버닝 (Burning) (2018)

Director: Lee Chang-dong
Writers: Oh Jung-mi, Lee Chang-dong
DOP: Hong Kyung-pyo
Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo 
Language: Korean 

Jong-su bumps into a girl who used to live in the same neighborhood as him in his village, who ask him to look after her Schrodinger's cat while on a trip to Africa. Both of them are still quite poor and he has fallen in love with her even though she is quite a tease. When back from Africa, she introduces a mysterious Gangnam guy Jen whom she met there, who eventually confesses a secret hobby to him which involves burning of greenhouses. 

The film is an adaptation of Haruki Murakami's short story titled 'Barn Burning'. The 'Gangnam style' song is actually quite helpful in understanding the film because most people who had followed the viral video and discussion surrounding it would know the meaning of Gangnam in Korea. It is actually a posh/bourgeoisie district in Seoul and the mysterious worldly guy is played quite aptly by Steven Yeun who hasn't spend his adult life in his home country. He had to improve his Korean for the role. Jong, an aspiring writer with a difficult childhood, comes across as quite naive in the film as the audience is ahead of him throughout the film in deciphering what Jen is implying. Not that we for certain can conclude those things actually happened in the story. 

It is comfortably the best film from last year that I have watched so far and don't think any will actually beat it. It can be seen as a metaphor for inequality and how it is playing out in global politics, or as a metaphor for global warming or just as a straight up mysterious film without a clear cut resolution.  It has been nominated for Academy awards in the foreign film category, a first for Korean cinema, and it will be a fucking joke if Roma ends up beating it.

Rating: 5/5

Train to Busan (부산행) (2016)

Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Writer: Park Joo-suk
DOP: Lee Hyung-deok
Cast: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, Jung Yu-mi
Language: Korean

The film takes place in a train to Busan as a Zombie apocalypse breaks out in Korea which threatens the safety of the passengers. Most of the country is infected and it is not like getting out of the train will solve things.

The story is told mainly from the perspective of a father-daughter duo who are traveling to meet the mother, the other half of the divorced couple. Father doesn't have much time for his daughter as he is a busy hedge fund manager and advocates selfishness. Daughter is more influenced by her mother and is the do-good type. The situation they are in forces the father to be a hero as he teams up with other characters to survive it.

The film is really well-made on the technical fronts and the zombies in it are not the sleepy slow types but are quite rabid. Film is quite clichéd in terms of story progression regarding who gets killed and the social commentary that it is trying to make with the background and behaviour of its characters. But I do think they are knowingly embracing the clichés and so it is not that problematic. East Asian films are never known for subtlety once you exclude Wong Kar-Wai anyway.

Train to Busan got premiered at Cannes in the midnight screenings section but I would categorise it more as a thriller than horror. It was a blockbuster in South Korea and managed to gross close to $90 million worldwide. Some have termed it as a better version of World War Z but I haven't seen WWZ. WWZ-2 is supposed to be in the making with David Fincher at the helm.

Rating: 3.5/5

The Handmaiden (아가씨)(2016)

Director: Park Chan-Wook
Writers: Park Chan-Wook, Seo-Kyeong Jeong, Sarah Waters (Novel-Fingersmith)
DOP: Chung-Hoon Chung
Cast: Min-Hee Kim, Tae-Ri Kim, Jung-Woo Ha, Jin-Woong Jo

A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.

Park Chan-Wook is a director whose reputation will always be connected with the enormously successful film 'Oldboy' which is just one in his thematically connected 'Vengeance Trilogy'. Most people wouldn't have seen the other two in the trilogy but they both are arguably quite superior to Oldboy which relies a bit too much on the shock factor concerning its twist. Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is quite brutal to watch and Lady Vengeance is a quite cool feministic take on the vengeance. His only other Korean film I've watched is the super fun Vampire flick 'Thirst' which is just off the rocker. His English language debut 'Stoker' received mixed responses but I found it to be really good with a very cool ending.

