Tag: London Korean Film Festival

In a black & white, futuristic Seoul, a tenant who sublets his rental apartment to prevent his eviction finds out that this approach has its drawbacks – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2024 which runsin cinemas from Friday, November 1st to Wednesday, November 13th

An alluring image turns out to be merely an image on a wall, an artifice rather than the paradise we at first assume it to be. This is an image many filmmakers have used to open their movies and, depending on what they’ve seen over the years, it will conjure different films for different viewers. For this viewer, it conjures what I consider one of the funniest films of recent decades, Quick Change (Howard Franklin, Bill Murray, 1990) where the image is revealed as a tawdry New York subway train ad above a clown who will shortly proceed to rob a bank.

The Tenants may not be a comedy, but it shares with that film a sense of urban malaise, a feeling of being trapped in a grim metropolis where everything about the place conspires to prevent the protagonists leaving.… Read the rest

Tags 3D likeness, advice, anti-capitalist, apartment, artifice, aspiration, avatar, back and white, bathroom, best mate, co-workers, commute, confidant, conscience, cramped, daily ablutions elsewhere, elevated railway, evict, first impression, future, Greek chorus, Heo Dong-won, holographic projection, human rights law, image on a wall, Kim Dea-geon, Korea, landlady, landlord, LKFF, LKFF 2024, London Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival 2024, medical bills, mobile telephony, mother, move out, newlyweds, office building, paradise, parallel world, Park So-hyon, Park So-hyun, polluted, prevent leaving, public bench, queueing, rent, restrooms, ruthless, Seoul, South Korea, sublet, tenants, trapped, underclass, urban malaise, washrooms, well-off, workplace, Yoon Eun-Kyung

Features Live Action Movies

Mother’s Kingdom
(Uhm-mah-ui
Wahng-gook,
엄마의 왕국)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 11 November 2024
No Comments on Mother’s Kingdom
(Uhm-mah-ui
Wahng-gook,
엄마의 왕국)
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Director – Lee Sang-hak – 2024 – South Korea – LKFF Cert. 15 – 97m

*****

A Christian mother, her ‘Christian book’ author son, and her local pastor brother-in-law are haunted by traumas from their collective past – suspense thriller from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2024 which runs in cinemas from Friday, November 1st to Wednesday, November 13th

—

I don’t often preface a film review with a piece of verbal, religious text, but in this exceptional case, the following Old Testament quote may be pertinent, particularly the phrase in bold:

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

– Exodus 34:6–7

—

Ji-wook (Han Ki-jang) lives with his mother Kyung-hee (Nam Kee-ae), and although he’s earning a respectable living working from home as a writer of self-help motivational books, in many ways he seems deeply unqualified to be peddling such advice to a wider public.… Read the rest

Tags abuse, abusive relationship, bad dream, Bible, brother-in-law, Christian, Christian book, Christianity, collective past, crime, cut off, deficient Christianity, dementia, dysfunctional family, early onset dementia, faith, family, God, grace, hairdressing salon, Han Ki-jang, hanging, husbands and wives, isolation, judgement, Korea, Lee Sang-hak, LKFF, LKFF 2024, London Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival 2024, memory, mother, mothers and sons, murder, Nam Kee-ae, New Testament, nightmare, Old Testament, pastor, positivity, Protestant, punishment, recurring bad dream, relationship breakup, relatives, religion, retribution, rigid rules, running a business, self-help motivational books, sins of the fathers, slogan, son, South Korea, thriller, trauma, writer, You Seong-joo

Features Live Action Movies

Alienoid
(Oegye+in 1bu,
외계+인)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 November 2022
No Comments on Alienoid
(Oegye+in 1bu,
외계+인)
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Director – Choi Dong-hoon – 2022 – South Korea – LKFF Cert. 12 – 142m

*****

In Part One of a proposed double feature, aliens incarcerate prisoners in human brains and time travel between present day and fourteenth century Korea and mayhem ensues – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2022;

Part Two Alienoid: Return to the Future plays in LKFF 2024

The first film of a two-part adventure, which would be more sensibly released as Alienoid – Part One (which may already be the case in some territories), this revolves around multiple protagonists in two separate timelines divided by six or seven centuries. In the fourteenth century, Guard, who morphs between true robot and fake human appearances not unlike the T-1000 of Terminator 2 Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991), and his even more confusing companion Thunder, who is sometimes a car, sometimes a flying pod and sometimes any number of human manifestations (both / all played by Kim Woo-bin), fail to save a woman from dying after an alien escapes incarceration within her brain, however Thunder rescues the woman’s baby.

