Come Closer (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): This deeply troubled young woman

Posted on May 18, 2026 by kaist455

Israeli film “Come Closer” is about the serious emotional confusion of one deeply troubled young woman who is also often quite unpleasant for her toxic self-absorbed behaviors. Although the movie is rather dissatisfying as stumbling more than once during its last act, you may not easily forget many human flaws of this disagreeable but fascinating character mainly thanks to the strong performance of its lead actress.

At first, the movie, which is mainly set in Tel Aviv, Israel, follows a lad named Nati (Ida Tako), who is going to have a private time with somebody on his 17th birthday but then is taken to somewhere else by his friends and his older sister Eden (Lia Elalouf) instead. After having a wild evening along with them, he eventually sneaks out from the spot for meeting that figure in question, but, alas, he subsequently gets himself hit by a car, and then he eventually dies to the devastation of Eden and his parents.

While Eden struggles to process her immense grief, her parents try to console her as much as possible, but they have some other issue to handle. When Eden and Nati were very young, their parents had a bitter divorce, but they agreed to sell their family house once both Nati and Eden become independent adults. While the father is already willing to sell the house right now, the mother is adamantly against it, and Eden does not give much damn about their conflict over the house.

And then she comes to learn about something hidden from her for a while. It turns out that Nati had been in a romantic relationship with a girl named Maya (Darya Rosenn), and Eden becomes quite interested in getting to know this girl in question. Although their first encounter is not that pleasant to say the least, Eden and Maya gradually befriend each other as sharing the memories of Nati between them, and then there comes a point when they begin to sense something else being developed between them.

As Eden struggles to deal with her increasingly confused emotional status along the story, the movie gives us a vivid and realistic slice of youthful night life enjoyed by her and many other young people in the city. As spending more time with Eden, Maya naturally becomes more attracted to Eden’s carefree lifestyle, and we later get a rather awkward moment when Eden and Maya happen to come across a certain man who has been Eden’s occasional sex partner despite being currently married.

Meanwhile, we also come to notice more of the toxic behaviors shown by Eden as she becomes more self-absorbed in her grief on Nati’s death. She and Maya eventually decide to go along with their mutual feeling later in the story, but Nati’s death remains as an inconvenient fact between them, and Eden often seems to care more about him instead of paying more attention to Maya. As a result, Maya becomes all the more frustrated with Eden’s frequently inconsiderate behaviors, and we are not so surprised when she finally lets out all the frustration and confusion of hers to Eden in the middle of their little private time outside the city.

Around that point, the screenplay by director/writer Tom Nesher, which is inspired to some degree by her and her family’s real-life experience as reflected by what is shown during the end credits, enters a very disturbing area of grief and attachment. However, the movie unfortunately does not handle well the consequence, and the following ending is quite contrived as resolving the conflict between its two main characters too easily. 

Most of all, we remain distant to its very problematic heroine as before. While we understand her grieving status to some degree, Eden looks so disturbed at times that you may often want to send her to any good therapist as soon as possible instead of getting to know her more. At one point early in the story, she wears not only Nati’s clothes but also his underwear, and that is certainly a serious sign of mental disturbance in my humble opinion. 

Nevertheless, the movie is fairly watchable because of the raw emotional intensity observed from Lia Elalouf’s uncompromising performance. Never making any excuse on her character’s unwise and frequently toxic behaviors at all, Elalouf did a commendable job of conveying to us the emotional turmoil behind her character’s brash attitude, and her performance is effective as a sort of morbid case study for us to observe.

In contrast, several main cast members in the film function as mere counterpoints for Elalouf’s strong acting, and that is another weak aspect of the movie. While Ido Tako leaves some impression early in the story, Darya Rosenn holds her own place well during her several key scenes with Elalouf, and Netta Garti and Yaakov Zada-Daniel fill their rather under-developed roles as much as possible.

Overall, “Come Closer”, which was incidentally selected as the Israeli submission to Best International Film Oscar in 2024. is a bit too flawed for recommendation, but it is not wholly without interesting things to be appreciated. Nesher, who is the daughter of prominent Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher, did a fairly competent feature film debut here after making several short films, and I can only hope that I will be more impressed by whatever may come next from her.

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The Little Sister (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A young Muslim lesbian woman during several seasons

Posted on May 17, 2026 by kaist455

“The Little Sister”, which won the Queer Palm award when it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival early in last year, is a sensitive coming-of-age queer drama about one plain Muslim lesbian woman. As observing how much she struggles to balance herself between her sexuality and the other parts of her identity, the movie makes us have more understanding and empathy on her inner struggle, and we are touched by how she makes some little but significant forward steps around the end of the film.

At the beginning, the movie quickly and succinctly establishes the personal background of its young heroine. Fatima (Nadia Melliti) is a 17-year-old girl living with her Algerian immigrant family, and the opening scene shows her going through her routine morning prayer as a devoted Muslim. She and her parents and two older sisters are mostly happy together, and her parents do not seem to mind that she is less girly compared to their other two daughters. 

In her high school, Fatima is one of the more promising students in her class. She and many of her classmates are soon going to take an exam for getting their high school diploma, and she is expected to move onto college for higher learning. As a matter of fact, she has aspired to become a writer someday, though her family often expects her to meet and then marry any nice guy sooner or later. 

