1980 Sabuk (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): It’s still painful for them…

Posted on November 11, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “1980 Sabuk” is about one large-scale labor uprising which happened in one little rural coal mine town in April 1980. Although the incident is almost forgotten at present, there are still many people who remember well what happened at that time, and the documentary focuses on their painful past as patiently presenting its big picture of systemic violence and injustice.

The documentary mainly revolves around the personal research on the incident by a friend of director Park Bong-nam. His friend is the son of a coal miner who worked in the big coal mine in Sabuk, Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province during the 1970-80s, and the documentary consists of the testimonies from various interviewees approached by him and Park during the production of the documentary.

At first, we get some background knowledge on that big coal mine in Sabuk, which was incidentally one of the largest ones in South Korea during its peak period. In this coal mine, around 3,000 coal miners worked day by day, but their working and living conditions were pretty poor to say the least. Besides not getting paid enough for their mostly relentless labor accompanied with a lot of risk and danger, they were mistreated a lot inside and outside their coal mine, but their employer did not do anything to improve their living and working conditions at all, even while earning a lot of money thanks to its greedy labor exploitation.

They did have a local union at that time, but the union and its leader, who had occupied his position for a fairly long time, were not exactly helpful to them, and that made them all the more frustrated and exasperated. In the end, there came a breaking point not long after that union leader got unfairly elected again, and many of the coal miners decided to fight against not only their employer but also the local police as defiantly shutting down their coal mine.

Via several interviewees who worked there at that time, the documentary tells us how volatile their situation was. They and many other coal miners clashed a lot with a bunch of policemen sent there for suppressing the uprising, and the consequence of this clash was quite devastating. As many coal miners violently tried to stop those policemen from entering their coal mine, many of the policemen were seriously injured, and one of them actually died. At one point in the documentary, an old man who was incidentally one of these policemen still vividly remembers that chaotically violent moment, and you can sense how traumatic it still is for him, though, as a guy who was also the son of a coal miner, he also understands well how desperate the coal miners were at that time.

Shortly after this serious clash between the coal miners and the local police, the South Korean government became more willing to squash the uprising by any means necessary, and the timing was not so good for the coal miners to say the least. When President Park Chung-hee was killed in October 1979, it initially seemed that the South Korean society would have a belated chance for democratization after many years of military dictatorship, but there soon came another military dictator who took over the South Korean government via his swift coup d’état a few months later, and this deplorable figure certainly did not welcome the uprising at all.

Thanks to the sincere efforts from the governor of Gangwon Province, the coal miners managed to get their several demands accepted after some negotiation a few days later, and their coal mine soon got back in business, but then, not so surprisingly, there came the brutal retaliation from the local police and the South Korean government. During next several weeks, those soldiers and policemen took away any person possibly associated with the uprising in one way or another, and those arrested coal miners and town people had to endure a lot of barbaric torture inside the local police station.

A number of survivors of this grim and horrific period phlegmatically talk about their respective experiences of torture, and their testimonies are quite harrowing to say the least. As they got cruelly tortured a lot, they were forced to say whatever their torturers wanted before eventually getting imprisoned during several years, and their minds and bodies are still reeling from what they had to endure during that time.

The documentary also pays some attention to many female employees and town people who were also tortured during that time. In case of one old lady, the documentary later presents a devastating testimony video clip of hers, and it is sad to see that she never received any official apology from the South Korean government or the local police before her death in 2019.

And there is also the wife of that union leader, who was unfortunately lynched and then held as a hostage by the coal miners during the uprising. From the coal miners’ viewpoint, her husband was responsible for what caused the uprising to some degree, but it is inarguable that she is also a victim as much as many other coal miners and town people, and you will empathize with her two sons as they bitterly and angrily talk about how much their family was devastated by the uprising and its following consequence. As briefly and sharply pointed out around the end of the documentary, the employer and the South Korean government are the ones truly responsible for all those enormous human pains and torments during the uprising and its aftermath, but neither of them has given any public apology yet even at this point.

On the whole, “1980 Sabuk” is a modest but powerful documentary which did a commendable job of illuminating another hidden part of the South Korean labor history during the late 20th century. Now Sabuk is just a small plain rural town after its coal mine was eventually shut down in 2004, but the documentary vividly shows us how its painful history remains quite alive with the survivors of the uprising even at this point, and that will surely lead you to some serious thoughts after it is over. In short, this is one of the best South Korean documentaries of this year, and I sincerely recommend you not to miss a chance to watch this haunting documentary.

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Bird (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): One feisty girl and her birdy friend

Posted on November 10, 2025 by kaist455

“Bird” is another raw coming-of-age drama from Andrea Arnold, who previously gave us “Fish Tank” (2008) and “American Honey” (2016). Closely following its young heroine’s small and big struggles, the movie presents a rough but vivid slice of life which engages and then touches us more than expected, and we do not mind at all even when it tries a bit of magic realism later.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes the shabby daily life of Bailey (Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old girl living with her young father Bug (Barry Keoghan) and her older half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda). While he is your average working-class bum, Bug has a little business plan which looks rather outrageous to say the least, and he is also planning to marry his current girlfriend Kayleigh (Frankie Box), who incidentally comes with her little daughter.

Not so surprisingly, Bailey does not like his father’s upcoming marriage at all, and she clashes a bit with Bug on a little matter involved with his wedding ceremony. Feeling quite suffocated and frustrated with her daily life, she becomes more interested in a little vigilante activity involved with her older half-brother, but Hunter does not let her participate in that activity because, after all, she is still too young for that.