The pair travel forward in time to raise Lee Ahn (Choi Yu-ri) in the twenty-first century where she sees what she’s not supposed to: the impregnation process whereby alien prisoners are incarcerated in human brains, a memory wiped immediately afterwards from the humans used for this purpose, meaning people wander around not knowing there are aliens trapped inside their heads.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

The Guest
(301호 모텔 살인사건)

Director – Yeon Je-gwang – 2023 – South Korea – LKFF Cert. 18 – 77m

***

An out-of-the-way motel, with numerous hidden cameras covertly recording the unwitting guests, becomes the site of multiple killings – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2024 which runs in cinemas from Friday, November 1st to Wednesday, November 13th

There’s an idea that the widespread presence of security cameras make the world a safer place, because things can be seen rather than hidden; equally, however, things can be recorded, turned into product and sold for profit. The Guest takes place in a familiar world of roads and car journeys and motels in the middle of nowhere at which the traveller can take a break. And all of it seems to be covered by security cameras.

That applies to the roads, where the cams are there for traffic enforcement (and, perhaps more pertinently, traffic tax raising or penalty charging) purposes. Why they are there, for good or ill, isn’t really discussed here. But their ubiquitous presence is inescapably noted.

It also applies in the seedy motel at the centre of this horror / drama / suspense / thriller. The loan shark Deuk-chan (Hyun Bong-sik) who owns the place employs two young staff members Min-cheol (Lee Joo-seung) and Young-gyu (Han Min) to run the place in a day-to-day basis both of whom are indebted to him and therefore have little choice other than to do whatever he asks, however unreasonable.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Handsome Guys
(Haenseomgaijeu,
핸섬가이즈)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 November 2024
No Comments on Handsome Guys
(Haenseomgaijeu,
핸섬가이즈)
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Director – Nam Dong-hyub – 2024 – South Korea – LKFF Cert. 15 – 102m

****

A comedy of errors in horror genre clothing, features a house in which accidents keep occurring, and a demonic goat – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2024 which runs in cinemas from Friday, November 1st to Wednesday, November 13th

Half-brothers Kang Jae-pil (Lee Sung-min from this year’s South Korean Oscar entry 12.12: The Day, Kim Sung-su, 2023; The Man Standing Next, Woo Min-ho, 2020), Park Sang-goo (Lee Hee-jun from The Man Standing Next; 1987: When That Day Comes, 2017) and their dog Bong-gu have come to a rural area with the intent of buying their dream home, unaware that a demon was banished to hell in its basement two generations ago by British priest Father Baker (Jamie Horan) and can only be banished back there, should it arise from the grave, by one of those present at the time of the banishment.

A group of students runs into the half-brothers in a supermarket, the former drawing all the wrong conclusions from the latter’s unkempt appearance and shopping trolley of heavy-duty carpentry kit, snap judgements somewhat thrown by the undeniable cuteness of Bong-gu the dog, sitting in the front of their trolley.… Read the rest

Tags accident, accidents, appearance, banished to hell, basement, benefit of the doubt, Bin Chan-wook, body bag, British priest, burial, carpentry, co-operation with the law, college student, comedy of errors, comic invention, countryside, cute dog, demon, demonic goat, dog, dog Bong-gu, dream home, entourage, face value, foul play, girlfriend, goat, goat corpse, golf, Gong Seung-yeon, half-brothers, hearts of gold, hit-and-run driver, horror, horror genre clothing, innocent explanation, Jamie Horan, Jang Dong-joo, Kang Ki-doong, kidnap, Kim Do-hoon, Korea, Lee Kyu-hyung, Lee Sung-min, LKFF, LKFF 2024, London Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival 2024, lowlife criminal, Park Jeong-hwa, Park Ji-hwan, partially-shredded body, party animal, police car, police chief, priest, remake, rescue, roadkill, rural, selfie, serial killers, shopping trolley, snap judgements, South Korea, spoiled brat, students, supermarket, truck, unkempt appearance, wood chipper, wrong conclusions

Features Live Action Movies

Aimless Bullet
(Obaltan,
오발탄)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 20 October 2024
No Comments on Aimless Bullet
(Obaltan,
오발탄)
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Director – Yu Hyun-mok – 1961 – South Korea – 110m

****

Former soldiers and others struggle with the effects of post-war economic depression in the newly constituted South Korea – plays in Echoes In Time | Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema which runs from Monday, October 28th until the end of 2024 at BFI Southbank

Made and released in the brief period of about a year between the collapse of one dictatorship and the rise of another, and the temporary relaxation of state censorship that accompanied it in South Korea, Aimless Bullet deals with the struggle to survive in that country amidst economic collapse. Men including demobbed soldiers and officers struggle to find work, others lucky enough to have jobs struggle to support their extended networks of loved ones while women drift into prostitution – or, if they’re really lucky, become movie stars.

