The Terror Live: Glib Newscaster Hears the End

Movies about radio show hosts always feel like they could be repackaged as one-man-shows. And Kim Byung-woo's The Terror Live is no exception. A thriller about a demoted anchorman who hopes his comeback has arrived in the form of a terrorist who's blowing up bridges, this modest movie takes place entirely in a recording studio with characters entering the sound booth and broadcast in via video while our antihero, Yoon Yeong-hwa (Ha Jung-woo) "negotiates" with the crazed caller (Lee Da-wit) who somehow has managed to plant explosives in a nearby bridge and in a nearer-by earphone. Hang up on this guy at your own risk!

Yoon isn't that sympathetic. He's betrayed his wife, a fellow reporter (Kim So-jin) whose life is endangered; took bribes from his slimy boss Cha Dae-eun (Lee Kyoung-young), and tossed his new crew aside without blinking an eye when opportunity arose for a better job. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he should be executed for such actions but most of the film you're wondering how he's possiblly going to redeem himself. The answer may leave you shocked... but not as much as the Police commissioner (Kim Hong-pa) whose guest appearance on the impromptu interview show takes a bloody turn.

The Drug King: High on the '70s

Tarantino isn't the only director fetishizing '70s noir. Director Woo Min-ho and his cinematographer, costume designer, and music director are all channeling peak Scorsese, Schlesinger, and Penn in the sumptuously filmed, nattily attired, and impeccably scored The Drug King. The latest South Korean export helmed by acting legend Song Kang-ho, Woo's sprawling biopic concerns Lee Doo-sam, an actual cook-dealer-addict who operated on an international scale. Yet despite its lush look and sound, The Drug King avoids glamorizing its drug of choice crank by reminding us that those who get a taste of this upper will get hooked, go crazy, then crash and burn.

We see this scenario play out with Doo-sam himself naturally as well as his brother Doo-hwan (Kim Dae-Myung) and a handful of ancillary characters but really most of this cast is set dressing. The Drug King is Do-sam's story; everyone else is walking prop, an extra maybe with lines. Luckily, Song is an actor who can carry a two-hour movie alone. We may wish that actresses Kim So-jin and Bae Doona had more to do as his clear-eyed wife and his calculating mistress but Woo's script isn't concerned with anyone outside of its leading man. An ostensible plot involving a determined police detective (Lee Hee-joon) on Lee's trail is irrelevant. What works in The Drug King, and it's no small thing, is Song doing his thing — rising up to the top then sinking to a soiled bottom. You'll never look at a bucket of piss the same way again.

The Man Standing Next: Not The President's Last Bang

Will the multiple Oscar accolades for Parasite result in larger crowds for new Korean movies at the multiplex? Not immediately from the looks of it if a recent screening of Woo Min-ho's big-budget political thriller The Man Standing Next is any gauge. (A recent matinee screening had the usual six or seven suspects in attendance at Times Square's AMC Empire 25.) In this case, that's probably all for the best since this film about the 1979 assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee (Lee Sung-min) is neither as layered as Bong Joon-ho's latest masterwork nor as stylishly seductive as Im Sang-soo's The President's Last Bang which covers similar territory. Which means this one is truly for cineastes with a taste for "Hallyuwood."

In its favor, The Man Standing Next is more forthcoming with historical details than glammy The President's Last Bang; less fortunate is how belabored the set-up part of the movie is. I learned more and cared less since The Man Standing Next only kicks into gear when the action turns decidedly violent. There's a terrific scene in which a kidnapped Kwak Do-won fights his way out of a car, which leads to an exciting final scene in which the KCIA Chief Kim Kyu-Pyeong (Lee Byung-hun) orchestrates the killing with his hired thugs as well as the cooperation of the duplicitous Deborah Shim (Kim So-jin). Most interesting of all however is the archival photos and audio of the real-life men portrayed in the film, a short aside which pops up right before the end credits. Getting upstaged by reality isn't uncommon but as a stand-in for The Man Standing Next's anti-hero of a leading man, a former-revolutionary-turned-frustrated-bureaucrat, Lee Byung-hun has certainly done better.