Handmaiden is a period film set during second world war. The basic aim of the handmaiden lady in the film is revealed upfront and twist is connected to this reveal at around the midpoint of the film. Film works like a comedy one mainly due to the mannerisms of the Handmaiden but there are some kinky aspects to it as suggested by the posters. The last act is quite dedicated to some torture scenes which just doesn't sync well with the rest of the film. The overall balance is titled too much towards comedy which kind of undermines the other aspects. It is overall a very good watch but in my opinion it is the weakest one from Park out of what I've seen. Technically it is very good and I saw from a review of it that they had different coloured subtitles depending on the language spoken, Japanese or Korean. Those kind of things I might have missed through translated subtitles.

If I were to rank his films, it would be:

1. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
2. Oldboy
3. Stoker
4. Lady Vengeance
5. Thirst
6. The Handmaiden

Rating: 3.5/5

끝까지 간다 (A Hard Day) (2014)

Director: Seong-hoon Kim
Writers:  Seong-hoon Kim, Kim Seong-hun
Cast:       Sun-kyun Lee, Man-shik Jeong, Jin-woong Jo
Language: Korean

Detective Go Geon-soo is having a hard day, and the following events happen to him in less than 24 hours: he receives a divorce notice from his wife. His mother passes away. He and his coworkers are being investigated by Internal Affairs police inspectors over alleged embezzlement. Then on his way to his mother's funeral, he drives recklessly and commits a fatal hit and run. He tries to cover up the accident by hiding the man's corpse in his deceased mother's coffin. But someone has been watching this all along and he starts getting blackmail calls from this guy soon enough. 

The concept of a detective having a terribly bad day is explored in the first forty minutes of the film and culminates with the burial at cemetery. This portion of the film is a laugh riot and amazingly great and it reminded me of Michael Douglas starring 'Falling Down', which had gone a totally dark way towards the end.. What follows after the initial comedy portion of the film, when it takes a mystery thriller mode, is comparatively average. Still the great cinematography, which included a kick-ass overhead shot of a chase sequence, and plenty of twists and turns make even that portion of the film an enjoyable watch nevertheless. There were some lazy expositions and connecting-the-dots falshbacks which were not at all needed. Also there are just too many happy coincidences like the detective spotting his caller outside the police headquarters. 

Overall it is a good watch with some solid performances. It was selected to compete in the Director's fortnight section of the Cannes 2014. It was a big box office success, collecting close to $24 million, even though it had a tepid opening in Korea. It can best described as a fun action film in the mould of films like 'Lethal Weapon'. I was expecting 'New World' level of amazeballs and it didn't even come close after the enormously promising first half hour, but that shouldn't be a problem for people who enjoy good action thrillers.

Rating: 3/5

                                                                             

New World (신세계) (2013)

Director:Hoon-jung Park
Writer:   Hoon-jung Park
Cast:      Jung-Jae Lee, Min-sik Choi, Jeong-min Hwang
Language:Korean

The boss of Goldmoon crime syndicate is dead and choice for succession is in between two of his underlings. The cops want to influence the succession using one of their undercover cops who has been on this assignment for ten years but wants out now.

It is Eastern Promises meets Infernal Affairs meets Donnie Brasco meets Godafther. One would expect with this many possible influences it will be uneven with jarring cliches. It is anything but. Stylishly shot with subtle performances to go with some great set-piece sequences, it is a really ambitious project. Normally I find East Asian languages to be not very subtle sounding but since this film has lesser amount of dialog compared to other films of this genre, it was really fine. Jung Jae-Lee gives a Michael Corleonesque performance and other male characters are also well written and developed. Twists are kind of predictable but the film is not really about them.

I was not at all surprised to see that it is part of a planned trilogy and I wouldn't be surprised if one of them is a prequel and the other a sequel to the events in New World. Something similar was done with Infernal Affairs but with not so good results. Lets just hope these guys make a better fist of it. 

Rating: 5/5