I had heard this was a bit hit in Korea, so I decided to pick it up, but I should have known that any Korean film about a woman getting plastic surgery to gain the love of the man she wants, would have to be painful to watch. This was one of two films I ripped and brought on my brand new iPhone to watch, and I should have not wasted the time, this is a pretty pitiful film, and even the good looking women don’t help this dog of a film. Don’t waste your time on the Region 3 Korean DVD.

This is the story of the fat and ugly Hanna (Kim Ah-joong (김아중)) and she not only makes a living as a phone sex operator, but also as a singer, where she sings behind the stage for the new big hit superstar Ami, who can dance and is beautiful, but has no acting talent at all. She is in love with the producer Sang Jun [Joo Jin-mo (주진모)], and when she starts to realize he is just using her, she decides to go to doctor who having phone sex with her, and blackmail him to give her a full body job, and along with exercise she becomes a whole new woman, and emerges a year later as a whole new person.

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I had read some good things about this film so I decided to pick it up. Certainly not the best characters, or depth, but this is a very enjoyable mythical martial arts adventure taking place mostly in Mid Heaven, the place between Heaven and Earth. While the character development is light, and the story mostly a back drop, the effects and martial arts are quite good and enjoyable, and make for an exciting romp. The only problem with the story is it seems like it was seriously cut down from a much larger story, because it seems like some points are glossed over (and this would make an excellent Soap Opera), but still it is fun, even if I did kind of miss what happened to the ending. Worth checking out, but don’t expect anything too deep! The effects are very cool though, especially when spirits are released with the sword, and they burn away like paper.

This is the story of Yi Kwak [Jeong Woo-seong (정우성))] an ex demon fighter around 924 AD at the end of the Shilla Dynasty, when things are falling apart, and all the demon killers of the land have been killed, leaving demons to pray on the innocent and weak. Using his specially blessed sword, he saves a village from evil demons, but half the villagers turn on him, and give him poison wine, so he has to escape before he falls asleep, and makes it as far as a temple, where he passes out. Yi Kwak awakens in a strange land, and finds it is middle heaven and this is the land of the dead, where spirits go to cleans themselves before going on to Heaven or being reborn into the land of the living. A kindly dead soul, realizes he doesn’t know anything, as he has not erased his memory of cleansed himself and takes him to a white clad reaper, and they realize he is not dead, but in fact a living soul, but before anything can be done, trouble erupts. It seems evil spirits are attacking, and a group of riders come in protecting another white clad reaper, but this one a woman, and a spitting image of Yi Kwak’s dead wife Yon Hwa [Kim Tae-hee (김태희))]. Yi Kwak saves Yon Hwa, but he also finds that the enemy were his friends in the real world, the rest of the Chuh yong dae or demon hunting squad. Yi Kwak finds that Yon Hwa no longer remembers him, as she has had her memory cleans, but he vows to not leave her as he did to his wife before she was killed as a witch for his powers to see the dead.

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If you read are a reader of my blog at all you will know I am a huge fan of Park Chan Wook. I have absolutely loved 3 of out of his 4 previous films from JSA Old Boy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (though Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was not my favorite), and while this film is a huge departure in subject matter and in fact a much more art house film, I think his skill and style have held up completely, and this is easily one of the best films of last year. This film is quirky and wacky, and sure there is segment in this film where we lose the main thread and just go off with some of the other kooky characters (this is after a love story set in a mental institution), but they are interesting enough that it is accepted. This is truly a lovely little love story between 2 insane people, and surrounded by insane people. This is absolute quirky fun, and an absolute must see. I really hope this makes the American Art House circuit because my mother would love this film, it actually made me think of watching KING OF HEARTS with her as a kid. This film is fantastic, and I absolutely love how they did the opening credits, with the names appearing on objects in the scenes. I just think it is too bad that this Region 3 DVD seems to already be out of print, because this is a must see!

