Korean Films

Absolutely beautiful! Brilliantly assembled simple story of a writer in search of his muse, told with rich colors and lots of black, dream logic, humor, inspired editing, and a soundtrack that matches it beat for beat. I wanted to applaud almost every scene. Arty without pretension and a poet's attention to detail.

sitenoise at the movies: M (2007)

This is a painful and gorgeous film. Not sad. Painful. And gorgeous. And painful. Be advised that there are a couple scenes in this film that rank up there as a couple of the most difficult scenes to endure in cinematic history. You don't actually see anything, but it's clear what's going on and it is essential to the meaning of this movie. You will squirm in your seat. Guaranteed. And if animals being harmed in the making of a film bothers you, and you consider fish and frogs animals, stay away.

Sadness is seldom more unrelenting than on ONE FINE SPRING DAY, a film with no plot and very little dialog. I was riveted by the intelligence and realism depicted on screen, knowing that the film plays differently depending on the viewers own experience. Masterfully done!

This one is probably for Kim Ki-Duk completists only. It is a remarkable film in its relentless presentation of pain. Every single scene in this 2 hour film involves pain, emotional or physical.

An ensemble sad daydream. Death, disease, and heartbreak all around. How to make a sad movie sadder? Make four of them and weave them together into one. The last bit with the videotape is way over the top (ridiculous), but, as sad as things are the film's touchingly cute characters and their scenarios work to hold back tears. It's all just sad. They should call this "Sad Movie."

After JSA, the Vengeance Trilogy was a bit of a yawner for me. This restored my faith in Park Chan-wook. Funny. Surreal.

A much better version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses than the USA version. The people are prim and proper with wacky hairdos and and funny hats. All of them are beautiful, much better looking, which makes it more fun and more engaging. It's also interesting as a peek into Korean historical values as they discover Catholicism. Do-yeon Jeon is fabulous.

This came out a year before "You've Got Mail" and is a more somber look at two people who meet over the Internet and develop a bond. Jeon Do-yeon is fabulous, of course.

About a girl whose father discovers she is prostituting herself ... OR ... a movie about a guy who discovers his daughter is prostituting herself. Either way, this is a very touching film ... from Kim Ki-Duk. There are two different worlds going on trying to find bridge through pain or kindness. For those who think it starts off like an after school special, yep, that's the point. I think this is KKD in top form. Sex, Violence, Misunderstanding, Love comingling in bizarro-land.

This is just a bunch of parkas and snow covered goggles barking at one another. I guess I just don't like manly man pictures where manly men do manly stuff like climb mountains with other manly men and during the expedition we find out that one man's neglectful manliness caused his son to commit suicide and consequently all the other men on this man's manly journey start dying mysteriously for some manly reason. Oh, and there's supposedly creepy hallucinations along the way.

Do-yeon Jeon fans, add this one to your queue. She plays both mother and daughter in this touching film about a woman who goes back in time and befriends her mother and witnesses the courtship between her mother and father. Great location, cinematography and acting.

Yoon-ki Lee is a slice-of-life, sit back and observe kind of auteur, a method that provided great results when he directed Kim Jisu in "This Charming Girl." There is no one of quite that caliber here. Han Hyo-ju is charming, if perhaps a little too low-key, but the film focuses on many of her ad-lib family members, spreading the interest too thin. Her revelation at the end is like a post-script, an afterthought more than a motivation.

A magnificent character study of a woman who has retreated.

A ridiculously tearful melodrama. Despite the medium grade writing and direction, picking nits with this film is useless. It is so well-acted by two beautiful Koreans it's freakish. First half is smiley RomCom, second half is face dripping, and I mean soaking wet, sad.

Beautifully written, beautifully shot, beautifully acted, and bewildering

sitenoise at the movies: Spider Forest Review

This film stars two of my favorite Korean actors, Do-yeon Jeon and Kang-ho Song, and is written and directed by Chang-dong Lee, of OASIS fame.

The plot in a nutshell: Jeon's character moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her recently killed husband was born. As she tries to start her new life another tragic event turns her world upside down. She looks for comfort in god and religiousness, and then turns a critical towards that.

The scene where Jeon's character goes to the prison to forgive the man who committed the most heinous of crimes against her is one of the strongest and smartest statements on religious belief I've seen.

It's a long, slow paced film, but the performances are extraordinary. Do-yeon Jeon won best actress at Cannes for her performance.

