Tag: South Korea

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That Burning House
(Shi Le Yuan,
火宅之犬)

Director – Tsai Yin-chuan – 2025 – Taiwan – 133m

****1/2

Teachers In a care home attempt to break the cycle of violence among their charges – premieres in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the 29th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival

This is one of those films that takes place in several different times in the characters lives, including when they are children, teenagers and adults. That means that you need more than one actor to play each character at different times in their lives, and if you’re going to attempt that, you’d better get your casting right, so that when you see the second actor playing an older or younger version of the character, you instantly recognise that character.

I wanted to rate this compelling film as five stars, but it has severe problems in this area – it’s really hard working out which character is which in the various different times in which events take place. Studying the end credits helped somewhat in this regard, but that information really ought to be expressed more clearly within the film narrative itself. (To see an example of a film that tackles this multiple character casting brilliantly, see Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2018).… Read the rest

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Past Lives

Director – Celine Song – 2022 – US, South Korea – Cert. 12a – 105m

*****

After emigrating with her family from South Korea to North America, a Korean-American is sought out in New York by her now-adult childhood sweetheart from back in Korea – streaming exclusively on StudioCanal Presents

Have you heard the one about the Korean woman sitting between a Korean man and a WASP man in a bar in New York? Is the Korean man her partner? Is the WASP man her partner? Following this unforgettable opening image and a voice-over in which someone tries to work out the loyalties and relationships pictured, flashback 24 years to Korea’s Seoul for a chunk of narrative also involving Canada’s Toronto. Then jump forward 12 years for a further chunk of narrative in both Seoul and New York. Finally, jump forward a further 12 years to the present day for a final chunk of narrative in New York.

Intrigued? You’ll get to know two very Korean kids, who at age 12 or thereabouts in Seoul start dating. The girl, Na Young (Moon Seung-Ah), is already choosing a Westernised name, Nora Moon, in preparation for her family’s emigration to Toronto; the boy Jung Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min) has no such conflict and is firmly locked into a Korean identity.… Read the rest

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London Korean
Film Festival
(LKFF)
2025

LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

The London Korean Film Festival, now celebrating its 20th year, kicks off tonight with its Opening Gala, a World Premiere of Frosted Window (Kim Jong-Kwan, 2025), followed by a Q&A with director Kim and actor Yeon Woo-jin.

It bows out in two weeks time with its Closing Gala, Harbin (Woo Min-ho, 2024), starring Hyun Bin, with cinematography by Hong Kyeong-pyo who shot Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019).

In between these two events comes a Special Screening of Hi-Five, a superhero comedy by Kang Hyoung-chul (Swing Kids, 2018; Sunny, 2011).

Also, this year the Festival launches its first-ever LKFF Audience Award, giving festival-goers the chance to vote for their favourite film and help shape this 20th anniversary edition. Of the four films made available to press in advance, my vote would go to the enigmatically titled 3670 (Park Joon-ho, 2025), a compelling drama about a gay man who has defected from North to South Korea. The film, which picked up four awards at the 26th Jeonju International Film Festival, transcends Korean, gay and religious demographics to speak to a much wider audience, and in this writer’s opinion deserves a proper UK release.… Read the rest

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Break Up The Chain
(Soesaseul-euld
Kkeunh-eola,
쇠사슬을 끊어라)

Director – Lee Man Hee – 1971 – South Korea – Cert. tbc – 98m

***1/2

Three Koreans each with dubious motiveshunt for a small statue of Buddha containing the names of anti-Japanese resistance fighters – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 which runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

Much like the statue containing the microfilm sought by the characters of North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959), a small statue of Buddha holds the names of anti-Japanese resistance fighters and is similarly desired by Break Up The Chain’s protagonists. Not that this Lee Man Hee late career offering is in quite the same league as Hitch’s espionage romp, even if its dialogue does from time to time refer to drama and performance in much the same way, particularly in the opening ten minutes.

Otherwise, though, it’s a very different animal: essentially, three male protagonists chasing a MacGuffin. Cheol Su (Namkoong Won from Cheongnyeo, Lee Man Hee, 1975; Insect Woman, Kim Ki-young, 1972), is an outlaw, Tae Ho (Huh Jang-gang from Eunuch, Shin Sang-ok, 1968), a gangster and Dal Gun (Jang Dong-hwi from The Marines Who Never Returned, Lee Man Hee, 1963), a spy for the Japanese.… Read the rest

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YMCA Baseball Team
(YMCA Yagudan,
YMCA야구단)

Director – Kim Hyun-seok – 2002 – South Korea – Cert. – 104m

***

In 1905, as the Japanese take over the running of their country, a small group of Koreans form a baseball team to defeat the Japanese – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 which runsin cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

A lightweight sports comedy loosely inspired by historical events, this is set in 1905, by which time the Japanese were moving to occupy Korea. Lee Ho-chang (Song Kang-ho) is playing soccer on a local plateau when the ball goes off the edge and into the local YMCA missionary compound below. While retrieving the ball, he is confronted by US-schooled baseball enthusiast Min Jung-rim (Kim Hye-soo).

Much comedy is derived (albeit not that successfully for Western audiences) from Ho-chang’s taking a romantic liking to her, even though she has not the slightest interest in him, preferring (when he turns up later in the narrative) Japanese-schooled Oh Day-hyun (Kim Joo-hyuk) who is already highly skilled at baseball, which arrived in Japan in 1872, some 30 years before it came to Korea. Also in the team is bespectacled Ryu Kwang-tae (Hwang Jung-min), whose bureaucrat father is collaborating with the Japanese administration.… Read the rest

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3670
(3670)

Director – Park Joon-ho – 2025 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 124m

*****

A gay man who has defected from North to South Korea must get to grips with Seoul’s gay scene and his own sexual and religious identity – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 which runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

Sexually active, gay Seoul resident Cheol-jun (Cho You-hyun) grapples with the fact that his partners don’t stick around after physical interaction. Cheol-jun has recently escaped from North to South Korea. He works at a local store counter and attends a class to help defectors adapt to their new way of life. After class, rather than hang out with fellow defectors such as Hak-min (Jeon Du-sik), who is trying to pair him off with pretty class girl Ji-ye (Choi Yun-seol), he follows phone directions to a mixer, a club night to help gay men make friends.