Feeling more alienated and lonelier than before, Baliely comes to spend the following night in a field outside her neighborhood, and that is how she comes to encounter an odd guy who simply introduces himself as “Bird” (Franz Rogowski). He has been looking for his parents he lost many years ago even though he does not remember much about them, and Bailey decides to help this weird guy even though he is a total stranger to her from the start.

As she gets more involved with Bird, Bailey notices more of how strange he is. While he does not talk much about his past except his lost parents, he also shows some weird behaviors which are not so far from what we usually observe from birds, and that makes Baliey all the more curious about him. As a fellow loner, she cannot help but become more sympathetic to him, and Bird seems to appreciate her help and support as revealing more of a wounded child behind his distant attitude.

These two different main characters’ growing relationship certainly feels unconventional. Despite their considerable age gap, they become more aware of something common between them, and Bailey becomes more determined to help her unexpected friend even though she is burdened with several other issues besides her father’s upcoming wedding. When she visits her mother for getting more information about Bird’s parents, she sees how her mother and her half-siblings have been quite miserable due to her mother’s current boyfriend. She seriously considers getting some help from her older half-brother and his fellow vigilantes, but Hunter happens to have a serious issue of his own to deal with right now.

Freely rolling its main characters from one narrative point to another, the movie immerses us more into the shabby working-class environment inhabited by its young heroine and many others around her, and Arnold and her crew members including cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who has steadily collaborated with her since her first feature film “Red Road” (2006), did a commendable job of bringing a lot of palpable sense of life to the film. Although it often feels quite shaky, Ryan’s handheld camera vividly and intimately captures the raw emotional intensity of several key dramatic scenes in the film, and that makes us all the more engaged in our young heroine’s drama.

By the way, you will probably be caught off guard by what happens during its last act due to a sudden dose of magic realism. It may feel a bit too jarring at first, but this unexpected moment somehow works thanks to what has been established so realistically up to that point, and it is also touching to observe how this part leads the story and its young heroine toward a bit of genuine hope and optimism during the following ending.

As usual, Andrea draws an impressive natural performance from her lead actress. Although she did not have any movie acting experience before this film, Nykiya Adams ably holds the center with her unforgettable performance while demonstrating considerable potential here as another new talented actress to watch, and she is also supported well by several good supporting performers. While Frankie Box, Jasmine Jobson, and Jason Buda are well-cast in their respective roles, Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski bring extra personality to the movie without overshadowing Adams at all, and both of them remind us again that they are two of the most reliable character actors in our time. Keoghan, to whom I have paid attention since I noticed his small but crucial supporting turn in Yann Demange’s “’71” (2014), effortlessly brings human qualities to his rather childish character, and Rogowski, who has seldom disappointed since his breakthrough turn in Michael Haneke’s “Happy End” (2017), is simply perfect for his role due to his own offbeat qualities.

On the whole, “Bird”, which belatedly came to South Korean theaters as “Bailey and Bird” on last Wednesday, is an excellent coming-of-age drama to be cherished for its vivid realism and several strong performances to watch. While being relatively less edgy than “Fish Tank” and “American Honey”, this is another terrific achievement from Arnold, and you will surely look forward to watching her next film after it is over.

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Isle of Snakes (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): On a strange and beautiful isle

Posted on November 9, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Isle of Snakes”, which was released in local theaters a few years after it was premiered at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival, alternatively baffled and intrigued me. While simply starting with three broad characters stuck in one mysteriously isolated location, the movie often caught me off guard with a series of odd moments, but it also mesmerized me with a lot of mood and beauty to be savored. To be frank with you, I still have no idea on what it is exactly about, but I also admire how it is about nonetheless, and that makes the movie fairly interesting in my humble opinion.

Although it does not show or tell much about its setting, the movie gradually lets us gather its specific period background at the beginning. It is around the middle of the war between Korea and Japan in the late 16th century, and its three main characters are sailors who worked in a warship belonging to the Korean Navy. After their warship was sunken due to a typhoon, they find themselves stranded on a small, uninhabited island, and they have no choice but to wait for any possibility of rescue at least during next several days.

Fortunately for these three able-bodied seamen, the island is not barren at all. While they can get some supply of clean water to drink, they also can find several edible things including mushrooms and fish around the island. At one point in the story, a jar of alcohol is discovered by one of them, and that naturally leads to a little merry night among them.

And we get to know a bit about these three dudes. While Chang-ryong (Kim Ki-tae) is an artilleryman, Mong-hwi (Lee Sang-hoon) is a rower, and Kkeock-soe, who is incidentally the youngest one in the bunch, is sometimes a bit too simple-minded in his behaviors. Needless to say, his foolish deeds annoy both Chang-ryong and Mong-hwi from time to time, and that leads to some amusing comic moments to tickle us.

However, Chang-ryong and Mong-hwi cannot help but become more despaired as being reminded again and again of how hopeless the situation is for them and Kkeock-soe. They keep trying to reach for any chance for rescue day by day, but they only find themselves still struggling in their continuing ennui. As observing how their conversations go nowhere in an increasingly repetitive pattern every day, you may be reminded of Samuel Beckett’s classic absurdist play “Waiting for Godot”. In fact, you will not be that surprised when they later find themselves getting quite confused about how long they have actually been stuck in the island.

