Reviews
Hyeob-sang (2018)
SOme good scenes but improbable stroryline.
This could have been great if they had maintained the tension. But the problem is there were too many screens and monitors in the way of the action. Anf the movie goes off the rails in the final act.
Fresh Off the Boat: We Need to Talk About Evan (2018)
sliding into oblivion
The dumbest episode so far,. They still have the unfunny actor playing MLoius' co-worker. They decided for some reason that Eddie would need to learn how to unhook a bra. This wasn't even grounded in a realistic situation. Then, Evan had a panic attack. It seemed like the writers didn't have a clue what to do in this episode.
Fresh Off the Boat: Do You Hear What I Hear? (2017)
It's Christmas again with the Huangs
Fresh off the Boat has always been 'freshest' when it covers the holidays, whether looking at how the Huangs tried to celebrate Chinese New Year in Florida, or whenever Louis tries to impress his sons with his hilarious outfits.
Although this episode doesn't go for the same meta-references as the Christmas Carol/Home Alone pastiche of last year's Christmas special, there's enough here to melt the heart of even the coldest Scrooge.
There's a pre-credit sequence which zooms in on Jessica Town (the -scale model of a traditional Victorian Christmas town from the second season - Continuity!)) - and then we're pulled right up to present day 1997, with the mention of Titanic. Louis has always been a Leo fan "ever since Gilbert Grape" and he's so excited about the upcoming release that he pens "Titanic" on the Town's Playhouse building.
Jessica, who acts a little too perfectly in this episode, accuses someone of bringing store bought to a cookie sale and tries to impose her vocal training on the town's out-of tune singers.
Assistance comes in the form of Deidre's friend Holly (guest star Paula Abdul), who teaches performance and movement ("maybe she can make some figgy pudding out of some rotten fruit").
There are more jokes about Titanic, especially when Emery tells Louis he is reading a book about the Titanic and he doesn't want to spoil the ending. But the episode wants to get on with the subplot, and particularly the story involving Nicole's coming out from episode 4.
Now that we are on board with the sitcom's first gay character, we get to see Nicole attempt to approach a girl she likes for the first time. That links nicely with the nineties craze of coffee bars. Thanks to Friends and Frasier, they were everywhere in the nineties.
Eddie is so excited about having coffee with Nicole that he blows Louis off - I'm thinking of having mine iced.
I liked the idea of having the show use a coffee shop for Nicole's introduction to dating, even if the idea of youngsters meeting and drinking coffee seemed a little far-fetched. But on the other hand, the episode got funnier the more coffee the kids drank. I didn't think much of Hudson Yang at first but ever since season 3 he has really grown into the role, assuming a greater confidence, it's less of a stretch to see him growing up to be the badass Eddie Huang, the show's creator (although he has distanced himself from the show saying it has watered down his childhood).
They really go with the Titanic theme (it was the most anticipated film of the year and went on to be the biggest) - to miss it would be unthinkable as Louis puns. It's surprising that no-one else in the family is excited about seeing it.
But just so that Louis does not have to watch the film alone, we get Nicole, overly emotional next door neighbor and no stranger to vicarious tragedy (remember the Diana episode). They visit the cinema together because Marvin can't watch a ship go down in public) and he promises not to let him know they are seeing it.
Honey's love match is Jessie, (she doesn't take any guff from machines) tough and feisty, just the kind of girl we can see Honey being attracted to. The only thing is, Honey is still not sure how to ask someone out. But as Jessie has started to write a smiley-face instead of the 'O' in Nicole, she is sure that she is interested. The idea of Eddie coaching Nicole in love is unlikely, but cute, and it shows how much he has matured.
The auditions start for the choir and it turns out that Evan can sing, no, he can really sing. Wow, the show never prepared us for this. Total Eclipse of the Heart is such a good song for him too. But when Jessica starts singing My Heart Will Go On, it's completely wrong. Not only is it doubtful that she would have got to to learn this song so well with the movie being so new, it's far too saccharine for Jessica to want to sing at all. SO why have they put this in here? It's a shame, because there are other songs she could have sung much better. First bad mistake of the episode.
So its no surprise that Holly doesn't choose her for the carol group, especially since it was Jessica who said that the human eye can only process six people on a doorstep.
