tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77697328312397201462024-03-15T21:12:22.786-04:00Korean GrindhouseAn online fanzine for Korean movies -- good and bad.Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.comBlogger905125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-16902227433373245582024-03-14T20:08:00.005-04:002024-03-14T20:10:58.905-04:00My Name Is Loh Kiwan: Tough Life<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcLNoxGu709DTMthiA21OmlizqLULnIBZ85qmc5wyav9kYL77HL4gsAgurB6iP7JGE32fSh1mnCIaX9S0xrvsoforrCWJGF6PxqOFqlCFWA4vGpVpUowKE5evP00dDF71FTVV1y3tQfvVSMqtSmxsyLfJ3PBlFwq75dGuDsOrj8Ab6rr6oTrwhxq18SF8Y/s400/My-Name-Is-Loh-Kiwan.jpg"/><p>You think you have it rough? Consider the life of Loh Kiwan, a North Korean refugee (Song Joong-ki) who flees with his mother to China, only to flee again on his own to Brussels where he's got no friends, no family, and very little money (which he loses soon enough). To stay he's going to have to prove his nationality but how do you do that exactly when your country of origin doesn't share birth records and your first second home has its own bureucractic complications compounded by the fact that you were — by necessity — living a secret life. There's more. You can't get a legal job. You don't know the language so you can't argue on your own behalf. The first non-governmental person you make that also speaks Korean is a pretty drug addict (Choi Sung-eun) with a criminal history and a massive debt tied to it. Still think you've got it rough?</p><p>
I've lived in a bare-bones SRO with not much money to my name; I've survived off a diet of hotdogs, cornflakes and alcohol but I've never been this alone, this dependent on the kindness of strangers, this out of my element. Thankfully, there are some kind strangers out there: a Chinese-Korean meatpacker (Lee Sang-hee) and the father (Jo Han-chul) of the woman who stole his wallet then his heart... Sure, they're flawed and make his life worse at times but when there's so much bad in this life that taking the bad with the good isn't so bad because at least it comes with <i>some </i>good. <b><i>My Name Is Loh Kiwan</i></b> made me appreciate my life. It also made me appreciate some people's ability to salvage a stylish wardrobe from the discard bin.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-76897660231655015982024-03-06T21:12:00.001-05:002024-03-06T23:06:45.256-05:00Moon: True Blue, Not True<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTsKWk4gRagGY_KStw0BXRCnEuoy1Sya2eKrDOmBpfOAcJA4Qy4ITW0Fg7jOfDWJ7I5Gkwkc1ktZmeoNTWwkAVGVOUDEzuR7NR1vY7Ly6Gz_o9GmlSWTVctfV26m726ly2orLFG76Cwu5BZgbezpiEjbW7Btk5qcAuX9aJwyyLlrSQosWY9Lkd-2eGYdxn/s400/moon-2023.jpg"/><p>As of March 2024, South Korea has yet to send a spaceship to the moon but given that other countires have — the U.S., China, Russia, Israel, and India — I don't know if I'd classify <b><i>Moon</i></b> as science fiction so much as a speculative drama. In short... What if Korea sent three men in a rocket intended for a lunar landing but then it exploded? Then what if history repeated itself again, except the second time one (Do Kyung-soo) of the astronauts was the son of one of the old ones? As an added twist, you could always have the primary advisor (Sol Kyung-gu) be associated with the earlier disaster, too.</p>
<p>Director-writer Kim Yong-hwa doesn't stop there either. For drama, he adds meteor storms, a moonquake, an unhelpful, unsympathetic clique at NASA, and an arty bloody nose in which red globules float around the space capsule, gravity-free. The dialogue is largely descriptive: the astronauts describe what's happening as we see it; the space team on earth describes what they're seeing; the news reporters describe what's just happened. A Korean-American administrator may emerge as the closest this movie has to a hero; the white guys are definitely the enemies. It's hard to like people who have to be told, "Forget his nationality for now!"</p> Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-5828167780770932322024-02-27T18:47:00.006-05:002024-02-27T20:11:06.309-05:00Escape from Mogadishu: North and South Alliances in Africa<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-iPnGS8zulR5zV35W_-HB9mJ39fZEjC8q3ln-AgprE9GFvpTodM4A1aE77r9wLW2bY6681qOEV0GBgeAGHgFXz7oBlFCXhYBM9Vnl1SScmKikfgv27QDztZdB3dtGt4x7LhG7sE-x-t7qI8NUr_tEWmdy91r5hBlpeM4Si6KRClsj_1PLO9ZZugf_HF04/s400/escape-from-mogadishu.jpg"/><p>Aside from BTS and Bong Joon-ho, most Americans probably don't consider South Korea a major player on the world stage. As for North Korea, they've been designated as a longshot threat run by an insane leader with a hot temper and nuclear weaponry. I don't know if such hierarchical political views of the earth do us well. We all occupy the same planet and wars between two nations can assume global importance soon enough. Israel and Palestine, anyone? In truth, the conflicts, genocides, uprisings and dictatorships concern us all. As Toni Morrison once put it: "The function of freedom is to free someone else." If we're not moved my the decimation in the Middle East, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the Ukraine, how civilized are we really? And so, a movie like<b> <i>Escape from Mogadishu</i></b>, about South and Korean diplomats working together to find safe harbor amid a civilian rebellion in Somalia has plenty to say about governance, negotiations, police brutality, children with guns...</p><p>
As the South's Ambassador Han, Kim Yoon-seok is morally slippery but well-intentioned. His stoic ounterpart Ambassador Rim, Huh Joon-ho brings a respectfulness not always accorded the neighbors from the North. (Each has a hot-headed assistant played by Zo In-sung and Koo Kyo-hwan respectively.) Once the two sides team up (seeking assistance from Italy and Egypt, not the U.S. and China by the way), Ryu Seung-wan's historical drama really gets cooking. I don't know whether the fleeing Koreans really wrote blood types on their children's arms or bulletproofed their cars by duct-taping hardcover books on the hood but it sure leads to one of the most exhilarating getaways in recent memory. Which isn't to say the survivors have escaped everything. Not by a long shot. And that acknowledgment makes <b><i>Escape from Mogadishu</i> </b>not just good but very good.</p> Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-61013746704707273072024-02-25T20:00:00.005-05:002024-02-25T20:01:26.350-05:00Sinkhole: The Kids Are Far From Alright<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSbiCCueQ9UAuTj1qKl5jP5LRfgcBVachLrGfuqQXvq6E7CDnjChT1oMPDphaFgBn1mBXxW65ee6HyT85atzvNYUKjb-QXezdVHSTCwqFuQUqYCjSssaRsAMy_JTzB3FHK0SGI5WsIjU_-SvfvcPbMhWlPEiZdqjq1jDp8ghPobud_8-InktP7DAKlvfVP/s400/Sinkhole-1.jpg"/><p>Kim Ji-hoon's <b><i>Sinkhole</i></b> is a disaster comedy with one serious problem: The script introduces two children among the various residents who live in a doomed tenement about to get swallowed up by the earth then, like the other characters sharing their subterranean fate, abandons the kids for too long. I, for one, spent a lot of time impatiently waiting for the building's super (Cha Seung-won), the newest tenant (Park Dong-won), and two housewarming guests (Lee Kwang-soo and Kim Hye-jun) to stop griping about cell phone service and mud-covered chicken and to start searching for the two forgotten young boys, trapped in the basement parking lot with a senile grandma.</p><p>