This is the story of the strange looking Korean girl Young Goon (Im Soo-jeong 임수정 who is amazing in this quirky role) who works at a radio manufacturing plant, and hears voices in her head. She believes she is a cyborg, and so has stopped eating, and while at work attempts to jam an electrical wire into her arm to try and recharge her batteries, so she is sent to a mental institution. And her mother explains to the doctor that Young Goon’s grandmother was schizophrenic and thought she was a mouse and fed mouse, and was recently sent to a mental institution. Young Goon seems catatonic, but in fact only talks to machines, and does so by putting her grandmother’s false teeth in, which she wants to get to her grandmother. Slowly Young Goon starts to open up to other inmates, letting one fat woman eat her food, and especially to Il Soon (Jung Jo Hoon, better known as the Korean Pop Singer Rain 비), who is a compulsive thief, and always wears masks because he thinks he is going to shrink to nothing, and doesn’t want to become invisible, and also has the ability to steal characteristics from the other patients, such as their ping pong ability.

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This was the hands down surprise box office winner of the year for Korea, so I have been excited to see it and picked up the Korean Special Edition DVD which includes the theatrical and the extended cut (which I watched) each on their own disc (the disc is region 3 though, so hopefully someone will release it here in the states), and was not at all disappointed. This is a fantastic film whichever way you look at it. Korean cinema has never been a slouch when it comes to production value and cinematography, but even with that this film looks fantastic, from the colors of the costumes to the digital composites everything looks great. And that says nothing about the excellent story and perfectly cast and played actors. I can see why people have called this Korean Brokeback Mountain, but only because it does show examples of homosexual love, though never implicitly, and also in that the film is as well written, directed, and performed, though the films are nothing alike in story or setting of course. And like Brokeback mountain this film is really another must see film, that really deserves a worldwide release.

The movie takes place during the Joseon Dynasty under the infamous king Yeonsan (Jeonng Jin Yeong). It is the story of 2 minstrel performers in a troop, Jang Saeng (Kam Woo-seong (감우성)) and the effeminate Gong Gil (Lee Joon-ki (이준기)). The two escape from their troop when Jang Saeng refuses to allow the master to sell Gong Gil as a prostitute to a rich man, and while trying to escape Gong Gil ends up stabbing the master in the back. The two head for Seoul to try and make it big and hook up with a lesser talented troop that they take as their own, and make a name for themselves by lampooning the King and his favorite concubine Nok Su (Kang Seong-yeon (강성연)). The kings closest advisor sees the show, and the troupe is taken and beaten, but Jang Saeng convinces them to let them perform for the king to see if he is offended.

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After all the bad reviews I was expecting that this film would be a disappointment, even though I am a huge Andrew Lau Wai Keung fan, and I will see anything that Jun Ji Hyun is in, and I am happy to say I was not disappointed at all, in fact I really enjoyed the film. Of course being a Lau Wai Keung film it looks gorgeous, as he is also a D.P. and shoots at least some of his own films, and this film looks great. The funny thing it is hard to classify because it actually looks like a Hong Kong film, but it seems like a Korean film, not just in the casting which is probably because Kwak Jae Young wrote it (who wrote and directed My Sassy Girl which made Jun Ji Hyun, as well Classic and Windstuck), and I have a feeling Korean’s don’t like the ending, and Hong Kongers don’t like the rest, I will explain that afterwards though. And besides how can I dislike any film with a cameo by the great David Chiang Dai Wai.

I watched the Korean Director’s cut DVD, which also includes the Korean theatrical version which I hear is different from the Hong Kong version (though I don’t know what they changed) and I recommend seeing it if you can (though it is Region 3, and has the weird Interlace issues I see pop up in many Korean DVD’s). This was a very enjoyable film.

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I have to say the Korean title of A Table for 4 is more fitting for this enjoyable supernatural drama. This is an enjoyable and dark tale without any happy revelations, it starts dark and ends dark. And I will see any film with Jun Ji Hyun in it, and she is excellent in this, if totally disturbed and seemingly with very little makeup. Not scary, but dark a dark and disturbing tale, that I though was going one place and went someplace completely different. Not scary, but dark and disturbing.