Uh-oh, Marvin has found a ticket stub, and a pack of Goobers, and now he suspects something is going on. It's time to go on a stakeout. He usually says some funny, politically incorrect things but not really this time. He's in more of a serious mood. Yet Honey and Louis want to watch Titanic a second time, so they choose disguises and Jessica's ridiculous Lao Ban Santa costume gets another outing.
There are more costumes for the Carolers, with Evan as a very cute David Copperfield (the set designer has a massive Dickens fetish) and the assorted choir wearing ribbons and bonnets.
Back to Greenie's coffee house, and Eddie's drank enough coffee to give Nicole the best pick-up line to write on her coffee cup. The guys are drinking disposable cups (even though they would probably have the original ceramic mugs, I'm letting this detail slide). "Hi Girl, you gay. Do you like instruments? Holler at me." So it's not the most romantic. But as Emery points out, it's a haiku. So when Nicole bottles it, and gives the server her coffee order instead of the cup with the message, she thinks she's missed her chance. Then Allison points out something on the mug and it's a phone number. Look out for this actress appearing in subsequent episodes from now on.
What else happens? Marvin finds Honey and Louis at the cinema dressed in their disguises and decides it must be a great movie, and he agrees to see it with them. Jessica axes Holly, and then loses the rest of the choir, who feel that Jessica does not have enough Christmas spirit. The show has a good surprise in the form of Marvin's Christmas present and a nice closing scene with a group carol in front of the lawn.
Not the strongest episode they have done, but enough to maintain interest, especially the kids in the coffee shop.
Nineties reference: apart from obvious Titanic mentions, there's only Eddie's reference to Friends "I feel like the show Friends makes more sense now."
Chinese-ness: C-. The cast love Christmas like true Americans and don't mention anything about their Chinese traditions.
Jessica's meanness - A+. Firing Holly was petty and she's not funny in this episode for it to be endearing.
Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot (2016)
Sometimes funny, mostly very enjoyable comedy of fidelity.
Yourself and Yours (2016)
You can tell from the opening titles exactly the kind of film this is going to be. Black Korean calligraphy on a white background suggests an intelligent and possibly artistic film and the lively classical music hints at comedy. Yes, it's a comedy, but one with brains. The humour is always grounded in realistic situations and believable characters.
Plot Summary Yongsoo goes to meet a friend and they discuss Minjong, his girlfriend with whom he intends to marry. She has been seen drinking heavily in one of the local bars and when Minjong is confronted by Yongsoo she denies it was her, but Yongsoo is unable to ignore the rumours. Feeling hurt that he doesn't seem to trust her, Minjong leaves him. Devastated, Yongsoo tries to win her back. Meanwhile, Minjong, or someone who looks very similar, is meeting men in bars and having casual relationships with them. Yongsoo eventually reunites with Minjong and they continue their relationship.
Hong Sang-soo, who makes films about relationships, has been called the Woody Allen of Asia and you can see why. His characters are somewhat world weary, and in the case of Yongsoo, given to moments of self –pity and despair. When Yongsoo tells his friends that love is all there is in the world, the rest is just compensation for when you don't have love, it's not hard to imagine Woody Allen saying the same thing. Meanwhile, Minjong, sexually available, yet innocent and lacking self-awareness, could be any number of Allen's heroines. And then consider the locations (I'd guess this was filmed in Hongdae); from coffee bars to streams and parks: we are miles away from the hectic urban centre of Seoul which is the typical backdrop of most Korean films.
Minjong (Lee You-young) is certainly a complicated character, and one who doesn't always have the audience's sympathy. A repeated joke in the film is that she pretends not to recognize men when they approach her and . Is she the real Minjeong, or is she in fact Minjong's twin? In this case, the hard-drinking and promiscuous Minjong who has been seen by Yongsoo's friends is not the same as the woman he has been in a relationship with. Or does it matter? In any relationship there must be trust, and that means sometimes ignoring rumours and gossip.
