Top Ten Movies of 2020 (Sort of)

This past year, my Korean moviewatching was decidedly not highbrow so plenty of pulpy flicks have made the cut this December. Scanning the picks, I do see some themes tellingly repeating: Revenge, Underdogs, and Prison. Do these three concerns have anything to do with my being cooped up in an apartment and not knowing what to do with the fluctuating anxiety caused by the Coronavirus? Probably. Would I have picked different movies had I been living in a COVID-free world? Um, duh. But these films provided relief. And likewise should be honored.

1. The Shower: It's rarely a bad idea to build a movie around first love. The same could be said about first death. Here, you get both!

2. The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion: The diabolical military program employing twisted genetic engineering backfired but the resultant movie, helmed by Kim Da-mi, is a bona fide hit.

3. #Alive: Perfect for these pandemic times, this film features two housebound lovebirds who must navigate a zombified neighborhood whenever they step outside. Wear a mask!

4. Miss Baek: With her scarred legs, knotted hair, and butchered pinky, this flick's young charge should qualify for seasonal check-ins from the Make-a-Wish foundation.

5. Psychokinesis: The beleagured superhero movie gets a lift when a negligent dad drinks magical spring water shortly after his ex-wife dies.

6. Revenger: After watching this martial arts B-movie, you may ask yourself: Who the hell is Bruce Khan and where has he been all my life?

7. The Prison: This madcap men-behind-bars melee is a deliriously delightful Rube Goldberg machine of crime, cruelty, and power-tripping.

8. The Outlaws: If you want to watch Ma Dong-seok kick butt as a cop for two hours, have I got a blockbuster for you.

9. Ashfall: It seems only right to include a disaster movie in a top ten list for 2020.

10. The Drug King: Proof that Song Kang-ho can carry a messy movie if you supply a great '70s soundtrack and period perfect '70s garb.

Honorable Mentions: The Classified File, The Client, Failan, The Lost Choices, Piagol, and Yeong-ja's Heydays.

Psychokinesis: A Superhero Movie for People Who Hate Superhero Movies

I don't care for superhero movies. The plots are too thin; the characters, too cartoonish; the savior wish-fulfillment, too perverse. As for the humor, the awful one-liners and sight-gags are deemed clever because we (and the creators) know they're stupid so we're in on the joke. What's the good of watching buff actors strut through multiverses when the fall-out of countless deaths resultant of these good versus evil battles are generally overlooked. Sure, there are exceptions but exceptions prove the rule. Black Panther? Bring it on. The rest? Hard pass, all day every day.

Count on the Koreans to open my mind to the beleaguered genre. Psychokinesis is a very atypical superhero movie. The lead, a bit of a shmuck, is a negligent dad (Ryu Seung-ryong) who drinks some enhanced spring water shortly after his ex-wife dies. That single cupful grants him the ability to move objects with his mind. His initial exploration into telekinesis gets him pegged in the head by a cheap plastic cigarette lighter but once he's developed his talent he's ready to take on the evil real estate developers — even sadistic Director Hong (Jung Yu-mi) — threatening the livelihood of his daughter (Shim Eun-kyung), a fried chicken entrepreneur. Does he become a goofy Superman though? Not at all. Our bumbling hero never takes on the system as a whole or crime in general; his law-abiding nature is part of his Everyman M.O. He's just a guy with a strange gift. Like you. Maybe me.