Director Baik’s directorial debut, The Beauty inside is a soft romantic comedy released in 2015. The film is inspired off the 2012 American social film called The Beauty Inside. The story revolves around a man who wakes up every day in a different body. Starring Han Hyo Joo as a pertinent character, The Beauty Inside explores the idea of surface level beauty of a person … Continue reading What is in a face? The Beauty Inside (2015)
Looking at a separate set of siblings in this post, Kim Jee-won’s 2003 psychological horror film centers on two sisters Su-mi and Su-yeon, both played by Im Soo-jung and Moon Geun-young respectively. Based on the Joseon Dynasty era folktale titled Janghwa Hongryeon jeon, A tale of two sisters which is also called 장화, 홍련 pronounced Janghwa, Hongryeon meaning “Rose Flower, Red Lotus”. The film recieved … Continue reading Navigating through psychological horror in A Tale of Two Sisters (2003).
The fifth film in this series of Korean New Wave Cinema is Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (also known 태극기 휘날리며 in Korean pronounced as Taegukgi Hwinallimyeo). Taegukgi is a is a South Korean wartime action drama film directed by Kang Je-gyu. Taegukgi tells the story of two brothers who are forcibly drafted into the South Korean army at the outbreak of the Korean War. … Continue reading Exploring brotherhood through Taegukgi (2004)
With the fourth film in this series, we are looking at Kim Jee-woon’s 2008 South Korean Western action film starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung. The film was premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and had a limited release in the U.S. on April 23, 2010. The film The Good, the Bad, the Weird (Also known as 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 … Continue reading Understanding the Western through The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)
The Man from Nowhere also known as 아저씨 (Ajeossi) in Korean which translates to Mister in English. The Man from Nowhere is a 2010 South Korean action thriller film starring Won Bin and written and directed by Lee Jeong-beom. It was South Korea’s highest-grossing film in 2010. The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 1, 2010. The film is centered … Continue reading The Hitman with a heart from the Man from Nowhere(2010)
Coming through with the second installment of our series we have Mother. Mother (2009) is a 2009 South Korean crime drama directed by Bong Joon-ho. Starring actors Kim Hye-ja and Won Bin. The plot of the film centers around a mother and her disabled son, who is accused of the murder of a young girl. The mother attempts to find the real killer, to free … Continue reading Concealing the truth in Mother (2009)
Oldboy is the first film we are viewing within this series. Oldboy is a 2003 South Korean neo-noir action thriller film co-written and directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by … Continue reading Oldboy (2003). A story about revenge, morality, and love.
Dating back since the 1980’s, South Korea has faced the influence United States through various spheres of the nation. With multilaterals pressures pilling into the nation, for it to be open to the Korean markets through the name of globalization, and specifically within sectors such as television and cinema. Understanding the presented global economic dynamics, the Korean economy introduced the the production and commodification of … Continue reading Introduction to Hallyu Cinema
Cinema of the Wave 