Benson K. Lee is an award-wining filmmaker whose directorial debut, Miss Monday, was invited to be a part of the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. The film went on to win a Special Grand Jury Prize for Best Actor: Andrea Hart. A decade later, Lee made his first documentary, Planet B- Boy,…
Tag: Korean Cinema
In Conversation with Teo Yoo
Teo Yoo, born and raised in Germany, left for New York City at the age of 20, to study acting at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, a school known for its notable alumni such as Christoph Waltz, Bridget Fonda and Uma Thurman. After New York, he travelled to London where he took on an intensive course…
Min Kyu Dong’s The Treacherous
I have honestly lost count of how many period films, set in the Joseon Dynasty, have been made in Korea. It seems like this particular kingdom, which was founded by Yi Seong-gye in 1392, has left a significant legacy for modern Korea; not only when it comes to societal norms, attitudes and language, but it…
Memories of the Sword Review
It has been two years since Lee Byung- hun showed his acting talents off in a Korean production. He was recently seen in American films such as Terminator Genisys, RED 2 and G.I. Joe Retaliation, and has two English speaking movies in the pipeline: Misconduct, alongside Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins, and Magnificent Seven, a remake of…
The 59th London Film Festival: In Conversation with Choi Dong-hoon, director of ‘Assassination’
Choi Dong-hoon, a South Korean director, began his voyage into filmmaking in 2004 when he released The Big Swing, a crime thriller, which brought him instantaneous praise from domestic and foreign critics. A couple of years later, Choi Dong-hoon repeated his previous success with another interesting production, Tazza: The High Rollers, an adaptation of Huh Young-man and…
The 10th London Korean Film Festival: We Will Be Ok Review
Would You Rather Die than Lead an Ordinary Life? It happens, every once upon a film festival moon. Those of you who have visited a film festival or two – especially if you were there as press – know what the usual rhythm is like. You dig and tread and boot and occasionally half-sleep your…
The 10th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Zhang Lu
Zhang Lu, a Korean-Chinese filmmaker who was born and raised in China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, has been living and working in Korea since 2012. Most of his films have focused on the disenfranchised ethnic Korean and Chinese-Korean people living in China; these include Grain in Ear (2006), Desert Dream (2007), Dooman River (2011), Scenery (2013), and…
The 10th London Korean Film Festival: Twenty
Lee Byeong-heon, a South Korean filmmaker, debuted with the feature Cheer Up Mr Lee in 2013, which subsequently came to win the Audience Award at Seoul International Film Festival. A couple of years later, he released his second movie entitled Twenty; a coming-of-age film which brought him wide recognition among the foreign as well as domestic audience….
The 10th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Jang Kun- jae
South Korean filmmaker Jang Kun- jae is one of the emerging filmmakers in Korea, who is known for his naturalistic films such as Eighteen (2010), Sleepless Night (2013) and A Midsummer Fantasia (2015). Kun- jae is a handy man when it comes to filmmaking; he edits, produces and directs his own films. His debut feature Eighteen…
The 59th London Film Festival: Assassination
A genius storyteller for his spectacular ability to develop elaborate stories, someone once said about Choi Dong-hoon, one of the most successful South Korean film directors in modern Korean cinema. All his five productions, The Big Swindle (2004), Tazza: The High Roller (2006), Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard (2009), The Thieves (2012) and his latest hit Assassination…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 