Yongsoo's friends seem to be the jealous ones here, motivated not by care towards their friend but by wanting to punish Minjong for her perceived immoral behavior. Yongsoo is punished for his lack of faith in Minjong, first when she leaves him, and secondly by breaking his leg in an accident which we do not see. Only when Yongsoo learns to trust again is he able to finally get back together with Minjong. As the character said earlier, the most important thing in life is love, everything else is just is just compensation for when you don't have it.
Dongju (2016)
Biography of Korean poet
Film-makers can have a difficult time recreating the past. Although it is possible create historical periods through locations and costume, it is not possible to find actors who can easily recreate the mannerisms of another time. One look at the clothes in the film shows us how different Korea was only 80 years ago. Judging from the film, most people lived in small communities. Most people worked on farms and the careers most aspired to were in medicine and teaching. Korea has, throughout its history, always been a place where education has been given the utmost importance, and in the film much of the scenes take place within classrooms.
Yun Dong-yu was only able to publish one book of poetry during his lifetime; after being imprisoned and experimented on he died at the age of 27. Such a short life is easy to show in under 2-hours but the film doesn't quite manage to explain the inspiration for his poetry or why he was prepared to sacrifice himself for his cousin's political beliefs.
Poetry is not a natural subject for film, unlike a visual art form such as painting. Here, it's worth comparing the film with a truly great film about a Korean historical figure – Painted Fire (2002). The film's black and white, monochrome cinematography is a bold move, but it risks painting everything in a dull tone. We are also denied the chance to see the wonderful colours of the traditional hanbok worn by Yeo-jin; or the sakura of Kyoto.
The performances by handsome actors who are probably too good looking for the poets (have a look at the actual photos at the end) are simply not deep enough to convey the necessary emotion of the subject matter. Ka Neul-hang is especially badly cast as Dong-ju.
Away from the film's focus on the conflict between Japan and Korea, the other battle of the film is the clash between the political ideology of Mong-yoo and the romantic idealism of Dong-ju who believes in the power of poetry to convey ideas. The film emphasizes their relationship as the most important one in their lives and there is no sign that the poet had any romantic life to speak of. He seems to have lived a chaste life based on what we see here. Student life must have been very serious in those days but why the lack of interest in women? The film shies away from female characters, with Kumi (Choi Hui-seo) and Yeo-jin (Sin Yun-ju) being given very limited screen time. This film is very pretty to look at but not much to get excited about. We have watched many films about the Japanese occupation of Korea but unfortunately this was one of the less exciting examples.
Mul-go-gi (2011)
really meandering and pretentious film has little merit
It was very hard to make any sense from this film. Take the use of 3-d which shows everything in clarity but doesn't really involve us any deeper in the events. We are shown two fishermen, with the idea that we the audience are like the fishermen and the fish - the hunter and the hunted. There is a husband, who is looking for his wife, who has become a Shaman. Then there is a man playing a detective, he seems more of a drifter and exists mainly to provoke the main character to feeling anger. The cinematography is nice but its the only point of interest. I think that Park Hing Min needs to consider what kind of story he would like to tell before starting to make his films. Committing to a good script would help as well.
Nae-bu-ja-deul (2015)
Beware of Koreans with axes
Or hacksaws, bricks, plant pots. Its seems that anything can be used as a weapon In Korean films. This one has corrupt politicians (is there any other kind) doing shady deal with a newspaper boss for re-election. Corruption is embedded deep in every corner. Like sauna rooms. Or hostess bars, where slimy politicians perform sex acts involving escorts and soju glasses.
When an ambitious prosecutor gets on the case , he teams up with a crippled gangster (Lee hyung Byun) to break open the whole sordid business. It could have been so clichéd and this story has been seen many times over. Still. it has been directed with style.
Recently I watched Asura as part of the London Korean fIlm festival, and i questioned why they would want to promote such a wrong-headed and pretentious film when they could have chosen so many others. This was a much better choice and a good showcase for the actor Baek Yun-shil.
A word about the title: it really is all men, apart from a small part for Lee's actor girlfriend. It really is a shame that they didn't give her more to do.
Misseu Hongdangmu (2008)
Warm and funny school comedy of confusion
Crush and Blush 2008
Directed by Lee Kyoung-mi
Right near the beginning of Crush and Blush, the main character Mi-seok stands digging a deep hole in a schoolyard. I thought that it was a punishment used in South Korean schools, but if not it could be a visual metaphor for someone digging themselves deeper into a figurative hole. That's what happens to Mi-seok in this film, as she digs herself deeper and deeper into a very messy situation.
