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RightClickSaveAs posted:Cool, this one is on Netflix (US at least). I haven't seen a Korean horror film in a while. I think it's just that movie topics come in waves. For US movies, there was a bunch about WW2, then aliens, then zombies, then superheroes, etc.
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Sep 16, 2013 18:07
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Yeah, pretty much. There were four horror releases this summer that come to mind off the top of my head, and none of them were super-successful. The most successful was Killer Toon, which made the American equivalent of around 60 million. My personal favorite was The Puppet, but it's not even really a horror film and I think that movie pissed a lot of people off because they were expecting a horror sex thiller and ended up getting a Satanic allegory about immaturity instead. Neither of these are available in English yet, naturally. You might have better luck finding Sorum, one of those horror movies that isn't particularly scary. It takes place in an incredibly depressed-looking housing complex as characters amble through their miserable dead-end lives while evading demons that are more metaphorical than they are literal. Most of the appeal comes from the way the film is shot, which inspires a deep sense of foreboding. The storyline is less about literal events and more character study and reaction. It's not the greatest example of this kind of filmmaking technique, but I enjoyed it.
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Sep 23, 2013 03:54
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 The Neighbor Zombie is an omnibus film of six stories dealing with those people in the zombie apocalypse who aren't main character material. Nearly everyone in this movie either is a zombie, turns into a zombie, or is killed by a zombie- but none of them are on-screen long enough for us to get much of a picture of them except for the way they choose to spend the last hours of their life, because they're screwed and they know it. There's a quality gap- some of them are just all right and some are incredible. But all of them take an interesting look at possible zombie tropes by isolating the emotional reactions into individual short pieces instead of just being a subplot of a larger story. This is the best piece of zombie fiction I've ever seen in terms of portraying the sheer hopelessness of the situation. It's implied from the very beginning that the zombie threat is eventually contained, but this makes pretty much no difference to the characters who are going to die before the cure even shows up. Or who have to live knowing the virus forced them to murder their loved ones.
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Sep 30, 2013 07:41
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I somehow completely missed that one, I'll have to track it down, sounds really interesting.
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Sep 30, 2013 19:19
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Some Guy TT posted:
Also that poster is so much better than what Netflix is using: 
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Oct 10, 2013 04:28
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Anyone see Mobeius? I saw it at the Toronto film festival and it absolutely shocked the audience. I'm afraid it might never see wide release because of its subject matter. http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2942522/
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Oct 10, 2013 23:11
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I have! Posted a review just this weekend. Moebius is a story about how in some ways castration can be a life-affirming experience. Whatever bizarre mental portrait that sentence gave you of the film, I assure you, the actual product is even weirder. Kim Ki-Duk has finally hit the next natural step and just made a film that has no dialogue whatsoever, so nothing is ever actually explained. It's just a series of increasingly bizarre sexual metaphors juxtaposed with literal sexuality. This film's take on modern masculinity is really pointed and unsympathetic, and I actually found this bluntness to be a lot more shocking than the chopping off of dongs. A story worth watching- I'm optimistic about its chance for some international distribution, given that the film doesn't even have a language barrier.
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Oct 14, 2013 05:02
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I just saw Pieta last week (in a theatre with like 6 other people, including an old couple in front of me that was laughing throughout. That was a weird one.) and thought it was the most Kim Ki-duk film there could ever be. Sounds like I was wrong.
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Oct 17, 2013 03:11
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Just watched Secret Reunion. Are there any other movies that deals with the tension between North and South apart from this, JSA, Taegukgi and National Security?
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Oct 26, 2013 22:31
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The Front Line is about the Korean War and is directed by the same guy who did Secret Reunion and the writer for JSA. It's follows a group of South Korean soldiers and a group of North Korean soldiers as a hill changes hands over and over and over. Also, one of the South Korean officers is trying to solve a suspicious death (and was in JSA). Silmido is about a bunch of criminals who basically agree to be sent to an island by the military instead of being executed. There they're trained for their mission of assassinating Kim Il-Sung. Not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for though because it's just them on the island for the most part, no Northerners. Welcome to Dongmakgol is downright pleasant. It's about the Korean War again, this time a small group of North and South Korean soldiers are stuck together in a remote village whose inhabitants have no idea what's going on in the outside world. So they basically just have to work together and be friendly until they hopefully get picked up by their countries and can get out. e: director stuff Gringo Heisenberg fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Oct 27, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 23:51
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Gringo Heisenberg posted:The Front Line is about the Korean War and is directed by the same guy who did JSA and Secret Reunion. Wasn't JSA directed by Chan-Wook Park? Pretty sure he didn't direct The Front Line or Secret Reunion (unless there's another JSA film I don't know about).