It opens with crippled, former officer Gyeong-sik, constantly asking Sgt. Park and other drinking buddies not to call him “The Commander”, making a scene in a bar and smashing a glass door. Wandering through the streets at night alone afterwards, he’s accosted by former girlfriend Song Myeong-suk (Seo Ae-ja) who desperately wants him to fulfil his promise and marry her, but he won’t because as a cripple he feel an incomplete man.… Read the rest

Tags accountant, Aimless Bullet, angst, army officers, bank robbery, bar, censorship, Choi Mu-ryong, Choi Myeong-su, crime, cripple, demobbed soldiers, dentist, dictatorship, drinking, Echoes in Time, Echoes in Time Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema, economy depression, glass door, incomplete, Kim Jin-kyu, Korea, Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema, liar, LKFF, LKFF 2019, London Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival 2019, low self-esteem, marriage, Moon Jeong-suk, movie star, movie stars, Mun Hye-ran, new shoes, newspaper seller, night, noir, post-war, pregnant, promise, prostitution, romance, Seo Ae-ja, siblings, South Korea, street, struggle, survival, taxi, thriller, tooth extraction, toothache, truant, unemployment, wife, work, Yu Hyun-mok

Features Live Action Movies

A Woman Judge
(Yeopansa,
여판사)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 20 October 2024
No Comments on A Woman Judge
(Yeopansa,
여판사)

Director – Hong Eun-won – 1962 – South Korea – 87m

***

A woman becomes a judge at a time when the idea of women in such professions is unheard of – plays in Echoes In Time | Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema which runs from Monday, October 28th until the end of 2024 at BFI Southbank – from the London Korean Film Festival 2019

Heo Jin-suk (Moon Jeong-suk from Aimless Bullet, Yu Hyun-mok, 1961; The Devil’s Stairway, Lee Man-hee, 1964) wants to be a judge, traditionally a male profession. Her childhood sweetheart Wan Dong-hoon (Park Am from Promise of the Flesh, Kim Ki-young, 1975; The March of Fools, Ha Gil-jong, 1975) always assumed they were destined to be married. He too has entered the professions, in his case as a doctor. That’s okay for him, being a man, but for her, he thinks it will conflict with her duties as a wife and mother. So she dumps him.

This looks like being a mistake since, on some level, his motives are pure. Instead, she ends up married to Chae Gye-sik (Kim Seok-hun) – not so much because of the man but because his social climber father, CEO of Sangyeon Construction Chae Sung-jin (Kim Seung-ho) thinks marrying off his son to one of the first female judges would be a really good idea, not least since it might put him in a useful position to be able easily bribe a member of the judiciary. … Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Tinker Ticker
(Deulgae,
들개,
lit. Wild Dog)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 November 2023
No Comments on Tinker Ticker
(Deulgae,
들개,
lit. Wild Dog)
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Director – Kim Jung-hoon – 2013 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 102m

*****

A university professor’s aide who in his spare time builds bombs and sends them to people free of charge connects with a spoiled student prepared to detonate them – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2023 which runs in cinemas from Thursday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 16th

High school student Park Jung-gu (Byun Yo-han) makes bombs as a hobby. Ten years later, he’s on the internet, sending bombs out free of charge to any interested parties. However, people who receive his bombs do nothing with them.

By day, Park works forBaek (Kim Jong-goo from Exit, Lee Sang-geun, 2019; Poetry, Lee Chang-dong, 2010; Nowhere To Hide, Le Myung-se, 1999), a lecturer in business studies at the local university, and watches arrogant, rich kid Lee Hyo-min (Park Jong-min from LKFF 2023 Closing Night Film Dr. Cheon And The Lost Talisman, Kim Seong-sik, 2023; Decision To Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022; Deliver Us From Evil, Hong Won-chan, 2020; Netflix series Hellbound, Yeon Sang-ho, 2021) argue coherently against Baek’s pro-consumerist lecture and get failed in the course for his trouble.… Read the rest

Live Action Movies Shorts

Scissors

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 8 November 2023
No Comments on Scissors
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Director – Lee Gi-cheol – 1998 – South Korea – 15m
***

Master sergeant Kim tells the story of the framed scissors hanging on the wall of his barber’s shop – in the KAFA Shorts: A Midsummer’s Fantasia programme from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2023 which runs in cinemas from Thursday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 16th

A barber’s shop: seemingly a place where one comes to relax and have a refreshing haircut and / or shave. That’s not really the case in master sergeant Kim’s barber’s shop, though, as he tells his clientele about the pair of scissors framed on the wall. Among his listeners, a man gets fresh with a compliant woman, feeling her inside legs up as the Sergeant proceeds with his tale of past torture.

The short just about holds the attention on the strength of its quirky characters, but it’s pretty odd, to say the least.

Scissors plays in the KAFA Shorts: A Midsummer’s Fantasia programme from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2023 which runs in cinemas from Thursday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 16th.

Tags KAFA, Korea, Korean Academy of Film Arts, LKFF, LKFF 2023, London Korean Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival 2023, South Korea