Meanwhile, the movie also tries some surreal stuffs to flabbergast you for good reasons. Not long after the skeletal remains of some woman is found by Kkeok-soe, a number of strange things occur around him and his two colleagues, and it looks like they meddled with something disturbing in the island. At first, they are amused a bit just because of how things have been quite uneventful for them, but then they come to feel more that they need to get out of the island as soon as possible.

Although it never clarifies what is exactly hovering over the island, the movie continues to hold our attention with its vivid atmosphere filled with natural beauty to admire. Director/writer Kim Eu-min, who incidentally made a feature film debut here in this film, and his crew fill the screen with numerous stunning visual moments, and their vast scale often emphasizes the increasing sense of isolation surrounding the main characters in the film. Around the point where the story reveals a bit more of whatever is lurking inside the island, the movie goes for more surrealistic mood, and there is even an utterly phantasmagorical sequence clearly inspired by those Korean traditional lacquerwares decorated with mother-of-pearl.

Despite frequently being quite elusive and ambiguous, the movie also shows a surprising amount of lightweight humor along the story – especially in case of several key scenes involved with Kkeok-seo, who somehow reminds me of that weird boy in Cormac McCarthy’s novel “Suttree”. Due to his careless handling of his toenails, something quite weird happens to him later, and you will enjoy how the movie pushes his situation further for more amusement.

The main cast members keep their acting straight while also sounding fairly convincing in their dialogues, which are heavily ridden with old dialects (The movie thankfully provides the subtitle for me and other South Korean audiences, by the way). While Lee Chung-bin is certainly the showiest member in the bunch, Kim Ki-tae and Lee Sang-hoon are equally solid in their respective parts, and the comic chemistry between these three good actors is one of the main reasons why the movie can engage us to the end. As another substantial part of the film, Jeon Hee-hyeon has a little fun during one particular scene where she plays three different figures at once, and her solid performance adds some spookiness to the story.

In conclusion, “Isle of Snakes” is a rather challenging arthouse film, but it is filled with enough style, mood, and humor for keeping us interested up to its finishing point. Even at this point, I am not totally sure about a lot of things in the movie, but it was a fairly interesting experience, and I think it is more successful than “Esper’s Light” (2024), another recent South Korean film which also baffled me a lot. While the latter left me feeling rather empty and hollow in the end, the former left me feeling somehow satisfied and entertained enough, and I am already willing to revisit it for admiring more of how it is about.

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404 Still Remain (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): As they share their favorite Japanese pop songs

Posted on November 9, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “404 Still Remain” made me feel a bit nostalgic for good reasons. Set in early 2000s, this little coming-of-age drama movie is filled with the period details to notice here and there, and I can tell you that it did a fairly good job on the whole. In addition, the emotional struggles of its two main characters resonated a lot with me because I was a repressed gay boy just like them around that time, and I must tell you that there are several moments which came particularly close to me.

The movie opens with the arrival of a high school student named Kyeong-hwan (Sim Hyun-seo) and his parents in Daegu, one of the big local cities in South Korea. He and his parents moved from some rural town just because of some better business opportunity for both of his parents, and we soon see him starting his first day at his new school.

Needless to say, Kyeong-hwan feels quite awkward among his new classmates, but then he receives some help and support from Jae-min (Hyeon Woo-seok), the popular class president who happens to sit right next to him. Mainly thanks to their enthusiasm on Japanese pop songs, they instantly befriend each other, and they come to spend more time with each other as sharing a lot of Japanese pop songs between them via Kyeong-hwan’s MP3 player (Are you old enough to remember what it is, by the way?).

Meanwhile, they and many other classmates of theirs have to prepare a lot for the college entrance examination as usual, and Kyeong-hwan soon comes to distinguish himself a lot as becoming the No.1 student of the class. As a result, he becomes a little more popular in his class than before, and Jae-min does not seem to mind this at all even though he has been frequently pressured by his mother to excel himself.

As getting closer to Jae-min more and more, Kyeong-hwan finds himself quite attracted to Jae-min. It later turns out that he had a little trouble due to his homosexuality before moving to Daegu, and that makes him very hesitant about revealing himself more to Jae-min, but it seems that Jae-min likes Kyeong-hwan more than he can admit on the surface. For example, he often touches Kyeong-hwan a lot, and this looks like a merely friendly gesture, but Kyeong-hwan comes to wonder more about whether Jae-min has actually repressed himself just like he has for years.

While Kyeong-tae remains conflicted about his relationship with Jae-min, the screenplay by director/writer Uhm Ha-neul, who incidentally made a feature film debut here in this film, doles out one episodic moment after another for more plot and character development. We get to know a bit about some of Kyeong-hwan’s classmates, and then we also observe how his parents’ marriage crumbles for some unspecified reason. In the end, his father leaves after the divorce, and his mother has to support her and her son alone by herself, but then there comes a big trouble for her and her fellow merchants in the neighborhood.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Kyeong-hwan eventually shows Jae-min his romantic feelings toward him later in the story, and you will not be surprised that much by the following consequence Kyeong-hwan has to deal with. Jae-min suddenly becomes quite distant to him, and Kyeong-hwan also finds himself frequently bullied and ostracized by many of his classmates once the gossip about his homosexuality is spread around his class.