And unlike this director's previous — and highly gratifying — disaster pic <i><a href="http://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-tower-architecture-of-laughter-and.html">The Tower</a></i>, <b><i>Sinkhole</i></b> in undermined by jokes that never click, a love story that feels contrived, and muted tension buried under terrible CGI. Also, I realize that you have to cheat a little with lighting in a movie in which a half-dozen people find themselves submerged, miles below the earth's surface as few sun rays or moonbeams would reach them. But do you have to have your imperiled survivors scrambling around on what looks to be a multi-story stage-set? In which case... "Curtains!"</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-4889067915839632302024-02-23T12:47:00.000-05:002024-02-23T12:47:01.582-05:00Past Lives: Seeing Yourself on Screen<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="1100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpiyXAVKEwN0B7k9ddPGPzmZp-I0q2WHpwuGRlx7XbRafMnxvVXIy5DZhyphenhyphen06bi10RH5Nk5gDX2pI8vGCXXShHh-R-JDg-9glY124Fjfh4jrQSQt5Kbg63tauuHbd9PMjnbS2BC4Vep-lnvl5xACbEDBl7IxiE-eEMLPLCeAOoCzuH2wz9k4qsj3svCG8x/s400/past-lives.jpg"/><p>Much is made of representation in the media for gays, women, POC, et cetera but you don't hear about it so much when it comes to interracial couples. And it's not like I can't think of examples in film: Anna Deavere Smith and Bill Irwin in <i>Rachel Getting Married</i>; Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner in<i> The Bodyguard</i>. Neither of those movies explored the relationships in racial terms, however. The ones that do — <i>Loving</i>, <i>Guess Who's Coming to Dinner</i> — often do so to the exclusion of everything else. Which makes <i><b>Past Lives</b></i> something special. For while the relationship between playwright Nora (Greta Lee) and her husband Arthur (John Magaro) isn't the central story, writer-director Celine Song does take the time to show the frictional sparks, related to the cultural divide as experienced by this married couple.</p>
But <b><i>Past Lives</i> </b>is much more than that. Something akin to a parable about what happens when your childhood crush (Teo Yoo) reappears in your life not once (digitally) but twice (the latter, in person). As you might guess, the results are poignant, passionate, and ultimately painful. For confronting the past (which inevitably contains the dreams of youth, and a look at our earlier, less corrupted selves) isn't easy. Any adult, whose done the internal work, isn't going to throw everything over to try to recapture what never came to be. But there's a cost that comes with this maturity, one which <b><i>Past Lives</i></b> details exquisitely.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-29000280419826668782024-02-22T22:22:00.005-05:002024-02-22T22:23:27.444-05:00Indian Pink: Bloodstains on Your Collar<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWF02Q3-YEfk7jfJrC1jmRDGCgvuQeCkjXlxTdDNds8M8MEgae4kBQBfd2GUggnqqpfTsU5o9yMd6mheQvTLlInkwKBWlr33lTJnbuB_llA0AeffKhsBz04JEo4eXxsWDFi_wV1R6eQiz1KzMH_KJbYle_JXDaz0sckTcTFrQ80cE6Alw3gFLv-Gr1OnTW/s400/indian-pink.jpg"/><p>It's not hard to tell something's up with unscrupulous businessman Dong Seok (Kim Hyun-joong) early on in <b><i>Indian Pink</i></b>. He's irritable on the phone with his best friend; he squeezes a glass shard until his hand draws blood. Then in case we haven't figured it out, he unsuccessfully drowns his sorrows in drink. What follows, for the first third at least, is really a one-man show, a monologue (with phone calls) masquerading as a movie, a nightmarish mishmash of regret — nay, remorse — for a tragic action that only the slowest of filmgoers won't figure out. Even the false, fantasized memories that constitute the flashback in the second act are easy to dispel, in part because ex-girlfriend is not particularly believable. Perhaps that's intentional?</p><p>
Once all the cards are laid on the table, writer-director Kim Seewoo doesn't have that much more to explore. Nefarious business deals still get made; a friend/associate becomes complicit in the crime; suicides are attempted and aborted; bodies must be disposed of; and our villainous protagonist is already on the hunt for a new girlfriend. So why does Kim Seewoo's psychodrama feel more lukewarm than chilling? Despite all the bloodstains on white linen in <i><b>Indian Pink</b></i>, this flick doesn't make much of a mark.</p> Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-13998259714138615832024-02-21T23:02:00.005-05:002024-02-21T23:43:52.486-05:00Deadly Kick: No Good Ninja Goes Unpunished<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI_rQjaAagVNR25sdXFf9SZc_qPXQ5tO46ccB_FEiy2-wXctSWBbCeYHnM1eVyKE7mwWgTYZvg9oXuQiTlQksBTNrCktXRzwAKjfPzfdSnVBYFt1NprisxtTGfyn1EaaFoi8gVPgvDgfLS9lXUhNV39KPsvZ07EWMDt6akEYglY9aTAqYWEO7QjVd47n9G/s400/Deadly-Kick.jpg"/><p>The best parts of director Ko Young-nam's and star Lieh Lo's martial-arts pulp-pic <b><i>Deadly Kick</i></b> are definitely when it gets strange: the scenes in which the anti-hero channels/hallucinates animals during battle; the plucking out of eyeballs or intestines; the blind woman's fight-training sequence replete with superhero uniform and a girl with directional sleigh-bells. In the long stretches between those bits of weirdness, the movie leaves us with little: a pair of overactive eyebrows and absurd moments like when one guy holds a pair of panties to his nose then comments "smells better than whiskey."</p>
