review Archive

Review: Aimless Bullet (Yoo Hyun-mok / 1962)

Posted on August 2, 2011 | No Comments
Cheol-ho has it tough. He lives in a small house with his pregnant wife, a daughter who craves new clothes, two brothers – one of whom is an injured war veteran while the other sells newspapers when he should be going to school – a sister who has become a...
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Review: Treeless Mountain (Kim So-yong / 2008)

Posted on July 20, 2011 | No Comments
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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Review: The Recipe (Lee Seo-goon / 2010)

Posted on June 30, 2011 | No Comments
[New York Asian Film Festival 2011 Review] A mystical and magical concoction, much like the doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew) dish that it revolves around, Lee Seo-goon’s second feature The Recipe hinges on a brilliant bit of narrative misdirection. Choi Yu-jin (Ryoo Seung-ryong), the producer/host of a sensationalistic TV expose...
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Blu-ray Review: I’m A Cyborg But That’s OK (Park Chan-wook / 2006)

Posted on April 3, 2011 | No Comments
Following his massively successful Vengeance Trilogy, director Park Chan-wook opted for a change in tone with his romantic comedy I’m A Cyborg But That’s OK (2006) – shortened for international release to I’m A Cyborg. Received with a mixed response, the film was a disappointment for many – especially those...
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Blu-ray Review: A Tale of Two Sisters (Kim Jee-woon / 2003)

Posted on April 3, 2011 | No Comments
In the eight years since its original release Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) has established its status as a classic of Korean cinema. It’s been remade by Hollywood as The Uninivited (Charles Guard, Thomas Guard, USA: 2009) and its director has consistently delivered crowd-pleasing projects within various...
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Non-Korean Review: Ip Man 2 (Wilson Yip / 2010)

Posted on March 3, 2011 | No Comments
Ip Man and his family have escaped the Japanese on the mainland and have relocated themselves to Hong Kong. Life is difficult as they have no money and Ip Man has little success in finding students to teach in order to provide an income. One day a potential student arrives...
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Review: I Saw The Devil (Kim Jee-woon / 2010)

Posted on March 1, 2011 | No Comments
A psychopath kills a woman. An innocent woman. A beautiful woman. Imagine the plight of her soon-to-be-husband, who loves her and dotes on her. That is the premise. I Saw the Devil is the revenge. Review If one were to ask me the greatest script ever written, or the most...
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Review: Ghosts of War / aka, R-Point (Kong Su-chang / 2004)

Posted on February 4, 2011 | 2 Comments
Vietnam, 1972. Private Kim and Lieutenant Choi, a distinguished officer who was awarded the Choong Moo for service in defence of his country, are on R & R. They take up with some hookers in Nha Trang, but in the night Kim is murdered. Choi finds and executes the assassin,...
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Review: My Wife Is A Gangster 2 (Jeong Heung-sun / 2003)

Posted on July 15, 2010 | No Comments
When female gang boss Eun-jin is involved in a fall from a building she is miraculously unhurt except for one small problem – she has lost her memory and has no recollection of who she is. Taken home and cared for by Yoon Jae-Choi, the owner of a local restaurantt,...
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Review: My Wife is A Gangster (Cho Jin-gyu / 2001)

Posted on July 12, 2010 | No Comments
With a fearsome reputation proceeding her, Eun-jin is the boss of a criminal gang which shows her nothing but complete respect due to her no-nonsense attitude and incredible fighting skills. Eun-jin tracks down her long lost sister but discovers that the two of them won’t have much time together as...
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