Juemogi Unda(Crying Fist)

Fists of Fury

Jumeogi Unda(Crying Fist)

Starring Choi Min Sik (Old Boy, Happy End), Seung Beom Ryu(Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance)

Director: Ryoo Seung-Wan(Arahan, Die Bad)

Treading pugilist tearjerk maneouvers lightly but getting a perverse delight from indulging them- - - that frail grandmother evicting her sickbed for a ringside seat is the working definition of pushing it - - - this fighter melodrama was prone to ickiness from the get-go. It succumbs eventually - - - pulling its punches because Ryoo knows better not to. But sap laid on thin is still sap - - -that's my nit. Granted, there's a charge to its coarse sheen. And lower your defenses a bit and making friends with the movie becomes effortless. You don't come away empty-handed either. It makes enough of a case for both its underdog protagonists - - - Choi Min Sik's over the hill champion whoring himself out as a human punchbag for grub and coin while his family disintegrates and Ryu Seung-Beom's hothead punk languishing in jail who finds vent for his rage boxing in prison - - - so that when their parallel lives converge in the ring (you knew that), you not only feel for both , you root for both.
* * *

Salinui Chueok(Memories of Murder)

Good Cop Bad Cop

Salinui Chueok(Memories of Murder)
Starring Song Kang Ho (The President's Barber), Kim Sang-Kyung (Turning Gate)
Director: Bong Jun Hoo (The Host)

It’s the Korean Jack the Ripper. Just as gruesome, just as unsolved. Knowing that won’t muck things up. City cop and country cop partner to crack the case and it's their story mostly. And the serial killer they dog is a lash of panic that welts this investigation into smalltown hysteria , this tweaking of odd couple dynamics , this slapstick upending of the police procedural, this many things beyond dull roman a clef , with the throb of sinister goings-on. Soon, scenes achieve grace, some crackle and one - - - a set piece in the dead of a rainy night - - -had me picking my jaw up from the floor. Delicate balances are struck. Between placid milieu and seething underbubble. Between foreboding creepiness and broad comedy. Between truth and embellishment. Between invisible solution and tantalizing mystery. * * * * *

Jageop-ui jeongseok (Art of Seduction)

Slut machine.

Jageop-ui jeongseok (Art of Seduction)
Starring Son Ye-jin (April Snow) / Song Il-gook (Red Eye)
Director Oh Ki-Hwan (Last Present)

More like the art of Son Ye-jin's smile. She's purty but a seam-splitting seductress she isn't. Given that this movie aims for the funny more than fanny but still, light sweating should still be encouraged. Ye-jin's content with being cute and any licking of the lips (her own) is mechanical. Il-gook's suave grace dominates, the trophy practically handed over to him, in this lopsided battle of the sex machines which is too polite, too skittish and almost too charming. Everything a good roll in the hay should never be. Kid stuff. *1/2

Na-ui gyeolhon-wonjeongki (Wedding Campaign)

Odd couple. Odd place.

Na-ui gyeolhon-wonjeongki (Wedding Campaign)
Starring Jung Jae-young (Welcome to Dongmakgol) / Yu Jun-sang (Tell Me Something) / Soo-ae (A Family)
Director Hwang Byung-guk

Who looks for love in Uzbekistan? Apparently, Korean farmers. Desperate Korean farmers. (There's a short spiel at the beginning of the movie which explains why there are illegal Korean immigrants --- known as Koryo, I think --- in a far-flung Eastern Europe country, so believe it.) Man-taek's (Jung) naivete in women starts out funny, but in an alien land with cold art deco gold-leafed edifices, it's heartbreaking. The general rule: farmers play the rich man card and the Koryo play along for a visa back to motherland. But Min-taek falls for his handler, a North Korean who wants to defect to the South. I know it sounds complicated and too soap opera-ish but in the hands of the brilliant Jung, Min-taek's unraveling is a mosaic of flaws and shy first-steps that refuse to be anything but a man stubbornly fighting for his last chance at true love. ****

Sarangni (Blossom Again)

Swept away.