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Oct 27, 2013 00:00
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Woops, yes he did. Shoulda been director of Secret Reunion and writer of JSA. Editing post.
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Oct 27, 2013 00:16
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ulvir posted:Just watched Secret Reunion. Are there any other movies that deals with the tension between North and South apart from this, JSA, Taegukgi and National Security? In terms of direct, realistic, military tensions, Gringo pretty much has you covered. But there was one big movie about North Korea this summer that does need to be mentioned -  Secretly and Greatly is about North Korean super-spy Ryoo-Hwan, who has been tasked with infiltrating South Korea by pretending to be a mentally retarded village idiot. It's a really weird movie- it's obvious that the story is supposed to be an action thriller with retard jokes thrown in for good measure, but the film isn't particularly negative either toward North Koreans or the mentally handicapped. The view the film takes concerning Ryoo-Hwan's mission is a cynical one, especially when the North Korean government finally sends him orders, and the emotional resonance is entirely in how Ryoo-Hwan and his superspy friends adapt to life in South Korea and the connections they make in the local community. The ending's a pretty cold gut punch, since while it makes perfect logical sense, it's really not what a typical viewer would be reasonably expecting. Fun demographic information- this movie was most popular with teenagers (who probably read the webtoon it's based off of) and old people. Young to middle-aged adults didn't like it. I'm willing to bet the reason for this is that the movie's central themes are community and reconciliation, and this stuff tends to be more important to either the young or old. But take my word with a grain of salt- I'm writing as a twenty-something who genuinely enjoyed it. Some Guy TT fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Oct 30, 2013 |
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Oct 28, 2013 08:50
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Thanks for all the suggestions. I see Welcome to Dongmakgol is currently the only movie of the bunch on Hulu, so I guess I'll be watching that first. Secretly and Greatly seems really intriguing though, so I'll definitely see if I can get a hold of that one.
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Oct 29, 2013 19:49
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I saw Hello Ghost. It was cute and zany, if kinda striking when the love interest not only put up with the dude's antics but actually found them endearing, 'cause goddamn man. I mean he practically stalked her and that kid around their day out.  Cultural differences I guess.It was also completely and totally heartbreaking. Did not at all expect that going into the movie.
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Oct 29, 2013 20:03
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 I have not actually seen The Duelist- this review is from HanCinema's new film writer. But her description of it makes the movie sound really cool so I'm making a point to watch it in the future. It's a Joseon-era detective story, with a team of cops trying to track down a mysterious assassin. Complications ensue when one of the detectives and the assassin develop feelings for one another. Also, there are lots of swordfights, and an emphasis on visual cinematographic communication over words. Anyone else know anything about it?
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Nov 4, 2013 06:46
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The Duelist is mediocre as gently caress. Ha Ji-won's charms and a few good scenes (such as an awesome fight in a labyrinth-like walking area that jumps from light to shadow) get bogged down by a story about counterfeit coins minted to weaken an economy for a bunch of political reasons, and a love interest villain who is straight out of anime. They also have a character basically explain the final sequence for the audience members who didn't get it, which is a pet peeve of mine. The visuals are nice. Basically, watch the fight scenes on YouTube.
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Nov 4, 2013 07:44
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 Hong Sang-Soo is kind of like Woody Allen if Woody Allen didn't devote most of his energy to trying to convince people that Woody Allen is really cool. His movies are about basically pathetic characters who are either already in or trying to initiate lousy romantic relationships to try and escape from their own self-inflicted misery. Nobody's Daughter Haewon is one such person, a college student stuck in a dead-end relationship with her married professor that seems to continue mostly because they're both such pathetic sad sacks that they're frightened of being alone long enough to find better options. Even her dreams are stupid and pointless. Did I mention this movie is a comedy? Kind of a sadistic one, really, but I honestly laughed a lot. It's a nice reminder why cutting all ties with your last terrible significant other was probably the best possible idea. Some Guy TT fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Nov 25, 2013 |
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Nov 18, 2013 07:40
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 Last Present is a Korean New Wave film- for the snobbier readers out there, that means it dates back to that time "when Korean movies used to be good". It's a melodrama about a struggling comedian who discovers that his wife is dying, and the loving efforts both of them make to give their partner the final ultimate gift before she passes on. It's unbelievably emotional and manipulative- but what makes the movie so effective is that the feelings it inspires are genuine ones, relating to greater questions of love, last wishes, and the fundamental irony of the main character basically turning into a sad clown. In context, of course, it's a bit more complicated than that.
