Appears on
Articles18
New Blog: Seen in Jeonju
Tom Giammarco, a regular contributor to the site who lives outside of Jeonju, has now launched his own personal blog. It's got a number of posts already, so be sure to check it out at
Site Update: More PiFan reports
A report from Adam, and a final report from Kyu Hyun... Adam's Report My time at PiFan was brief, but well spent. Juggling friends and film, I began with something new for me at a South Korean film festival - music. I met three of my ex-pat-ing friends at Bucheon's Citizen Hall because one of my friends is a huge fan of the Korean band Deercloud and they wer
Site Update: Review of Our School (2007)
Review by Darcy Paquet Our School (2007) Our School may not seem at first glance to be a particularly eye-catching documentary. Centered on a K-12 school for Korean students in Hokkaido, Japan, the film contains few dramatic twists and for the most part just observes the students at school interacting with each other and expressing their thoughts. Nonetheles
Site Update: Review of A World Without Mom (1977)
Review by Duncan Mitchel A World Without Mom (1977) When I was a kid, I was a fan of Gertrude Chandler Warner's books about the Boxcar Children, four orphaned siblings who run away and live in an abandoned boxcar to keep from being separated. It's a popular premise to this day: think of Lemony Snicket, or the two brothers in The Host. Children expect to be t
Site Update: Review of Chang (1997)
Review by Duncan Mitchel Chang I have a confession to make: I don't much like Im Kwon-taek 's films. Oh, I respect them: the old man learned his trade doing hackwork, and worked his way up to arthouse fare and international fame. He knows how to make a movie, and I'm never bored when I watch one. Between his expertise and that of his longtime cinematographer
Site Update: Review of The Salaryman (1962)
Review by Adam Hartzell The Salaryman (1962) Early on in Lee Bong-rae 's The Salaryman , our patriarch (Kim Seung-ho) is placed in an ethical dilemma – enable the boss in his plan to embezzle money from the company, or get fired. Within these limited choices imposed by those in power over his well-being, he chooses the latter. Having given his last month's w
Site Update: Interview with Bong Joon-ho
An Interview with Bong Joon-ho by Giuseppe Sedia B orn in 1969 in Daegu, Bong studied sociology at Yonsei University in Seoul. In 1994-1995 he attended the Korean Academy of Fine Arts, where he produced his first short films. His first feature-length movie, Barking Dogs Never Bite ("Flanders-ui gae") won the Fipresci Prize at the Hong Kong Film Festival in 2
New Book: Seoul Searching (2007)
SEOUL SEARCHING: CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY KOREAN CINEMA (2007) Edited by Frances Gateward. SUNY Press: paperback (ISBN: 978-0-7914-7226-2), 314 pp / hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-7914-7225-5), 336 pp. From the back cover: " Seoul Searching is a collection of fourteen provocative essays about contemporary South Korean cinema, the most productive and dyna
Site Update: Review of A College Woman's Confession (1958)
Review by Darcy Paquet A College Woman's Confession (1958) Choi So-young is a university student majoring in law whose studies are supported by her grandmother. However after her grandmother dies, and with no parents or other relatives to support her, she is faced with the prospect of abandoning her career dreams and dropping out of school. With her rent ove
Site Update: Review of the TV drama Coffee Prince (2007)
Review by Duncan Mitchel Coffee Prince Number 1 (2007, MBC miniseries) Coffee Prince Number 1 is probably the most enjoyable Korean TV drama I've watched so far. I loved Ruler of Your Own World , but it was darker, more serious, more dramatic. Coffee Prince is pure fun, and its popularity shows that many Koreans agree with me. The premise is that Go Eun Chan
Site update: 2008 Pifan report
2008 Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival by Kyu Hyun Kim Let the Right One In , dir. Tomas Alfredson T his year's Puchon Fantastic Film Festival continued on last year's orientation of "playing it safe" plus "regaining its foothold as Korea's major conduit for genre cinema." In 2008, the overall selections inched forward a bit toward the past glorie
Site Update: review of Gagman (1989)
Review by Adam Hartzell Gagman (1989) Lee Jung-sae (Ahn Sung-ki) is "Your forever lover boy who gets bigger with your love, love, love, your lark on a sunny day, . . .". He is our funnyman, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator who is trying to impose himself as a debut director on an unwitting, actual director, because along with envisioning himself as Chaplin, Le
Site Update: Review of Five Is Too Many (2005)
Review by Duncan Mitchel Five Is Too Many I enjoy expensive, action-driven, high-tech blockbuster movies as much as the next person, but I also like cheap, leisurely, character-driven ones. Once you've become habituated to the eye candy of explosions, car wrecks and computer graphics, it may take a slight effort of will to get used to movies without them, bu
Site Update : Review of Like a Virgin (2006)
Review by Darcy Paquet Like A Virgin Oh Dong-gu is a short and pudgy high school boy from a poor working class family. He is in some ways an ordinary, soft-spoken kid, except that his one dream in life is to receive a sex change operation and become a woman. He takes on various jobs to earn money to pay for the operation, however he is often forced to spend
Site Update: Review of Hansel and Gretel (2007)
Review by Kyu Hyun Kim Hansel and Gretel Eun-su (Cheon Jeong-myung, The Aggressives , Les Formidables ), a young man with a troubled relationship, has a car accident on the way to see his ill mother. Waking up, he is guided by a strange girl dressed just like Little Red Riding Hood to a fairy-tale-like country house. It turns out to be inhabited by three chi
Notice: Djuna Reviews on the Way
2009.05.13: Djuna reviews on the way. We at koreanfilm.org are extremely pleased to have available for our readers, starting May 2009, reviews of notable Korean films by Djuna, noted science fiction writer and film critic. In case anyone is wondering, "Djuna" is a nom de plume derived from Djuna Barnes: the "real Djuna(s)" prefer to remain anonymous (For the
Site Update: Review of Handphone (2009)
Review by Djuna Handphone A warning: if you are looking for a feel-good escapist entertainment, avoid Handphone . That type of film must meet several conditions. First and foremost, we should be able to feel for its protagonist. Conversely, the piece's villain should brook no sympathy. The violence the good guy employs against the villain must be clean-cut,
Site Update: Review of Life is Cool (2008)
Review by Darcy Paquet Life is Cool The development of rotoscoping techniques, first seen in Richard Linklater's Waking Life , has given filmmakers an entirely new kind of imagery to work with. By shooting actual footage and then converting it into animation, a director can create a strong sense of realism while at the same time remaining free to experiment