While there are several heavy-handed moments involved with your typical homophobia, the movie handles Kyeong-hwan’s emotional struggle with enough care and sensitivity at least. There is a little touching scene after Kyeong-hwan finally reveals his homosexuality to his mother, and then there is also a powerful moment as Kyeong-hwan listens to Jae-min’s favorite Japanese pop song and then comes to sense and understand more of whatever Jae-min is holding behind his back. In case of the epilogue part, it feels rather redundant at first, but then there comes an unexpected moment of poignancy which will linger on your mind for a while after the movie is over.

The movie certainly depends a lot on the good chemistry between its two lead performers. Besides looking young enough on the screen, Sim Hyun-seo and Hyeon Woo-seok are believable in their characters’ relationship development along the story, and Shim is particularly harrowing when his character must endure a lot just because of being honest to himself. On the opposite, Hyeon effectively complements his co-star via his more subdued acting, which often speaks volumes even though his character does not seem to signify much on the surface. In case of several substantial supporting performers, Gong Min-jung has a few good scenes to notice as Kyeong-hwan’s struggling mother, and On Joo-wan makes a brief appearance around the end of the story.

In conclusion, “404 Still Remain”, whose title is derived from a certain Internet message with which many of you are quite familiar, is an engaging high school drama to be appreciated for mood, storytelling, and performance. Along with two recent South Korean films “3670” (2025) and “Homeward Bound” (2025), this is another notable South Korean queer film of this year, and I sincerely hope that it will bring some comfort and support to many sexual minority adolescent kids out there in the South Korean society.

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Esper’s Light (2024) ☆☆(2/4): Their little online fantasy world

Posted on November 9, 2025 by kaist455

 In my inconsequential opinion, I am not an ideal audience for South Korean independent film “Esper’s Light”. While it is probably one of the most singular South Korean films of this year, I often felt distant and confused for more than 2 hours, and that impression of mine does not go away even after I later learned more about what and how it is about.

The movie consists of three different science fiction fantasy stories which, as far as I remember, are connected with each other to some degree. At the beginning of the first story, it is explained to us that a bunch of boys and girls happen to be pursued by the government due to their special powers, and the opening scene shows some of them hiding inside their safe house while being helped a bit by some other boy.

The plot thickens when their safe house is not safe anymore. They have to run away as soon as possible, and there are several options for them. While some of them go to several other remote spots which may be safer from the ongoing pursuit of the government, others go to an underground tunnel which eventually leads them to a futuristic city. Needless to say, the government continues to chase after them as usual, and we soon see some of them captured or cornered by the government agents.

Now the movie feels like your average tabletop role-playing games (TRPG) such as, yes, “Dungeons & Dragons”. As a matter of fact, director Jung Jae-hoon wrote the screenplay along with a bunch of adolescent kids who are the members of an online TRPG community on Twitter (It now becomes “X”, you know), and the movie alternates between their stories and the documentary footage clips of these young writers. Whenever the story comes upon a conflict or crisis under the guidance of their story master, they instantly respond to that via their smartphones, and then the story advances more via their imagination and storytelling skill.

I am not sure whether their writing is really good, but the movie tries to convey their enthusiasm to us via its modest cinematic ways. Whenever the mood gets weird or tense, the soundtrack is naturally filled with odd sound effects while the screen is packed with a lot of light and shadow. Besides often baffling us a lot, the overall result surely covers up the production budget limit of the movie to some degree, and you may appreciate some nice creative visual touches shown from the screen.

In case of the second story, it is simply set in some isolated background occupied by several adolescent characters who are your average fantasy archetypes. Just like the main characters of the first story, they have each own superpower, and the story mainly revolves around one girl who must protect a certain precious object despite a lot of pain inflicted upon her because of that.

We see how several other characters try to handle her problem as she screams very, very, very loud in her continuing agony, but the story is unfortunately deficient in many aspects just like the first one. For instance, we never get to know that much about its main characters and their motives, and the story is also quite murky and confusing about its rules and conditions as it is handed from one community member to another.

The third story is probably the best one in the bunch, mainly because it is a bit more dramatic compared to the two other stories. The four android robots are sent to a remote island where some four young girls have lived together without anyone else, and the robots soon come to discover that there is something magical in the island. As a matter of fact, it is so special that some of the robots cannot help but become emotional along the story, and that naturally leads to a big conflict in the story.

What eventually happens at the end of the story will not surprise you that much, but you will be more aware of those young community members behind the story. From time to time, the movie shows these kids going through their respective daily lives, and we observe how serious they are about the story and characters created by them day by day.

However, the movie does not delve much into who these young community members are, and that is the main reason why it feels too superficial at times. Yes, their stories are understandably clumsy at times, and I am totally fine with that, but the movie does not share their interest and enthusiasm with us that much. Without enough emotional ground to support their stories, the movie ultimately becomes a merely shallow exercise in style, and that makes us all the more distant to whatever is being presented on the screen. 

On the whole, “Esper’s Light” did not intrigue or stimulate my mind enough for recommendation. Yes, my mind kept going somewhere else when I watched it yesterday, but this is a distinctive cinematic experiment which deserves some admiration, and you will probably appreciate it more if you have ever had any TRPG experience (Full disclosure: I haven’t). Considering that it will not be released on video on demand (VOD), maybe you should check it out if you are a serious movie fan like me, but please be aware of what and how it is about in advance.

