Tag Archives: Real-life incident

Big Deal (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A conflict over one big soju company

Posted on June 1, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean film “Big Deal” presents a fictional story loosely based on the real-life business deal involved with one of the biggest South Korean alcoholic beverage companies in the late 1990s. While the story itself is fairly interesting, the movie … Continue reading →

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Voices (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Personal memories of a massacre

Posted on April 6, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean documentary “Voices” simply listens to the testimonies from a bunch of people traumatized in one way or another by the massacres during the Jeju uprising during 1948 ~ 1949. Focusing more on the female victims and survivors, the … Continue reading →

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Starring Jerry as Himself (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A little family project

Posted on February 16, 2025 by kaist455

Documentary film “Starring Jerry as Himself” works as a sort of sincere public service while also being a little family project for its main human subject. For showing what happened to him a few years ago, the documentary takes a … Continue reading →

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September 5 (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The Munich Massacre of 1972 via live TV 

Posted on February 8, 2025 by kaist455

It is always interesting to watch professionals doing their best, and “September 5” is one of such prime examples. Here are a bunch of professionals simply trying to do their job well under one extraordinary circumstance which drew the attention … Continue reading →

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Black Box Diary (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As she steps forward as a survivor

Posted on February 3, 2025 by kaist455

Documentary film “Black Box Diary”, which received an Oscar nomination a few weeks ago, is a personal chronicle of one young female journalist who courageously stepped forward in public as the survivor of a high-profile case in Japan several years … Continue reading →

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Dahomey (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The return of stolen artifacts

Posted on January 5, 2025 by kaist455

Mati Diop’s documentary film “Dahomey”, which won the Golden Bear award when it was premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival early in last year, mainly revolves around a number of stolen artifacts finally returned to their home country. As … Continue reading →

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Harbin (2024) ☆☆(2/4): A piece of dry and mediocre seriousness

Posted on December 29, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Harbin” is so serious and ponderous that it often forgets engaging or entertaining its audiences. I do understand that it attempts to be a grim and gritty period drama about one famous real-life national hero and his … Continue reading →

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Blitz (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A boy and his mother under the Blitz

Posted on November 26, 2024 by kaist455

Steve McQueen’s latest film “Blitz”, which is currently available on Apple TV+, tries to bring some new and interesting elements into its familiar genre territory. Although it does not always work, the movie often distinguishes itself with a number of … Continue reading →

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Breaking (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A desperate man driven to the breaking point

Posted on September 10, 2024 by kaist455

“Breaking” is a small but tense drama about one desperate man who resorts to a drastic measure as driven to the breaking point. Inspired by a tragic real-life incident which did happen in Marietta, Atlanta in 2017, the movie patiently … Continue reading →

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Land of Happiness (2024) ☆☆(2/4): A tediously fictional presentation of one big trial

Posted on August 24, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Land of Happiness” is a tediously fictional presentation of one historical trial which does not interest me much on the whole. Mainly because recent other South Korean film “12.12: The Day” (2023), which is incidentally set in … Continue reading →

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