However, Fatima has been hiding her homosexuality from not only her family but also many others around her. Whenever she is free, she looks for any opportunity for quick sexual encounter via an online application, and there is a little amusing scene where she meets a much more experienced lady who gladly tells her all about lesbian sex.

 And then there comes an unexpected chance for romance on one day. Due to her chronic asthma, Fatima attends a medical session along with several other asthma patients, and she cannot help but notice a female nurse who turns out to be using the same online application. Not long after this brief encounter, she begins to meet this nurse, and it seems that this can be the first step toward real romantic relationship for her.

Meanwhile, things change in her world bit by bit. Once she passes that examination, Fatima officially graduates from her high school, and we soon see her studying at a local college. Her mother cannot possibly be prouder of her, and she naturally comes to have more of a certain expectation on her, but Fatima still cannot tell anything about her homosexuality to her mother or any other family member of hers.

Nevertheless, she also cannot help but follow whatever her heart desires. After her first romance is suddenly aborted due to some personal reason of her girlfriend, Fatima becomes more emboldened to explore her growing sexual urge more than before, and she does not hesitate at all when she comes across a chance to do something she has never imagined before. As the camera is phlegmatically observing her little sexual experiment, the movie brings a lot of sensitivity and sensuality to this intimate moment, which comes to function as another part of her emotional growth along the story. 

 In the meantime, Fatima also remains devoted to her religion as before, and this brings more inner conflict for her. At one point in the middle of the story, she tries again on heterosexuality via her ex-boyfriend, but that only reminds her more of her homosexuality instead. When she manages to talk indirectly about herself in front of a local Muslim priest, she only receives a disapproving response from him, and that makes her all the more reluctant about confiding her homosexuality to her family.

Nevertheless, we also observe some little progress here and there in her personal life. When she comes to have another chance for romance later in the story, Fatima naturally hesitates at first, but she cannot deny what her heart has yearned for a while. When she happens to have a private conversation with her mother, she still cannot reveal herself more to her mother, but we sense a bit of mutual understanding between them when her mother gives her a little special present for her upcoming birthday.  

 Everything in the film depends a lot on the impressive performance of newcomer Nadia Melliti, who deservedly received the Best Actress award for this movie at Cannes Film Festival. Even when her character does not seem to signify much on the surface, Melliti, who also won the Best Female Revelation award at the César Awards early in this year, deftly illustrates the complex feelings and thoughts inside her character, and she also generate enough romantic vibe with Park Ji-min, a South Korean actress who was unforgettable in Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” (2022). 

On the whole, “The Little Sister”, which is based on French writer Fatima Daas’s 2020 autofiction novel “The Last One”, is a solid work to be admired for its strong lead performance and the competent direction of director/writer Hafsia Herzi, who has been mainly known for her memorable debut performance in Abdellatif Kechiche’s “The Secret of the Grain” (2007) and made a feature film debut in “Good Mother” (2021) a few years ago. As far as I can see from “The Little Sister”, she is a talented filmmaker to watch, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from her.

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Teaching Practice: Idiot Girls and School Ghost 2 (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): Another outrageous high school horror satire

Posted on May 17, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Teaching Practice: Idiot Girls and School Ghost 2”, which is a standalone sequel to “Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School anniversary” (2024), tickled and amused me a lot. While deliberately silly and exaggerated in its cheerfully absurd mix of comedy and satire, the movie also has enough wit and spirit to support its numerous broad comic moments, and you may gladly go along with that as alternatively chuckling and rooting for its main characters.

 The main center of the story is Kang Eun-kyung, a student teacher who happens to return to her old female high school for her teaching practicum. This young idealistic lady is quite determined to become a good teacher, but she is only advised that she should not make any trouble during her teaching practicum period, and she becomes all the more daunted when her mentor, who is still teaching at the school, also gives the same device later.

Nevertheless, Eun-kyung still tries to keep her spirit as high and unflappable as possible, and she soon comes to pay attention to three certain students in the school. Although they are not troublemakers at all on the surface besides being respectively ranked first in the national mock exams, there is something odd about these students. For example, they were allowed to change their Korean names into the Japanese ones for no apparent reason, and they have also been permitted to run their little black magic club, though nobody in the school seems to know what the hell they have been doing down there.

Needless to say, Eun-kyung decides to delve into whatever these girls have been hiding behind their back, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the girls do have a diabolical secret involved with their very impressive exam scores. Their club room turns out to have a hidden portal to the world of dangerous ghosts, and, not so surprisingly, this supernatural world has a long historical connection with their school, which was incidentally established around 100 years ago.

As Eun-kyung enters this supernatural world along with the girls, the movie wildly swings back and forth between horror and satire. For encountering a certain powerful entity who has exerted a considerable influence over not only this supernatural world but also the school, she and the girls must pass several different stages first, and the certain parts of their risky quest are presented in a way more effective than those forgettable Super Mario Brothers animation films.

 As reflected by the title of the film, there are several creepy ghosts to appear here and there along the story, but these supposedly malevolent ghosts often give unexpectedly hilarious moments to be appreciated by me and many other South Korean audiences who had to endure a lot under that demanding South Korean education during their adolescent years. Each of these ghosts are ready to test Eun-kyung and the girls in one way or another, and I particularly like a scene involved with one particular ghost, which throws a lot of English questions which would baffle even native users. Even though she is not so good at English, Eun-kyung must give the right answers as soon as possible, because the consequence of failing in this test is pretty dire to say the least.