Crush and Blush is a wonderful comedy directed by Lee Kyoung-mi, and shown in London for the 11th Korean Film festival. After the blood spattered, male-dominated journey into hell that was Asura, it was a relief to enjoy the company of a slightly awkward but very likable teacher who has a crush on one of the staff, the same teacher who taught her when she was a pupil at the school several years earlier.
Lee Mi-seok has an embarrassing facial disorder which causes her to blush whenever she is nervous or tells a lie. She teaches Russian at Girls' high school but is forced to change to English in favour of a more attractive and younger teacher who is having an affair with her colleague Jong Cheol. Things become even more complicated when Mi-sook teams up with his daughter who wants to stop her parents divorcing. Soon they are using the science lab to send online messages as Jong-cheol to Lee You-ri. As this goes on they start to form a friendship with each other that is touching and sweet.
I've seen several Korean comedies and sometimes the humour is lost in translation: for example, characters acting in self-consciously zany, wacky or plain stupid ways that are never psychologically believable. But although the comedy in Crush and Blush is awkward, sometimes painfully so, it's believable because the characters are acting in ways they think of as normal, however bizarre their actions appeared to us.
There is a lovely cameo from Jae-woo Bae as a Dermatologist who must listen to Mi-seok's laundry list of romantic problems: "If I don't call him for a reason, how will he know I'm not calling him for a reason?"
It was easy to relate to what Mi-seok was feeling as she tried to hide her feelings for Jong- cheol whilst preventing any more closeness developing between the other teacher. The relationship between the teacher and pupil was touching and tender. I can count on one hand the number of good films about female friendships. But watching them conspire to break up the affair was superb, inspired and witty stuff.
I thought about the role of teaching too. In some ways the adult Miseok is less mature than the younger school girl who comes up with the hilarious messages to send to Joeng-cheol. These messages get very graphic (although there is no sex in this film) and it seems as though the girl has a far deeper knowledge of sexual experiences than Mi-seok.
There was some cruel humour too which you often find in Korean films. For example, characters are called 'losers' and poor Mi-seok is labeled as 'reds' by her pupils for her hot-flushes. It seems that bullying in Korean schools is endemic. And there is the perception that Miseok is seen as being unattractive because she is not physically perfect in every way, especially when seen next to the conventionally beautiful Yoo-ri.
As a comedy, it was great. It also went deeper and was a great character study. Lee Kyoung-mi has recently directed The Truth Beneath, which opened the London Korean Film Festival. It would be fascinating to watch both films side by side.
Asura (2016)
Pretty terrible police corruption story
I don't know about you but I am getting tired of these films, where there is corruption in politics and the police investigate, but the police are corrupt themselves. Its full of violence but it's never there for a god reason. Occasionally this is OK. The violence in Oldboy was justfied by the character's fury at being locked up for 15 years, but here, it just felt as though the director wanted to wallow in sadistic violence to shock us. Just why is Hang (Sung-woo) working for a sleazy mayor? i never understood, although it is suggested that it's because his wife, who is dying of cancer, is being supported by her half-brother who is the mayor. the shame of this film is that the only female characters given any screen time are either shown as dying or about to be killed. The audience I watched this with seemed to laugh or be sickened by the violence. I like Korean cinema usually but this one was not worth the time.
Bi-mil-eun eobs-da (2016)
Dark and disturbing Korean thriller which manages to shock and tell a good story
The Truth Beneath Directed by Lee Kyoung Mi Lee got her start in films working with Park Chan-wook and from watching this film it seems she has taken his lead when it comes to violent revenge. When a Politician's daughter goes missing the scandal threatens to upset his ambitions for an important election. We soon learn that relationships between mother and daughter are not so great when Min-jin lies about who she is doing her homework with.
Rather than begin an investigation, Jong-chan is more concerned with winning the election. It's left to her mother Yeon-cheong to look for her daughter. Things take a tragic turn when her daughter's body is discovered dumped in woodlands. How much more can I tell you without spoiling it? Getting to the truth of the events takes the mother on a nightmarish journey where she must distinguish the truth from lies. After the first twenty minutes, in which the political candidates were introduced by way of flashing subtitles on the screen, I was totally absorbed by this film.
