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Cobweb (2023) (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Song Kang Ho (Actor) | Jang Gwang (Actor) | Jeon Yeo Been (Actor) | Krystal Jung (Actor)
Kim Jee Woon is perhaps now better known for crime action genre fare, but his dark, atmospheric style started in 1998 with the black comedy The Quiet Family. The Korean director returns to his dark comedy roots with Cobweb, a satirical comedy-drama written by Shin Yeon Shick about the making of a film in the early 1970s. Back then, Chungmuro was subjected to heavy censorship under the Park Chung Hee regime, and productions had to pass government censors before and after filming. Nevertheless, director Kim, portrayed by Kim Jee Woon regular Song Kang Ho, is determined to reshoot a different ending for his already wrapped film. Obsessed with his visions of a masterpiece – and his desire for... [read more]
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Alienoid (2022) (Blu-ray) (English Subtitled) (Hong Kong Version) Ryu Jun Yeol (Actor) | Kim Woo Bin (Actor) | Kim Tae Ri (Actor) | Jo Woo Jin (Actor)
If there's one thing you can count on from Choi Dong Hun, it's a rollicking good time at the movies. The blockbuster Korean director has applied his formula of star power, sleek production and tight action to a whirlwind of genres, from gambling (Tazza) and costume fantasy (Jeon Woo Chi) to heist (The Thieves) and period espionage (Assassination). Continuing the tour of genres, Choi Dong Hun takes on sci-fi in his latest Alienoid, an ambitious if scattershot action-packed spectacle that has many things going on to entertain you. As signaled in the title, aliens are among us and have been for years. Not only that, aliens beam their worst criminals to Earth and imprison them in the human... [read more]
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Sinkhole (2021) (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) Cha Seung Won (Actor) | Lee Kwang Soo (Actor) | Kim Hye Jun (Actor) | Kim Sung Kyun (Actor)
After depicting a devastating fire in a high-rise building in The Tower, director Kim Ji Hoon brings another one of my secret fears to the silver screen in Sinkhole. The 2021 disaster drama depicts the fight for survival when an entire residential building sinks hundreds of meters into the ground. A group of survivors that includes Kim Sung Kyun, Cha Seung Won, Lee Kwang Soo, Kim Hye Jun and Nam Da Reum must navigate the precarious environment of a collapsed building on the edge of an abyss while searching for other survivors and a way back up to the surface. As can perhaps be expected with the unbeatable trio of Kim Sung Kyun, Cha Seung Won and Lee Kwang Soo in the mix, Sinkhole has a... [read more]
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Start-Up (2019) (Blu-ray) (Korea Version) Choi Jeong Yeol (Director) | Park Jung Min (Actor) | Yoon Kyung Ho | Jung Hae In (Actor)
Not to be confused with the 2020 Korean TV series Start-Up about a group of ambitious youths trying to launch a start-up business, the 2019 Korean film Start-Up is about a group of unambitious youths just trying to start up their lives. Based on a popular webtoon, Start-Up stars Park Jung Min and Jung Hae In as academically uninclined buddies Taek Il and Sang Pil, who are on the cusp of adulthood but have nothing much going for them. Taek Il runs away from home after getting into a fight with his mother (Yeom Jung Ah). He ends up doing deliveries for a Chinese restaurant, along the way meeting a troubled girl with a mean punch (newcomer Choi Sung Eun). Hoping to make money to support his... [read more]
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365: Repeat the Year (Blu-ray) (12-Disc + TV Script + Photo Card + Poster) (Special Limited Edition) (Korea Version) Lee Joon Hyuk (Actor) | Nam Ji Hyun (Actor) | Yang Dong Geun (Actor) | Kim Ji Soo (Actor)
A thrilling, captivating and emotional ride365: Repeat the Year was one of the best and most underrated Korean drama series of last year (of course, we selected it as one of the Best Korean Dramas of 2020!). A mind-blowing and intriguing mystery, great actors, thrills and chills, plot-twisting cliffhangers – it's got everything to make it a perfect time-travel suspense thriller. At only 12 episodes, the novel-turned-drama keeps it short while delivering a strong and complete story. Lee Joon Hyuk takes the role of righteous police detective Hyung Joo who wants to save his late work partner. Nam Ji Hyun plays webtoon artist Ga Hyun who wishes to have the ability to walk again. The two, along with eight other people from different... [read more]