When Eun-kyung and the girls finally confront that powerful entity in question, what is being actually at stake turns out to be much more than expected. Their supernatural opponent has been feeding on the desperation and frustration from both the teachers and students in the school for quite a long time, and there subsequently come some horrible (and absurd) surprises for Eun-kyung not long after her confrontation with that powerful entity. This figure is surely determined to dominate over the school as usual by any means necessary, and Eun-kyung comes to see that she is now the only one standing on her mighty opponent’s way. To be frank with you, I chuckled a lot again while watching her receiving a certain powerful old tool which may destroy her opponent once for all.

Around the expected moment of the showdown between good and evil, the movie becomes all the more outrageous as throwing more horror and satire into its loony genre mix, but it keeps its attitude straight along with its main characters nonetheless. While it is quite amusing to see Eun-kyung and the girls concocting a rather clever strategy for distracting all those ghostly minions of their powerful opponent in advance, it is also actually a little touching to see how Eun-kyung demonstrates that she has all the right stuffs for being a real good teacher, and the movie even attempts a bit of melodrama with some self-conscious wink.

The main performers in the film admirably stick to their straight acting mode from the beginning to the end. While Han Sun-hwa earnestly holds the center as required, Hong Ye-ji, Lee Yeo-reum, and Lee Hwa-won hold each own place well around the story, and Yoo Seon-ho, Park Chul-min, Jung Man-sik and Kin Hyun are also effective in their respective supporting roles.

Overall, “Teaching Practice: Idiot Girls and School Ghost 2” is another entertaining work from director/writer/editor Kim Min-ha. With “Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School anniversary” and this film, he demonstrates well his considerable talent in comedy film, and I will not mind at all if there is another sequel to come.

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Michael (2026) ☆☆(2/4): Bland, empty, and bad

Posted on May 16, 2026 by kaist455

“Michael”, a biography drama film on the life and career of Michael Jackson, works whenever it goes all the way for presenting Jackson’s music. If you simply want to enjoy his music, the movie will not disappoint you at all with its fairy vivid and exciting presentation of his song and dance scenes, and you will not feel like wasting your time and ticket money at all.

However, the movie fails to present Jackson as a three-dimensional human being to observe, and this is probably one of the most distant and uninteresting experiences I have ever had at movie theater. As the screenplay by John Logan, who was previously Oscar-nominated for Martin Scorsese’ “The Aviator” (2004) and “Hugo” (2011), trudges from one narrative point to another without much narrative momentum to engage us, Jackson in the film simply comes to us as a bland figure to adore and worship, and that is all we can get here. 

And the movie duly follows most of its genre clichés and conventions without any irony or amusement. For example, it opens with Jackson, played by Jackson’s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson, preparing for another big moment in his career in 1988, and then it naturally goes back to when young Jackson, played by Juliano Krue Valdi, and his several older brothers began their musician career under the abusive management of their father Joseph Jackson (Colman Domingo). For making them into a successful band, Joseph pushes his boys as hard as possible, and young Michael gradually stands out as the most gifted one in the group, though he often finds himself daunted and oppressed by his frequently domineering father.

After a string of big performance scenes of the Jackson Five, the story soon jumps onto several years later. Now becoming a young adult, Jackson begins to consider going his way along by himself, but he is still afraid of his father. Fortunately, those record executives and his new attorney John Branca (Miles Teller) are quite helpful to him, and Jackson finally finds a way to get away from his father’s toxic influence. 

What follows next is a number of notable career highlights for Jackson during the 1980s. Yes, many of Jackson’s famous songs such as “Beat It” and “Thriller” are presented on the screen with a lot of flashy style, and we often see a lot of enthusiasm from his very, very, very excited audiences. Of course, there subsequently comes a downturn for him when he has a serious accident on the stage, but he endures and then prevails anyway, and then there eventually comes the big finale as expected from the very beginning.

However, the movie only scratches the surface without letting us get to know more about Jackson as a human being. As far as I can see, Jackson in the film is a very talented guy who is also a serious case of arrested development, but the movie merely presents him as an extremely sensitive artist who just did not have normal childhood as being pushed to grow up too soon. This could lead to some insight into all those unpleasant scandals surrounding him later in his life, but the movie conveniently limits itself as deliberately not going beyond 1988.

This is quite understandable because not only Jackson’s surviving family members also his attorney participated in the production of the film. After all, the movie needs their permission on using all those songs by Jackson throughout the film, so it cannot possibly show anything negative about Jackson of them, but the result is blandly sanitized to the bone, and you may wonder what director Antoine Fuqua and his four editors had to cut during their rather troubled post-production period. 

In case of Jaafar Jackson, he acquits himself fairly well as showing enough effort and commitment on the screen. Although he does not sing for himself, Jackson looks quite believable during all those song and dance scenes in the film, and you may wish that the movie gave him more things to do instead of having him merely recreate his uncle’s image. In case of young performer Juliano Krue Valdi, he is suitably perky and fetching as required, and it is a shame that the movie does not utilize well his natural talent on the whole (I can easily imagine how wonderful he could be if the movie solely focused on Jackson’s early career instead).

