KOREAN „TWILIGHT”

Comedy about the pair of vampires is a dangerous path for every movie industry, except the Korean. Especially when its being driven by Chan-wook Park („Vengeance” trilogy) and when center of the story is built around a young minister.

„Thirst” will dance between drama, comedy and some serious horror from the beginning to the very end. Along that way, the rhythm will be pretty unstable, as well as the sharpness of its satirical blade, making this entire production somewhat non consistent.

„Thirst” is the very first attempt in the world to make vampire genre serious, although only partially successful.

THIRST – 5/10

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SOME SERIOUS EXORCISM

Movies dealing with exorcism are rarely considered anywhere near of being serious when it comes to plot, twist and outcome. Unless they are being rendered by the Koreans.

„The Wailing” will start pretty casual, on the very brink of parody, but things are about to get pretty messy and scary as the twisting script unwinds. There will be no mercy, no happy end and no safe closures to this battle of the spirits in a God forsaken Korean village, following the well lit Korean path of no compromises.

„The Wailing” makes the entire subject of exorcism more than watchable.

THE WAILING – 6/10

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ENTIRE GENRE REVAMPED

I thought that zombie horror subgenre was officially dead and I was wrong. I was wrong because Koreans hadn't done it before, at least not in the feature film format.

„Train to Busan” is basically an adapted manga, placed in a bullet train from Seoul to Busan, making it a classic situation thriller. The retarded basic storyline is there, as well as the corny dialogues and cliche characters, but so is the trademark Korean originality when it comes to intellectual subplots and extraordinary micro-action sequences. All of this will be spiced up with minimum CGI and a truly powerful, altough pathetic ending.

„Train to Busan” is probably the most original zombie horror ever filmed.

TRAIN TO BUSAN – 7/10

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FINEST HOLLYWOOD TRADITION

Even after all the recycling, rebooting and revamping, there is still quality in modern Hollywood. The problem is it is rare, hidden and non-commercial.

„Hell or high water” is one of those well balanced mixes of drama, action, comedy and social criticism that Hollywood used to send to box office in two decimal numbers per year, but nowadays does that only once or twice. Atmosphere of economy run down Texas is realy convincing as well as the musical background and acting. Jeff Bridges is just perfect as a mysogene ranger awaiting pension, Ben Foster is reliable as always, bringing the much needed humor to ease the situation down, and even Chris Pine tries his best to keep up with his well developed character. There will be no false American partiotism and pathetic will hold well inside the barriers of the acceptable until the western-like ending.

„Hell or high water” is one of those movies that made Hollywood and the ones it desperately needs right now.

HELL OR HIGH WATER – 8/10

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BANAL SOFT PORN

Chan Wook Park gave us some really powerful and quality movies in the past and his every next flick is the one being closely monitored. And so ist the story about the Korean con trying to hussle his way into a wealthy Japanese family with the help of his protege, a handmaid.

Besides deceit, love will form the second backbone of „The Handmaiden”, this time focusing on the emotional relationship between two women. Unfortunately, that lesbo moment will overtake the entire flick and almost completely diminish Park's trademark mystery twists.

„The handmaiden” is just too erotic and banal for a mystery movie.

THE HANDMAIDEN – 4/10

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GRIM TRASH

American indie production is bursting inside the horror and SF genre, trying to revive the golden age of B-fantasy flicks, the '80s. It also now manages to attract the middle level of actors inside its budgets, like it did with John Goodman and „10 Cloverfield lane”.

Goodman will be strongest asset of this postapocalyptic psychological situation thriller that will revolve really slowly until the last quarter of the movie, where entire script will explode into something completely different from the anticipated closing. On the downside, subplots and action sequences won't be so tense, the rest of the cast falls behind Goodman significantly and there is a introduction to the entire franchise as well.

„10 Cloverfield lane” will surprise you with its ending, but not with the rest of it as well.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE – 5/10

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SLOW BURNER

Every kingdom periodically flushes a madman at its helm and movies dealing with his/her actions can be very powerful. Especially when confronted with the common folk or, like in „The king and the clown”, a pair of satirical clowns.

All the perverted ideas and relations that will be derived from that concept will be laid out in a fine manner, followed by some truly convincing roles (Joon-Gi Lee). The symbolism of the final clashes will be hightened by a seamless transition to a pure Korean folk tale it is based on.

„The king and the clown” is one good Korean folk tale developed for the silver screen.

THE KING AND THE CLOWN – 6/10

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TOO STRAIGHTFORWARD

Korean civil war carried on tooking casualties long after it officialy ended, through witch hunts on both sides of the Parallel. Southern Korea pursued real and fictional communist activitists, often resulting in  utter destruction of the lives being prosecuted without any standard procedure.

„The Attorney” follows the path of transformation of a small town solicitor that decides to exchange safe revenues with some social action and justice. Along that way, nothing new will be seen and court scenes and performances will be just too overdone.

„The Attorney” deals with a significant subject in a somewhat non-perusasive way.

THE ATTORNEY – 4/10

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DEVASTATING STORY

Child abuse is always a heartbreaker of a subject. If you add the fact that the molested children are deaf and dumb, the resulting movie script will be just devastating. Devastation would be somewaht easier if it weren't for the fact that this actually happened in Korea, and that the following court case was tracked by general public.

„Silenced” will bring heartwrenching performances by the children involved and will leave you sobbing with the outcome of the entire affair. And you can forget „Spotlight”, because the truth is in fact so much more frightening.

