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List of posts tagged South Korea :


FAQ – Fantasia 2024

An overworked elementary school student is guided by the sentient bubbles of a batch of rice wine in FAQ. Kim Dong-Chun has immense pressure put on her by her parents, as she finds herself placed in university prep courses at a very young age. While on a school trip, Dong-Chun finds a bottle of rice […]

The Tenants – Fantasia 2024

An office drone sublets his bathroom to an odd and eccentric couple in The Tenants. Shin Dong (Kim Dae Geon) lives a soulless existence in a near-future Seoul ravaged by pollution and overpopulation. When Shin is threatened with eviction, he decides the use the Wolwolse system, which allows tenants to sublet a portion of their […]

Exhuma

A renowned shaman and revered geomancer encounters an ancient evil while cleansing a supernatural affliction for a wealthy family in Exhuma. Shaman Lee Hwa-rim (Kim Go-eun) and her protege Bong Gil (Lee Do-hyun) are hired by the wealthy US-based businessman Park Ji Yong (Kim Jae-cheol) to cure a mysterious affliction on his newborn son. Hwa-rim […]

Eileen

A secretary’s relationship with her new coworker at a correctional facility turns sinister in Eileen. Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) is a young woman working as a secretary at a correctional facility for teenage boys in 1960s Massachusetts. At home, Eileen has to deal with her alcoholic father Jim (Shea Whigham), the retired police chief, who […]

Sleep – TIFF 2023

A young woman starts to believe her husband’s sleeping disorder might be something more sinister in Sleep. Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) awakens one night to see her husband Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) sitting on the end of the bed. Hyun-su utters the words “Someone is inside” before going to sleep. Soon, Hyun-su begins scratching himself while sleeping […]

New Normal – Fantasia 2023

Six stories detail the violence and chaos in Seoul in New Normal. In Chapter 1: M, Hyun-jung (Choi Ji-woo) has to deal with an invasive inspector. In Chapter 2: Do the Right Thing, a boy helps a wheelchair-bound woman get home. In Chapter 3: Dressed to Kill, Hyun-su (Lee Yu-mi) is on an online date […]

The Roundup: No Way Out

The hart-hitting police sergeant is back for another round in The Roundup: No Way Out. Sergeant Ma Seok-do (Don Lee) is investigating a murder that seems to be tied to a recently reported drug known as Hiper. The drug is traced to corrupt cop Joo Seong-Cheol (Jun-hyuk Lee), who has been working with the Yakuza […]

Devils – Fantasia 2023

A homicide detective finds his body switched with a sadistic serial killer in Devils. Jae-hwan (Oh Dae-hwan) has spent the last two years on the trailer of the sadistic serial killer Jin-hyuk (Kim Sang-yoon), who along with his three accomplices have been killing and dismembering women for dark web snuff films. Jae-Han finally tracks Jin-hyuk […]

Past Lives

Two Korean childhood sweethearts are reunited after more than two decades apart in Past Lives. As children, Na Young (Moon Seung-ah) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim) are inseparable, before Na Young’s family decides to immigrate from South Korea to Toronto. 12 years passed and the now re-named Nora (Seung Min Yim) is working as […]

Decision to Leave

A detective investigating a man’s death begins to fall for the victim’s wife in Decision to Leave. Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) is an insomniac middle-aged detective in an unhappy marriage who investigates the death of a man who fell off a mountain while climbing. Despite no signs of foul play, the man’s Chinese wife, Seo-rae (Tang […]

Project Wolf Hunting

An escape attempt by a group of dangerous criminals aboard a cargo ship goes awry when they unleash something much more sinister in Project Wolf Hunting. A group of dangerous criminals, including tattooed gang leader Park Jong-doo (Seo In-guk) and unassuming murderer Lee Do-il (Jang Dong-yoon), is brought aboard a cargo ship extraditing them from […]

Broker – TIFF 2022

A pair of human traffickers are joined by an unwanted baby’s mother to find new parents to sell it to in Broker. So-young (Lee Ji-eun) is a young mother who drops her baby off at a box at the Busan Family Church, who is then intercepted by church worker Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won) and laundry-owner Sang-hyun […]

The Roundup – Fantasia 2022

The Beast Cop returns in The Roundup. Detective Ma Seok-do (Don Lee) travels to Vietnam with Captain Jeon Il-man (Choi Gwi-hwa) travel to Vietnam to repatriate a captured criminal back to Korea. However, Ma discovers that a madman named Kang Hae-sang (Son Seok-koo) has been kidnapping and killing Korean tourists. When Kang travels to Korea […]