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Nov 25, 2013 05:15
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Some Guy TT posted:
Hong Sang-Soo is a confounding director for me. I walk out of his films thinking that I like them, but find it impossible to articulate why -- and I write about film for a living. He's been turning out films like clockwork in the past couple years, and although he likes to use the same character archetypes and structuring devices over and over, none of his films feels derivative or unoriginal. I think In Another Country (2012) is my favorite film of his, although that's probably because I love Isabelle Huppert and love seeing her act like a goofball.
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Nov 25, 2013 08:40
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Has anyone seen The Weight? It barely has an IMDB entry and I couldn't find out a whole lot about it, apart from a very NWS trailer up on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noGUrcocXk8  From that, it looks like it could either be an aggressively indie movie about exploring loneliness, otherness, and gender issues, or a bizarre shock fest.
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Nov 28, 2013 02:45
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So could someone explain the end of Oldboy to me? I was confused.
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Dec 1, 2013 23:30
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Xandoom posted:So could someone explain the end of Oldboy to me? I was confused. Oh Dae-su saw Woo-jin loving his own sister back when they were in school and told everyone and (I think?) spread the rumour that Woo-jin also got her pregnant. Woo-jin's sister threw herself off a dam because of it and Woo-jin blamed Dae-su. Note: His sister wasn't actually pregnant, she just thought she was because of the stress from the rumour Dae-su started or something. As a result, Woo-jin threw Dae-su in that hotel jail years and years later as revenge. Woo-jin also took Dae-su's young daughter, Mi-do, while he was in the jail and sent her to a foster parent of his choosing. While in the hotel jail, Dae-su saw on the news that he iwas being accused of killing his wife and running away, leaving his daughter. While in the hotel jail Woo-jin has Dae-su hypnotized to prime him to do certain things once released. I think he also does this to Mi-do to make her forget what her father looks like? Dae-su gets lets out by Woo-jin and meets a sushi chef, Mi-do, and doesn't realize it is his daughter. Mi-do starts helping him and they have sex. At the big climax of the movie, Woo-jin reveals that his revenge was setting up Dae-su to gently caress his own daughter so that he feels the same pain Woo-jin does/did or something. Dae-su begs him not to tell Mi-do and cuts off his own tongue because his big mouth is what Woo-jin sees as killing his sister. Woo-jin kills himself in the elevator because the only thing he had left to live for after his sister killed herself was getting revenge on Dae-su. At the very end, Dae-su goes to see a hypnotist to ask her to erase his knowledge of Mi-do being his daughter. Possibly so he could stay in a relationship with her? So the whole thing was about Woo-jin's revenge, not Dae-su's. e: Oh, also there was some stuff about "the monster" that I forget, someone can probably cover it better. Been a while but I think I got most of it. Gringo Heisenberg fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Dec 2, 2013 |
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Dec 2, 2013 00:56
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Speaking of Oldboy, anyone see the remake? I didn't even realize it was out, I guess it came out Friday.
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Dec 2, 2013 01:05
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RightClickSaveAs posted:Speaking of Oldboy, anyone see the remake? I didn't even realize it was out, I guess it came out Friday. I saw it today. I've never seen the original but I thought the remake was very good! Thank you for the summary, my mistake I was reffering to the remake. I realized I am in the wrong thread 
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Dec 2, 2013 01:23
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Gringo Heisenberg posted:Oh Dae-su saw Woo-jin loving his own sister back when they were in school and told everyone and (I think?) spread the rumour that Woo-jin also got her pregnant. Woo-jin's sister threw herself off a dam because of it and Woo-jin blamed Dae-su. To clarify, Dae-su only actually told his one friend the info, the frend is the one that told everybody.