<p>Outside of that, the action — which ranges from convoluted syndicate machinations to drunken nipple-nibbling — is infrequently amusing, frequently preposterous. What should make for drama, does not. Take the film's airborne assassins who can't quite hit the one moving car with their machine gun or their hand grenades. Not even when the car runs out of gas. Not even when its passengers are on foot. Because then helicopter runs out of gas, too. And if the movie itself isn't quite a gas, what it does have is one delicious fake mustache (on Bobby Kim, once known as the "Oriental Charles Bronson") and a couple of "school project" torture devices. At least, it's set in the '70s so there are aviator sunglasses for everyone!</p><p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-44761828304278403132024-01-29T18:56:00.007-05:002024-02-21T23:06:54.281-05:00Badland Hunters: Ma Dong-seok Survives the Apocalpyse<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BwIue07K4LFERkWeLUwLm80eb8jn5qVLZyNmRppdIBvFyUyFa5lsLzK14Ny38hl5S0Jg99t6GUCaVcBDR72k-EvBfr0lL35yV7fsq9zsozwtthKZFhNvQpa55gAem49s4DiUmq8e9y33m9rBwckBKvNY-Eaxh2rA3hO9B1B4rANCJDazYHUulBRhOuFL/s400/badland-hunters.jpg"/><p>Everytime I see the words "co-produced by Netflix" (or words to that effect) in a Korean movie's opening credits, my heart sinks a bit. Having worked at a TV network that meddled detrimentally with their shows, I feel qualified to detect inept input — often about making things a little less strange and a little more generic. In martial artist-turned-director Heo Myeong haeng's <b><i>Badland Hunters</i></b> what might've been an above-decent zombie movie arrives instead as a fright flick that looks like a video game. And so, like most shooter games, this action pic reveles in bullets to the head, exploding skulls, blood splatters, and bones cracking. Players — I mean, characters — recover from injuries in record time while most of the people onscreen are scenery.</p><p>
I don't know whether to blame leading man Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. Don Lee) or bless him for <i><b>Badland Hunters</b></i>. He's definitely the film's saving grace, dominating every scene with a prime Bruce Willis persona that relates equal parts worldweariness and bemusement. He's also, like the title of his earlier film, <i>Unstoppable</i>. Whether his opponent is a body-regenerating mutant or a mad scientist with a machine gun, this loveable lug never blinks an eye. They have an arsenal, he has a butter knife? No problem. He's going to make them sorry they thought they had a chance. The human-testing in the post-apocalypse ends here!</p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-29823314877427499242024-01-25T18:54:00.009-05:002024-02-21T23:07:23.261-05:00Jazzy Misfits: Unbound Relations<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQE3tAWMlT6dosjKaTqnCdeIjXW0TqVy0u3ujtHziVmRSxeA-LWJo_182FJN_cb5yv4_NkcKpDoVDY-KIbqayekg10qcjD_WhDfglRUUfY8Ek2FULFjo4Gh6nuv6E1vjy2Q7rdWzrbL5YXkHkcTQuyF9r820n3ATmjvS_8wZhyphenhyphenDjuWIUeMQw68-Ol2MbTJ/s400/jazzy-misfits.jpg"/><p>Director Nam Yeon-woo's decision to pair an accomplished older actress (Jo Min-soo) with a TV rap star (Cheetah) pays off big time in the wonderfully silly mother-daughter comedy <i><b>Jazzy Misfits</b></i>. For while Jo chews up the scenery as a volatile, negligent, alcoholic mother who comes out of the woodwork only after her younger <i>other</i> child (Choi Jisu) robs her of the rent, Cheetah (a.k.a. Kim Eun-young) more than holds her own — outside her effectively deadpan reactions — via extended cuts of her crooning in the nightclub and at the recording studio. As such, these two convey deep emotional realities in different mediums: acting and music.</p>
They're surrounded by a rich cast of characters, too: the mom's former suitor (Jeong Man-sik) who's now a policeman; the local food courier (Terris Brown) who's crushing big time on the singing daughter; and a random white tourist whose unexpected parkour skills hilariously come into play in the movie's best chase scene. With drag queens, lesbian girlfriends, gay tattoo artists, a trans bar owner, a sexy, shirtless downstairs neighbor, and a crewcut Heo Jung-do (from the addictive Kdrama <i>My Demon</i>) as a cheerful sound mixer in over his head, <i><b>Jazzy Misfits</b></i> is never anything less than ebulliently screwball.</p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-79903190189403084992024-01-17T18:52:00.004-05:002024-02-21T23:07:48.387-05:00The Last Princess: Elevating Royalty<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOT5Zf4Ycq9oSuGZ_KdTbRta33W_Ht-0_Zji3Sdu3dUciu3YAvHhFk0A9aysd6gAPyl0MBg8742ob0DOAkENaZ9S_pW7EnJDO2w_gmLTeFPxOp50ODoA58DkuxLERRcIDKwcDgdKmsXOmh-GbjN2bZTWOSJad3fOUUDp_iGOS34qVsqNjbPWM7B990Mih/s400/the-last-princess.jpg"/><p>There's a pretty powerful disclaimer at the start of <i><b>The Last Princess</b></i>: "Incidents and persons portrayed do not reflect historical facts." So then what are we to believe about Yi Deokhye, the subject of this biopic? Was she a royal rebel who bravely snubbed the Japanese emperor's dress code and rallied fingerless Korean workers to rise up against their Japanese oppressors? Did she try to escape her gilded cage and get back to Korea as an act of solidarity with her countrymen? Was she the first to discover the assassination of her father, the king? In truth, much of Hur Jin-ho's costume dram is conjectural; it's a pro-dynastic movie posing as a pro-resistance message. Considering the history we do know, for now I'm okay with that.</p><p>
