2008 Archive

  • An elementary school in Seoul, the present. Six-year-old Jin spends her penultimate day at elementary school learning about time and playing with friends. Later that evening, she is chastised by her mother for failing to take Bin, her four–year-old sister, off the neighbours’ hands when she was supposed to. While...

    Review: Treeless Mountain (Kim So-yong / 2008)

    An elementary school in Seoul, the present. Six-year-old Jin spends her penultimate day at elementary school learning about time and playing with friends. Later that evening, she is chastised by her mother for failing to take Bin, her four–year-old sister, off the neighbours’ hands when she was supposed to. While...

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  • In the near future, the government of Japan enforces an injection in preschoolers that randomly causes death in the minority of them upon reaching adult hood (anytime between the ages of 18-25) in an effort to boost good citizenship and force a meaningful life. Messengers appointed by the government deliver...

    Non-Korean Review: Death Notice – Ikigami (Tomoyuki Takimoto / 2008)

    In the near future, the government of Japan enforces an injection in preschoolers that randomly causes death in the minority of them upon reaching adult hood (anytime between the ages of 18-25) in an effort to boost good citizenship and force a meaningful life. Messengers appointed by the government deliver...

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  • A biblical tidal wave strikes Tokyo. In the aftermath, Shizuma leads a rescue squad from the city Fire Department to Shimbashi Station, now an area of devastated wasteland. Shocked to learn that his younger brother, Yuji, and seven year-old niece are trapped underground, Shizuma mobilises a specialist rescue squad to...

    Non-Korean Review: 252: Sign of Life (Nobuo Mizuta / 2008)

    A biblical tidal wave strikes Tokyo. In the aftermath, Shizuma leads a rescue squad from the city Fire Department to Shimbashi Station, now an area of devastated wasteland. Shocked to learn that his younger brother, Yuji, and seven year-old niece are trapped underground, Shizuma mobilises a specialist rescue squad to...

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  • It’s 1941 and Japan has just signed a peace treaty with the U.S. and the U.K.. A mysterious thief – a ‘man of many faces’ nonetheless – by the name of K-20 has been committing a series of robberies, taking priceless objects and taunting the police who fail to identify...

    Non-Korean Review: K:20 The Legend of The Black Mask (Shimako Sato / 2008)

    It’s 1941 and Japan has just signed a peace treaty with the U.S. and the U.K.. A mysterious thief – a ‘man of many faces’ nonetheless – by the name of K-20 has been committing a series of robberies, taking priceless objects and taunting the police who fail to identify...

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  • So-hwi possesses amazing martial arts abilities and super strength, and while her father wants her to focus on her martial arts training she just wants to blend in with her friends at school and win the attention of the ice hockey team Captain. Her childhood friend Il-yeong arrives back in...

    Review: My Mighty Princess (Kwak Jae-young / 2008)

    So-hwi possesses amazing martial arts abilities and super strength, and while her father wants her to focus on her martial arts training she just wants to blend in with her friends at school and win the attention of the ice hockey team Captain. Her childhood friend Il-yeong arrives back in...

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  • A heist is arranged by cold-bloodied-killer-with-a-reputation-to-match Chang-yi to steal a map that is being transported by train but before he can get his hands on the document it is stolen by a thief by the name of Tae-goon. During all of the commotion of the heist a third character appears...

    Review: The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Kim Ji-woon / 2008)

    A heist is arranged by cold-bloodied-killer-with-a-reputation-to-match Chang-yi to steal a map that is being transported by train but before he can get his hands on the document it is stolen by a thief by the name of Tae-goon. During all of the commotion of the heist a third character appears...

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