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Dec 2, 2013 02:24
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RightClickSaveAs posted:Has anyone seen The Weight? It barely has an IMDB entry and I couldn't find out a whole lot about it, apart from a very NWS trailer up on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noGUrcocXk8  The answer to your question is "all of the above". The Weight tells the story of a mortician's lonely isolated life, and all the weird sexual stuff that happens in the background. I really, genuinely hated this movie after I saw it- the shock works in jolts, like with the early story of the man who never takes off his helmet, but it just gets really bizarre and overwrought the longer it goes on and the more increasingly weird backstory is uncovered. I stand by all the negative comments in the review, but in retrospect it's not really that horrible, and I can see it appealing to a niche audience. But your ability to tolerate it depends largely on how much weird sexual crap you're willing to endure in order to accept the film's broader message. For me that tolerance is pretty low. If you're looking for IMDB level detail about a movie, HanCinema is your best bet. Disclaimer- that's the website I work for. But, to take the page on The Weight as an example, you've got a cast list, credits, picture gallery, synopsis, times it's appeared in the newstream, a teaser, and a review. Although we don't have reviews for every single Korean movie ever. Yet. Only way to know for sure is to type the movie's name into the search engine. It can recognize both the English and Korean alphabets. ...Better add that to the OP. By the way, did you find out about this movie just surfing YouTube? Is it getting a theatrical release somewhere? It only officially premiered in Korea last month, before that it was just the festival circuit.
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Dec 2, 2013 04:40
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Some Guy TT posted:
I first heard about it on these forums, flashy_mcflash in the horror thread mentioned it as being one of the horror selections from the Fantasia festival this summer: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3030395&pagenumber=402&perpage=40#post416930130 I bookmark a lot of interesting movies I hear about, to get a hold of them if they ever become available. This one looks like it's going to be tough to find though.
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Dec 2, 2013 14:10
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RightClickSaveAs posted:Oh thanks, I should have thought to check that site first. I'll make sure I bookmark it so I can do that in the future. Was the review on there written by you? Here's a snippet from a review from Twitchfilm.com: "The Weight has not only already secured a place in my best of list for the year, but it may have just become one of my new favorite films of all time." http://twitchfilm.com/2013/07/fantasia-2013-boozie-movies-reviews-the-weight-dude-its-pretty-heavy.html I definitely want to check it out now.
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Dec 3, 2013 11:12
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What is the consensus on My Boss, My Hero (and the sequels)?
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Dec 7, 2013 15:50
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I haven't seen any of them, so I can't comment. Daum ratings peg the first one as 7.5, the second as 5.1, and the third as 4.2, so take that for what it's worth. I hadn't even heard of these movies before you mentioned them, so I can't imagine they're that well-known or regarded. But then, Interview is another movie that's not well-regarded in the annals of time. Its rating is 6.7. But I really enjoyed it. The story's about a film crew making a fluff TV piece about past loves. It's cheery heartwarming stuff until it becomes clear that one woman is putting on a show for the camera to hide her own emotional issues. A meta-commentary ensues about the ability of filmmaking to find actual truth, and the answer seems to be a fairly bleak one. Interview also has the distinction of being the only Korean movie to be filmed under the Dogma 95 Manifesto. Yep, there's a relic almost completely forgotten about 15 years later.
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Dec 16, 2013 03:42
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 Il Mare is best known for being remade as The Lakehouse, a movie I haven't seen and so will not discuss. It's about a magic mailbox that delivers objects across time and space. If you're the kind of person who gets hung up on time travel rules and the speculative implications thereof, this movie is not for you. Rather, Il Mare is about being able to explore solitude with limited human interaction, and being able to figure out what's really important in life with the assistance of this extended introspection. The film is beautifully shot, absolutely selling the majesty and subtlety of these feelings. It's great thoughtful, romantic stuff, demonstrating a lot of cinematic characteristics that marked the Korean New Wave.
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Dec 23, 2013 03:59
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So, here is the final list for the 10 top-grossing domestic films in South Korea this year. I'm wondering whether I should write a top 10 list in terms of quality...the top 3 are the only ones I would know for sure, and I feel kind of iffy on the concept in general, but people seem to like them. Song Kang-Ho recently starred in The Attorney, a very popular film about dictatorial Korea in the eighties, so it's worth taking a moment to discuss The President's Barber, an older Song Kang-Ho joint where he plays a fairly unremarkable barber who gets caught up in the big historical events of the country in the sixties and seventies. The film's kind of like Forrest Gump, except all the close encounters are with horrible events that result in large numbers of people being killed or maimed. The comedy is very dark, as you might be able to guess, yet retains an intriguingly simple quality because the titular barber is clearly an everyman who's just trying to have normal happy joys in life.