Several substantial supporting performers in the film simply come and go without much impression. While Colman Domingo is regretfully demanded to chew his scenes as much as Faye Dunaway did in “Mommie Dearest” (1981), Nia Long is stuck with a thankless job of looking saintly and concerned, and the performers playing Jackson’s siblings usually remain as mere background details throughout the film. Miles Teller, Mike Myers, Kendrick Sampson, and Larenz Tate are mostly adequate, but they are limited by their superficial characters from the start, and that is another disappointment from the film.

In conclusion, “Michael” is quite bland and hollow without going that deep into Jackson’s life and career. As a tentpole event for millions of his fans out there, it has been considerably successful at the world box office (It has already earned more than 600 million dollars at present, by the way), but it is still a very bad film for numerous flaws including scattershot storytelling and shallow characterization, and I would rather recommend several better musician biography drama films out there such as “Ray” (2004) or “La Vie en Rose” (2007). After watching these films, I came to feel and know more about their human subjects than before, but “Michael” left me with growing emptiness and disappointment, and, folks, that is all.

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Commission (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Drawing for murder

Posted on May 12, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Commission” wants to explore the dark sides of artistic creation, and it succeeds to some degree. I must say that I have no idea on how realistic it actually is in the depiction of the professional field of its several main characters, but I can tell you instead that the movie mostly works as a stark but interesting thriller about talent, ambition, and recognition, and it will surely leave you a lot of things to reflect on later. 

Via the narration of Dan-kyeong (Kim Hyun-soo), the opening part of the film quickly establishes how miserable she has been for many years. She has aspired to be recognized and then admired just like her older sister Joo-kyeong (Kim Yong-ji), but, alas, her dream still seems to be beyond her reach as before. Even when they were young, Joo-kyeong drew much better than her younger sister, and now she is a very successful figure in South Korean online graphic novel, which is incidentally called “webtoon”.   

 In contrast, Dan-kyeong merely works as an instructor in a private art academy, and she feels all the more inferior about herself when one of her colleagues, who is also an aspiring webtoon writer just like Dan-kyeong, happens to have a big break for her career. As feeling quite depressed and resentful, Dan-kyeong impulsively decides to commit a very unpleasant act of copyright infringement as commissioned by someone on one illegal website, just because 1) that pays her fairly well and 2) she actually enjoyed becoming more artistically creative than usual. 

Needless to say, Dan-kyeong soon finds herself sued by that colleague of hers, but her older sister quickly takes care of this problem even though there is not much affection between them. Joo-kyeong later suggests to her younger sister that she should work under Joo-kyeong’s well-respected mentor, and Dan-kyeong accepts this offer mainly because she needs the money for the legal settlement right now.

Right from the first day at the house of Joo-kyeong’s mentor, Dan-kyeong struggles to make a good impression on him and his two apprentices, but things beome gradually improved for her as days go by. Although the amount of the tasks for her is often quite daunting to say the least, she keeps trying to assist him as much as possible, and Joo-kyeong’s mentor comes to show some recognition to her diligent efforts.

However, she gets tempted when one of the apprentices introduces her to a certain Japanese dark website, which is filled with a lot of weirdos and perverts willing to pay for any kind of drawing to satisfy their unspeakable desires. When she receives a commission not long after entering this atrocious website, Dan-kyeong naturally hesitates at first, but she possibly cannot say no when the figure behind that commission offers a considerable amount of money.

As subsequently getting more and more commissions from the website, Dan-kyeong feels a lot more recognized and appreciated than ever, and this certainly boosts her ego and spirit a lot. As a result, she becomes more active at her current workplace, and Joo-kyeong’s mentor seems more willing to support and encourage her as he is about to make a big comeback via his ambitious science fiction graphic novel project.  

Of course, Dan-kyeong soon comes to face the price she must pay for artistic recognition. That guy who gave her first commission turns out to be quite psychotic to say the least, and Dan-kyeong is horrified after this figure committed a heinous murder exactly inspired by what she drew for him. To this figure, the murder is an act of response and appreciation to her artistic creation presented on that website, and Dan-kyeong certainly feels more cornered and conflicted as the police begin to investigate that website. She certainly does not get caught for her dark web activities, but she also cannot help but feel the need to hold onto her authorship – especially when Joo-kyeong keeps reminding her again of how mediocre she is compared to Dan-kyeong.

 Around the narrative point where the killer finally appears on the screen expected, the screenplay by director/writer Shin Jae-min, who incidentally made a feature film debut here in this film, takes several unexpected plot turns. As a result, it becomes less suspenseful than before, but the movie throws some interesting thoughts on talent and authorship as well as artistic moral responsibility, and this compensates for its overlong ending to some degree. Never overlooking the disturbing aspects of its heroine’s horrendous artistic activities, the movie wisely avoids unnecessary sensationalism even in the end, and you will remember more of its heroine’s moral descent along the story.  

The cast members of the movie are well-cast in their respective parts. Although her charccter becomes more distant and unlikable to us along the story, Kim Hyun-soo’s good performance keeps us engaged in what may happen next, and she and Kim Yong-ji often make an interesting contrast with each other during their several key scenes in the film. Several other cast members including Nam Myung-ryul and Joo Suk-tae hold each own place around the story, and Kim Jin-woo did a good job of embodying the vile qualities of his killer character.

In conclusion, “Commission” is a solid genre work which handles its touchy main subject with enough skill and restraint. It is surely not something you can casually watch on Sunday afternoon, but it is still worthwhile to watch for its thought-provoking aspects, and you will be chilled as wondering more about whatever may exist on those dark corners of the Internet.   