Sarangni (Blossom Again)
Starring Kim Jeung-eun (Marrying the Mafia) / Lee Tae-seong
Directed Jung Ji-woo (Happy End)

Love moves in mysterious ways. And it can go all Star Trek on you. Parallel universes overlap and asks you: would you love the same person all over again? A woman about to hit her thirties suddenly meets a younger reincarnation of her first love, a high schooler who doesn't know his math but oh boy, can he kiss (see above). Just like the way she remembers him. She believes. She insists. She loves. And there's no fighting that. When the real guy shows up for dinner --- all grown-up, forgetful and disappointing --- sideways glances do the talking. No explosions here. No Happy End irony. For those of us praying for that second chance, a possibility, small or miraculously obvious, is good enough. ****

Dalkomhan Insaneng (A Bittersweet Life)

Hurts so good.

Dalkomhan Insaneng (A Bittersweet Life)

Starring : Ro Ha Kim (Memories of Murder)
Director: Kim Ji Won (A Tale of Two Sisters)

It's fed the genre countless times before: henchman gets personal, gets backstabbed, gets even. Heroic Bloodshed jackpots when it regards itself as an apotehosis of pain. More blood shed, less heroism. The pain of impossible love. The pain of a knife wedged in your back. The pain of vendetta against friends. Pain - - - all makes and models - - - is the metatheme of the action movie. The chickenshit ones - - - hi-ho Joel Silver! - - - pull punches, strike poses, sugarcoat. The gutsy ones deconstruct the machismo, count the costs, lance the boil, let it bleed. The gutsy ones hurt. Like hell. Like this. * * * *

Yasu-wa minyeo (Beast and the Beauty)

Pretty on the inside.

Yasu-wa minyeo (Beast and the Beauty)
Starring Shin Min-a (Volcano High) / Ryoo Seung-bum (Arahan)
Director Lee Gye-byuk

A comedy of errors that has all been done before but with the comedic punch of Arahan. Blind Hae-ju (the effervescent Shin) is about to undergo eye surgery and can't wait to see Dong-gun (Ryoo). When there's not much to see, really. In desperation Dong-gun gets a couple of surgeries himself, which result in painfully funny bits --- the missing eyebrow, the sketched eyebrow. The drawn eyebrow over the drawn eyebrow. When a dashing cop enters the scene, looking exactly the way Dong-gun described himself to Hae-ju, desperation turns to pathetic. Laughing with tears in your eyes is always the best kind. ***1/2

Welkeom tu dongmakgol (Welcome to Dongmakgol)

Err, I hope that's a gun in your pocket.

Welcome to Dongmakgol
Starring Shin Ha Kyun (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) / Kang Hye Jun (Old Boy) / Jung Jae Young (Someone Special)
Director Park Kwang Yun


Storyline's a predictable yarn tangled in the barbed speculations of JSA and Shiri, but director Park speculates with delicate magic. North and South Korean soldiers stumble onto Dongmakgol, a mountain cloistered village straight out of Miyazaki's wonderworking head. Arming the usual suspects with charming oddities --- butterfly armies, raging bulls, a kind American --- Dongmakgol earns reverence, almost too beautiful, too benevolent to touch. And when the bombs threaten to fall like rain, you guiltily wish for deus ex machina. Or Totoro to make everything better. ****

Wanee and Junah

In the mood for love.

Wanee and Junah
Starring Joo Jin-Mo (Happy End, Musa) / Kim Hee-sun (Bichunmoo, The Myth)
Director Kim Yong-gyun

Taboo lite.

That's it, let this movie surprise you. Not a giggly giddy romance. Its thoughfulness keeps you glued, the fearful politeness necessary. The fluid leaps in time are candid the way memories surface like smiles from strangers. Plus the watercolor animation that bookends the movie is, plain and simple, beautiful.

Junah (Joo) is easily accessible because A.) He is a struggling writer; B.) He's fighting everything and everyone to keep what he has: live-in relationship, happiness, pride; c.) As a result of item B, he ends up trying too hard. Hits too close to home. X marks the heartbreak. Kim keeps uncomfortable moments burning under low fire, and true enough, they gnaw. They haunt. They hover like something you shouldn't have said. Or should have noticed. Can't help waiting for that spill over, that boiling point. The break-up.
You're in for one serious mood-fuck. ****

Palwol ui Christmas (Christmas in August)

Last Christmas.