And Son Ye-jin makes a convincing princess, struggling to balance her patriotism with her desire to survive. She's got few people in her corner: an adoring servant (Ra Mi-ran), a couple of ineffectual brothers, and a soldier-spy (Park Hae-il) who also doubles as her devoted, sexless romantic interest. She's also got an evil Korean Benedict Arnold (Yun Je-mun) whose sole mission in life is to be her foil, derailing every attempt she makes to escape, to evade, to exalt. As fantasies go, if <b><i>The Last Princess</i></b> has any faults, it's that this heinous henchman never gets his just desserts. Director Hur may see this dark detail as a bitter dose of reality. Since so much is already made up, I'm not gonna quibble here. Finally, if Hollywood were more open to performances in foreign tongues, Son's lead turn would definitely have qualified as an Oscar-bait — as she ages from 20s to 70s while screaming, crying, looking fashionable, looking nervous, and ultimately going insane. I was crazy about <i>her</i> in the best way possible.</p> Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-48157392150514856952024-01-04T17:34:00.005-05:002024-02-21T23:08:45.510-05:00My Paparotti: Sing Out, Louise<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqfbzJREr8TQpmxZjiYU6rEmBllGJiJB2da8vviwbIFAop4gMcO0gt32hmoYj35QmRxOdOylUMgYZJQIXrS7C8vML6OQsbRaNIqjROWCSUr0KzNUxQkz69nK2BBQHuUat5FR3x3ty3UBCQxHzZHGNym9UgK4YkdI2JUUovQlu8vvDKn-5x-jl9O4jrPnbC/s400/My-Paparotti.jpg"/><p>Who you watch a movie with — or who you encounter any type of art with — can have a major impact on how you experience it. I remember hearing a casette of "Everything That Rises Must Converge" with my mother in the car after a particularly tense exchange between the two of us and let me tell you, Flannery O'Connor's bleak short story about an estranged mother and son has probably never had a pair of more attentive listeners — destination forgotten. Happily, my viewing of Lee Jong-chan's feel-good comedy <i><b>My Paparotti</b></i> was a less emotionally wrought exchange. To the contrary, this cinematic success story proved effervescent when seated beside by boyfriend who corrected subtitles, mimicked opera singing, and encouraged all my sentimental reactions.</p><p>
So let others roll their eyes at this underdog saga of a young thug (Sung Yoo-bin) whose passion for singing provides a way out of "thug life" and under the prickly warm tutelage of a disillusioned teacher (Han Suk-kyu) whose music career was derailed by some ill-timed tumors on his vocal cords. And for anyone ready to dismiss this film outright as fantastical nonsense, know this: <b><i>My Paparotti</i></b> is based on a true story! Characters like the bossy high school principal (Oh Dal-su), the kooky love interest (Kang So-ra), and the brotherly, middle management mafioso (Cho Jin-woong) may register as pure cartoon but real life has a place for exaggeration, too, especially when it makes you feel this good.Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-17907527020486392492023-12-17T20:40:00.006-05:002023-12-20T12:07:44.466-05:00Top 10 Movies of 2023 (Sort of)<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1720" data-original-width="2691" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh07T4usKRi1rScT6780Pyp2HXKw16Klwaevsggmkjv26CuFHu1ynsEDgNXwAsQmszCWp7sGSHye7hod-7JPmhDl4llZBvpMt8lSJYXHSpCTwRgw_gHdIFC4GJOD2gUgU9D9Iu21krQL4aYZLSx_Cv1uQj67ZeglGqTaUF2h0bJhsHwEnaBjk3v9A5eObYd/s400/Decision-to-leave-Park-Chan-wook.jpg"/><p>The thought occurred to me when putting together this curated list of Korean movies (which once again I had trouble paring down to ten from the 50 I'd watched throughout the year) that it might be helpful to think in terms of "favorites" instead of "best." Because sometimes I really do like movies that are far from cinematic paragons. Some aren't even "good" in the generally accepted sense. Yet every film on this list merits inclusion. They're all memorable in terms of storylines and casts. More importantly still, they tickled my fancy. And so, with this new framing device in mind, I present to you my recommendations for 2023.</p><p>
<b>1. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/01/decision-to-leave-deadly-details.html">Decision to Leave</a></i> (2022):</b> Enjoying a Greek tragedy doesn't depend on being surprised by every twist and turn. Nor does this ingeniously constructed Park Chan-wook crime pic.<br />
<b>2. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/03/voice-of-silence-stolen-childhoods.html">Voice of Silence</a></i> (2020):</b> Director Hong Eui-jeong's thrilling feature debut concerns a mute man-child suddenly in the middle of a botched kidnapping crime gone awry.<br />
<b>3. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/04/love-leashes-learning-lusting.html">Love & Leashes</a></i></b> (2022):</b> The kinky Korean counterpart to stateside's <i>50 Shades of Grey</i> is surprisingly nuanced, often humorous, and consistently smart. With gender roles reversed!<br />
<b>4. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/05/exit-up-in-smoke.html">Exit</a></i> (2019):</b> Lee Sang-geun's heartpounding rom-com follows two recreational rockclimbers who find unwanted adventure when a poison gas hits downtown Seoul.<br />
<b>5. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/06/midnight-runners-boy-cops.html">Midnight Runners</a></i> (2017):</b> In the eternal fight between good and evil, I expect some hyperbole. In Kim Joo-hwan's police cadet mystery, I relished it.<br />
<b>6. <a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/01/deranged-ill-drink-to-this-one.html"><i>Deranged</i></a> (2012):</b> Director Park Jeong-woo's timely disaster-disease pic somehow feels as if it were a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.<br />
<b>7. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/11/night-journey-shes-had-enough.html">Night Journey</a></i> (1977):</b> This period drama about a dissatisfied bank clerk (Yu Jeong-hie) taking stock of her life is a feminist critique with surreal touches.<br />
<b>8. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/04/kill-boksoon-killer-queen.html">Kill Boksoon</a></i> (2023):</b> With all due respect to slick action pics <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/10/ballerina-different-type-of-fairy-tale.html">The Killer</a></i> and <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/10/ballerina-different-type-of-fairy-tale.html">Ballerina</a></i>, Jeon Do-yeon's performance as the title character pushed this one into the lead.<br />
<b>9. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/07/space-monster-wangmagwi-ufo-snafu.html">Space Monster Wangmagwi</a></i> (1977):</b> The camp factor runs high in this alien-invasion flick in which a Godzilla is remote-controlled from outerspace.<br />