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The Nonsense (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Can she believe?

Posted on May 12, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “The Nonsense” is a little but effective mix between character drama and psychological thriller which will often unnerve you with its disturbingly ambiguous moments. Even in the end, you may not be entirely sure about everything in the story just like its heroine, but its darkly unsettling mood will linger on you mind for a while after the movie is over, and you will probably reflect more on those ambiguous moments in the film.

The story mainly revolves around Yoo-na (Oh Ah-yeon), a claims adjustor working in a small agency handling various insurance claims. Thanks to how thoroughly she has handled many insurance claims without any misstep, Yoo-na has been regarded as one of the best employees in the agency, but we soon see how things have been not that good in her private life. Due to her father’s big real estate business mistake, she and her mother have to pay his enormous debt bit by bit, and it is clear that she has been constantly burdened by this daunting family problem.

On one day, Yoo-na is requested to handle one particular insurance claim which was originally handled by one of her fellow employees who suddenly resigned for no apparent reason. A man suffering from terminal illness was drowned in a nearby lake, and it is quite possible that he committed suicide, but, so far, there is not any evidence to prove that at present.

As Yoo-na examines this insurance claim in question, the circumstance surrounding it looks rather suspicious to her. The dead man has no close family member, and the recipient of his insurance claim is Soon-gyoo (Park Yong-woo), who was his “laughter therapist”. When she visits Soon-gyoo later, Yoo-na instantly sense something fishy about this seemingly gentle dude, and she becomes more determined to find what actually happened.

It seems at first that everything will be quickly resolved for her and her agency, but Yoo-na cannot help but become unnerved by Soon-gyoo, and he seems to be well aware of that. Right from their first meeting, he noticed many things about Yoo-na via his very keen observation, and then he sees through more of her as they have more meetings later. She tries to remain calm and cool as much as possible, but she also cannot possibly deny that, as he shrewdly pointed out already, she does have a lot of personal issues hidden behind her frigid appearance.

Soon-gyoo seems willing to provide some help to Yoo-na, and she sees how he works as a therapist for several people including one young baseball player. This lad has been bullied and abused by his coach, and Soon-gyoo has him go through a rather morbid therapy session, which seems to work quite well on the lad as he lets out a lot of his anger and frustration.

Meanwhile, we observe more of Yoo-na’s personal issues as the medical condition of her father, who has been comatose at a hospital for some time, gets worse and worse. While her mother tries anything to make him to get better, Yoo-na is reminded again of her old pain and resentment inside her, and this makes her all the more unsettled than before. When Soon-gyoo later approaches to her with a supposedly generous offer, she is understandably hesistant, but then she finds herself becoming far less burdened than before after he makes her face her pain and resentment during one disconcerting scene.

Of course, there soon comes an expected plot turn, and Soon-gyoo naturally looks much more insidious and ambiguous than before, but the screenplay by director/writer Lee Je-hee, who previously wrote the screenplay for recent South Korean horror film “Noise” (2025), does not provide us any easy answer at all even during the finale. Getting more confused about what she should really believe, Yoo-na desperately tries to get any answer from Soon-gyoo, but he remains as elusive as before, though he gives her a sort of free service in the end. During the very last scene, the story throws another moment for more confusion for Yoo-na, but we can all agree that she can at least have some good laugh at last.

The two lead performers of the film are often compelling as ably complementing each other throughout the story. Oh Ah-yeon, who is no stranger to genre movies considering her appearance in South Korean horror film “Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum” (2018), deftly conveys to us the growing anxiety behind her character’s cool-headed attitude, and she is especially good when her character must hold herself as much as possible in front of her opponent later in the story. In case of Park Yoon-woo, who recently appeared in Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave” (2022), balances his increasingly enigmatic character well around a lot of uneasy ambivalence, and he also brings a bit of black humor to several key scenes of his.

On the whole, “The Nonsense” engaged me more than expected, and I enjoyed its mood, storytelling, and performance. Although this is his first feature film, Lee shows considerable skill and potential here in this movie, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from him after this solid first step for his promising filmmaker career. In short, this is one of the more interesting genre films from South Korean cinema during last year, and I think you should give it a chance someday.

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So Far So Close (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The bar looks wonderful at least

Posted on May 11, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean film “So Far So Close” is filled with plenty of atmosphere from the very beginning, and I appreciate that to some degree. Mainly set in an old bar decorated with a lot of old stuffs, the movie attempts a bittersweet romantic fantasia surrounding its solitary owner, but it does not have enough depth or substance to hold our attention, and that is a shame considering how often it shines with mood and details to be cherished.

The prologue part, which was incidentally shot in black and white film, introduced us to an old man named Joon-ho (Park Ho-san). He has run a bar for more than 10 years in some old neighborhood area of Seoul, but this area is about to go through a lot of re-development, and Joon-ho’s bar will be soon gone just like many other old places in the neighborhood.

As he looks around his almost abandoned bar, Joon-ho cannot help but become nostalgic, and then the movie goes back to 10 years ago. His bar is not doing well due to the news about the redevelopment plan on the neighborhood, but he does not give a damn about that as long as his customers keep coming to his bar. In addition, he also tries to write a screenplay whenever he has some free time in the middle of his worktime, though he still does not know what to write next after its prologue scene.