„Silenced” is one of those must see dramas that can be watched only once in a lifetime.

SILENCED – 7/10

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TOO THIN

Selfishness. Responsibility. Punishment. Enlightement. Temptation. Love of Christ. All of that done in a semi satirical manner. Aka „Secret sunshine”. 

No amplitudes. No development. No true conclusion. Just a lot of empty space.

„Secret sunshine” is too pretentious and too unconvincing for the subject it tackles.

SECRET SUNSHINE – 2/10

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STELLAR ACTOR RISING

Mark my words: Logan Lerman is going to be a HUGE actor.

Although only 24, he tackled the role of the bipolar intellectual student in „Indignation” better than many elder actors would. Perfectly restrained and dismayed as Marcus, everybody else fall in his shadow, including the hollow script and the non-existent conclusion of this ambitious story.

„Indignation” is a no good movie, but you should watch it because of Logan Lerman.

INDIGNATION – 4/10

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UNDEVELOPED

Overlapping of stories and depicting severe social disturbances are the two key pillars of Korean movie screenwriting, but that does not mean that every single flick with these subjects is the a good flick. On the contrary.

„Poetry” starts very ambitiously, guiding the elder lady through her loneliness and undisputable desire to help her criminal grandson, but fails to deliver a meaningful and completed package.

„Poetry” makers bited much more than they could chew.

POETRY – 3/10

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SOLID IDEA

Edgar Allan Poe has some good ideas and the one where patients take over the control over Stonehearst lunatic asylym is one of those original concepts. When you add the dilemma whether madman therapies is better than the previous method enforced by the genuine psychiatrist, you have a solid foundation to build a psychological thriller and mystery.

However, creators of „Stonehearst asylym” stop there, not taking the entire cast (Beckinsale, Caine, Kingsley) all the way down to the darkest and most powerful potentials it offers.

„Stonehearst asylym” has a great idea, but „just” a solid final outcome.

STONEHEARST ASYLYM - 5/10

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ALMOST COMPLETELY ORDINARY

Korean history flicks often tend to deal with the subject of monarch's doubles, as does „Masquerade”. The plot has already been seen in the Western cinematographies. Small time crook gets the opportunity to switch places with the poisoned king and passes the road from utter ignorance to a enlightened ruler over the period of just a couple of weeks in the palace.

And all of this would soon be forgotten if it weren't for the very end of the movie that reflects the deep traditional connections with the Asian film through depicting honor, loyalty and courage.

„Masquerade” is just an ordinary story, but with some strong finishing.

MASQUERADE – 5/10

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ELONGATED AND OVERRATED

Taiwanese cinematography is one of the more obscure Asian ones and „A one and a two” is its most acclaimed flick known to the wider public.

Edward Yang's script is pretty ambitious and follows its slow pace during the entire course of the movie (two and a half hours). Depiction of the the typical Taiwanese family will be done thoroughly, but not cutting into the core of the problems, as well as not giving any meaningful answers on the life questions raised.

„A one and a two” is just too long and too empty for its rating.

A ONE AND A TWO – 3/10

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UNACCOMPLISHED POTENTIAL

„You have never seen a movie like this” says the advertisement for this year’s Sundance’s laureate, „Swiss army man”. And you truly have not. I mean, PaulDano being rescued by Daniel Radcliffe’s corpse that uses bodily gases for propulsion?

We haven’t seen one of those. What we did see is the directors desperate need to elevate this indie into the stratosphere of symbolism and serious moviemaking. However, this is done by the dialogues just sparsely and not consistently. This goes for the acting as well, where the leading couple climaxes too soon, leaving the story and the entire flick to hang somewhere in between at the very end.

„Swiss army man” has a truly original, but not fully developed and accomplished concept.

SWISS ARMY MAN – 5/10

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ARTIFICIALLY SWEETENED

Korean cinematography tends to deal intensively with the Korean war and its consequences, and so did the screenwriters of „Ode to my father”. However, most of the film makers also potentiate the pathetic and semi-realistic way of depicting the given subject.

Not to be misunderstood, there are some truly disturbing scenes in this war drama, especially the opening one, but the rest of this voyage through time will be just plain exaggerating.

„Ode to my father” is one of those war dramas that can be easily circumvented even if you are the genre lover.

ODE TO MY FATHER - 3/10

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A GREAT HOMMAGE

’80 se were THE decade when it comes to movies and music. Especially when it comes to British music. Especially when you grow up listening to New wave music (Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, The Clash, Cure, Hall&Oates, etc).

„Sing street” revolves around that kind of music and it does in a really charming and non pretentious way. Storyline is pretty much classic, a boy falls for girl and forms a band to impress her. The band goes on a musical journey through different influences and does it in a pretty amusing and humorous way. Kids are all looking great and the soundtrack is pretty cool too.

„Sing street” is an easy going piece of musical history that will entertain and relax you. Not forgetting the laughs along the way.

SING STREET – 8/10

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AS TACKY AS IT GETS

The one thing being more yucky than the romantic drama is the omnibus romantic drama.

This collection of stories processes in „Sad movie” is just so pathetic that it hurts. Every imaginable cliche subplot will be presented, wishing you never started watching this corniest Korean romantic drama ever.

Even by US standards, „Sad movie” is just too much.

SAD MOVIE - 2/10

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