Tag: South Korea

REVIEW: Return to Seoul

(spoiler free) There’s a lot to like about Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul, most notably Park Ji-min’s debut performance as Frédérique “Freddie” Benoit, who visits South Korea to meet her biological parents. Freddie was adopted from a French family and does not speak Korean, thinking her life is in France as her Korean family abandoned…

20 Mar 2023
REVIEW: Broker

(spoiler free) Continuing his move towards stories set beyond Japan, as was the case with his previous film The Truth, for his latest picture, Broker, director Hirokazu Kore-eda transports audiences to South Korea. However, despite his ongoing exploration of new locations, the film still holds the familiar familial themes of some of his previous work.…

23 Feb 2023
REVIEW: Parasite

(spoiler free) Arriving after winning the Palme d’Or, Parasite lives up to all the hype and anticipation that hasn’t come close to slowing down since its release at Cannes almost a year ago. Through the lens of an obscure relationship between the wealthy Park family and the struggling Kim family, writer and director Bong Joon-Ho…

9 Feb 2020
Burning

(spoiler free) Existential dread is a burden to the fearful, timid and powerless, doubly so when thrown in with the frustrating, tense circumstances that we find ourselves in or may even create as proxy of consequences, by interactions made by our own volition. This ambiguity of our dark cloud is the crux of ‘Burning’’s comprehensive…

9 Feb 2019
I, Tonya

(spoiler free) Appropriately receiving it’s release in the middle of the current Winter Olympics in South Korea, ‘I, Tonya’ is a sports biopic about former Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding. Margot Robbie plays the titular role, as well as producing the film, and leads an all-star cast including Sebastian Stan & Allison Janney. Director Craig…

24 Feb 2018
The Handmaiden

(spoiler free) Renowned film director Park Chan-wook’s latest project sees him adapt Sarah Waters’ 2002 novel ‘Fingersmith’. Chan-wook is well known for the brutality of his work so the explicit nature of this narrative would appear to suit him perfectly. ‘The Handmaiden’ has gone on to receive critical acclaim since it’s release but could this…

17 Apr 2017
Train to Busan

(spoiler free) I haven’t seen nearly as many foreign films this year that I have wanted to, my current tally hasn’t even reached double figures yet! So far I’ve seen two efforts from Asian cinema, a genre that has produced some of my all time favourites like ‘Battle Royale’ and ‘The Raid 2’. Starting off…

10 Nov 2016