For the past few years, South Korea has been overflown with its own zombie-themed films and TV shows whose format ranges from classic horror to period dramas and even comedies, with various levels of quality. The recently released Netflix’s Kingdom, with its perfect narrative and direction, now ranks among the best Korean products of the…
Tag: Korean Cinema
21st Udine Far East Film Festival: Unstoppable Review
Ma Dong-seok is unstoppable. In 2018, the actor starred in a record-breaking five films: Champion, Along With The Gods: The Last 49 Days, The Soul-Mate, The Villagers and Unstoppable, and it seems that he is keeping himself just as busy in 2019. His final work of 2018, the action thriller Unstoppable, directed by Kim Min-ho, screened…
21st Udine Far East Film Festival: The Great Battle Review
The history of Korea has been a constant struggle of forces who either conquered or tried to conquer its lands. One such turbulent event was the attack on the Ansi Fortress in 645AD, recently depicted in Kim Kwang-sik’s The Great Battle, an ultra-patriotic tale of survival and sacrifice. Photo © Next Entertainment World Emperor of the…
21st Udine Far East Film Festival: Birthday Review
In the early hours of the morning on April 16th 2014, followed by heart-wrenching days of rescue, the hearts of the South Korean nation broke as one as the ferry MV Sewol sank and claimed the lives of 304 passengers and crew members. The tragedy was made worse as 250 of the victims were juniors…
69th Berlin Film Festival: In Conversation with Matija Strniša, a Film Music Composer
The competitive Generation 14plus section of this year’s Berlinale featured international gems with a focus on young adult themes, and the Grand Prix Award for Best Film was awarded to Kim Bora‘s House of Hummingbird, which finally got its European premiere after wowing the audience with its world premiere at the 2018 Busan International Film…
In Conversation with Steven Yeun of ‘Burning’
Steven Yeun greets me with a big smile and a warm handshake as we meet at the Mayfair hotel in London on a cold October morning. We sit down and chat about what it means to be a Korean-American, his latest production Burning, and working with Lee Chang-dong. Born in Seoul, South Korea and raised…
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning
The attempts to translate Haruki Murakami‘s prose into the cinematic language have so far mostly ended in spectacular disasters, or – in the best case – garnered mixed reviews, probably due to the specific style of the writer. But the fates have changed when Lee Chang-dong, the director of Poetry and Peppermint Candy, returned after 6 years of…
13th London Korean Film Festival: The Poet and the Boy Review
The Poet and the Boy (Si-e-nui a-rang) is the feature debut for Kim Yang-hee; it premiered at Jeonju International film festival in 2017, and made its way to London Korean Film Festival this fall. The film stars South Korean actor and filmmaker Yang Ik-june, who is best known for his debut film, which he both…
13th London Korean Film Festival: Microhabitat Review
Despite the complexity of portraying homelessness on screen, filmmakers keep rising to the challenge. The South Korean filmmaker Jeon Go-woon skillfully depicted the subject in her debut feature Microhabitat, in which she also questions different aspects of adult life. The film revolves around the character of Mi-so (Esom: Warriors of the Dawn, The Third Charm TV…
13th London Korean Film Festival: The Princess and the Matchmaker Review
A long wait for a premiere of a film never bodes well, even though it might be because the producers want to avoid the film clashing with the releases of other big productions, or because the progress has been slowed down by a prolonged post-production. The latter especially implies that the producer isn’t sure about…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 