Palwol ui Christmas (Christmas in August)
Starring Han Suk-kyu (Shiri) / Shim Eun-ha
Director Hur Hin-ho (April Snow)

(Because it's Christmas.)

Short, sweet, yet surprisingly tough. This movie about an unremarkable man with a terminal disease pulses with life, quiet and natural. Jung-won (Hang) chuckles, drinks with high school friends and falls in love in his last few weeks while he writes down instructions on how to run his photo developing store. His interaction with his family is mundane, devoid of drama and soundtrack, but the wonderfully expressive actor that Hang is, Jung-won always appears like he is memorizing everything. The flavors of his father's cooking; the conversations over watermelons.

Da-rim (Shim) enters his life in a stumble, harassed and unapologetic. But when she becomes a regular visitor, armed with ice cream and a secret smile, you know it's love.

In one of the film's best moments, Jung-won tries to teach his father how to operate the VCR. We've all been there; grrr-arrrgh. Jung-won storms out, frustrated. Desperate. In his room, he writes down detailed instructions. Step 1. Step 2. With such quiet formality, it fucking hurts. *****

Dalkomhan insaeng (A Bittersweet Life)

Bloody hell.

Dalkomhan insaeng (A Bittersweet Life)
Starring Lee Byung-hun (Joint Security Area) / Sin Min-ah (Volcano High)
Director Kim Jee-won (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Quiet Family)

An assassin and the boss’s luminous mistress. Like oxygen to a flame, the result is predictable combustion. Surprising and consuming. And as an action movie, this one cauterizes, fueled by feral rage. Sun Woo’s (Byung-hun) frantic punches and swings, fighting of twenty men in an abandoned warehouse, is epic. The camera shudders with every blood splatter. Insides lurch when rusty nails connect, digging too deeply in the ankle. Yet the movie keeps us guessing, all this for what? Sun Woo keeps emotions simmering; a trained killer precise as shattered glass yet awkward. Adolescent shy. The first few glances at Hee Soo (Min-ah) were fleeting. Her feet. Her neck. The lock of hair she tucks behind her ear. And the casual smile that makes everything worthwhile. It’s the small things that drive us crazy, really. Those uncalculated long last looks that make A Bittersweet Life great. *****

Naesarang Ssagaji (My Love Ssagajy: 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant)

She ain't heavy, she's a minor.

Naesarang Ssagaji (My Love Ssagajy: 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant)
Starring: Kim Jae-won (Romance), Ha Ji-won (Memories of Bali/Love, So Divine)
Director: Shin Don-yup


This should have been a bad movie. The booger flinging, the masturbation jokes, the spit soup, ranges from whathafuck to blech! But I enjoyed. I enjoyed it a lot. Originally an internet novel, the storyline is see-through flimsy right from the outset. A high school knucklehead accidentally causes a car accident and the dickhead owner demands that she become his slave for 100 days to pay off the damage. Pacing is quirky quick, and the jokes, ah, the jokes. Sublimely irreverent. Haven't cried this much since Old Yeller. Of course, love ruins everything and humor takes a backseat in the last half hour. The leap to innocence is uncovincing and trite it almost feels like an apology for the brutal naughtiness of its early parts when, really, none is needed. ***

Gabal (The Wig)

Getting Wiggy With It

Gabal (The Wig)

Starring Min-seo Chae (Champion), Hyon-Jin Sa (Tube, Kilimajnaro)

Director: Shin Yeon-Won

The ending wracks, right. But trangression's still a priority also-ran , so - - - uh oh. The sustain it achieves, though, you have to at least admire that. The way it stretches cuckoo premise over pokerfaced tableau with a straight face. Some parts draw you in. Others make you flinch. Most make trips to the refrigerator without bothering with the pause button guilt-free. Rarely does it hit ballistic on the sublime freakout you secretly hoped for. Nor the arcane kitsch that would've done as consolation prize. But then, rarely does it collapse and twitch into the involuntary giggly fits you save for those Ed Wood marathons. Things stay prim , proper, blah - - - like a string quartet. It gives its game away only after when it sinks in that what you've just plowed through was a horror movie about a haunted wig. And what an inexplicably dull missed opportunity that was. How Miike would have skullfucked this baby. Bit of a shame, then. * *

3-Iron

Ninja kiss.

