Tag: Korean Cinema

  • Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002)

    Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002)

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    Something about Song Kang-ho’s face – as a presence he emits an innate likeability and charm. The guy has range, of course, and it’s always compelling when a likeable film presence plays someone whose actions are considerably unlikeable. Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002) is the first of the unofficial “Vengeance” trilogy from South Korean director… Read.

  • Return To Seoul (2022)

    Return To Seoul (2022)

    A character study whose style mirrors the push-and-pull of its protagonist, Return To Seoul (2022) follows a young French woman, Freddie (Park Ji-Min), who was adopted from South Korea. Visiting the home of her birth parents on a spur-of-the-moment deal, she also decides to track them down, and is completely unprepared for the emotional consequences.… Read.

  • Nowhere To Hide (1999)

    Nowhere To Hide (1999)

    Sometimes the algorithm works. I only came across Nowhere To Hide (1999) when I was looking up “Similar Movies to” The Wild Goose Lake (a Chinese neo-noir that was a recent fave) on Apple. Wong Kar-wai stylistic comparisons for a South Korean crime thriller, images of dudes punching each other drenched in the rain, I’m… Read.

  • The Woman Who Ran (2020)

    The Woman Who Ran (2020)

    I’ve not seen any of South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s work – he’s made like over twenty moderately budgeted movies – before The Woman Who Ran (2020), which appealed to me because it was available on SBS On Demand and it was only 77 minutes long. The first thing I can say: zooms. A camera… Read.

  • Night In Paradise (2020)

    Night In Paradise (2020)

    Night In Paradise (2020; aka Nagwonui bam) is good but not great, but it is an interesting South Korean movie that might have slipped past notice as a Netflix Original. Directed by Park Hoon-jung (screenwriter of I Saw The Devil), the film is like a meeting point between a violent gangster film and a slow… Read.