On one day, a young man comes into the bar. At first, this lad simply wants to drink a glass of beer, but, what do you know, he ends up talking a lot with Joon-ho. It is apparent to us that Joon-ho does not like the young man that much, but he patiently listens to the young man – until the young man talks about the ongoing redevelopment project in the neighborhood.

Although this causes a bit of conflict between them, Joon-ho still lets the young man stay in the bar, and then it gradually turns out that the young man did not come into the bar by mere coincidence. Several days ago, a young woman suddenly came into the bar, and she left a considerable impression on Joon-ho before eventually leaving the bar. Needless to say, this young lady was none other than the young man’s girlfriend, and he feels quite bitter about their breakup which happened not long before her visit to Joon-ho’s bar.

To Joon-ho, the young woman felt quite special to him because she resembles his ex-girlfriend a lot. As a matter of fact, he attempted to follow after her when it turned out that she left a wallet before leaving the bar, but he could not go outside the bar because of a certain past trauma associated with his ex-girlfriend, and then he came to feel more guilt when a local detective notified him on what happened to the young woman not long after she left the bar.

After observing both Joon-ho and the young man getting mired in more regret, the movie moves onto its second half, which is mainly involved with another young woman who comes to Joon-ho’s bar shortly after breaking up with her boyfriend. As a writer, she is surely sympathetic to Joon-ho’s struggle in writing the screenplay, and it seems that something mutual is being developed between them as they talk more and more with each other. 

However, we are not so sure about what is exactly happening around Joon-ho, mainly because not only this young woman but also the first young woman in the story and Joon-ho’s ex-girlfriend are played by the same actress. Moreover, both of the ex-boyfriends of the two young ladies are also played by the same actor, and we are all the baffled as Joon-ho often finds himself haunted by not only his ex-girlfriend but also the image of the first young woman in the story.

While never clarifying which is real or not, the movie immerses us more into its vivid atmosphere and details. Whenever the camera looks around all those old records and video tapes, we instantly get a sense of old history surrounding its hero, and we become more curious about what has been holding him inside his workplace for such a long time.

Unfortunately, the screenplay by director/writer/producer Choi In-gyoo stumbles more than once later in the story, and its finale feels rather shallow without enough emotional ground. In addition, its main characters remain to be more or less than broad archetypes without much personality, and that is the main reason why we are merely baffled by its occasionally confusing narrative instead of getting more engaged in that.

At least, the three main cast members of the film acquit themselves well. While Park Ho-san, who recently appeared in “Persona A Strange Girl” (2023), diligently holds the center with his earnest low-key acting, Ko Eun-min effortlessly brings some charm and presence to her three different roles, and Song Jae-rim, who sadly passed away not long before the movie was released in South Korean theaters around the end of last year, manages to leave some impression despite his thankless task. 

Overall, “So Far So Close”, which is incidentally Choi’s second feature film after “Unconfessional” (2014), has some strong elements including its impressive visual qualities, but it did not engage me enough in terms of story and character. At least, it occasionally shows its director’s considerable potential, and I sincerely hope that his next movie will satisfy me more.

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2035: The Green Light (2025) ☆☆(2/4): An uneven mix between mockumentary and found footage horror

Posted on May 11, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “2035: The Green Light” intrigued me at first and then frustrated me a lot later. At first, it comes to us as a rather amusing mockumentary comedy about the sudden unification of South and North Korea and its aftermath, and you may be tickled by several absurd moments during this part. However, it unfortunately becomes uneven and less fun as entering the area of found footage horror later in the story, and you may get bored with all those genre clichés thrown onto the screen.

The movie, which is set in 2035, did a fairly good job of establishing an alternative history line at the beginning. In 2024, a mysterious wildfire occurred in the North Korean side of the military demarcation line between South and North Korea. As a result, thousands of North Korean citizens and soldiers fled across the military demarcation line, and this unbelievable incident eventually led to the collapse of the North Korean government and then the unification of South and North Korea. The following fake news footage clips show how much things have changed in Korea during next 10 years, and we get little funny moments from the straightforward interviews from several different South Korean people, who all surely have a lot to talk about this unexpected historical incident.   

The story mainly revolves around Steven Park (Oh Tae-kyung), a Korean American reporter who returns to Korea for investigating on a strange thing involved with that wildfire which caused the unification. There is a video footage clip showing a number of weird green lights in the middle of that wildfire, and one of his colleagues has already gone missing not long after going to Korea for investigation.

Along with his local assistant Kim Deok-jung (Yoo Il-han), Steven searches for anyone who can tell them more about those green lights, but they only find themselves more baffled about what really happened at that time. They manage to locate several figures who may tell anything about those green lights, but some of them do not seem to know anything while others are quite reluctant to talk about anything to them.  

Nevertheless, as becoming all the more curious about those green lights, Steven and Deok-jung continue their investigation, and the movie has a little fun with how things have changed in the Korean society during last 10 years. Most of their interviewees are incidentally North Koreans, and we hear a bit about how they have been treated like second-rate citizens as struggling to adjust themselves to the sudden social change thrown upon them. While many of them have some past to hide, they are willing to give some information anyway, and Steven and Deok-jung get closer to the secret behind the green lights. It turns out that there was a covert experiment involved with the nuclear weapon development program of the North Korean government, and whatever happened there seems to be linked with not only that wildfire but also the green lights.     