A film like this (boy and girl meet and hate each other then kiss at the end of the film in love) depends almost entirely on performance. Are they quirky and lovable? Average at best. The guy screamed too much and the girl took it too much. The lopsidedness put me off.

It's a buddy cop comedy mystery thriller melodrama. Typically over-the-top Korean style done very very well. World of Silence peels off layer upon layer, uncovering about five film's worth of internal demons and other dramatic tragedies, but it ends, and it seems to end a few times, like a sportscaster screaming "No! No! I don't believe it! Don't ..." and then "Great shot!" when it goes in.

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sitenoise at the movies: World of Silence

A gripping thriller with a bewildered sense of humor made possible by the kick-ass performance of Yun-seok Kim. Highly recommended. There are a handful of groan out loud plot moves in The Chaser, but so what. There are also more than a handful of plot moves this film doesn't do, moves that most people will be guessing it will do, that it more than makes up for it. This is a film I know I'll watch again just for the performance of it. The plot won't matter. It's that good.

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sitenoise at the movies: The Chaser

Song Kang-ho as the Weird is great as always, steals the show. Jung Woo-sung is huggable as the Good, though under-developed. But Lee Byung-hun as the Bad has a contemporary look and swagger that are wrong, misplaced As the Bad, he's more arrogant than evil. The cinematography and editing are great and the action is in high gear but the film can't escape the fact that, with very few exceptions, movies with lotsa gun fights are really fucking stupid.

Hye-jeong Kang is not only cute beyond words she's one of Korea's best young actresses. From "The Butterfly" and "Oldboy" to this ... Wow! "Love Phobia" is standard Korean melodrama which is very cute and funny for an hour and then slowly makes you cry for an hour without dashing your hope for a happy ending. It's executed extremely well with quirky cute bits throughout. Seung-woo Cho is also very good. If you like this kind of movie this is a home run. Interesting allegory as well.

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sitenoise at the movies: Love Phobia

How do the Koreans do it? Director Wai-keung Lau takes wacky and plays it straight, creating a touching melodrama full of completely plausible improbabilities. Woo-sung Jung plays the most lovely, sensitive, and attractive professional killer I've seen in a film. All three main characters are weirdly engrossing and beautiful.

This film belongs to Jung-woo Ha. He is engaging and funny, one of those guys who knows how to spin even the worst of interactions into something that makes him seem likeable. Do-yeon Jeon, in heavy eye make-up, pretty much pouts her way through this Yoon-ki Lee film--which means it's low-key, slice of life, simple story stuff.

One of my favorite actresses gets naked and has lots of sex with a 19 year old boy. What's not to like? Well ... maybe the ending but who's counting?

A supernatural romance where the dead come back before their 49 days in limbo are up and bring appropriate living beings into their dreams. Lucky guy (Kyeong-ho Jeong) is torn between Min-sun Kim and Su-yeon Cha not knowing who is alive and who is dead, including himself. The soundtrack is a little too bold at times, but the cinematography an set locations are wonderful.

This film has appalling sexual politics. A repugnant womanizer rapes a student teacher he is supervising. We know they are going to end up together. The guy never redeems himself. The girl appears to hate the man but sleeps with him anyway. Hye-jeong Kang is equally mesmerizing and frustrating as the messed up with baggage girl, but the guy is a complete ass. I can't believe this movie tells the story it does, and to flamenco music no less. wtf?

Every character in this film, except Failan, is a jerk. It's filled with unlikeables yet somehow manages to manipulate a few pretty strong melodramatic moments. "Oldboy" Min-sik Choi is a master technician at melodrama. In the end, however, it seems very cheap, and worst of all ... mean.

Review: sitenoise at the movies: Failan

Great idea, great script, great direction; 5 for being a good film about male bonding; 5 more for the political content, and for the boundaries and taboos it broke with regards to historical Korean film; 5 more for the way the story is told. It unfolds like a classic who-dunnit. I paced around after seeing this film wondering how it could be so good.

Not a bad film, but expectations are extremely high for Do-yeon Jeon, and she disappoints; all the characters in the film are cliché.

sitenoise at the movies: The Harmonium in My Memory Review

Good Monster, great humor, excellent drama (if a bit over the top, typical Korean style which morphed it into comedy), decent story, politics. This movie was fun fun fun. It is a well done homage to monster flicks of the way past. Best line in the film is by the little girl as she watches the monster regurgitate bodies for consumption at a later time into the sewer where she is trapped: "I hope one of these guys has a working cell phone." Priceless.

