementioned…
The 2nd London East Asia Film Festival: The Mimic Review
In 2013, Huh Jung’s feature directorial debut Hide and Seek was up against blockbusters such as The Terror Live, Flu and Snowpiercer, and no one expected that the low-budget thriller would on the domestic South Korean market become a hit alongside the three aforementioned productions. 4 years later, Huh Jung is back with The Mimic and it is as…
The 2nd London East Asia Film Festival: V.I.P Review
Park Hoon-jung, a South Korean filmmaker, has – thanks to his distinctive and thoughtful writing style – attracted a vast number of international and domestic viewers to Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil and Ryoo Seung-wan’s The Unjust. His directing skills then allowed him to make New World, an intriguing film and one of the most gripping Korean gangster productions…
The 2nd London East Asia Film Festival: Anarchist from Colony Review
For the past few years, Korean cinema has been swamped with various period films, in which the country’s turbulent history has been amalgamating fiction, action and frequently monotonous anti-Japanese propaganda. Although successful within the domestic market, it is rare for historical dramas to achieve an overseas 5-star rating; and one such film is Lee Joon-ik’s…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 