All these and other things in the film are presented in a mockumentary style as the two digital cameras held by Deok-jeong and Steven constantly follow their bumpy search for the truth. This certainly looks a bit amusing at first due to their utterly serious attitude, but the movie does not seem to know how to build more comic momentum from this potentially funny setup. It simply doles out one silly figure after another in front of Steve and Deok-jeong’s cameras, and the performers playing these absurd characters in the film only show the classic examples of Overacting 101. As many of you know well, it is always the best to play straight in a comedy film – especially if it is a mockumentary comedy film.   

During its second half, the screenplay by director Park Jae-in and his co-writer Kim Dong-ha shifts itself onto found footage horror mode, but this tonal change is quite incoherent and jarring to say the least. While instantly reminiscent of those countless found footage horror films ranging from “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) to “REC” (2007), the movie does not provide much thrill or horror as merely mired in genre conventions, and we come to observe its predetermined narrative arc without much interest.

Above all, the movie often feels flat in terms of character development. Its two main characters are more or less than bland plot elements, and, even when they are in the middle of a big danger, they constantly bicker with each other as becoming more frantic (or idiotic) along the story. As a result, we do not care about them much even when things become all the more disturbing for them later in the story. Oh Tae-kyung and Yoo Il-han try their best at least, but their diligent efforts are often limited by their cardboard characters, and that is another disappointing aspect of the movie.

In conclusion, “2035: The Green Light” is a flawed genre film which mildly amused me without much satisfaction despite its intriguing story setting. In my trivial opinion, the movie should have learned more from better gerne flicks including not only “The Blair Witch Project” and “REC” but also “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984) and “What We Do in the Shadows” (2014), a very funny mockumentary comedy horror film which did a better job of mixing horror and comedy than “2035: The Green Light”. All these four genre films are more effective and entertaining, and maybe you should watch any of them instead.

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Abroad (2023) ☆1/2(1.5/4): The vanishing in the middle of nowhere

Posted on May 10, 2026 by kaist455

2023 film “Abroad”, which was released in South Korean theaters in last year without getting noticed much by me and other local audiences, is one of the most disappointing genre exercises I have ever watched during last several years. At first, it seems to try to follow the footsteps of those dark existential thrillers films such as George Sluizer’s “The Vanishing” (1988), and then it also attempts to emulate the dream narrative logic of David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” (2001), but, to my growing disappointment, it does not succeed at all in either of these two different genre stuffs.

At the beginning, we are introduced to a South Korean lad named Tae-min (Jang Sun-bum) and his girlfriend Min-ji (Lim Young-joo). They have just arrived at the airport located somewhere in Minnesota, US, and the purpose of their visit to this region is quite simple. Min-ji wants to see the northern lights there along with Tae-min, though he does not feel that well due to their air travel.

Not long after their arrival, Min-ji and Tae-min come upon a big trouble. Mainly due to their delayed arrival, they are too late for getting a car from a local car rental service, and they have no choice but to depend on some other option. Fortunately, Min-ji can get a local driver willing to take her and her boyfriend to where they are going to stay during next several days, and the mood becomes a bit more pleasant when the other passenger in the car plays a K-Pop song later.

However, there soon come several bad signs to notice. Not long before the car arrives at Min-ji and Tae-min’s adobe, it could almost hit some other vehicle on the other side of the road, though nobody in the car got hurt at least. As looking around their staying place, Tae-min and Min-ji are quite baffled about how woefully unprepared it is in many aspects. For example, there is no pillow on their bed, and, when she tries to wash herself a bit, Min-ji belatedly discovers that there is no towel in the bathroom.

Although being annoyed a lot by many inconveniences in their abode, Tae-min looks for any towel here and there in their staying place as requested by his girlfriend, but then something very strange happens. Not long after he manages to find a towel at last, somebody knocks on the door on the rear side of their staying place. He goes out, but there is no one there at all, and then he soon finds that his girlfriend is vanished without any trace for no apparent reason.

When the local sheriff subsequently comes to the adobe along with several police officers, Tae-min is willing to cooperate with them as much as he can, but he becomes all the more confused as he suddenly becomes the main suspect of this inexplicable case. The sheriff surely checks out Tae-min’s story, but he begins to suspect Tae-min mainly because there is not any evidence to prove his testimony. For example, there is actually a security camera installed on the front side of the adobe, but, to Tae-min’s bafflement, that security camera only recorded only Tae-min entering the adobe at that time.

This can be a compelling setup for your typical existential thriller, but, unfortunately, the screenplay by director Giovanni Fumu and his co-writer Maximilian Selim is too contrived as depending on a lot of unbelievable coincidence. When Tae-min gets cornered more by the sheriff later in the story, he fortunately gets some help from two sympathetic figures, but the movie does not explain at all why these two characters are so willing to help him without any hesitation, and we only get more befuddled as some other character suddenly enters the picture and then plays a substantial role later in the story.

During the last act, the movie does not even try to make any sense at all to our increasing frustration. Sure, “Mulholland Drive” and Lynch’s many other works often do not make sense much, but they freely and colorfully follow their dream logic with considerable style and substance. Compared to them, “Abroad” is quite hollow and superficial without enough style and substances. While the story seriously lacks narrative momentum to hold our attention, its characters are flat cardboard figures without much human qualities to engage us, and we only come to observe its story and character from the distance without much care – even when everything is eventually explained and then resolved around the end of the movie.