In flash-backs, we see how the relationship between Min-jin and Mi-OK. What was interesting was the way the girls' relationship was affected by the corrupt adult world. For example, Min-OK's noticeably poorer father works as a driver for Min-jin's father, and we were given a sense of how much poorer her family was when we saw she was living in a one room building, stepping over her sleeping family when she needed to leave in the middle of the night.
I didn't count a shot lasting longer than twenty seconds; truly a feverishly edited film. Indeed, it was so intense that I watched rooted to my seat, sometimes hardly believing what I was watching.
It showed as well that for all its recent modern developments, there are still many traces of the Chung-hee dictatorship in present-day Korea. Witness the schoolgirls who stay behind to clean the classrooms every day, and the name badges that every pupil must wear. Then, there is the cruelty and violence of relationships, where love can be used as a weapon. It's a thoroughly unsentimental film with many scenes of terrible violence. It's not a film that casts a good light on Korean society, but I'm glad I watched it nevertheless.
Leokki (2016)
Funny and enjoyable Korean body-swap comedy
The 'Body Switch' genre in which two very different characters swap identities is very common in American cinema. If you aren't familiar then think of any film from the eighties, where Tom Hanks played an adult with the mind of a teenager in Big. Or Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap, 17 Again
It seems that South Korean directors love the genre too. So much so that there has been a spate of films where a character takes on the physical identity of someone else, for comic or dramatic effect. (Some recent examples: The Beauty Inside (2015), Masquerade (2012), and Miss Granny (2014). This was pointed out during the recent Korean Cinema conference. My guess is that in a society based on strict Confucian rules, individuality is not desired, so people long to escape these narrow confines and to be someone else. So when a down and out actor takes a suave hit-man's locker key in a bath-house, we're all set for a hilarious comedy where the lives are reversed: the loser (Jaesing) becomes the hit-man and the hit-man (Hyung-wook) starts living the life of the struggling actor who is behind with the rent on his sad-sack loft apartment.
After waking up from his concussion, Hyung-wook is too poor to pay for his medical treatment and has to borrow money from the kindly Rina (Yun-hie Jo), who works as a TV agent. He moves into Jaesing's trash filled apartment. Meanwhile, newly rich Jaesing soon pays off his debts and lives the high life in a luxury penthouse where he discovers a stash of weapons as well as a surveillance camera which is fixed 24 hours on an attractive woman in the apartment above.
The hit man soon endears himself to Rina and her family, and when he starts working at her mother's snack bar he wows the customers with his astonishing knife play. What's funny here is that the tough guy can't understand where he picked up these skills, or how he is able to put his new neighbour in a headlock and throw him to the ground when he tries to start a fight. Whenever someone asks his age he can't keep a straight face, because he looks so much older. Haejin has a wonderfully expressive face: whenever he is told to smile he looks as though he is about to dispatch his next victim.
When he discovers that Jae-sing is an actor (usually as an extra in TV melodramas), he goes to the set and soon impresses the director with his realistic fighting ability. He becomes better at acting than his predecessor, moving from one-line parts to becoming the lead in a corny television drama that ends each episode with ridiculous cliffhangers (if you have ever watched a Korean TV drama, you will know what I mean).
I went in to this film not knowing anything about the story or with any expectations and when I finished watching I was pleasantly surprised. With so much advance hype and spoilers being regularly leaked, its possible to watch a film with no surprises or real excitement. That's a shame, and a good reason to watch international cinema more often.
Gwi-hyang (2016)
Some pretty scenes make this worth watching
Spirits Homecoming (2016)
It is alleged that during World War 2 the Japanese army kept 1 million women from occupied countries and kept them as slaves where they were euphemistically known as 'comfort women'. If little is known about them, it may be because their story has not been told in film before. The film took the director 14 years to make. The actress playing Jungmin (Ha-nung) was not paid but will receive a share of the profits.