Don't be sucked in by the Kim Ki-duk production if you're a fan. It's stupid and poorly acted. Zero value here.

Do-yeon Jeon is excellent in this film as the cheating wife. She reels you into her life to the point where you stop judging her. That's good actin'. There were a few inexplicable plot wonders, but who cares? The ending is abrupt and ambiguous, seems to happen a lot in Korean films, but not too frustrating. I was pleased to discover that this actress, Do-yeon Jeon, went on to receive best actress honors at the 2007 Cannes for her performance in SECRET SUNSHINE. She's very engaging.

The script for this one is ... well ... let's call it inexpensive. It uses the K-melodrama template where the girl dies after teaching the boy to love. Lee Yeon-hee is as cute and as adorable as they come, so I wish in this one she didn't have to die, but then it wouldn't be the template. I really enjoyed spending time with her but I can't OK the script.

I kept deducting points as this devolved from mediocre mystery to gruesome gore. I gave one back for Seon Yu's performance, both beautiful and evil, but took it back when she participated in the ridiculous endings, yes, endings.

There are problems with this film by CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST and ONE FINE SPRING DAY director Jin-ho Hur ... virgin purity with terminal disease falls for stereotype hard-drinking jerkball guy and dies happy 'cause he's there at her deathbed ... but it's engaging, well shot and well acted.

You have to like films about crazy, beautiful, young, lovable, destructive women and the men who become poetically addicted to them. And you have to see this film as surrealism or it doesn't work. Or, you have to enjoy watching a couple of very attractive people get naked, make love, fight, kiss and make up. Either way.

Thoughtful K-comedy, slightly risqué, wins with wit, good acting, and a good (award winning) screenplay filled with surprises. There is adult humor in the presence of a child so delicacy is warranted. Props to young actress Woo Seo for taking it all in stride, reminding us that kids are usually hip to the things adults think they should be protected from. Hyo-jin Kong, as the frumpy high school teacher is surprisingly accomplished in her comic timing. The director seems aware of all the cheap ways to make us laugh but instead of utilizing them he steps back and winks at them. This is smart and funny ... not a goof-ball comedy even though it plays like one on the surface. NY Asian FilmFest 2009.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Full sweetness and light comedy is dragged down by the adolescent humor of the younger brother only occasionally. It teeters on the edge of melodrama without ever getting there but the dashed expectations don't disappoint. The "two different views of the same events" technique is subtly done. Nice job. Different.

This is a fairly intelligent film with smart dialog about two women living on different sides of adultery and how it affects their relationships with each other and their partners, but it's shot and scored like a made-for-tv lightweight drama. It could have been so much better. Tae-ran Lee is a hidden gem: smart, sophisticated, and gorgeous with a million dollar head of hair.

This one has a "Free Hugs" character and another character who claims the idea is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize ... just so you know the terrain here. Four couples, two win, two lose. There's death and crying and violins. Standard Korean multi-romance with melodrama and cuteness. Main reason to see: you need to see everything Yeon-hee Lee does. She's fabulous.

It's a bit of a challenge to stay with the back and forth through time and hair styles, as well as the to and fro among different characters revealing the same narrative points simultaneously, but the plot is simple enough to just let it go. It's a nice romantic series of snapshots with very likeable characters and a happy ending.

Mildly interesting concept: a girl sleepwalks a boy's dreams. Fine acting, but who are these people? Kim's characters don't inhabit the real world so it's difficult to get inside them. They're two isolated beings who exist in a 'what if?' universe. They must fall in love or never sleep at the same time. Nothing special nor thought provoking for me here. Just another movie, which is a bit of a let down from Kim.

Too dark, hard to keep track of who is who and whether they are dead or not, so some of the scares were deflated due to confusion. And then the J-Horror-Goth-Chick shows up amongst all these men. Not enough focus to this decently concepted ghost story.

Meandering and uneventful, although Ji-hyun Jun isn't bad.

Usually I don't go for movies about sublimated machismo, but the story here is engaging and the 'family' relationship is a lot of fun. In-jae Heo is surprisingly good in bringing a heartfelt character to life. This film is touching and sweet until the big fight at the end. I didn't completely hate it though because it was done in a fantasy sort of way. Good movie.

A cheap idea for a film full of bad ideas. Director Jin-ho Hur explores love and death, and the birth and death of love, in his films but just because the concepts are highfalutin doesn't mean you can just throw on a violin track and make a meaningful movie. Stoicism in the face of death is good but here it's negated by selfishness. The guy did wrong and the girl's happiness is a failed manipulation.