Numbers are assigned. Asked why he is dressed so formally – is he from North Korea, or something – he responds candidly, “I am.” After drinking “love shots” – two men drink with arms intertwined – guests are invited to write “love notes” to the number they fancy.… Read the rest

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Silver Apricot
(Eunbitsalgu,
서울독립영화제)

Director – Jang Man-min – 2024 – South Korea – Cert. 12 – 121m

***1/2

A Seoul woman in need of funds to buy a condo returns to her childhood coastal town to get the alimony payments her estranged father never stumped up – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2025 which runs in cinemas from Wednesday, November 5th to Tuesday, November 18th

Tormented by dreams set at night in which sometimes she herself and sometimes people she knows are vampires preying on others, which inspires her to draw a webtoon series, 32-year-old Kim Jung-seo (Na Ae-jin) has moved to Seoul and bought into the corporate dream, agreeing to split the cost of a condo, the right to buy for which she won on a lottery, with her fiancé Park Gyeong-hyun (Kang Bong-seong).

The only problem is, she has just been refused a permanent position at the graphic design company which employs her, so doesn’t have the money. So she resolves to visit her estranged father and pick up the alimony he never paid her mother Choi Mi-yeong (Park Hyun-sook) after their divorce. Jung-seo regularly visits the latter, who also lives in Seoul, whereas it’s been years since she was in the coastal town where her father lives with his new family.… Read the rest

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Bugonia

Director – Yorgos Lanthimos – 2025 – US, Ireland, South Korea – Cert. 15 – 118m

****

A man with a grievance against a corporation kidnaps its CEO, believing her to be an alien with hostile designs on the human race – out in UK cinemas on Friday, October 31st

As Teddy (Jesse Plemons from Civil War, Alex Garland, 2024; Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024; Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese, 2023) explains it, they live among us. While he and his autistic bother Don (Aidan Delbis) eke out their very ordinary lives with Teddy working in a warehouse for big pharma company Auxolith, the company CEO Michelle (Lanthimos regular Emma Stone) has her life on a platter: expensive home outside which she works out on the landing every morning, expensive SUV to get her to corporate HQ and back, and an army of corporate minions around her to ensure her every order is carried out. Even so, she still has difficulty speaking complicated lines for a corporate video. But that’s nothing compared to the ordeal Teddy has planned for her.

Teddy and decidedly unsure about the whole thing sidekick Don ambush her when he car arrives home from work and, after a struggle, for Michelle is used to getting her own way and is not a woman to be trifled with, overcome her after injecting her with a sedative.… Read the rest

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Taegukgi
The Brotherhood of War
(Taegukgi Hwinallimyeo,
태극기 휘날리며)

Director – Kang Je-gyu – 2004 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 140m

****

When two brothers are conscripted into the Korean War, the older one’s attempts to keep the younger from harm’s way irrevocably damage their filial relationship – plays in LEAFF10 (London East Asia Film Festival 2025) with an In Conversation session with Production Designer Shin Bo-kyeong on Monday, October 27th

Named after the South Korean national flag, this latest Kang Je-Gyu (The Gingko Bed, 1996; Shiri, 1999) offering tells the story of two young Korean brothers caught up in the Korean War (initiated when the Communist North invaded the South in 1950). Like numerous other Oriental movies (e.g Bullet In The Head, John Woo, 1990), the considerable, historical detail realised on the screen is secondary to the emotionally charged, interpersonal core drama.

Thus, shoe shine boy and older sibling Jin-Tae (Jang Dong-gun from Nowhere To Hide, Lee Myung-se, 1999) is saving to send little brother Jin-Seok (Won Bin) to university. When war breaks out, younger brother is conscripted, with elder brother forcibly joined up only when he tries to have Jin-Seok’s conscription reversed. Leaving behind girlfriend Young-Shin (Lee Eun-doo), Jin-Tae learns that his earning the medal of honour might secure Jin-Seok’s release, so sets about on the one hand undertaking as many dangerous missions as possible and on the other refusing to allow Jin-Seok to do so.… Read the rest

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Memories
Of Murder
(Salinui chueok,
살인의 추억)

Director – Bong Joon Ho – 2003 – South Korea – Cert. 15 – 131m

*****

Three cops attempt to track down a serial sex killer. Based on a real life, unsolved murder case... with Song Kang-ho – plays in LEAFF10 (London East Asia Film Festival 2025) with an In Conversation session with Cinematographer Kim Hyung-koo on Friday, October 24th

On one level, there’s nothing remarkable about Memories Of Murder, a crime movie about cops hunting a serial killer. This is a sub-genre done to death in Hollywood and elsewhere. On another level, however, it has the hallmarks of a really rich and strange talent getting hold of a well-worn formula and doing something fresh, new and original with it.

For one thing, it never dwells on the gore or fetishises the detail of the crimes. At the same time, like much Korean cinema, it never shies away from this material either. It’s unafraid to have an autopsy scene in which the pathologist discovers nine pieces of peach inside a corpse’s vagina but feels just as at ease that a testimony from a survivor throws up an important clue like, I didn’t see the killer’s face because if I had looked at him he’d have killed me, but I did notice he had soft hands.… Read the rest