<b>10. <i><a href="https://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2007/10/movies-indexed-by-titles.html">Shark: The Beginning</a></i> (2021):</b> This underdog story with male bonding between sexy guys in the juvie appears set to kick off a series, given its title. Bring it on!<br>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-77134624671334285612023-12-16T20:50:00.005-05:002023-12-16T21:12:35.342-05:00Obsessed: Repressed<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="2592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVhdlmSx2v7d6d1FSueE_b9dJ4D9omPdIeVCJaW4seQ_ZirHr_eDh_NoUC21XdwQs_w2jlZWZtUsum77ssD7NPAB12l8PyhngCY2MB9kRw6REu67ZJxuywxuGFmzRbOl22cAVCB3kMRz8C2gdEXc2RmMlcOocSgUBHV8z8zKzt5N5xh-O4fKx8plOAvoCh/s400/obsessed.jpg"/><p>I'm aware that the erotic romance <b><i>Obsessed</i></b> is all about a Vietnam vet have an extramarital affair with a subordinate's wife. But Kim Dae-woo's suffocatingly repressed film reminds me more of the perverse <i>Reflections of a Golden Eye</i> than <i>Coming Home</i> or <i>The Deer Hunter</i>. There's the way Song Seung-heon fills out his white T-shirt a la Brando; the fawning officer (On Joo-wan) whose marital sexlife is dead. There's a scene in which two men (Song and Bae Sung-woo) dance together for God's sake. I'm not struggling to locate queer subtext here! The sex scenes implicate as well: The first one finds the husband doing all the work (and it looks like work); the second one finds his mistress (Lim Ji-yeon) making all the noise while he looks detached; the third one almost looks like he's giving it to her up the butt, doggy-style.</p><P>
I don't know that any of this is intentional on Kim's part but goodness, the gender-studies term-paper practically writes itself. What else are we to make of the bit when the mother-in-law tells her cheating daughter that she's glad the young woman's a cheater because the cuckolded son is nothing short of "evil"? From what I observed, he's simply ambitious in the same way that the antihero's wife is. Is smuggling the devil's work? Or am I reading too deeply? Could be. There's a terrific moment midway through the film where a dance instructor (Yoo Hae-jin) comments on the America's televised moon landing: "Damnit there's nothing. Using all that money to get to such a place." I suppose the same could say about my review. <b><i>Obsessed</i> </b>might just be an exquisitely costumed movie without salacious subtext but definitely with a temperance message.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-37869996641468098802023-12-05T17:16:00.005-05:002023-12-05T20:52:21.986-05:00The Anchor: Dying On-Air<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTtFcCYQ59jeGWqEUcMI-KcgT1A8TJTK-zvqr0qzXh91mAjmBlNZ0pF1sUh0MA__6E3d3CwwlMXCG8p4acj2xKwgTynRGUm1lqJW3aOkTTfFzAly5J6BIjHXx5OMw6T9XB0JS8KIcLGSion4622koU7VkzWdfJSYOhV2taL_RgfI7-fYlPuBsVOMLkXztC/s400/the-anchor.jpg"/><p>It's not always a bad thing when you know where a movie is headed. In Jung Ji-yeon's psychological thriller <i><b>The Anchor</b></i>, for instance, you can tell early on that the dominating, alcoholic mother (Lee Hye-young) may be the major liability for her newscaster daughter (Chun Woo-hee) in the days ahead. To what extent remains to be seen but we know that this mom undermines self-esteem, meddles in the marriage, and serves up slices of rotten fruit without an apology. But to get to the bottom of the matter might require a hypnotist. Luckily, the psychiatrist (Shin Ha-kyun) — who also happened to treat the suicidal woman who boomeranged the aspiring anchorwoman's career handled a similar case years ago — is available to administer treatment.</p><p>
Unfortunately, everything's a bloody mess by the time the doctor has put the pieces together and guided the client through the dreamscape. As in blood in the abdomen. Blood on the wrists. Blood in the hands. Blood on the lips. The number of ruined wardrobes runs high in this one. That the color of the final outfits worn by two of these women is white is not lost on me! Nor that the fabrics look likely to stain. Network YBC appears to have continued its nightly new program without a blemish. I fear for the next generation though. You see, there's a baby who going to survive this nightmare and that little one's life is going to be crazy.</p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-27984751603942415552023-12-04T19:41:00.006-05:002023-12-04T19:51:03.552-05:00This Is Korea!: No, This Is Propaganda!<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="1400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAjvG8r5tAqU-jW5SEnA9SxmM6zQlp7RtMDzEMTNI18rN35xWkdbrOGtsMbBc3grp0VOStrP0RD_XYcMLmrwZBlhE6JBFcgDoBSacFb5jb7UjBu5hIwoyrHAY9SuYVnHInbyPXJ3bAt3a7nqsS5KZxaZucCzRkMWiX60OqPJKi8bj5jvIzS3wCf5RFq6gl/s400/this-is-korea.png"/><p>There's something revolting about pretending the worse thing that happened to Korea in the 20th century was communism when the Chinese and Soviets were actually responsible for combatting Japanese occupation. But such is the myth-making of John Ford's <i><b>This Is Korea!</b></i>, an agit-prop film produced by the U.S Navy that's really more about American soldiers abroad than the citizens they're supposedly protecting. We hear of men from New York, Georgia, Maine, Idaho, and California; soldiers who haven't had a hot meal in two months come Christmas; fighters trekking across the hills while carrying their homes upon their backs; "...walking when they still can; carried when they can't."</p><P>
What we hear about the Koreans is that they are refugees in their own country (a curious choice of words!), getting vaccines for typhus and smallpox (which they don't understand) and primarily homeless children taken care of by local nuns. More time is devoted to seeing bazookas in action and tanks and grenades and flame-throwers. Was there a time when people saw the weaponry and thought, "How cool is that?" Were people charmed by an orphan named Little Babe Ruth DiMaggio and moved by a silver star pinned on a uniformed chest followed by footage of napalm being dropped? It's tough to hear the narrator mispronounce the capital city or mutter "Fry 'em out, burn 'em out, cook 'em" and believe that Ford and company care about the Korean people at all in relationship to this war. Delusional, demented, Red scare cinema at its worst? Mission accomplished. What are they fighting for? As the film itself states: "Maybe it's just pure cussedness."</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-3778034021372672082023-12-03T15:01:00.016-05:002023-12-03T18:20:11.787-05:00Bodyguard: Protecting Those in Power<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CZDMW0POv4Kvhx_N33ekreER3HGv0ypidcuzMqEoykQBIwSGZ5tMMvwqr0w3_O480uVVPolSwEoY__rpRKgMg3svah6SGG0Xu9vW4bubmb7-n9_rn4X1TnYvaQyNhT1dv8IFJzpwbo0gWCLUeTJ2TmeGMPU2KE-44OuQxV4WQJrHPWdzXl8R2T4Lh1hd/s400/bodyguard.jpg"/><p>You can tell that writer-director Song Seung-Hyeon has put a lot of care and forethought into his thriller <b><i>Bodyguard</i></b>. There's recurring imagery (a chess set), recurring gags (the airgun), and an attempt to build a layered narrative (flashbacks, blurred for effect). But Song's film, like the feet of its damsel-in-distress (Yoo Ye-bin), has two many band-aids. Why does a high-ranking businesswoman of a billion-dollar company have only a fancy watch as an asset to offer her protector (Kang Seok-chul) as payment? Why does the third banana in a collection agency blurt out a fast-food dish when he see this same woman's photo? And why do we care what happens to her anyway? The answer in every case is because it serves the overall plot.</p><p>
