Tag Archives: South Korean Film

The Wailing (2016) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Driven into insidious chaos

Posted on May 16, 2016 by kaist455

The deviously overwhelming chaos in South Korean film “The Wailing” disturbed and frightened me. The movie lured me as setting the ground under its unnerving mood, and then it grabbed me tight as going wild with its genre elements, and … Continue reading →

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Overman (2015) ☆☆☆(3/4): A genuine feel-good coming-of-age drama with books

Posted on May 14, 2016 by kaist455

South Korean film “Overman” is a rare type which I and other South Korean audiences do not come across often in these gloomy days: a genuine feel-good coming-of-age drama. Sure, there are several gray moments as its two adolescent characters … Continue reading →

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Phantom Detective (2016) ☆☆☆(3/4): An offbeat noir from South Korea

Posted on May 8, 2016 by kaist455

South Korean film “Phantom Detective” is an amusing mixed bag stuffed with different genre elements which do not seem to fit together at first but somehow work on the whole in its offbeat concoction. After all, not many movies have … Continue reading →

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Steel Flower (2015) ☆☆☆(3/4): Working and living alone by herself

Posted on April 16, 2016 by kaist455

While it may often frustrate you because of its dry, clinical storytelling, South Korean independent film “Steel Flower” has several things good enough for recommendation. As it never goes that deep into its young desolate heroin, the movie occasionally feels … Continue reading →

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Snow Paths (2015) ☆☆☆(3/4): A confused alcoholic at Catholic sanatorium

Posted on March 13, 2016 by kaist455

South Korean film “Snow Paths” is seemingly simple at first. A man struggling with his personal problems comes to a quiet place, and then he meets someone who brings some bright change into his troubled state. While this is a … Continue reading →

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Spirits’ Homecoming (2015) ☆1/2(1.5/4): These women deserve better than this

Posted on March 1, 2016 by kaist455

I am angry about South Korean film “Spirits’ Homecoming” for two reasons. I was angered as thinking about those many women forced into sex slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during the World War II. I was infuriated about how … Continue reading →

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DongJu: The Portrait of A Poet (2015) ☆☆☆(3/4): The short life of a Korean poet

Posted on February 21, 2016 by kaist455

Wishing not to have so much as a speck of shame toward heaven until the day I die, I suffered, even when the wind stirred the leaves. With my heart singing to the stars, I shall love all things that … Continue reading →

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The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale (2015) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): One last hunt

Posted on December 17, 2015 by kaist455

While some of its parts are good enough to interest us, South Korean film “The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale” is ultimately hampered by its incoherent and disjointed plot. At first, it seems to focus on its weary hero and … Continue reading →

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Inside Men (2015) ☆☆☆(3/4): They are all together…

Posted on November 22, 2015 by kaist455

I watched South Korean thriller film “Inside Men” with bitter amusement on some of its darkest moments. Although it is a work of fiction as emphasized in its end credits, its dark, uncomfortable picture of power and corruption is not … Continue reading →

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The Priests (2015) ☆☆☆(3/4) : Two South Korean priests against a force of evil

Posted on November 8, 2015 by kaist455

Since the big success of “The Exorcist” (1973), there have been lots of horror movies about exorcism, but, like those zombie movies, many of them were not particularly scary to me. Although “The Exorcist” may be not that shocking any … Continue reading →

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