3-Iron

Starring: Jae Hee (Sassy Girl Chun Hyang) / Lee Seung-yeon (Piano Man)

Director: Kim Ki-duk (Bad Guy, The Bow)

Lee's only lines are at the end of the movie: "Let's eat" and "I love you". Brave and simmering, 3-Iron is almost a silent movie. Twitchy fingers, sideways glances do the talking and really, it is one of the best written movies ever.

Jae Hee's a bum who breaks into empty houses for shelter and food. He washes clothes and fixes broken things around the house (clock, gun) for rent. Fair deal (except for the gun bit, that, scary). Lee's a battered wife who refuses to talk, and when Jae Hee crashes their house, she doesn't do anything except watch him (take a bath and masturbate). The husband comes home, Jae Hee aims golf balls at the husband's balls, and the rest -- thoughtful, curious, distraught, yearning silence.

Jae Hee and Lee explore houses as they search each other's faces for comfort. The silence they share is almost magical; it does hold the best lines, bouncing off walls and drifting through corridors. Creases, pillows talk in Kim Ki-duk's humming world, and when Lee utters her first phrase, it's the ringing happiness in her voice that matters. Words distract while salvation, puzzling and weightless, kiss her on the lips. ****

The Agressives

Skater boys Mogi and Soyo and a very big water bottle.

Taepoong Taeyang (The Agressives)
Starring: Cheon Jeung-myeong / Lee Cheon-hee (A Good Lawyer's Wife) / Kim Kang-woo
Director: Jeong Jae-eun (Take Care of My Cat)

When asphalt virgin Soyo (Cheon) asks Mogi (Kim) about his scars, the dogtown lord replies, "These are not scars; they are kiss marks." So, this is love.

Jeong's second feature, The Agressives, does unfurl like a love story: boy meets rollerblades, boy throws away rollerblades, boy falls in love again with rollerblades. Disappointingly conventional. Sacharrine for adrenalin. The fast and furious editing also wears off a few mintues into the first half. Disjointed and blurry, the rushed, fractured storyline is a speeding ticket waiting to happen.

But somewhere in between are quiet sparks of brilliance. Soyo's imitation of Mogi in front of the bathroom mirror is part de Niro spunk, part Slacker lost. The finger skating bit -- secretive, unfiltered, almost untouched -- is easily the most resonant in this glossy but surprisingly subdued movie.

Sports is painful and dirty. Extreme sports, excruciating and fucking repugnant. Love and extreme sports? It can never be this pretty. **

My Little Bride

Matinik ka talaga, Kevin.

EORIN SHINBU (My Little Bride)

Starring: Kim Rae-won (Attic Cat) / Moon Geun-young (Tale of Two Sisters)
Director: Kim Ho-joon

Snogging a sixteen year-old girl, yeah, sweet. But hello licking flames of hell. Then, there's also prison. My Little Bride has neither dancing devils nor shiny handcuffs because in Korea, it is legal to marry a minor. You read it right boysies, it is LEGAL to marry a sixteen year-old girl (with the parents' consent, but still) in Korea, or at least, that's what this movie makes us believe. (Insert disclaimer: no cultural judgment here, general queasiness mostly from catholic high school background.)

Sang-min (Kim) and Bo-eun (Moon) are childhood buddies; one is twenty-two and a compulsive flirt, the other's sixteen and is just starting high school where she spends most of her time silently watching a particularly polite softball jock. And as fixed marriages go, they got fixed, and the funnies begin to roll and rock their worlds. Giggling in bed, giggling at underwear, giggling in aisle 4, the first half is giddy with games of hide and seek encounters as their lives begin to overlap. Sex is easily dismissed; it is just not in Bo-eun's mind.

Any tension under the sheets is dealt with tenderness, sweet and uncomplicated.

Bo-eun's slow unraveling is kick-in-the-shin painful. Going steady with the jock, her teen fantasy turns to hop-skipping with adultery. Being a PG comedy, the movie sidesteps the real issues and ends a little abruptly with a cringe worthy speech. But never mind that. Kim, with his sparkly charm, and Moon's feisty innocence collide and merge like atoms: charged, fateful. ***1/2