Song's inability to make <b><i>Bodyguard</i> </b>progress from Point A to Point B — as well as the acting that gets us there — feel <i>natural</i> means that the film is never more than an apprentice's contrivance. When a rescue intervention abandons nearly all the characters, you have to wonder what's really going on here! But since <i><b>Bodyguard</b></i> is Song's freshman effort (I believe), I wouldn't write him off too quickly. He casts fairly well, and has brought in a good cinematographer, an excellent fight choreographer, and a talented location scout as well. Let's give praise where praise is due. Admittedly, some costume choices give pause — What's up with the baseball hat with three earings in its bill? — and one "surprise" necktwist you can see a mile away, but overall <b><i>Bodyguard</b></i> has me guardedly optimistic about what comes next for Song. Might the sophomore slump be this filmmaker's jump? Let's all buy a ticket and see.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-63588065875385093352023-12-02T17:40:00.005-05:002023-12-03T18:58:16.425-05:00The Battleship Island: POW Power<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0VFiejrB4bBCnZMvUh2ePfgf_495wJ_mEKOBNjovc__h71Om8j4on3u0PfiOkjjNI5w9lwU4jtBxPhTt2_SyFuWc6VjpkgZW4MOASpfLRA03VlJq_uLz0Z16amjHKd7HqGqCixykIuPOxFAVTcJA5UXCcLHa5AH4OucRS9VhZBgz5ohPVVI45Eea8-_V3/s400/battleship-island.jpg"/><p>Internment camps are a nightmare. In <b><i>The Battleship Island</i></b>, the wartime hellscape is a prison island doubling as a mining facility at which prisoners are forced to dig for coal under inhumane conditions. The best way to escape such a dire fate is to know how to play a musical instrument: So clarinetist band-leader Lee Gang-ok (Hwang Jung-min) and his prepubescent, singing-dancing daughter So-hee (Kim Su-an) have a glimmer of hope, as they entertain the enemy with a small jazz band.</p><p>
Playing pop songs for your enslavers may sound like a form of torture but working underground and breathing coal dust doesn't sound any better. And there are prepubescent kids — with pickaxes and chizels — in the subterranean realm as well.
Thug-turned-good-guy Choi Chil-sung (So Ji-seob) may have fought his way into a line boss job for the betterment of his countrymen but there's only so much he can do. And who needs his help more? Elder Yoon Kyung-ho (Lee Kyung-young) or comfort woman Mallyon (Lee Jung-hyun)?</p><p>
Then again, maybe since this is a movie, all of these stories are going to come together for a great escape. So how's that going to happen when you're stuck on an island with no mainland in swimming distance? Teletype machines, copied keys, pornographic distractions, traded cigarettes, and sheer fortitude, that's how! Considering how often it rains and how often there are explosions on this prison-island, it's going to be tough even if things go smoothly. Then again, survival might be enough.</p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-25159348878433930092023-11-27T09:25:00.003-05:002023-11-27T09:25:27.694-05:00Believer 2: Repeat Crimes<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1107" data-original-width="1963" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivgy0qL8Q40Egj1pyJIvM0hyphenhyphendddaMKfQkDqKpjLvYDmEY5q5tjc99dHE6ZJTAb5pDnKyGhrJ4V2nmZ-sSqHD5DM3M1rD1Y39iIItGBX2D3dHJxiayyVLIvLTsqAuTBZHuYQRZ_5foiq0NbbVCGF5OlINZ_Itd5hyouTZ6weUC117isP8zQcJpUt65V1eaA/s400/believer-2.png"/><p>Let's assume it's a given that most sequels are made because the originals earned too much goddamn money. Greedy producers see more cash ahead! Nothing will stop them from getting it either — not talent, not logic, not the passing of years, certainly not merit. With Example 1, <i><b>Believer 2</b></i>, that means hiring a new writer (Jeon Cheol-Hong) and a new director (Baek Jong-Yeol) who, in turn, serve up a convoluted plot finessed with torture porn and a final dedication to an actor from the first installment who died in car accident in the time in between. So what's up this time around?</p><p>
• A dispirited lead detective (Cho Jin-woong) so obsessed with ones drug lord (Tzi Ma) that he'll fund his own flights to Thailand and Norway<br />
• The return of two deaf-mute "cooks" (Kim Dong-young, Lee Joo-young) whose love cannot be stopped by blindness or mutilation<br />
• A ventilated, wheelchair-bound, disfigured drug lord (Cha Seung-won) whose hospital gown remains spotless regardless of nearby blood splatters<br />
• The lead villainess (Han Hyo-joo) — what used to be called a "psychobitch" with daddy issues — who constantly sticks her tongue in her cheek to alert us that... it's all tongue-in-cheek?</p><p>
Are Bake and Jeon aiming for camp? If so, not everyone got the directive.</p> Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-46042421342180661762023-11-24T16:37:00.008-05:002023-12-17T20:12:04.714-05:00Shark: The Beginning: Training Gloves<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="989" data-original-width="1969" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nC4u9cmf4_hseYxrnfwop7gsxvBQZjLtV1ZknZy-bWV69phzk_GphRRTpsLC5j50sXaXJSPjXQJ5UghQEDDya8zYP3vxZi29f2r3c9zbhxYkze2Ll6dvjwpJ65eVqvKjIagljtv4zUDcu-xCVawsYDrqtz6GajcA0fNTdXXN0Hib_CnrF-XTJjJlBXyx/s400/shark-the-beginning.png"/><p>Bully culture is a real phenomenon. So how do you challenge it? Do you meet might with might? Punch back? Stab in the eye? Kick in the nuts? Or do you form an alliance with someone stronger? Ideally someone with a knockout right hook? The question becomes even more pressing if you find yourself in a juvenille detention center where over half the convicts are adults. (I guess sometimes "a crime is a crime, a punishment is a punishment.") Still, my heart goes out to Cha Wo-sol, the painfully shy nerd who finds himself behind bars after being provoked by a sadistic student. He's learned early on that "Retreat" is a strategy of limited value.