Park Shin-yang (박신양) plays Jung Won a recently engaged and successful interior director, whose fiancée is also a successful interior designer, but his life has a turn for the worse after an incident on a train. On his ride home he sees a woman get on with 2 little girls that sit across from each other on either side, and when he gets off at the last stop he looks back and sees the children still there, leaning back as if they are dead. The next day he hears that 2 bodies of children were found on the train, and he sees them in his apartment sitting in the 2 chairs at his table which his beautiful fiancee has set up with specific lighting focused on each chair. After that he is scared and goes home to his father’s house, which is connected to a church since he is a pastor, and he doesn’t want to go home.

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Hmm, I don’t know what to say exactly about this film. It is not what I thought it would be or what it sets itself up to be, and the twist at the end doesn’t really make any sense to the story, and the police story isn’t intriguing and ends really horrible. Much of the acting is also very sub par, with the exception Lee Eun Ju who is the highlight of the film, though it is so depressing that this was her last role because she committed suicide not too long ago, some say she was depressed by what she had done in this film, and while it is a very sexual role she doesn’t ever show anything. Really the police story is totally superfluous and takes up way too much screen time for the ending. It is an interesting watch but not really a good film.

The film starts as a murder investigation, where an unhappy wife Kyung Hee (Seong Hyeon-ah (성현아)) walked in on a discovered her husband bludgeoned to death in their photography studio. The police captain on the case is Ki Hoon (Han Seok-Kyu (한석규) from Shiri) and he immediately suspects the wife of the murder, and that is further confirmed when she is seeing paying off a young thug, but really that isn’t the storyline.

The story is about Ki Hoon and his pregnant wife Su Hyun (Eom Ji-won (엄지원)n) who is a cellist, and doesn’t show much emotion, and his girlfriend Ka Hee (Lee Eun-joo (이은주)) who is a jazz musician and singer who went to school with Su Hyun. To complicate things Ka Hee is also pregnant, and Ki Hoon can’t decide who he wants to be with, he is loyal to his wife because “she loves him”, but wants to have constant sex with Ka Hee.

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This was the smash hit in Korea of 2001, and became the highest growing comedy in Korean Box office history. And is the film that launched the career of the absolutely cute Jeon Ji Hyun. She is absolutely amazing in this film, and really carries the film through all it’s ridiculousness to it’s touching ending, in fact she won the Grand Bell Best Actress Award for her portrayal of the Girl (who is unnamed in this film). I like the sillyness, and the leaps that this film goes through, though admittedly I never really got into Cha Tae Hyun’s lead too much, really this whole film is about Jun Ji Hyun and the entire gamut of her emotions from angry to sad to happy to silly and confused and everything in between. This film is really a great film, and I can understand why they want to remake it here in the states, but it can never be the same without Jeon Ji-hyeon (전지현). I got Kelly to watch this film and she really enjoyed it as well. It is just a hysterically funny film. I love that this actually a true story based on the stories posted by Kim Ho Sik on the internet describing his relationship with his girlfriend, and trying to find her later.
Kyun Woo (Cha Tae Hyeon 차태현) plays a hapless college student, who while on the way home on the subway saves a Girl ( Jeon Ji-hyeon 전지현) from drunkenly falling under the subway. And then on the train when the girl starts vomiting over another passenger, she turns and says honey to him, and the rest of the passengers thinking he is with her, make him take care of her. He takes her to a motel, where she passes out and he takes a shower to clean of the sweat and vomit, but he runs out and answers her cell phone, and says where she is, but before he can get dressed the police come and arrest him. When he finally gets home, his mother beats him for not coming and visiting his aunt who is trying to introduce him to someone. Then he gets a calling from the girl telling him to come out now, where she orders him to a bar, gets completely loaded, and he takes her back to the same motel, and this time takes care of her, and starts to fall her, deciding he is going to cure her of her sadness. What follows is much madness, as she calls and demands he do things, like leaving class at a moments notice to go be with her, bring her a rose to her class, wear his high school uniform, and change shoes with her, so he has to run around in high heels or she will kills him! And he believes it. She also writes, and he has to love her crazy stories, which are shown as 2 film’s within films, one with her as a female terminator and one in a martial arts film (with Ashes of Time music even), both of which he

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I had heard much about this film, especially that it broke all records at the box office this year in Korea, so I had wanted to see it. Amazing how well this film works, one wouldn’t think you could pull off a fairy tale about the Korean war, but park has pulled it off, and done it in style. It has a sweet tone to it, but still ends in a bittersweet ending that no Hollywood blockbuster would have managed to pull off. This film is well worth checking out with gorgeous visuals and some very good CGI shots (over 700) that are very well integrated into the story.

