Review: John Denver Trending (2019)
However depressing and frustrating, this Filipino internet drama is a thought-provoking discourse about internet’s trending mentality.
Review: Roh / Soul (2019)
While wearing its inspirations on the sleeve, Emir Ezwan’s patient direction and his audacity to go gore help Roh achieves the unsettling height it aims for.
Review: Evil Eye (2020)
Between generational gap, culture clash, and actual superstition, Evil Eye’s goal is only attainable with enough ambiguity which it fails to fully achieve.
Review: #Alive / #살아있다 / #Saraitda (2020)
Nothing particularly new or too old to zombie apocalypse tropes in #Alive except for the power of social media almighty.
Review: Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (2013)
Sewing 410 tweets into a movie, this coming-of-age story is oddly engaging even when it keeps lollygagging.
Review: Happy Old Year / ฮาวทูทิ้ง (2019)
Happy Old Year gives old stuff—reminiscent of the past, ones that might no longer spark joy—lives or, at least, memories to hold on.
Review: Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 / 82년생 김지영 (2019)
It’s a myopic world we live in. Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, adapted from a 2016 book of the same title by Cho Nam-ju, observes how the world has become one. The story unravels how deep-rooted patriarchal culture has somehow blurred […]
Review: The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos / 나쁜 녀석들: 더 무비 (2019)
From the exhilarating Extreme Jobs, the hard-boiled The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, to the buoyant Miss & Mrs. Cops, recent South Korean blockbusters love to see cops defying the procedure and delving into the grey area to get their […]
BALINALE Review: Burning / 버닝 / Beoning (2018)
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning challenges audiences with a mesmerizing narrative, which feels surreal and actual. At times, it might resemble a murky thriller or simply a baffling mystery; at some other times, it transcends the ordinary romance and documents the country’s […]
Review: Bikeman / ไบค์แมน ศักรินทร์ตูดหมึก (2018)
What Prueksa Amaruji’s Bikeman offers is a familiar reflection of third-world country’s problem, where employment issues create the urban dream. University graduates have to wander off the hometown to compete with each other and find jobs in the country’s capital […]
Review: EXIT / 엑시트 / Eksiteu (2019)
In his directorial debut, Lee Sang-geun builds a solid survival actioner on the foundations laid by classic action flicks like The Towering Inferno, Die Hard and versatility of MacGyver. It’s a familiar story about ordinary people striving to stay alive […]
Review: Weathering with You / 天気の子 / Tenki no Ko (2019)
Reverberating the idyllic fantasy romance of Your Name that transcends time and space, Makoto Shinkai crafts another coming-of-age romance. If Your Name serves as the spiritual answer to 5 Centimeters per Second; his new animation, Weathering with You a.k.a. Tenki […]
Review: The Divine Fury (2019)
Midnight Runners‘ director, Kim Joo-hwan returns with a new blockbuster that reunites him with the Runners’ star, Park Seo-joon. Combining the corniest elements of exorcism horror and comical action-hero tropes, The Divine Fury is a gothic action fantasy which immediately […]
Review Parasite (2019)
Angry Bong Joon-ho illustrate his restlessness towards social gap with a thought-provoking, family tragicomedy that does not look like anything you’ve seen before.
Review Miss & Mrs. Cops / Girl Cops, 걸캅스 (2019)
While rigged with clichés and comical elements, Miss & Mrs. Cops still delivers a fun female buddy-cop action movie with relevant message to current issue in South Korea.