</p><p>
And so Wo-sol (Kim Min-suk) and Mixed Martial Arts loner Do-hyun (Wi Ha-joon) forge a friendship — by way of a physical training intensive — below the barbed wire and within the chained link fence. Both understand what it means to be dealt a bad hand in life. Wo-sol was a victim throughout school; Do-hyun was incarcerated after his mother and sister were killed and he murdered their assailants in revenge. Hence they're primed to bond over pushups, pull-ups, and sit-ups performed under a "don't try, do" ethos. It all leads up to the sweatjacket being shed to reveal the ripped torso underneath. That's the end of Part 1 at least.</p><p>
Part 2 inevitably puts all the lessons to the test. In Chae Johnny's <b><i>Shark: The Beginning</i></b>, the path to redemption or revenge or self-actualization won't be easy. In other words, there will be blood. Blood spills from the lips, the nose, the knuckles, the forehead ... If you're doubting Wo-sol's chances, keep his mentor's comments in mind: "That's your talent. Persistence." And leopard print — no matter who (Jung Won-chang) wears it — is definitely not his kryptonite.</p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-22631669095218958262023-11-17T20:45:00.004-05:002023-11-17T21:11:31.920-05:00Diva: Diver's Delirium<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="1345" data-original-width="2002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY2Akk0RAR2VrATtNi6oSY3rrX9J-ZtTXs2-w0zd_s6kQ2p1-YFwDupbYKZZ3xeDeFGwlhlO8xgYW-v8P0voPvJ1SU0DXJUaeRZ_kkfQT2KGhsUUT9Bmo5YgRmKae_WP262jfztmd_5k_TsKdZSkDYm3qV-ldDxrGhgoEAlWTKK0RC8wgkRbcJLGv0e9MV/s400/Diva.png"/><p>Diver Lee-young (Shin Min-a) has clearly bumped her head hard in that car accident leading up to the Olympic trials. She's having visions of her dead/missing best-friend/synchronized-partner Su-jin (Lee Yoo-young), both in and out of the water and hallucinating high dives that end in a pool without any water. Ouch! I mean, you know that scratch above her eyebrow goes deep because despite all the time she's spending in chlorinated water, that gash <i>will not heal</i>. Is it a psychosomatic symptom if something that's real doesn't get better? You better your gold medal it is.</p>
<p>So what is it that's driving our neurotic aquatic to the brink since her hospital discharge? And is her new synchronized partner (Oh Ha-nee) going to be safe doing multiple flips with a twist from the same high dive? For that matter, is the performance-enhancing drug "Ju" part of the problem? What about the coach (Lee Kyoo-hyung)? Or the guy who may have sold her friend a pair of incompatible jellyfish at the petstore? I can tell you this much, someone associated with the human aquarium looks like they're going down. In Jo Seul-yeah's <i><b>Diva</b></i>, head injuries are practically contagious by the end. Doggy-paddling will get you nowhere. And the cops will throw up their arms as if they were doing the butterfly stroke.</p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-73060702313204897292023-11-09T19:03:00.003-05:002023-11-09T19:13:21.987-05:00Night Journey: She's Had Enough<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="397" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh20vPKre2lYsCeHZEpTTP48pm3fGnfjdNQlaI6jO_xHZGWSavI_8kth4rbomJAP99EhB8QjSSjhslhLVl9oLpUfECvLBna37XEYj-s7s_u7nJZKQXvdZ1VIWIW84OYaiBlvHQ-2IGqwtOrog3dBjlAVw8WSugk6U3ZVtU5GHmMa_qIco-NdEDz5qHqmMCS/s400/night-journey.jpg"/><p>I've never been able to fully own the idea that time isn't linear. I believe it. But it's hard to pind down. Because, the occasional deja vu aside, life feels like we're moving in a straight line from past to present towards future unknown. From hour to hour. Or minute to minute. Yet I also acknowledge that when I get caught up in a memory, moments often get interspliced or loop around each other. Which is basically a good way to describe director Kim Soo-yong's technique in constructing the slippery psychodrama that is <i><b>Night Journey</b></i>. Kim's portrait of a dissatisfied bank employee (Yu Jeong-hie) who's dragged for her unmarried status flashes back and forth in time, as nostalgia and past traumas act as imbalancers for her melancholic, present-day woes.</p>
<p>Sex with her co-worker/flatmate (Shin Seong-il) is dissatisfying. A rape comes out of nowhere then disappears just as quick. A trip home takes a strange turn when she puts on her high school uniform (still fits!), triggering recollections of a former teacher/soldier/suitor who died in the war. But sometimes, you're not sure whether what's presented is real or fantasy. Which somehow relates to the nature of time, too. Yet despite the inner chaos, our heroine is guiding her destiny — whether she's turning down offers from men in alleys, cajoling an old schoomate for a motorcycle ride, or acknowledging the lustful glance of a military officer on the street. Because of that, <b><i>Night Journey</i></b> is more grit than grim. </p> Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-64980413537288883472023-11-06T21:50:00.006-05:002023-11-06T21:50:55.531-05:00Doctor: Surgical Insanity<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="3000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupNwh2SRhe_8lCnSuRvgCiGnK63f6fivXWlIW5L4mDInHikDPjSTulqYcUgnolzTzBQpnp8suhYGS8adiyNhBq116eglffWjWtJaW0-qhmhGWCgXNgaV7SyUFphfzMzLW1qsp_Jzg_b_mAkVNsiELJMOhaUXb8yGcWkfu0ol6HdU73JSxJiLPJZ2yKp_x/s400/doctor.jpg"/>The pursuit of beauty: Who has it worse? The cosmetic surgeon or the patient compelled to go under the knife? In Kim Sung-hong's <i><b>Doctor</b></i>, the craziness for perfection definitely goes in both directions: For the scalpel-wielding maniac (Kim Chang-wan) — I mean medic, the drive for perfection can send him into a rage whether he's choosing which tie to wear or catching his wife (Bae So-eun) in the midst of an affair. Admittedly, that last indiscretion could lead many to see red. But you can't blame her for straying. Her gym trainer (Seo Gun-woo) is hot; her controlling husband is not. Plus she's maxed out on all the physical upgrades her physician-esthetician might provide.<p><p>