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The Woman in the White Car (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A little chilly female mystery thriller

Posted on November 7, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean film “The Woman in the White Car” is a little female mystery thriller with chilly sensitivity to be savored. While you may easily guess what it is about right from the very beginning, the movie will gradually engage and then surprise you as slowly delving into its main characters’ emotional struggles along the story, and you will eventually find yourself alternatively chilled and touched by how it is about. 

The movie, which is set in some rural mountain region in the middle of one snowy winter, opens with a sudden disturbing incident. A car quickly arrives at a local hospital, and one of the two figures inside the car hurriedly comes out and then desperately cries for help. It turns out that the other figure in the car is in the serious need of medical treatment due to a severe physical injury, and we soon see this figure quickly taken into the hospital for emergency surgery.  

The two local police officers, Hyeon-joo (Lee Jung-eun) and her rookie partner Yong-jae (Lee Hwi-jong), subsequently arrive at the hospital for the following investigation, but then they are quite baffled about what exactly happened. On the surface, it seems that those two figures in question are Do-kyeong (Jung Ryeo-won) and her older sister, but then it is revealed that the injured woman brought by Do-kyeong is clearly not his older sister. After all, her older sister once worked as a nurse at the hospital, and her older sister’s former colleagues do not know at all who the hell that injured woman is.  

Do-kyeong claims that her “older sister” was actually stabbed by her husband, and the movie gives us a flashback scene showing how that occurred. According to Do-kyeong, her older sister’s husband was pretty nasty and abusive to say the least, and she testifies to the police officers that her older sister happened to be injured in the middle of a violent physical clash between them and that loathsome dude. 

However, Hyeon-joo is skeptical about Do-kyeong’s testimony for good reasons. Although she was once a promising young novelist who was also quite successful, Do-kyeong was put under her older sister’s care due to a serious mental problem not long after losing their parents, and this certainly makes her testimony rather unreliable. In addition, her “older sister” has been unconscious after her emergency surgery while her husband is currently gone missing, so there is no one to confirm whether Do-kyeong told the truth or not.

As a woman still haunted by those painful memories of abuse in her past, Hyeon-joo instinctively senses how damaged and traumatized Do-kyeong really is. Her instant sympathy toward Do-kyeong makes Hyeon-joo all the more determined about finding what really happened to Do-kyeong, but then she only encounters more baffling questions about the case. For example, it later turns out that Do-kyeong’s real older sister was not actually living with Do-kyeong, and she was somehow disappeared not long before Do-kyeong came to the hospital along with that mysterious woman.

While she comes to sense more of how fishy her case is in many aspects, Hyeon-joo also begins to reflect more on her dark past from which she is still reeling. She was frequently abused by her alcoholic father who often exerts some toxic influence on her even at present, and there is an unnerving moment showing how she tries to calm herself in a way not so far from what her father often did to her during that time.

What is eventually revealed during the last act is a bit too contrived in my humble opinion, but the screenplay by Seo Ja-yeon keeps holding our attention via focusing on the subtle emotional drama unfolded between Hyeon-joo and Do-kyeong. Although she often looks rather elusive, it is apparent that Do-kyeong is struggling with whatever she is hiding behind her back, and there is a little poignant moment when she chooses to open herself a bit more to Hyeon-joo later in the story.    

The movie is carried well by the solid performances from its two wonderful main cast members. While often looking as distant and baffling as required, Jung Ryeo-won skillfully handles her several key scenes in the film, and her ambiguous presence is contrasted well with the more straightforward acting of Lee Jung-eun, who has been one of the most dependable character actresses in South Korean cinema since her breakthrough supporting turn in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning film “Parasite” (2019). Even when the movie stumbles a bit with some preposterous plot turns, Jung and Lee hold it together to the end, and they are also supported well by several other main cast members including Jang Jin-hee, Kang Jun-woo, Lee Hwi-jong and Kim Jung-min.  

In conclusion, “The Woman in the White Car”, which received considerable attention when it was shown at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2022 (Jung received the Korean Fantastic Best Actress Award, for instance) but then was belatedly released in South Korean theaters on last Wednesday, is a competent genre film, and I enjoyed how it distinguishes itself via its good mood, storytelling, and performance. Although she has been mainly directing a number of local TV drama series episodes, director Christine Ko shows here that she is a promising filmmaker with some potential, and it will be interesting to see what may come next after this commendable feature film debut of hers.

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Predator: Badlands (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): You will root for this alien lad a lot

Posted on November 7, 2025 by kaist455

“Predator: Badlands”, the latest installment from the Predator franchise, is another surprisingly solid piece of entertainment to admire and enjoy. Like its two recent predecessors “Prey” (2022) and “Predator: Killer of Killers” (2025), the movie tries some refreshing and interesting variations with what has been so familiar to us for years, and the overall result is successful enough to bring more energy and spirit to the franchise.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), a young Predator who has been eager to prove himself although he is relatively more imposing than many of his clan members including his father. Despite his earnest efforts, his father, who is incidentally the chief of their clan, is already ready to eliminate him, but he manages to escape from his home planet at the last minute, and he eventually finds himself stranded in some other alien planet.

However, this alien planet is quite dangerous to say the least. There are many different creatures on the planet, and, as Dek soon comes to learn, most of them are pretty lethal as your average predators. In the end, he really needs someone to help him, and then he comes across Thia (Elle Fanning), a damaged android robot sent from the Earth. Although she lost the lower half of her body, Thia is fairly functional on the whole, and she is also willing to help Dek locating a certain local creature.