Next Door – Fantasia 2022

An aspiring police officer wakes up after a night of heavy drinking next to an apparent corpse in Next Door. Chan-woo (Oh Dong-min) has been working hard preparing for his police exam when he goes out drinking with friends. The following day, Chan-woo finds himself in the apartment of his noisy neighbours, with an apparent […]

Chorokbam – Fantasia 2022

The life of a family begins to crumble in Chorokbam. On a green-tinted night, an elderly security guard (Lee Tae-hoon) finds a cat hanging from a piece of playground equipment. This bad omen sets the stage for the downfall of the guard and his family, which includes fights with his wife (Kim Min-kyung) about the […]

Special Delivery – Fantasia 2022

A professional getaway driver has to protect a child from a corrupt police captain in Special Delivery. Jung Eun-ha (Park So-dam) is an incredibly skilled driver for “Special Delivery” courier service run by Baek Sa-jang (Kim Eui-sung), which will transport everything that the regular post won’t. Eun-ha is assigned to pick-up disgraced baseball player Kim […]

The Witch Part 2: The Other One

The sole survivor of a raid on a research facility hides out with a pair of civilians in The Witch Part 2: The Other One. A mysterious girl Cynthia (Shin Si-ah), emerges as the sole survivor of a raid on a research facility involved in the top secret Witch Program, which developed superpowered psychic assassins. […]

Three Sisters – Reel Asian 2021

Three Korean sisters in different social-economic situations come together for their father’s birthday in Three Sisters. Jeon Miyeon (Moon So-ri) is a woman with a seemingly perfect life as a happily married choirmaster. On the other hand, Miyeon’s younger sister Mi-Ok (Yoon-ju Jang) is a barely functioning alcoholic and their older sister Hee-sook (Kim Sun-young) […]

Seobok – Toronto After Dark 2021

This Review Originally Published As Part of Our Coverage of Fantasia 2021 An ex-intelligence agent is tasked with transporting the world’s first human clone in Seobok. Min Ki-Hun (Gong Yoo) is a former intelligence agent currently suffering from a terminal brain tumor. Ki-Hun is tracked down by his old boss Chief Ahn (Jo Woo-jin), who […]

Seobok – Fantasia 2021

An ex-intelligence agent is tasked with transporting the world’s first human clone in Seobok. Min Ki-Hun (Gong Yoo) is a former intelligence agent currently suffering from a terminal brain tumor. Ki-Hun is tracked down by his old boss Chief Ahn (Jo Woo-jin), who wants Ki-Hun to do one last job for “the company.” Sent to […]

Bring Me Home

A woman desperately tries to recover his missing son in Bring Me Home. Jung-Yeon (Lee Young-ae) has spent the last six years looking for her missing son Yoon-su. Soon after her husband dies in tragic car crash, Jung-Yeon receives a lead about a boy matching Yoon-su’s description and the Mansun Fishing Spot. Jung-Yeon arrives to […]

Train to Busan presents Peninsula

Four years after the incident on the Train to Busan, survivors return to the zombie-infected Korean Peninsula. Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won) is a Marine captain who is forced to abandon his sister and nephew while escaping zombie-infected, much to the chagrin of his brother-in-law Chul-min (Kim Do-yoon). Four years later, Jung-seok is struggling to get by […]

Impetigore

A young woman and her friend travel to a remote village to find out the sinister secrets of her family in Impetigore. Maya (Tara Basro) is a young woman, who is left shaken after being attacked by a machete-wielding madman while working in a tollbooth. Soon afterward, Maya discovers old photos that suggest that she […]

The 8th

Ireland prepares for a referendum to repeal a controversial anti-abortion law in The 8th. In 1983, the people of Ireland voted to add the 8th Amendment to the constitution stating that the unborn have equal rights to life as its mother, which effectively makes abortion illegal in the country. 35 years later, activist Ailbhe Smyth leads […]

Stateless

Winner—Hot Docs Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary Those of Haitian descent within the Dominican Republic find themselves stripped of their citizenship in Stateless. Since colonial rule, there have been racial tensions between the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, both of which share the island of Hispaniola. In 2013, the Dominican Constitutional Court […]

Space & Time

Full Disclosure: I was classmates at York University with both Space & Time‘s writer/director Shawn Gerrard and producer Cameron MacLaren A longtime couple begins to find their paths drifting apart in Space & Time. As they celebrate their anniversary, Sean (Steven Yaffee) and Siobhan (Victoria Kucher) contemplate the existence of alternate versions of themselves with the […]