March 1, 2021 Picked By Violet See all this editor's picks
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Peninsula (2020) (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Kang Dong Won (Actor) | Lee Jung Hyun (Actor) | Lee Re (Actor) | Koo Kyo Hwan
It seems like there have been more Korean zombie productions than you can shake a stick at the last few years, and the film that started the trend was, of course, Yeon Sang Ho's 2016 blockbuster Train to Busan. Arriving four years later, Peninsula is a sequel set four years after the events of Train to Busan. Like Seoul Station, this film tells another side of the zombie story with different characters. We start out learning that the cautious hope afforded at the end of Train to Busan was for naught, because South Korea was lost in a day and the Korean peninsula has been quarantined by the rest of world. Kang Dong Won plays former soldier Jung Seok who escaped to Hong Kong on one of the... [read more]
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Are We In Love? (DVD) (First Press Limited Edition) (Korea Version) Sung Hoon (Actor) | Kim So Eun (Actor) | Kim So Hye (Actor) | Jeon Mi Sun (Actor)
Apparently, Are We In Love? was selected as one of Korea's worst films of 2020 in Sports Kyunghyang's "Raspberry Film Festival" survey of 25 reporters who cover domestic films. Clearly, these reporters don't know how to appreciate the joy of getting an entire K-Drama romance in condensed feature-length form. Are We In Love? puts all the classic elements of a Korean romance series into a short and sweet movie. We have two likable television stars, Kim So Eun and Sung Hoon, playing typical romcom protagonists – bumbling baker So Jung, who's totally cute yet hopelessly single, and cafe owner Seung Jae, who seems cold and curt but is actually a big softie. Of course, these two are meant for... [read more]
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Beasts Clawing at Straws (2018) (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Jeon Do Yeon (Actor) | Jung Woo Sung (Actor) | Bae Sung Woo (Actor) | Youn Yuh Jung (Actor)
A bag of cash brings out the greed and savageness of a group of financially strapped people in the freewheeling crime thriller Beasts Clawing at Straws. Based on the Japanese novel Wara nimo Sugaru Kemonotachi by Sone Keisuke, this Korean adaptation brings together a top-drawer cast under the assured direction of first-time director Kim Young Hoon. The film begins unassumingly with sauna part-timer Joong Man (Bae Sung Woo) finding a huge sum of money left in a locker. Meanwhile, customs officer Tae Young (Jung Woo Sung) is in deep trouble with the loan sharks due to his MIA girlfriend (Jeon Do Yeon), who left him with a huge debt. Prostitute Mi Ran (Shin Hyun Bin), who is dealing with debt... [read more]
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Secret Zoo (Blu-ray) (Normal Edition) (Korea Version) Son Jae Gon (Director) | Ahn Jae Hong (Actor) | Kang So Ra (Actor) | Kim Sung Oh (Actor)
Who needs animals when you have animal suits?Though director Son Jae Gon has a very short filmography considering his many years in the industry, he definitely has a knack for comedy of the slightly eccentric variety. Departing from the darker mystery elements of his previous My Scary Girl and Villain and Widow, Secret Zoo is a total family-friendly charmer. Though the film may be about as substantial as its menagerie of fake animals, you're sure to have a fun time at Secret Zoo. Ahn Jae Hong plays scrappy lawyer Kang Tae Soo who's been doing thankless temp work for a large law firm in hopes of landing himself a full position. The law firm's sketchy president asks him to be the proxy director of a failing zoo that was recently... [read more]
July 27, 2020 Picked By Sanwei See all this editor's picks
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My Punch-Drunk Boxer (DVD) (Korea Version) Um Tae Goo (Actor) | Lee Hye Ri (Actor) | Lee Seol (Actor) | Choi Jun Young (Actor)
A disgraced, terminally ill boxer meets a girl and strives to return to the ring for a final bout. That may sound like a familiar inspirational sports melodrama formula, but writer-director Jung Hyuk Gi's My Punch-Drunk Boxer adds an offbeat tone and an unexpected musical element into the midst – pansori. Pansori is a traditional form of musical storytelling that is performed by a singer and a drummer. Im Kwon Taek famously depicted this Korean folk art form in his films Sopyonje and Beyond the Years. Bringing together two unlikely worlds, My Punch-Drunk Boxer introduces the curious concept of "pansori boxing." Protagonist Byeong Goo (Um Tae Goo) used to train by shadowboxing to the rhythm... [read more]