That local creature in question has been regarded as something quite challenging even for more experienced Predators like Dek’s father. Nevertheless, Dek is very determined to hunt and then kill it for proving himself, so he accepts Thia’s offer despite his initial reluctance. While Dek is often quite serious and rather humorless, Thia is programmed to be plucky and sensitive, and we are often amused by this humorous personality contrast of this mismatched duo – especially when they are later joined by a little creature which somehow looks both cute and ungainly.

As Dek and Thia continue their risky quest, the movie fills its alien world with vivid mood and details to observe and appreciate. While being reminiscent of James Cameron’s “Avatar” (2009) to some degree at times, the alien world of “Predator: Badlands” actually looks much richer than its subtitle suggests, and the movie often lets us get immersed more into its alien world whenever it is not on action mode. In addition, it also pays a lot of attention to the relationship development between its two very different main characters along the story, and it is poignant to observe how Dek comes to bond with his unexpected companion a lot more than he can admit.

Meanwhile, the situation becomes a bit more complicated as another main figure enters later in the story. That figure in question is Tessa, Thia’s twin android robot who is also played by Fanning. After being restored and reprogrammed by the supervising computer of that evil corporation in the Alien franchise, Tessa is ready to get their mission accomplished by any means necessary, and it goes without saying that she will eventually stand on Thia and Dek’s way.

During the last act, the movie provides a lot of action, and we are surely thrilled and excited as expected, but we also come to care more as the movie stays focused on what is going on among its main characters as before. Via his strained but meaningful relationship with Thia, Dek comes to learn that care and compassion are not a weakness at all, and we are not so surprised when he changes his mind after learning something about his hunting target.

The two lead performers are terrific as ably complementing each other from the beginning to the end. Although his acting is accompanied with a lot of CGI and voice manipulation, newcomer Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi brings enough physicality and personality to his character, and his strong performance here in this film is the main reason why the movie works as an engaging coming-of-age drama. On the opposite, Elle Fanning, who will impress us again in this year with her recent acclaimed supporting turn in Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” (2025), has a lot of fun with swinging back and forth between her two opposing characters, and her compelling double performance always brings some extra charge to the movie.

The movie is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who drew our attention with his first feature film “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016) and then made “Prey” and “Predator: Killer of Killers”. While “Prey” unexpectedly brought some unexpected fresh air of change to the franchise, “Predator: Killer of Killers” generated more potential for the franchise as a stylish animation film, and both these two films and “Predator: Badlands” certainly show us together that Trachtenberg is a talented filmmaker willing to take a chance for going further with the franchise he clearly respects and loves.

In conclusion, “Predator: Badlands” is recommendable for not only its exciting action scenes but also its compelling storytelling coupled with enough mood and personality. As reflected by what is brief shown around its end credits, there will certainly be more Predator flicks during next several years, but the movie recharges the franchise as well as its two recent predecessors, and you may come to have more expectation after it is over. In short, this is one of the more enjoyable Hollywood blockbuster products of this year, and I assure you that you will root for this alien lad a lot.

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Save the Green Planet! (2003) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): An odd South Korean mixed bag

Posted on November 4, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean filmmaker Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 debut feature film “Save the Green Planet”, which recently received more attention thank to the recent American remake version directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, is probably one of the weirdest mixed bags I have even encountered during last 30 years. So wildly swinging among many different genre modes ranging from absurd horror comedy to harrowing melodrama, the movie was destined to be a cult classic from the very beginning, and it is not so surprising that the movie was not received that well even by local audiences at that time.

Although around 20 years have passed since I watched it via a DVD copy (I somehow missed the chance to watch it at movie theater, by the way), the movie remains quite an oddball piece of work to me. While there are many outrageous moments which may make your eyeballs roll at times, we also get numerous moments of stark horror to unnerve and then chill you, and you will be all the amazed by how it even attempts a bit of genuine pathos and poignancy as busily trying to balance itself among those contrasting genre elements in the story.

The story begins with the kidnapping planned by its supposedly unhinged hero and her girlfriend. For some time, a young beekeeper named Lee Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) has been obsessed with a wealthy and powerful businessman named Kang Man-shik (Baek Yoon-sik) just because he has zealously believed that Man-shik is actually an alien in human disguise, and his rather simple-minded girlfriend Su-ni (Hwang Jeong-min, a wonderful veteran character actress who should not be confused with a more famous South Korean actor of the same name at any chance), is willing to assist his kidnapping plan without having any doubt at all.

After he and his girlfriend manage to succeed in kidnapping Man-shik and then taking him to their little isolated place located in the middle of some rural mountain area, Byeong-gu is ready to extract the confession from Man-shik by any means necessary, and that is where the movie goes for more horror and absurdity. You may laugh a bit at times as observing more of how loony Byeong-gu is, but then you are also quite horrified by how willing he is to go further and further for saving, yes, a green planet called the Earth. At one point later in the story, we get a chilling moment of sheer horror as Man-shik comes to learn more of what Byeong-gu has done behind his back during last several years, and this makes us all the more unnerved than before.

Nevertheless, we also come to have some pity on this deranged lad as much as, say, the main villain of Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” (2003). As shown from a flashback sequence in the middle of the film, his life has been full of misery, pain, and torment for many years, and now he becomes more desperate as he may lose someone very dear to him sooner or later. The movie does not wisely make any cheap excuse on his barbaric acts of cruelty and violence, and that is why we often find ourselves constantly going back and forth between repulsion and sympathy.