Extreme Job

An undercover narcotics team begins a sting operation inside a fried chicken restaurant in Extreme Job. Captain Ko (Ryu Seung-ryong) is the leader of a small ragtag team of narcotics detectives assigned to stakeout and take down a local drug kingpin. The perfect cover for the team arises when a nearby fried chicken restaurant goes […]

No Mercy

A woman seeks bloody vengeance against those who abducted an assaulted her younger sister. Former martial arts champion Inae (Lee Si-young) is released from prison and is reunited with her teenage sister Eunhye (Park Se-wan). However, the reunion doesn’t last long, since Eunhye disappears the next day, after encountering bullies at her school. Inae goes […]

Idol

A grieving father wants answers about the events that lead to his son’s death in Idol. Councilor Koo Myung-hui is a candidate for governor, who returns home one day to find out that his son Johan was involved in a hit and run and brought the bloody body home with him. Koo convinces his son […]

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Humanity is threatened by the emergence of titans in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Five years after the mythical beast Godzilla helped stop the threat of the MUTOs, the crypto-zoological organization Monarch is under government scrutiny for keeping the truth about titans secret from the world. However, when ecoterrorist Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) kidnaps paleobiologist […]

The Outlaws

An unconventional police force tries to take down a deadly gang in The Outlaws. Inspector Ma (Don Lee) is the head of the Serious Crimes Unit in Seoul’s Garibong neighbourhood, which is home to a number of Chinese-Korean gangs. Things heat with with the arrival of the Black Dragon Gang, lead by Jang Chen (Kye-Sang Yoon), who begins […]

The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion

A young woman’s past catches up to her in The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion. A decade ago, Ja-yoon (Kim Da-mi) escaped from a facility experimenting with telepathic kids and found refuge with a farmer and his wife. When she tries out for a TV talent show, Ja-yoon accidentally lets her powers slip and attracts the attention […]

I Have a Date with Spring

A number of individuals receive unforgettable birthday gifts on the day before the world ends in I Have a Date with Spring. A struggling filmmaker (Kang Ha-neul) sits by the lake on his birthday, hoping to find a way to complete the script he has been working on for a decade. Four mysterious beings suddenly show […]

Satan’s Slaves

A family experiences paranormal activity following the death of their mother in Satan’s Slaves. Rini (Tara Basro) lives with her parents and brothers Tony (Endy Arfian), Bondi (Nasar Annuz), and Ian (M. Adhiyat) at an isolated house beside a cemetery. Rini’s mother (Ayu Laksmi), a formerly popular singer, has been sick in bed for a number […]

Believer

Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds organizes a music festival in support of LGBTs in the Morman community in Believer. Raised as part of the Morman church, Dan Reynolds begins to have a major crisis of faith involving the church’s strict stance against gay rights, which has contributed to an pandemic of suicides by LGBT youth […]

Okja

A young Korean girl tries to save her pet superpig from the slaughterhouse in Okja. Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) becomes CEO of Mirando Corporation, taking over from her twin sister Nancy. Lucy’s first major announcement is the discovery of a new breed of superpig, which have been sent to 26 farms around the world, as part […]

The Age of Shadows

A police officer in Japan-occupied Korea secretly begins to work with the resistance movement he is supposed to bring down in The Age of Shadows. Lee Jung-chool (Song Kang ho) is a Korean captain for the Japanese Police in 1920s occupied Korea. Lee and his partner Hashimoto (Um Tae-Goo) are tasked with bringing down the resistance movement […]

Colossal

An alcoholic woman discovers a connection between her downward spiral and a series of monster attacks in Colossal. Fed up with her hard partying lifestyle, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is kicked out by her boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) and she moves back to her hometown. Gloria is reunited with her old friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who […]

Train to Busan

A zombie outbreak occurs aboard a train in Train to Busan. Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is an overworked man, who barely has time to spend with his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an). Su-an wants to travel from Seoul to Busan to visit her mother and Seok-woo accompanies her on the train ride. However, it turns out that a zombie […]

The Throne

The relationship between a king and his son is examined in The Throne. One rainy night, the Crown Prince Sado (Yoo Ah-in) sets out with the intention of assassinating his father King Yeongjo (Song Kang-ho). Sado fails in this task and he is sentenced by his father to be locked up in a chest in the middle […]

Seoul Station

A zombie outbreak occurs in Seoul’s central subway station in Seoul Station. Every night, the homeless popular of Seoul descends upon the central subway station looking for a place to sleep. One night an elderly homeless man enters the station with a mysterious wound on his neck. Before long, the man turns into a zombie, […]