Once she's set her husband off, however, no one is safe: not her mom, not her lover, not the homeless man in the street. Even the nursing staff at his clinic is going to have a tough time escaping his bloody bedside manner which includes bludgeoning, throat-slitting, hammer-weilding, and poisonous injections. Oddly, the scariest part of <b><i>Doctor</i></b> didn't involve him going after any of his victims with a tool of torture. For me, it was the scene in which he preps to perform eyelid surgery on a woman using only local anesthetic. I didn't know this was even possible. Now I'm thoroughly scared.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-46409262191481393152023-10-24T15:05:00.003-04:002023-10-24T15:05:40.218-04:00Gentleman: No One Is Who You Think They Are<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoS6eCJbkjCCIGeSX4xlVYd1YdP-BPoszh8VQv_qlHlw1c18Vxbpu2XwPbMkmQzfqzl2Qnw9N2ZnrgGTYQ9uxsLqcbgr4XQpfwABxmYPiZKPKjnnYn7NZKz2Iot-Os7na5MF7WmwtW6SohdbF3Wy-FBPJp3yXl6sAFVAxWZL6TX-x1LJzTfZwddrgqxrMH/s400/gentleman.jpg"/><p>I'm sensing a new genre emerging in movies. Let's call it "liar noir." These new crime pics are modeled after <i>The Usual Suspects</i>, a film in which the action which we see on screen isn't necessarily what happened at all. To the contrary, in movies like Kim Kyung Won's <i><b>Gentleman</b></i> (which I saw Sunday) and Yoon Jong-seok's <i><a href="http://koreangrindhouse.blogspot.com/2023/10/confession-liar-liar.html">Confession</a></i> (which I saw a few weeks ago), we're presented with seedy, twisting narratives, only to learn that the tellers are fabricating the stories and what actually transpired is something else...partially. In both cases, that revisionism works against the overall picture. Because you never know if another level of deceit is going to emerge and the explanation, disputed. You're also left to wonder why you've spent the last hour hearing a made-up tale.</p><p>
No fan of <i>The Usual Suspects</i> myself, I conjecture that this mode of storytelling is the direct result of living in a culture in which facts are repeatedly disputed, falsehoods promoted, videos doctored, and testimonies reneged. As a mirror of reality, <b><i>Gentleman</i></b> is not without interest. But as a movie-going experience, I'm left unsatisfied. Ju Ji-hoon is the private detective duped into being a stooge framed for a possible murder. Park Sung-woong is the amoral powerbroker who hustles on the market and markets unsuspecting women. Choi Sung Eun is the indefatigable prosecutor who isn't afraid to take on society's higher-ups. All are good. That is, if that's who they are.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-78663178100002541392023-10-15T18:36:00.006-04:002023-10-15T19:12:07.601-04:00Mulberry: She Gets Around<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="585" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPEbSu7gAmhjXdfpnOn7wxTW3KjmXLXK5T9qo8Kbi7FT4fXHswcit2Bi2EEe24bB04QKTW6sbkMgrWpunfc54jWw9SN04-2wQPafY0cdJ8swYwD2CO0zVY8EH7ZFG2OIwJ-FEgVDT9_NK_vzF5lFtThkBMelh6CdQ3VUDCl8HpvVt8bUogc3_7JvQKDDS/s400/mulberry-ppong.jpg"/>In an effort to spur online viewership (I suppose), the curators at the Korean Film Archive have resorted to creating new categories for their YouTube channel: Chuseok Comedies, Summer Scenery, and E.R.O.T.I.C. among them. Are the all caps in that new subsection intended to draw the eye or to evade the censorship filters? Whatever the reason, I ended up picking a movie from that playlist — <b>Mulberry</b>, the story of a woman who resorts to sex as a form of commerce after being abandoned by her gambling husband. Be forewarned: Lee Doo-yong sex-driven drama is neither titilating nor tawdry.</p><p>
Lee Mi-sook's rustic sex worker feels like a pragmatic hustler then demeaned communal property. Her main problem doesn't end up being the men with whom she's swapping "favors" or the husband (Lee Dae-kun) whom she's deceiving or even the gossipy, catfighting wives. It's the dimwitted, lecherous, peeping tom (Lee Mu-jeong) of a farmhand who can't fathom why she won't put out for him too. Why do the men go crazy for her? As one woman at the laundry hole puts it: "Some women are born with a honey bush and some with a thorn bush."</p><p>
<b><i>Mulberry</i></b> isn't arousing, unless you find the sight of a woman's behind while she's taking a pee a turn-on or the sound and sight of rushing water in a mill — in lieu of actual intercourse — hot, hot, hot. The actual sex scenes go from short to comic to depressing. According to IMDb, the original negative got damaged so a few scenes are missing. Whether they've been restored here or not doesn't matter much. It is what it is and it's kind of strange.</p>Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769732831239720146.post-23531778314982490362023-10-15T10:27:00.009-04:002023-12-17T14:27:55.313-05:00Ballerina: A Different Type of Fairy Tale<img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="999" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO42mMrUm5TwtGEsbJUWCALkPozf9RAKhTCgN9KUCFl-sJSIsgZhz-cINyaoU39mjcgIcC7awRldPJ0hAukKTA7Goo8Q4IySMeS_bEIk4-9C4BdzIquVAk1TptrEl7KszBg0JU2htsMzo9quNjDzLmP6KJFtWPyYvACAGKua5zqLE_qY5SfuHBqOl87ZjA/s400/ballerina.jpg"/><p>I don't know when Netflix first posted about the impending arrival of <i><b>Ballerina</b></i> but I've been waiting for it impatiently ever since. The image of a messy-haired young woman (played by Jeon Jong-seo), clearly in action-movie mode, coupled with this short description was just so irresistible: "Grieving the loss of a best friend she couldn't protect, an ex-bodyguard sets out to fulfill her dear friend's last wish: sweet, sweet revenge." I suspected the subtext here was "a young-woman/former-assassin in a loving relationship with lesbian undertones takes on the patriarchy, one slay at a time." And I wasn't far off.</p><p>Our heroine, Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-seo), is indeed a loner assassin who finds a new life purpose after a reunion with a high school crush Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) inspires her to massacre a mass of misogynist pimps, drug-dealers, and sex traffickers — particularly a long-haired, porn entrepreneur (Kim Ji-hoon) and his drug king boss. Will they be able to survive once Ok-ju gets gun-power from two geriatric arms dealers (Kim Young-ok and Joo Hyun) and further fuel for her fire from a sex traffic survivor (Shin Se-hwi)? Doubtful. Shoutout to director Lee Chung-hyun and whoever the cinematographer was for making the whole affair look so damned beautiful.</p><p>
Drew P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14875923118523549579noreply@blogger.com0