In case of his captive, we feel ambivalent about him as much as Byeong-sik. Sure, Man-shik is one of those unlikable “1% people” who usually regard others below him with contempt and apathy, but we come to care a bit about his increasingly despairing struggle for survival, even when we begin to have doubt on whether he is merely another target of Byeong-gu’s worsening madness. 

Frequently toying with that nagging possibility to the end, the movie continues to throw one memorably weird moment after another. The part with involved with a seasoned detective getting closer to Byeong-gu culminates to an outrageous payoff moment involved with those countless bees taken care of by Byeong-gu, which is still darkly hilarious to me. Above all, there is a truly wacky sequence somewhere between Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) and Mike Hodges’ “Flash Gordon” (1980), and all I can tell you here is that this is definitely something you have to see for yourself.

The movie loses some of its narrative momentum as being on the verge of becoming an overkill more than once, but it remains supported well by the strong performances from its three main cast members. Shin Ha-kyun, who rose to more prominence after Park Chan-wook’s “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” (2002), did a good job of going along with the wild genre swings of the movie, and Hwang Jung-min provides a little precious sincerity to her archetype character. In case of Baek Yoon-sik, he masterfully handles several tricky key moments solely depending on his acting talent, and his memorable performance here in this film certainly boosted his movie acting career to a considerable degree.

In conclusion, “Save the Green Planet!” remains as one of the most notable South Korean films during the 2000s, and now I reflect more on what a fantastic time it was for South Korean audiences in 2003. Besides “Save the Green Planet!” and “Oldboy”, we also had Kim Ji-woon’s “A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003), Kim Ki-duk’s “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring” (2003), and Bong Joon-ho’s “Memories of Murder” (2003), and this was just the beginning for many highlights to come from South Korean cinema including, yes, that dramatic victory of Bong’s iconic 2019 film “Parasite” at the Academy Awards.

Unfortunately, Jang could not ride on this cultural wave that much due to the big commercial failure of his first feature film, and he only made “Hwayi: A Monters Boy” (2013) and “1987: When The Day Comes” (2017) during last two decades. Nevertheless, “Save the Green Planet!” is still a compelling achievement on the whole, and I sincerely hope that this undeniably offbeat genre film will get more appreciation thanks to the American remake version.

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Dangerous Animals (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A serial killer with sharks

Posted on October 31, 2025 by kaist455

“Dangerous Animals” is another typical horror film with a lot of sharks, but there is one thing to distinguish itself a bit among many other shark flicks which came out after Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” (1975). It has a crazy serial killer who has been obsessed with sharks, and you may enjoy how it has some twisted fun with the juxtaposition of these two different horror genre elements.

The main story of the movie begins with your average Meet Cute moment. In the Gold Coast area of Queensland, Australia, two different young people come across each other, and we observe how different they are from each other in many aspects. While Moses (Josh Heuston) is a local lad from some affluent family, Zephyr (Hessie Harrison) is a young American woman who simply prefers to be alone while wandering around here and there, but it does not take much time for them to get attracted to each other more as sharing their enthusiasm on surfing.

In the end, they end up having a romantic time inside a van where Zephyr has lived for a while, and Moses is willing to be more serious about their relationship, but Zephyr, who turns out to have a very unhappy past, hesitates. As a result, she leaves him while he is absent, and then she goes to a certain beach area previously recommended by him.

When Zephyr happens to encounter a stranger there, we get nervous because the opening scene already showed us how dangerous this figure is. While he just looks like a rather eccentric due running his little tourism business involved with those sharks in the sea near the Gold Coast, Tucker (Jai Courtney) is actually a serial killer who incidentally has a very morbid idea about sharks, and he chooses Zephyr as his next victim.

Not long after she is suddenly ambushed by Tucker, Zephyr wakes up to find herself locked up inside Tucker’s boat along with a young woman who has already been trapped there for a while. As your average tough girl, Zephyr naturally tries to find any possible way out, but Tucker is already preparing for another killing, and it seems that all is lost for her.

The movie does flinch at all as depicting how crazy Tucker is about sharks. To him, people are just pieces of meat to be sacrificed to what has fascinated him for years since his unfortunate encounter with a shark during his childhood years. In contrast to Robert Shaw’s shark-hating character in “Jaws”, this dude admires and worships sharks in his own insane way, and we are more chilled when the movie eventually presents his ritual of killing on the screen. 

As Zephyr keeps struggling for her survival, the movie provides a series of intense moments between her and her captor. Although the situation becomes all the more hopeless, Zephyr comes to show some resourcefulness, and that leads to a serious setback for Tucker to our little amusement. After he loses something important due to Zephyr’s little act of defiance, she comes to have more time and opportunity for her survival, and then it looks like there is actually a really good chance.

This suspenseful drama between Zephyr and Tucker is intercut with a part involved with Moses’ search for Zephyr, which often feels like a filler material in my trivial opinion. We just watch Moses looking baffled and then worried as continuing to look for Zephyr, and then there eventually comes a point where he comes upon something which may lead him to her.

Around the last act, the screenplay by Nick Lepard is hampered a bit by some plot contrivance, but it does not disappoint us at all as presenting a lot of sharks on the screen. It goes without saying that they are CGI creatures, but they do look scary as our heroine becomes more terrified along the story, and we come to brace more for whatever may happen in the end.