This film is effective at showing how girls as young as 14 were removed from their homes and ordered to with dozens of men daily, and where they faced terrible punishments for disobeying orders. The film is set mainly in 1943, interspersed with scenes in 1991 where a much older Young-OK tries to settle her past and say goodbye to her friend Jungmin who didn't survive the war.
When Eun-kyung goes to a temple to train as a shaman, she helps Young-OK communicate with Jungmin. The past is linked with the present in all kinds of interesting ways. Eunkyung is affected by her father's murder as one of the comfort women is by watching her brother's death. Keepsakes are given from character to character and the elderly Young-OK is seen cradling a charm totem much like the one given to Jungmin by her mother in the past.
The film doesn't shy away from scenes of violence both physical and sexual. Day in, day out, the girls are expected to have sex with dozens men which doesn't stop even when they are menstruating. There is no way out from this and girls who attempt to escape are rounded up and shot. However, it achieves a certain poetry in later scenes, such as when dozens of white butterflies float in the meadows, a visual metaphor for the souls of the girls returning to their homes.
Viewers familiar with Korean cinema will notice a sense of a nation finally able to acknowledge its past and the brutality of the Japanese occupiers in particular. Japan's invasion of Korea has already been depicted in recent films such as The Handmaiden and Age of Shadows. This film has a strong sense of Korean identity, with the traditional folk song Arirang played prominently in several scenes.
Lead actress Ha-Nang is very innocent and pure, playing a girl of 14 who somehow doesn't lose her innocence. Son Sook has the eyes of someone who has seen too many horrors but still has the capacity to forgive. The movie could have been better edited but it tells a difficult story well.
Gokseong (2016)
Ghostly horror with strong performances
Goksung (2016) Directed by Hong Jin-Na.
I would be very surprised if this isn't the best South Korean movie this year. Director Jin Na takes the audience on an electrifying journey involving ghosts, spirits and the nature of evil itself. Like all great horror films, this one shows how fear builds up from ignorant rumors and gossip as the villagers of this backwater town start to lose their grip on reality.
When incompetent police officer Jon-Goo is hired to investigate the multiple murders of man and a woman, he finds the killer covered in blood and shaking at the scene, as though in some kind of trance. He investigates further in his half-hearted way but becomes more and more absorbed.
Trying to find a motive for such a senseless crime, he questions the locals. First, someone suggests that the murderer took mushrooms that cause hallucinations. When that idea is pushed aside, someone mentions how ever since a mysterious Japanese fishermen arrived some seriously strange things have been happening in the forest. Such as naked middle –aged men in nappies killing and eating deer in the forest. Then, there is a woman in white who starts appearing outside the police station late at night.
It's only when his daughter starts speaking foul language and refuses to listen to him that he realizes he must do everything he can to rid the village of the evil. The corruption of innocence is a horror film tradition dating back to The Exorcist (1972). Director Hong Jin-Na could have watched that film in preparation. Then again, he mostly avoids sudden shocks and prefers to maintain an atmosphere of mounting dread.
Originally titled Goksung, which has the dual meaning both of the place, and the sound to wail (which is where the English title comes from). By the time Hwang Jun-Min appears as Shaman to exorcise the presence from the village, we have been led into such a frenzy that we feel we may never recover.
After some fairly lacklustre recent films which never delivered their potential (Tunnel, Train to Busan), this film really goes the distance. Fans of Korean films will notice the key stylistic features of Korean films, from cheap barbecue joints where depressed characters down their sorrows in soju; to families all sharing a one-floor apartment and sleeping on the floor. Also present in Korean films are prolonged scenes of characters pouring out their grief by hospital bedsides. There's a great one here where the wife of a man struck by lightning in the forest remarks that hewould have died if he had taken so many tonics.
The landscape is in many ways as important as the human characters, and the frequent pull-outs to the misty mountains suggest that such ghosts and spirits have been around since the beginning of time. The film is subtitled, with yellow lettering to indicate Japanese dialogue.
