Author Archives: Justin

This week in cinemas: ‘Train to Busan’ (South Korea)

Speeding through Australian cinemas right now is South Korean hit zombie film Train to Busan, which has been garnering accolades both in Korea and abroad: ten million tickets sold domestically, an American cinema release and a bidding war over Hollywood remake rights. It’s safe to say that director Yeon Sang-ho has done well with his first live-action feature.

The film is a propulsive action/horror thriller with a more than a dash of social criticism at its core. It follows … (read more)

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Korean Film Festival (KOFFIA) 2016

Film festival season is in full swing, with SFF having rolled through Sydney and MIFF up and running right now in Melbourne, but my personal favourite of the more focused festivals has arrived: The Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) has released their dates and program for this year, and it looks great!

The festival comes to six cities this year, and the dates are:

  • Sydney: Aug 10-18
  • Brisbane: Aug 23-29
  • Melbourne: Sep 1-8
  • Canberra: Sep 3-4
  • Adelaide: Sep 15-18
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This week in cinemas: ‘Three’ (HK/China)

Already in Australian cinemas this week (it opened last Thursday, June 23) is a new film from one of our favourite directors, Hong Kong’s Johnnie To. And this time he’s returning to that most beloved of genres, the tense action-thriller.

Set in a hospital, Three revolves around a rapidly escalating standoff between a criminal who’s been admitted as a patient (Wallace Chung), the detective trying to bring him to justice (Louis Koo), and a neurosurgeon (Vicki Zhao Wei). The film … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Wailing’ (South Korea)

I was alerted this evening (thanks John!) to the fact that The Wailing (곡성), the new film from South Korean director Na Hong-jin (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea) opens in Aussie cinemas this week.

In keeping Na’s previous work, this looks like a gritty fusion psychological thriller and horror film, with a plot centered around a rural village in which a spate of mysterious illnesses and killings have erupted. The film stars Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, … (read more)

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Asian Cinema at the Sydney Film Festival 2016

The program is out, tickets are selling and the clock is ticking for this year’s Sydney Film Festival, which opens in about a week on June 8 and runs through to the 19th.

As usual, we have combed through the list and picked out the films from Asia — this year led by a couple of modern films in Competition, two restorations (including Ozu’s classic Tokyo Story) and a varied slate of features from across the region. There’s also … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Bodyguard’ (HK/China)

Action cinema fans, pay attention. Veteran action director and martial artist Sammo Hung has settled into the director’s chair for the first time since 1997 (Mr Nice Guy, Once Upon a Time in China and America), and the results arrived in Aussie cinemas tomorrow.

The Bodyguard sees Sammo both direct and star as a retired soldier from Beijing now living in a remote town near the Russian border, and his collision with organised crime. Zhu Yuchen, Li … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Boy and the Beast’ (Japan)

Opening today in Aussie cinemas (both in an English dub and in the original Japanese with subtitles at some locations) is the new animated film The Boy and the Beast from Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children).

The film follows a young boy, Ren, who runs away from home after the passing of his mother only to find himself taken into the Beast Kingdom and unable to return. There, … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Monkey King 2’ (China/HK)

This week in Aussie cinemas is a film that will bring joy to the hearts of those brought up on hours of Monkey!, or with an appreciation for its source material, the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. An entirely fitting Lunar New Year release for the year of the monkey, really.

Following up rather more quickly on 2014’s long-in-gestation Monkey King, Filmko Entertainment and director Cheang Pou-soi bring us Monkey King 2, based on … (read more)

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