In case of its main cast members, they look totally lost at times without any clear direction for their respective roles. While Jang Sung-bum is only required to look frantic or confused throughout the story, Lim Young-joo is hopelessly stuck in her thankless role without much to do on the whole, and the same thing can be said about several other cast members surrounding them, who often struggle to fill their respective supporting parts as much as possible.

Overall, “Abroad” is a total dud which only came to bore me more and more along its barebone narrative, and my mind kept going back to those two aforementioned films during my viewing. I still remember how much I was chilled by the starkly inevitable finale of “The Vanishing”, and I have always been fascinated with those utterly memorable moments in “Mulholland Drive” even though I am still not so sure about whether I can really explain everything in this endlessly fascinating film. Believe me, you will have a much better time with either of these two masterworks, and you can thank me for my inconsequential recommendation later.

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Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft – The Tour Live in 3D (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): It was wonderful to watch anyway – even in 2D

Posted on May 10, 2026 by kaist455

When I watched “Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft – The Tour Live in 3D” during this Sunday afternoon, the screening condition was rather disappointing. Although this was intended to be shown in 3D, it was shown in 2D here in South Korean theaters instead despite its higher ticket price, and my only consolation is that I watched it at a big Dolby Atmos screening room at least. Thanks to the first-rate sound system of the screening room, I often felt like being right in the middle of a big concert, though my ears winced a bit whenever the music in the film got quite loud.

Therefore, I cannot tell you about how the film actually looks in 3D, but I can tell you instead that 1) it looks fairly wonderful even in 2D and 2) I appreciate more of Eilish’s considerable talent and presence. Although she is only 24 at present, she does have all the right stuffs for becoming a very talented pop star to dazzle millions of fans out there, and I think she will continue to grow and advance as she has during last several years.

The main subject of the film is her 2025 concert tour “Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour”, which was a part of the promotion for her third studio album “Hit Me Hard and Soft”. At the beginning, we see how her concert in Manchester, UK was prepared step by step, and then the film shows us Eilish being prepared to perform in front of thousands of fans already quite eager to see her on the stage.

And she did not disappoint them at all right from when she appeared onto the stage. Amid all those loud sounds and flash lights poured upon the stage (The movie gives a warning in advance for anyone with a serious degree of photosensitive epilepsy, by the way), she confidently dances and performs for more fun and excitement, and it is clear that she really appreciates how many of her fans are connected together via her music.

The film occasionally shows the very emotional reactions of the audiences at the concert. Although this initially feels like an overkill considering all those loud shouts from them, they look genuinely excited and touched by Eilish’s performance as far as I can see, and we later get several interview clips showing some of her audiences gladly talking about how special her music has been to them. Watching Eilish casually and freely expressing herself on the stage, they often feel like being supported and empowered by the sense of empathy generated from that, and we come to have more understanding on their passionate response to her music.

Meanwhile, the film sometimes looks more into how Eilish prepared herself for the concert. While there is a little injury problem in one of her ankles, she remains mostly relaxed, and there is an amusing moment showing her and her several staff members getting some emotional support from a bunch of dogs under their care. Although she is doing the concert without her brother Finneas O’Connell, he sends a sincere and considerate message to his sister before the concert, and Eilish is certainly grateful for that.

And we see how fully she is in the control of her public image. At one point, she is willing to show a bit of herself in front of a group of fans already waiting for the concert outside, and then we see her cheerfully interacting with not only them but also many other fans coming to see her. She also cannot help but become conscious of how important she has been as a trailblazing worldwide pop star during last several years, but music and self-expression always come first for her, and she simply enjoys throwing herself more into her artistic passion while never hiding herself at all.

I must confess that I do not know much about Eilish beyond her two Oscar-winning songs, which were incidentally for “No Time to Die” (2021) and “Barbie” (2023), respectively. I am still not a big fan of her music, but I understand the emotional appeal of her songs to some degree, and I will not deny that I was touched a bit as watching her sincerely performing her Oscar-winning song for “Barbie” and then making a bit of emotional connection with some of her audiences.

Eilish also co-directed and co-produced the film along with James Cameron, who also served as its co-editor. I really have no idea on how much he and Eilish actually contributed to the film respectively, but I can tell you at least that Eilish handled well several moments when she had to not only perform but also wield a little camera on the stage, and it is apparent that she had a lot of fun with this wild filmmaking process.

One particularly weak aspect of the film is that it does not delve much into Eilish as a person. During his several interview scenes with Eilish, Cameron throws fairly soft questions to her as holding the camera right in front of her, and Eilish mildly responds to these questions without revealing much about herself on the whole. As I observed from R.J. Cutler’s documentary film “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry” (2021), she may still need to go through a lot more life experience for more wisdom and honesty, and now I am all the more curious about how she will be around 10 or 20 years later.

Overall, “Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft – The Tour Live in 3D” is a solid concert film which will definitely entertain and then satisfy numerous fans of Eilish out there. Although it probably looks more effective in 3D, I had a fair share of good time thanks to the commendable direction of Eilish and Cameron, and I certainly prefer this well-made product to that recent bloated blockbuster of his. I felt merely tired in case of the latter, but I felt considerably energized in case of the former, and I guess that will tell you a lot.

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