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Dec 30, 2013 02:55
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I'd love any write ups you can give, lately I've been feeling like I've watched most of the really great movies of the new wave and don't have much left. Been on the fence about watching The New World, and any write ups of Kang-Ho Song movies are always good. I've been reading all of your write ups but don't usually have much to contribute. Have you seen Breathless?
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Jan 3, 2014 01:05
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This may be an odd request, but can someone tell me the ending to Cold Eyes for me? I was watching on a plane that landed with about 15 Minutes left. I was at the part where the bad dude had evaded capture again by jumping behind a moving train Thanks, and namaste
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Jan 3, 2014 11:44
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WDIIA posted:This may be an odd request, but can someone tell me the ending to Cold Eyes for me? I was watching on a plane that landed with about 15 Minutes left. I was at the part where the bad dude had evaded capture again by jumping behind a moving train The bad guy runs through the tunnel with the girl and police chasing after him, and when he's about to exit the tunnel, WHOA! the old wounded cop was waiting for him and shots him. Then there's dramatic music, wide-panning shots of whatever and they dress up and go to the cemetery to pay respects to the young dead cop guy. After that there's a scene where Simon Yam gets off a high speed train, and the surveillance team are following him around. The End.
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Jan 3, 2014 23:50
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I really want to see "The Terror Live". Also I'm depressed that Snowpiercer distribution apparently got held up, are the Weinsteins being Weinsteins about it or what's going on? I thought that was supposed to be a big summer release. On Netflix streaming, I just watched The Tower, it's a big budget disaster movie with heroic characters, comic relief, and a big glass skybridge that sets up exactly the scene you'd expect. It's a pretty exciting ride. Although to remind you that you are watching a Korean movie, it ends on a big depressing downer note.
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Jan 5, 2014 05:37
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RightClickSaveAs posted:I really want to see "The Terror Live". Also I'm depressed that Snowpiercer distribution apparently got held up, are the Weinsteins being Weinsteins about it or what's going on? I thought that was supposed to be a big summer release. It was...in South Korea. On a technical level, it is the Weinsteins just being unreasonably picky about the cut. Personally I think the problem is more to do with film philosophy in general- American distributors are just really reticent about trying to market any movie that isn't either a sequel, franchise, or features an A-Lister in the lead role, whereas South Korean distributors just throw whatever crazy ideas they have against the wall in the hopes it will stick. I was actually supposed to write a year-end piece for Current Releases about it but...eh...that fell through. Not terribly surprising, given what a specialized topic Korean film is.  The Terror Live is, by the way, a totally rad movie you should see. It was released the same day as Snowpiercer, so it will be hilarious and terrible if you somehow get access to this movie first. It's about a radio show host who gets a phone call from a terrorist who says he's going to start blowing up stuff unless his surprisingly modest demands are met. The next eighty minutes consists of the good guys trying to find ways to avoid meeting those demands because nobody negotiates with terrorists, and the situation keeps escalating. Both in terms of outrageous exploding special effects, and the gaze into what darkness lurks inside the hearts of men.
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Jan 6, 2014 03:57
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 Woman of Fire is a 1971 Korean film by Kim Ki-Young, best for making the original version of The Housemaid. It's about...well, for the most part lots of crazy nutball stuff involving a housemaid who moves in from the rural countryside and kind of ends up going completely crazy. This movie is probably the clearest predecessor in terms of the harsh psychological, sexual, and violent themes that modern Korean films tend to be well known for on the international circuit. It's also free to watch on the Korean Film Archive's Youtube channel with English subtitles to boot, so there's your instant gratification right there. Note- movie for the most part the movie comes out saying instant gratification is a bad thing.
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Jan 13, 2014 03:59
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Some Guy TT posted:It was...in South Korea. On a technical level, it is the Weinsteins just being unreasonably picky about the cut. Personally I think the problem is more to do with film philosophy in general- American distributors are just really reticent about trying to market any movie that isn't either a sequel, franchise, or features an A-Lister in the lead role, whereas South Korean distributors just throw whatever crazy ideas they have against the wall in the hopes it will stick. But Snowpiercer has both Chris Evans and Song Kang-ho as A-listers! 
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Jan 13, 2014 17:06
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