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Another Child (DVD) (Korea Version) Kim Yoon Seok (Director, Actor) | Kim So Jin | Kim Hee Won | Lee Hee Joon
Great actors don't necessarily make great directors and screenwriters. Kim Yoon Seok, however, proves to be just as adept behind the camera with his directorial debut Another Child. The award-winning actor takes a supporting role in the film as the feckless, mild-mannered Dae Won who brings trouble to two families. Though seemingly happily married to Young Joo (Yeom Jung Ah), he is carrying on an affair with Mi Hee (Kim So Jin), who is also the mother of his teenage daughter's classmate. His daughter Joo Ri (Kim Hye Jun) discovers the affair and confronts Yoon Ah (Park Se Jin) in school about their parents' infidelity. The cat is soon out of the bag, and it turns out Mi Hee is even pregnant... [read more]
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Miss and Mrs. Cops (DVD) (Korea Version) Yoon Sang Hyun (Actor) | Lee Sung Kyung (Actor) | Ra Mi Ran (Actor) | Joo Woo Jae (Actor)
A movie with Ra Mi Ran beating up punks? Sign me up! The always awesome actress plays the "Mrs. Cop" of the film, a former detective who was once celebrated as the poster child of tough female officers. Now married and middle-aged, Mi Young has long left the frontline and been relegated to desk duty. Her "Miss Cop" sister-in-law Ji Hye, spunkily played by Lee Sung Kyung, is an impulsive detective who jumps before she thinks – or rather she punches before she thinks. After getting into trouble yet again, she gets transferred to the same civil complaints office as Mi Young, and the two reluctantly work the same service counter. One day, a young woman walks in, leaves her phone at the counter,... [read more]
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One Spring Night (DVD) (6-Disc) (MBC TV Drama) (Normal Edition) (Korea Version) Jung Hae In (Actor) | Han Ji Min (Actor) | Kim Joon Han (Actor) | Ahn Pan Suk (Director)
Last year, Ahn Pan Suk applied the moody, atmospheric filter of Secret Love Affair and Heard It Through the Grapevine to a more conventionally scripted and naturalistic romance drama, and created the sweet hit Something in the Rain. This year, he improves on the warm and stirring formula with the similar yet different One Spring Night. One Spring Night employs the same screenwriter (Kim Eun), the same leading man (Jung Hae In) and similar music and aesthetics as Something in the Rain, together forming companion pieces about modern love. This time, Jung Hae In plays neighborhood pharmacist Yoo Ji Ho, who carries scars and insecurities about his past relationship and current status as a... [read more]
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Sunset in My Hometown (DVD) (Korea Version) Park Jung Min (Actor) | Kim Go Eun (Actor) | Shin Hyun Bin (Actor) | Kim Joon Han
Lee Joon Ik directing a comedy-drama about an underground rapper may seem like an odd combo at first glance considering that his last three films were the serious historical dramas Anarchist from Colony, Dongju and The Throne (and before that, the devastating Hope). But the director's earlier filmography was actually inclined towards comedies and films with music and performance, like Radio Star, The Happy Life and The King and the Clown. Lee Joon Ik's long-dormant sense of humor finally makes a welcome return in Sunset in My Hometown. Dongju's Park Jung Min plays struggling rapper Hak Soo who goes by the stage name Simbbuk. He has auditioned for every season of Mnet's rap competition... [read more]
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On Your Wedding Day (2018) (Blu-ray) (Hong Kong Version) Kim Young Kwang (Actor) | Shin So Yool (Actor) | Park Bo Young (Actor) | Ko Kyu Pil (Actor)
The quintessential Taiwan coming-of-age romances You Are the Apple of My Eye and Our Times were both hits in South Korea, with the latter in particular providing probably the most mainstream Taiwan pop culture moment in Korea since the original Meteor Garden. Korean cinema has its closest approximation to those two films in the delightful 2018 romantic smash On Your Wedding Day. The romantic comedy opens in the present day when gym teacher Woo Yeon (Kim Young Kwang) receives a wedding invitation from Seung Hee (Park Bo Young), the girl who got away. The film then rewinds back over a decade to when the two first met in high school. Immature slacker Woo Yeon falls head over heels for the... [read more]
