Blog Archives

Quick (2011)

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Posted on September 24, 2012 by Justin

Han Gi-su (Lee Min-ki), a street racer in a biker gang in his (relatively recent, judging by his looks!) youth, is a courier who’s good at his job and very, very fast on a motorcycle. One day, he picks up an unusual job: he’s couriering a young lady across the city to a K-pop concert that she’s supposed to be on stage for. As she gets on to the bike and puts on his helmet, though, there’s an ominous beep, … (read more)

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The King of Pigs (2011)

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Posted on September 7, 2012 by Justin

Unflinchingly brutal and visually arresting, Yuen Sang-ho’s animated film The King of Pigs — the director’s first feature — definitely made an impression. It scooped up three awards at Busan in 2011, was invited to screen in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2012, and this year’s Sydney Film Festival programmed it as the first Korean film ever in competition. Where I missed out on it.… (read more)

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The Taste of Money (2012)

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Posted on August 26, 2012 by Justin

The Taste of Money is Im Sang-soo’s seventh film, and a successor of sorts (if not a direct sequel) to 2010’s The Housemaid. I haven’t seen the latter, so I can’t write much about it here, but it seems clear from this trailer that it’s a thriller/melodrama set in the rarefied world of South Korea’s super-rich.

The Taste of Money inhabits the same universe. … (read more)

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Bleak Night (2011)

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Posted on August 22, 2012 by Alan

For the KOFFIA festival I was given two films to review. Both films deal with young people. The other film, Silenced, dealt with the way adults can abuse the rights of the very young, in ways horrific and saddening. Here, in Bleak Night, it is the young people, mostly, whose own dealings with each other propel the tragic events at the film’s core.… (read more)

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Silenced (2011)

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Posted on August 22, 2012 by Alan

This is not a film that is easily reviewed. Dealing with an explosive topic — the physical and sexual abuse of children — and based on true events, it is one that cannot easily break the divide between the viewer’s own emotional response and a critical one. It’s fortunate, then, that Hwang Dong-hyuk’s direction is both thoughtful and forceful, worthy of the film’s text.… (read more)

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War of the Arrows (2011)

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Posted on August 20, 2012 by Eugene

War of the Arrows opens with a chase.  Armed men bear down upon a teenager dragging a little girl who stumbles and falls.  Before they are brought down, their pursuers are taken down by their father.  Given that moment of relief, they are ordered to flee before seeing their father cut down by the attacking forces.  Now orphans, they find themselves at a friend of their father’s where they are fostered.

Such a tragic opening lends itself to a revenge … (read more)

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The Client (2011)

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Posted on August 7, 2012 by Justin

The Client begins with an oddly blank-faced young man clutching a bouquet of flowers, walking slowly through a crowded parking lot into an apartment crawling with police. It’s his anniversary, but his wife’s not there: instead, there’s a blood-soaked mattress and a police officer holding out a pair of handcuffs. … (read more)

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Sector 7 (2011)

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Posted on May 12, 2012 by Deni

The blockbuster horror movie, much like the blockbuster action movie, is a genre from which you can, and most certainly should, expect certain things. And, yes that does mean taking the good (things lurking around in the dark, people dying horribly and spectacular man-monster showdowns preferably involving explosions and/or heavy machinery) with the bad (contrived plot devices, stereotyped characters, average dialogue and predictable developments). When you know what you’re in for and the good balances out the bad, well, surely … (read more)

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