The Wailing

A police sergeant investigates a series of murders that may be related to demonic activity in The Wailing. One morning in the isolated town of Goksung, Sgt. Jeon Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) is called to the scene of a brutal ritualistic murder. This is the latest of a series of homicides in the city, which seems to […]

Karaoke Crazies

An isolated karaoke bar sees a sudden upswing in business in Karaoke Crazies. Sung-Wook (Moon-Sik Lee) is a depressed and lonely man, who runs the “Addiction Karaoke” bar in the middle of nowhere. Needing a new helper, Sung-Wook hires Ha-Suck (Bae So-eun), a mysterious woman who enters his bar one day. While initially a detriment to business, […]

Cheer Up

The worst cheerleading team in Finland is inspired to improve themselves in Cheer Up. The Arctic Circle Spirit Ice Queens are a Finnish cheerleading squad, who almost always place last in their competitions. Desperate for improvement, coach Miia travels to Dallas to receive tips from the world champions. However, it turns out the cheerleaders on […]

On the White Planet

The issue of race is explored in the dark animated film On the White Planet. On a planet completely devoid of colour, there is one teenage boy who has coloured skin. This glaring difference makes him a complete outcast, with the boy turning into a murderous fugitive. The boy is welcomed in by a group […]

A Hard Day

A detective becomes the victim of blackmail in A Hard Day. On his way to his mother’s funeral, Detective Ko Gun-soo (Sun-kyun Lee) accidentally runs over an individual in the middle of the road. Detective Ko tries to cover up this hit-and-run and, right when it appears that he has succeeded, he receives a call from […]

The Nightmare

Rodney Ascher (Room 237) explores the terrors of sleep paralysis in The Nightmare.  There are people who suffer from a mysterious sleeping condition, where they feel like they are awake, yet they find that they cannot move.  Many of those suffering from sleep paralysis have visions of shadowy figures coming at them in the darkness. […]

The Nightmare

Rodney Ascher (Room 237) explores the terrors of sleep paralysis in The Nightmare.  There are people who suffer from a mysterious sleeping condition, where they feel like they are awake, yet they find that they cannot move.  Many of those suffering from sleep paralysis have visions of shadowy figures coming at them in the darkness.  […]

1971

The theft of FBI documents and the backlash is the topic of the documentary 1971.  On March 8, 1971, a group of activists broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and took off with hundreds of files.  The documents, which were later leaked to the media, revealed illegal surveillance activities that were being performed […]

Snowpiercer

From South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (The Host) comes the post-apocalyptic action-thriller Snowpiercer. Following a failed experiment to cure global warming, the world is sent into a cataclysmic ice age, killing most of humanity.  For nearly 18 years, the surviving population has been on board the train Snowpiercer, which was designed by the reclusive Wilford […]

The Disappeared

The Disappeared tells the story of six shipwreck survivors stranded on two life boats in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.  The crew consists of Captain Gerald (Brian Downey), Mannie (Billy Campbell), Gib (Ryan Doucette), Pete (Shawn Doyle), Merv (Gary Levert), and Dickie (Neil Matheson).  Gerald estimates that they are 600 miles from shore and […]

The Last Stand

It’s been nearly a decade since Arnold Schwarzenegger has had a leading role in an action film, having spent much of that time as Governor of California.  After brief supporting roles in the two Expendables films, Schwarzenegger officially makes his return in The Last Stand.  The films centres around a small town sheriff (Schwarzenegger), who […]

Samsara

Samsara is not an easy film to describe.  I guess you can call Samsara a documentary, even though it isn’t really about anything. I suppose my best description of the film would be “Avant Garde meets National Geographic.”  It’s a film that you watch for the experience of watching it.  There is nothing in the […]

The Bourne Legacy

While most would automatically assume The Bourne Legacy is a reboot of the Bourne franchise, it is more a side-story that takes place during and after the events of The Bourne Ultimatum. It turns out that Jason Bourne and the Treadstone and Blackbriar programs that created him were just a small peace of a larger network of […]

TIFF11: Day 1 Round-Up

Werner Herzog on Stage My first day of TIFF11 considered of two back-to-back screening at the Ryerson Theatre (one of my favourite TIFF venues).  It didn’t have the glitz and glamour of the galas, but it was probably more enjoyable. Here are my thoughts on the films. Into the Abyss One news-making item of this […]

TIFF10: The Last Two Days in Summary

Vera Farmiga and Keanu Reeves I was quite busy during the last couple of days and I did not have time to post reviews.  Also such, I am going to post thoughts on all the films I saw during the last two days into one combined post. Henry’s Crime This film was a nice little […]