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My Secret Terrius (6DVD) (Limited Edition) (MBC TV Drama) (Korea Version) So Ji Sub (Actor) | Jung In Sun (Actor) | Son Ho Joon (Actor) | Lim Se Mi (Actor)
Following Master's Sun and Oh My Venus, So Ji Sub took on his third romantic comedy series in a row with My Secret Terrius, and won his first ever Grand Prize at the 2018 MBC Drama Awards for his role as the calm and dull Kim Bon. Though the actor looks chic and cool on the outside, he surely has the skills to make you burst into laughter with his comedic timing. The best highlight of the drama is definitely the contrast between Kim Bon as both a former NIS agent and a babysitter in one drama. Of course, he looks charming in action scenes, but at the same time, he is endearing when interacting with the JoonJoon twins! If So Ji Sub is the eye-catching point of My Secret Terrius, then Jung In... [read more]
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Little Forest (2018) (DVD) (Korea Version) Kim Tae Ri (Actor) | Ryu Jun Yeol (Actor) | Moon So Ri (Actor) | Jin Ki Joo (Actor)
Since I really enjoyed the Japanese film adaptation of Igarashi Daisuke's manga Little Forest, I was quite curious about how the 2018 Korean adaptation would turn out, especially with Lim Soon Rye directing and Kim Tae Ri in the leading role. Though the Korean film doesn't bring any new surprises for those already familiar with the manga or the Japanese film, the charming, calming recipe of beautiful nature and scrumptious food holds up well for a second course of cinematic comfort food. Apart from the different setting, Lim's take on the story of a young woman living and cooking in the countryside does strike a subtly different tone that sets it apart from the Japanese version. Shot at a... [read more]
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The Poet and The Boy (DVD) (Limited Edition) (Korea Version) Yang Ik Joon (Actor) | Jeon Hye Jin (Actor) | Jung Ga Ram (Actor) | Kim Sung Kyun
It's hard to believe that The Poet and The Boy, which won Best Screenplay at the Busan Film Critics Awards and the Women in Film Korea Awards, is only the feature debut of director Kim Yang Hee. In the film, married poet Mr. Hyeon (Yang Ik Joon) finds inspiration and infatuation in attractive young man Se Yoon (Jung Ga Ram) who works at a donut shop near his home. There are many questions about whether Mr. Hyeon and Se Yoon are truly in love or not. Rather than giving an exact answer, Kim Yang Hee shows the parallel between the backgrounds of the two and their surrounding characters. Mr. Hyeon is out of ideas and teased by other poets for writing vague and lame poems. With his wife (Jeon... [read more]
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The Outlaws (2017) (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) Ma Dong Seok (Actor) | Yoon Kye Sang (Actor) | Jo Jae Yoon (Actor) | Lim Hyeong Jun (Actor)
Helmed by first-time writer-director Kang Yoon Sung, The Outlaws is based on a real-life gang war and police mop-up operation that occurred in Seoul's de facto Chinatown district of Garibong in 2007. The real-world origin of the story adds to the grit and appeal of this no-nonsense crime action thriller. In a role that is basically tailor-made for him, Ma Dong Seok plays tough-as-nails, straight-talking violent-crimes detective Ma Seok Do, who really does not appreciate the sudden nuisance of a turf war breaking out in his district. Cut from the old-school fabric of street-smart policing, Detective Ma maintains familiar relations with locals and mob bosses, and doesn't hesitate to break... [read more]
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Glass Garden (DVD) (Korea Version) Moon Geun Young (Actor) | Kim Tae Hoon (Actor) | Park Ji Soo (Actor) | Seo Tae Hwa (Actor)
Human photosynthesis has recently been a hot topic in science. Rather than discussing the feasibility of this undeveloped technology, Glass Garden director Shin Su Won finds inspiration from the innovative research to look into humanity's deterioration in an unjust society. The magical realism romance casts new light on the relationship between humans and the environment. In the movie, Jae Yeon (Moon Geun Young, The Throne) puts theory into practice by experimenting with photosynthetic blood cells in hopes that people can one day generate oxygen and energy like plants. Since her research is an unprofitable long-term project, the budding scientist loses funding to rival Soo Hee (Park Ji Soo,... [read more]
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