The film starts with a girl, Yoe Il (Kang Hye-jeong (강혜정)) on a hill who sees an American plane crashing down. In the plane is a Lieutenant Smith (Steve Taschler) who is badly wounded and taken to the village of Dongmakgol, high in the mountains, and blissfully unaware of the war that is raging on throughout the rest of the country. 2 seperate sets of soldiers end up making it to the village too, one from the north, and one from the south. The Northern troops are all that survive from their regiment, and are Commander Lee (Jeong Jae-yeong (정재영)), Jand (Im Ha-ryong (임하룡)g) and the teenager Taeg Ki (Ryoo Deok-hwan (류덕환)n). From the south is a Lieutenant Pyo (shin Ha Kyun) who has gone awol after being ordered to blow up a bridge filled with refugees, and the medic Moon (Seo Jae-kyeong (서재경) who played the young monk in Spring, Summer, Winter… and Spring which I recently watched). When both groups end up in the village a stand off occurs, though the northerners are in fact out of ammunition, so they pull out their grenades.

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Hmmm, had heard really good things about Kim Ki Duk, and had wanted to see some of his films, and this was interesting, though I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It is about a bunch of fucked up people pretty much, and especially a little girl and her father.

Han Yeo-reum (한여름) plays Yeo Jin a high school girl who manages her best friend in her amateur prostitution, fixing dates and collecting money. Her best friend is the pretty Jae Yeong (Kwak Ji-min 곽지민)), who likes making friends with her patrons. Yeo Jin’s father is a police detective, so eventually their lives cross. Jae Yeong jumps from the second story of a love hotel and lands on her head to escape the police, and Yeo Jin takes her to the hospital. She wants to find her parent’s, but jaw Yeong gets her to bring her favorite client a Musician (Woo Yong 오용) who won’t come unless Yeo Jin first sleeps with him.

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An interesting though twisted movie, and I must say I expected the ending, just because the film needed a twist to it. Korea has certainly had it’s fair share of completely disgusting revenge films of late, and this one has an added twist. Are we watching the twisted mind of a serial killer, or could this crazy man be right that Aliens have invaded earth and he must contact them to save his mother from her 5 year long coma. Interesting but not too great. I certainly wouldn’t watch it again.
Lee Byeoung Gu (Sin Ha-gyoon 신하균) is a man who has gone over the edge. He has had a horrible life, and his mother has dropped into a coma after an accident at a chemical factory. And he is now convinced that Aliens from Andromeda have come to earth, and have the same genetic structure, but very different nervous systems. He and his girlfriend, the chubby and ugly tight rope walking Su ni kidnap the factory owner Kang Man Shik and torture him to find out about the alien invasion.
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I have been wanting to see this movie since it came out, but the Korean DVD didn’t have English subs so it took me till now to check it out. I think there had been too much build up for me to really love this film. I saw it because I heard about the amazing comic book action, and yes this film does have it, but the film isn’t shot very well, and the story isn’t the best, trying to fit in video game action and story-lines into a film, and to make a normal Korean youth with a dead end job who loves video games to become an action hero. It is a cool idea, but doesn’t have a good enough story, or good enough acting to really pull it off well.

Kim Hyun-sung (김현성) plays Joo, a loser of a man who works as a delivery boy, and plays video games in all of his spare time. His best friend Lee (Kim Hin Pyo) is a professional video game player, and gets all the girls, before getting work for the system. Joo is in love with a girl who works at the local video game parlor he hangs out at (Lim Eun-kyeong 임은경)), but he is too shy, and even when he tries to talk to her, she gets picked up, but then he sees her as the Little Match Girl, a girl selling matches who in a poem died out in the cold alone, and gets invited to play a live action video game, where it is real life, and the point is to save the Little Match Girl from being killed by many of the other players, and get her to fall in love in him, and then let her die, so that he wins, but he doesn’t let her die, and ends up giving her a virus.

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