Nam-gwa yeo (2016)
Simple but moving account of an extra-marital affair
Korean movies like this one can really get to you if you let them. This one is peaceful and calm with nothing sensational going on, even if the blurb makes it sound just that. Just two people, both unhappily married and falling in love with each other. This subtle mood piece begins in wintry Finland but moves to Seoul in the second act. Do Yeon is the mother of an autistic boy sent to a specialist school. Going Yoo has a daughter with her own problems. They meet when he offers her a lift. No surprise in what happens next, but I was always interested in the story. Excellent Do-Yeon has real chemistry with her co-star and they share some passionate, tastefully shot sex scenes. Gong Yoo is tender and gentle as the man who eases her pain. This is a very low-key mood piece that I am happy to recommend, just don't expect any over-the top, Hollywood melodrama.
Busanhaeng (2016)
Starts well but runs out of steam
You may think you know all about zombies but have you wondered what it would be like to be on a train with fifty of them all running after you and gnashing at your ankles?
Zombies on a train is the premise of this film, a big hit in South Korea. If you had no idea this film was a horror, or that it featured zombies, it might be quite exciting but I imagine most people will go into this knowing exactly what to expect.
Some kind of catastrophe has led to an outbreak in which dozens of writhing undead are roaming the streets of Seoul looking for their next victims. A group of travellers including main lead Gong Yu are on the train to Busan. They've barely gone twenty minutes before there is clearly something wrong with some of the passengers. Checking the situation on their phones, the passengers see that the country is in a state of emergency.
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They try to leave at the next station but find that the soldiers who are waiting for them have already been bitten. The most exciting and tense scenes are when the group must flee back on to the zombie ridden train, running away from swarms of rabid recruits. Once back on its a long journey for the remainder of the film. Here's where the film runs out of steam. Once you've seen one zombie, you've seen them all. The film becomes a very standard struggle for survival and the scenes of characters running down train corridors become very repetitive.
It's not a bad film. Its directed in expedient fashion but for a train film its seriously lacking any ambient sound effects such as the clickety-clack sound you would expect of a train on a track (or do South Korean trains run completely silently?).Fans of zombies will not be disappointed.Otherwise, it's more of what we've already seen many times over.
My score: 6/10.
Teo-neol (2016)
Some exciting scenes but overly long and doesn't offer anything new.
t doesn't seem long ago when Korean film makers were dazzling the world with prizewinners at International festivals such as Oldboy and Pieta. As well as these harsh ,violent films there were gentle odes to Buddhism (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring) and the magnificent Untold Scandal, which set the story of Dangerous Liaisons in the Joseon Dynasty period.
South Korea has one of the strongest national film industries of any country, but they haven't had an international hit for several years. Many of its most acclaimed directors have either gone of the rails (kim Ki Duk) or made films for America (Park Chan Wook and Joon- ho Bong.
I watched Tunnel at Wimbledon cinema (shown there because of the large Korean community in New Malden). Although it was a perfectly decently-made film I wondered why it was so unusually bland. If it hadn't for the frequent jabs at the Korean government, or references to recent safety disasters such as the Sewol Ferry sinking, this could have been a Hollywood blockbuster.
Driving to work one morning, car salesmen (Jung-soo) finds himself spending longer than he would to like at a gas station when an old man mishears him and puts to much petrol in his car. On they way, he calls his wife Se-hyun and tells her he has bought a cake for his daughter's birthday (why is it always the kid's birthday in these films?) Then, as he enters the tunnel, he is caught in the middle somewhere when a rockslide causes the tunnel to collapse.
Luckily, he can still make communication with the outside world because his phone still has 82% battery; and even 150 metres underground he always has a perfect mobile phone reception. Calls are made between him and wife Seohyun, as well as the head of the rescue operation Dae-kyoung (O-dal su).
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I'm not sure why anyone would want to make a film about a man stuck in a tunnel. The possibility of doing anything new with it are so small. There's little in the way of tension. Although film tries to show the lack of water and how he must carefully ration at each ho The film only really becomes exciting when he learns that the tunnel is to be re-built after the chances of finding him alive are considered to low. Then he has to race against time to find his way out), although why he didn't think of this before I have no idea.
Bae Doona has little to do in this film and we don't learn anything about their relationship beside the fact that they have a four-year old daughter. The film contains some humour (usually towards the incompetence of the tunnel builders who couldn't remember how many ceiling fans they had put in) and there's even a cute dog who has somehow survived under the fallen rubble.
It looks like this film is one for Koreans only.
Rating: 5/10