The main performers in the film are well-cast in their respective parts. As the eventual center of the story, Hassie Harrison is engaging as her character comes to more of vulnerability as well as strength, and she is particularly convincing when her character comes to make a very drastic decision not so far from the climactic part of Danny Boyle’s Oscar-nominated film “127 Hours” (2010). Although he is merely required to play a nice-looking lad, Josh Heuston has a little but precious chemistry with Harrison, and that makes their intimate scene early in the film sweet enough for us to care about their characters.

Needless to say, Jai Courtney has a horribly colorful character to play with gusto, and his committed performance is certainly the best thing in the film. Although he has been rather bland and passable in many of his previous films including “Suicide Squad” (2016), he finally finds a really interesting role for him here, and he willingly chews every moment of his in addition to bringing menacing insanity to several key scenes of his in the movie.

On the whole, “Dangerous Animals” is a solid genre piece to enjoy, and director Sean Byrne, who previously directed “The Devil’s Candy” (2015), did a competent job of maintaining the level of suspense to the end. It does not reach to the level of “Jaws” (Well, how can that be possible?), but it has some enjoyable stuffs to remember, and that is enough for me for now.

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Black Phone 2 (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): He’s back, of course.

Posted on October 30, 2025 by kaist455

“Black Phone 2” is a sequel which is seemingly unnecessary at first but turns out to be more entertaining than expected. While it is closely connected with its predecessor in terms of story and characters, the movie wisely avoids being repetitive as trying to do something different for another good dose of thrill and dread for us, and you will gladly go along with that.

At first, the movie, which is set in 1982, focuses on how things are still not that good for Finney (Mason Thames) and his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) several years after what happened in “The Black Phone” (2021). In that movie, Finney was kidnapped by a notorious local serial killer nicknamed “the Grabber” (Ethan Hawke), but he managed to not only survive and but also kill his captor thanks to some unexpected help from the ghosts of the previous victims and Gwen, who incidentally has some psychic ability. However, Finney has struggled with the remaining trauma from that horrible experience of his during last several years, and both Gwen and their recovering alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) do not know what to do about that.

And then something odd happens to Gwen. She begins to have a series of disturbing dreams about several kids horribly murdered at some remote spot, which turns out to be an old Christian youth camp connected with her and Finney’s dead mother. After learning that their mother worked there 27 years ago, Gwen becomes all the more determined to find the reason behind those unnerving dreams of hers, but Finney is understandably not so eager to accompany her and her boyfriend Ernesto (Miguel Moa), who is incidentally the younger brother of one of the Grabber’s victims. However, he eventually decides to go to that Christian youth camp along with them, and we soon see these three kids arriving at that place on one particularly snowy day.

Right from their arrival at the camp, the mood is pretty moody to say the least. Due to the ongoing snowstorm, the camp is virtually empty except its owner Armando (Demián Bichir) and his very few main staff members including his plucky daughter. In addition, Gwen has to sleep alone in a separate cabin not so far from the one for Finney and Ernesto due the camp regulation, and she certainly becomes all the more nervous as she is about to sleep.

 Of course, more strange things soon happen around Gwen and her brother, and they eventually come to learn something quite terrifying. Although he is dead now, the Grabber has been hovering over the camp and its surrounding region as a malevolent spirit, and he turns out to be capable of coming into their dreams just like Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven’s classic horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984). As the Grabber menaces Gwen more and more in her dreams, she and Finney must find a way to defeat their powerful opponent, but then they and several others around them are cornered by the Grabber in one way or another along the story.         

As its several main characters embark on their fight against the Grabber, the movie constantly fills the screen with a chilly sense of dread. Whenever Gwen gets asleep, the movie adds a nice visual touch for accentuating the rather hazy condition of her unconsciousness, and we seldom get confused even when it busily goes back and forth between reality and dream. While surely often reminiscent of Craven’s aforementioned movie and its several sequels, the movie distinguishes itself with a number of effective moments to unnerve or thrill us, and it does not disappoint us at all when everything in the story culminates to the climactic sequence unfolded across a big frozen lake.

Most of all, the movie did a good job of making us care about its main characters more. While it touchingly handles the ongoing drama surrounding Gwen and Finney’s strained relationship, there are also some extra warmth and personality via several other main characters around them, and I especially like a quietly moving moment when Armando gives Finney a sincere and thoughtful advice on his ongoing personal struggle.

As the center of the story, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw diligently carry the film to the end. While Thames is convincing in his character’s gradual inner transformation along the story, McGraw brings genuine poignancy to several key scenes of hers in the film, and they are also supported well by a number of good performers placed around them. Miguel Mora, who previously played a supporting character in the previous film, has a couple of sweet scenes between him and McGraw, and Demián Bichir and Jeremy Davies are reliable as usual while imbuing their respective supporting roles with enough sense of life. In case of Ethan Hawke, he has another naughty fun with his uncompromisingly evil character, and it is clear that he relishes every minute of his despite being mostly masked throughout the movie just like he was in the previous film.

In conclusion, “Black Phone” has its own dark fun just like its predecessor, and director/co-writer/co-producer Scott Derrickson, who wrote the screenplay with co-producer C. Robert Cargill, adds another solid genre film to his filmmaking career, which was incidentally started with “Hellraiser: Inferno” (2000). Although it is not totally necessary, the movie accomplishes its goal fairly well on the whole, and I will not grumble for now.   

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