Tag Archives: Real-life incident

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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Hijacking 1971 (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): An intense South Korean hijacking drama

Posted on June 27, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hijacking 1971” almost made me forget that it is actually the heavily fictionalized version of one real-life incident. While I and many other audiences knew where it will eventually land, we all were gripped by its dramatic … Continue reading →

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Soup and Ideology (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Eating together as family despite all that

Posted on May 29, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “Soup and Ideology”, which I belatedly checked out yesterday, presents a modest but intimate personal story closely associated with the dark past of the Korean history during the 20th century. As its Korean Japanese director tries to understand … Continue reading →

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Until the Stones Speak (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): The memories of a massacre

Posted on April 20, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Until the Stones Speak” is often haunting as simply listening to the sad and bitter testimonies from five old ladies who have coped with each own pain and trauma from one of the most atrocious incidents … Continue reading →

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Sewol: Years in the Wind (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): The chronicle of their long plight

Posted on April 15, 2024 by kaist455

I still remember how shocking the sinking of MV Sewol incident was to me and many other South Koreans. When there came sudden news reports on the incident during the morning of April 16th, 2014, it did not seem that … Continue reading →

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Life Goes On (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): As they hold up

Posted on April 14, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean documentary “Life Goes On” is often sad and heartbreaking in its intimate presentation of several different persons who have tried to go on despite tragically losing their loved ones to some of the most traumatic accidents in the … Continue reading →

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Society of the Snow (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Under that unimaginably extreme condition

Posted on January 8, 2024 by kaist455

What would you do under a situation as grim and extreme as whatever the survivors of the Andes Flight Disaster experienced in 1972? This is surely a hard and difficult question, and Netflix film “Society of the Snow”, which was … Continue reading →

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Noryang: Deadly Sea (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Driven into the last battle

Posted on December 21, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean film “Noryang: Deadly Sea”, the third and (definitely) final film of the trilogy after “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” (2014) and “Hansan: Rising Dragon” (2022), is often relentlessly epic and loud in what it is expected to present on … Continue reading →

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20 Days in Mariupol (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A close look into one Ukrainian city under siege

Posted on December 6, 2023 by kaist455

Ukrainian documentary “20 Days in Mariupol”, which received the Audience Award at the World Cinema Documentary Competition of the Sundance Film Festival early in this year, is a vivid and disturbing presentation of the first 20 days of one Ukrainian … Continue reading →

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12.12: The Day (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): That infamous night in Seoul, 1979

Posted on November 22, 2023 by kaist455

South Korean film “12.12: The Day” is an intense fictionalized version of what happened at one terrible night of December 1979 in Seoul. Although I and many other South Korean audiences are well aware of how the story eventually ends, … Continue reading →

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