≡ Category: Comedy, Comedy, Drama, Hong Kong, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Director: Dae-gyu Kang
Year: 2010
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Check out this premise on the mawkishness meter: After killing her abusive husband, a woman gives birth to a boy in prison. She is allowed to raise the boy until he’s 18 months old, at which time he will have to give him up for […]
≡ Category: Comedy, Drama, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Worth A Look | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Joon-ho Bong
Year: 2009
Rating:
WORTH A LOOK
Mother was Korea’s entry for 2009’s Best Foreign Picture for the Academy Awards, and you can kind of understand why. As the titular character, Hye-ja Kim gives a towering performance, easily dominating the entire film. She should be a shoe-in for any Korean acting awards. Writer/director Joon-ho […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Korea, Martial Arts, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended, Romance | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Action/ Drama/ Martial Arts/ Romance/ Comedy
Director: Ha Yu
Year: 2004
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Once Upon a Time in High School is an unexpected delight. With that title, I was expecting a ton of martial arts and junior varsity gangster stuff, with comic overtones. Instead, Once Upon a Time in High School is a memory […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Comedy/ Action
Director: Jin-gyu Cho
Year: 2001
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
In my experience, Korean women have a tendency to be more coarse and blunt than most other Southeast Asian women. I wouldn’t want to piss one off. Now, imagine the most lowclass, least feminine version of the species. You’ve just met Cha Eun-jin (Eun-Kyung Shin), […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Essential, Horror, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Suspense | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Horror/ Suspense/ Comedy/ Drama/ Action
Director: Hong-jin Na
Year: 2008
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA ESSENTIAL MOVIE
American critics are fond of saying that today’s movies are “dark.” The Dark Knight Returns is dark. Sin City is dark. Watchmen is dark. Bullshit. You want dark? Watch Korean movies.
A case in point is Chaser.
After Joong-ho Eom (Yun-seok Kim) was […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Worth A Look | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Action/Drama/Comedy
Director: Ha Yu
Year: 2006
Rating:
WORTH A LOOK
Considering that there are a number of brutal and well-choreographed brawls in A Dirty Carnival utilizing baseball bats, pipes, and knives, why is it that the dominant emotional tone isn’t excitement but rather overwhelming sorrow?
Kim Byung-doo (In-seong Jo) may be a gangster, but his life seems awfully […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: Seung-wan Ryoo
Year: 2002
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
You think women have it tough in the United States? They should be grateful they don’t live in Korea.
Kyeong-seon (Hye-yeong Lee) looks to be in her early 40s. Her degenerate gambler husband has left her with a mountain of debt, which his loan sharks are continually […]
≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Drama, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Drama/Action/Comedy
Director: Woo-Suk Kang
Year: 2003
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Public Enemy follows the separate stories of two men, but you just know that they’re fated to meet.
Cheol-jung Kang (Kyung-gu Sol) is a screwed up cop, the type who robs drug dealers of their product so he can sell it himself, but Internal Affairs can’t pin […]
≡ Category: Art, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Worth A Look | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: Korea
Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Horror/ Art
Director: Joon-ho Bong
Year: 2003
Rating:
WORTH A LOOK
Alert readers might recall that I recently reviewed director Bong Joon-ho’s creature feature The Host. I thought it was an interesting deconstruction of a typical monster movie. Later on, when I became aware of another Korean movie called Memories of Murder, I noticed that […]
≡ Category: Art, Comedy, Drama, Korea, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended | ≅ Leave a Comment
Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Art
Director: Chan-wook Park
Year: 2005
Rating:
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
Lady Vengeance is the final entry in director Chan-wook Park’s vengeance trilogy. It is the least powerful of the three, which is actually kind of a relief. The psychological effect of the other two was a bit like being stuffed into a canvas bag […]