An enjoyably goofy romcom for the first hour then the guy dies and the flick falls off a cliff and should have died but doesn't and instead tries to milk sentimentality from every film genre available. Horrible. The dead guy shows up at the end and says "Go out with this guy" (the guy from My Sassy Girl) and the girl is all like, "OK." Cheap and Painful.

This Jin-ho Hur film seems contrived and a lot less compelling than "One Fine Spring Day." In fact, it isn't really compelling at all. The mood shots and the long takes don't work here. They're a little boring and manipulative.

Lush cinematography and luscious Kim Hye-su, but that's all. The film plays out like a high end real estate promo. A slow pace and long shots that are supposed to infuse us with psychological tension fail because there are no entry points to the characters. They look like actors acting tense, trying to method act some history. The short cgi climax is a yawner.

Artificially tense and hip cop and killer thriller that threatens to go over the top throughout, but gets stuck motorcycling around the rim of its contrived story, complete with coincidental fireworks over a broken bridge in the climactic scene. Min-Sun Kim was fun albeit paint-by-number.

Korean comedy, of the mildly mature kind, at its finest. The casting made this loads of fun. Jin-seo Yun as the innocent who wants an affair but comes up with a reason to postpone consummation every time is desirable in spite of it and genuinely adorable. Hye-su Kim enjoys her virginal conquest and her sexual maturity shines. Easy to share why the male characters didn't just hang up.

The Red Shoes uses every Asian Horror motif we've seen many times before. Most notably the young, attractive, professional female lead who's got a cheating husband and a daughter that goes freaky. Its plot is constructed around some 'thing' that connects the natural and supernatural worlds via the kid. There's a hip, interested, and understanding 'other man' hanging around, helping when he can. The infamous J-Horror Goth Chick even makes appearances. If all this is a deal breaker with regards to your viewing pleasure, skip this one. If it's not, then add it your queue immediately.

The red shoes, usually referred to in the singular in this film, are really more of a fuchsia pink set of come find me pumps. The "Red" is surely meant to symbolize blood, as in "blood on your hands", but I digress.

It's the production values of The Red Shoes that make it worthwhile. This is a good looking film whose creators clearly cared about doing it well. The cinematography is creepy and creative, accentuating the sense of dread with distortions, colors and inspired scene locations. The soundtrack is understated and almost peaceful--it's not used to create tension where none exists. And the script, typical of Asian Horror, is loose enough for the viewer to choose from a number of interpretive styles: is it a dream, a figment of some dreadful imagination, or is everybody a different aspect of a multiple personalty?

The Red Shoes doesn't break any new ground but if you are a fan of the genre this is a professionally put together package.

In many ways this is a natural, and equal, followup to "Memories of Murder". It's every bit the 'caper' film that one was, and, although slightly more somber in tone, the film keeps unraveling in directions you don't expect making it much more a plot driven movie than a character study. Kim Hye-ja is magnificent as the mother. There is a scene in this film where she tells the family of the victim her son didn't do it and her eyes are so electrically charged it made me jump back from the screen. This film fires on all cylinders. The direction, cinematography, script, and acting are all grade A. It's one of those films where each of the secondary characters steals the show for a brief period. Bong Joon-ho does a remarkable job of populating the world of the film with real people and manages to give them depth and development in a very short period of time. It's too bad that because this film is ostensibly about an old lady it must be considered a 'smaller' film in his oeuvre. It's not. It is every bit as brilliant, and as large, as "Memories of Murder".

sitenoise at the movies: Mother (Madeo)

Tsunami is a great big huge gigantic disaster. The first ten minutes introduces about a dozen characters all of whom you'll hope are dead in the next ten minutes. It's the strangest character development I've ever seen. There's no subtlety or differentiation to them. They're all loud, extremely loud, obnoxious idiots. There are three things at play here: stupid, godawful, and annoying as hell. The director of the film, in a pre-emptive strike sort of way, has acknowledged that the special effects aren't very good (or very expensive) so he's going to treat us to some good ol' Korean charm. FAIL. I hope this film never sees the light of day outside Korea because it could set back by decades the good reputation of that country's cinematic output. The acting is bad, the myriad plot lines are predictable and groan out loud awful, the special effects are cheesy, and, well .... you get the point.

sitenoise at the movies: Haeundae