Blog Archives

Some (2005)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Alison

Take a tense plot with more wrinkles than Yoda, cast actors instead of stars, shoot it with an eye for beauty, ruthlessly edit out every bit of fat, and wrap the whole thing in a hypnotic soundtrack heavy on the drum and bass, and you’ve got Some. It’s a fine, tight, thriller, with high production values and an attention to detail that would make a train-spotter envious.

Director Chang Yoon-hyun, the man responsible for the gristly serial killer flick … (read more)

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Sex is Zero (2002)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

A college movie that distills and transfers moments from US films like American Pie, Bring it On, Road Movie, this is an unashamedly juvenile boobs and, gasp, jism fest that features some of the zaniest characters yet to grace Seoul’s downtown multiplexes. Brimming with self-confidence in the deployment of its gags, it works well as a gross out comedy but the simple love story that is supposedly at its core scores less than zero.

Written and directed … (read more)

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Same Bed, Different Dreams (2005)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Ben Jennings

Man, this DVD has great packaging. I have never seen DVD packaging quite this impressive.

To explain, this is a three DVD set consisting of three standard Amaray-style cases in a cardboard slipcase. Not just any cardboard slipcase, but the most gorgeous cardboard slipcase you’ve ever seen. And it doesn’t just look good, it feels good. It has a tactile quality much like the slipcase on the original region 4 release of Fight Club: some kind of finish that … (read more)

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R-Point (2004)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Alison

Leave your preconceptions at the door: R-Point is no ordinary ghost film. Nor is it an ordinary war film. Instead of assaulting viewers with creaky long-haired girl ghosts or green-clad grunts firing at anything that moves, Kong Su-chang gives us a thoughtful, eerie, and moving indictment of Korean involvement in other people’s wars.

This is a film that recreates the atmosphere of ghost stories told around a campfire: that sense of being out of place, and hearing things that might … (read more)

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Peppermint Candy (2000)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

Backwards narration has become a rather fashionable way to present a story on screen. Memento and Irréversible are two recent examples of films utilising reverse-narrative structures. Some of the dominant characteristics of this technique are its systematic engagements with notions of temporal linearity, the past, of memory and the state of remembering (or, in Memento’s case, the inability to remember). If the act of observing and listening to a story told backwards is fascinating, it is perhaps due to … (read more)

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Over the Rainbow (2002)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Ching Yee

Do not be fooled by the poster! That perky and colourful poster screams “Sanitised romantic comedy!” Over the Rainbow is nothing of the sort. For one thing — there is nothing perky about it – in fact none of the characters raises above a subdued chuckle during the whole movie. Being labelled as a romantic comedy is probably misleading because I’m sure sappy Hollywood romantic comedies spring to mind.

That is not to say that Over the Rainbow isn’t enjoyable, … (read more)

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My Tutor Friend (2003)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

A slick fusion of now staple Korean genres (cute-but-wacky boy/girl romantic comedy, return to high school beatdown, goofy enemy-turned-buddy slapstick’er, teen fantasy), My Tutor Friend has some shaky moments but is held together by a suitably energetic plot (and out-of-the-ordinary subplots), charismatic performances and a warming, feel-good vibe that stays within its tolerable limits.

Kwon’s (Volcano High) Ji-hoon is an engaging rebel, supplying only a few doses of the overly violent behaviour that might alter our perceptions of … (read more)

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Indian Summer (2001)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by James

If you can only take one memory with you when you die, what will it be? Jun-ha believes it will be the memory of a few summer days he spent with Shin-young, when both felt, perhaps for the first time, unashamedly happy and free.

Indian Summer is a courtroom drama that like other recent Korean films mobilises a unification metaphor in the service of a story about a problematic relationship. In films such as Bungee Jumping of Their Own, … (read more)

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