A Bloody Aria A.K.A. Guta Yubalja-deul, 구타 유발자들, 毆打 誘發者들 (2006)

A South Korean crime black comedy directed by Won Shin-Yeon, starring Lee Moon-sik and Oh Dal-su.
A professor and student get pulled over by a cop, angering the professor. He provokes the cop and then hides on a dead end side road. After trying to seduce the student, she runs away. A gang of criminals show up and engege the cop, professor and student in their violence.
Oh wow! The plot held my attention all the way through, making me want to know what happened. I didn't really care about the characters because of what was happening. They were good though. Imagine a South Korean Gummo (1997) cast, but a few years later. The video had lots of hand held shots, but this did not get in the way. It was high quality Breaking Bad style hand held camera. There was also punctuation through a train passing and the main tormentor of the scene saying "nothing happened here today". Looking at other sites, people didn't seem to like this as much as I do. I'm rating it awesome because it has style and plot. However, this is not one to repeat watch. The first time through, you want to know what happens next. Watching again would destroy that.

Memories of the Sword A.K.A. 협녀: 칼의 기억, 俠女: 칼의 記憶, Hyeomnyeo: Kar-ui gi-eok (2015)

A South Korean wuxia directed by Park Heung-sik.
A female warrior seeks revenge against 2 other warriors and there is political upheaval.
Total nonsense. I watched the first hour and could barely make any sense of the plot. Questions like when things are happening should not come up. It was very pretty though. It looked as a modern wuxia post-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon should look. The costumes, sets and lighting were all beautiful. Some of the camera-work was good, but much of it happened in shots too short to appreciate. I have to rate this shit because I turned it off.

A Hard Day A.K.A. Kkeutkkaji Ganda, Kkŭtkkaji Kanda (2014)

A South Korean thriller directed by Kim Seong-hun, starring Lee Sun-kyun and Cho Jin-woong.
A police detective hits a man with his car and finds him dead in the road. He hides the body in his mother's coffin. It turns out that the dead man is a wanted criminal who was in conflict with the detective's senior officer.
Convoluted plot and shaky camera. The hour 47 duration seemed short because of the quick pace and density of action. The plot was extremely complex, but was presented relatively clearly and written well. The characters were not very identifiable. Besides the main character and the villain, they were all just other cops (extras). The dialogue taught me how to say "fucker" in Korean and the acting was a little shallow. Everyone just acted stressed, worried, scared or angry the whole time. The costumes were what made characters difficult to differentiate. I think they picked good shooting locations though. Camera-work was mostly shaky handheld with quick editing cuts. There were some good shots though: The Yakuza locker room sideways follow and the drug theft through the sink drain were awesome. The audio was mostly mixed right, but the cell phone ringtones and vibrations were way too loud. This won tons of awards at film festivals. I rate it o.k. because I'm not really into the genre, but it was made decently and held my attention.

A Bittersweet Life A.K.A. Dalkomhan insaeng (2005)

A South Korean crime film directed by Kim Jee-woon, starring Hwang Jung-min.
A gangster is assigned to watch his boss' girlfriend because the boss thinks the girl has another boyfriend. When the gangster catches the girl with the other man, he lets them go and doesn't tell the boss. This causes a problem and the gang tortures him until he escapes. Then he works to get revenge.
This was worth watching. The 2 hour duration seemed shorter because there was so much conflict going on. The pacing was dynamic, slowing down and speeding up with action rise and fall. I didn't catch the names of most of the characters, but they were all identifiable. The actors did a good job with their roles, but I can't say much for dialogue because of the language barrier and subtitles. Most of the plot took place in urban settings. There was an outdoor mud and rain scene that really looked powerful. All of the actors had different costumes that helped me to tell them apart very easily. Hat and glasses was the real bad guy. He had long hair and machine gun as backup. The camera-work was some of the best I've seen recently and it was noticeably good, not just seamless. The follow shots were where it really stood out. The audio was mixed well, with dialogue and music being at correct levels. Other critics give this around an A grade and I would agree. Just for the follow shots in the camera-work alone, I rate this good. Watch it!

Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard A.K.A. Woochi: The Demon Slayer (2009)

A South Korean wuxia directed by Choi Dong-hoon.
A Taoist disciple and his companion are trying to help the 3 Taoist wizards to capture goblins that have been set loose by a magic flute. Their journey takes them from ancient China into the modern city of Seoul.
Way over the top! The two hour duration was greatly appreciated, as it was filled with content all the way through. The pacing was very fast. From dialogue to special effects to editing cuts, everything moved quickly. The massive plot was clear and pretty easy to follow after the first few minutes of chaos. There were a handful of main characters that transcended time and a few well chosen extras. I can't really get into discussion of dialogue because it was in Korean, but there were a few verbal jokes that made it across the language gap and through subtitles. There were tons of physical humor jokes that the actors pulled off perfectly. The sets and costumes were amazing. Ancient China looked just as good as modern Korea and everyone's clothing fit their parts. There were even magical costume changes in the plot that all looked good. I saw loads of good camera-work. The dark scenes were not underexposed and I even identified a jib arm shot on top of a building. Special effects blew away Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. People flew and disappeared and there were CG goblins. Magic was everywhere. The audio sounded good to me. Again, I can't say much about dialogue, but the music and sound effects were great. The whole thing was so cohesive and had a style like Ang Lee was working with Stephen Chow. This has a 6.7/10 on IMDB, but was good enough to spawn a TV series. I liked the humor, special effects and action. I rate it good. You should watch it if you want Kung Fu Hustle and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon at the same time.

A Tale of Two Sisters A.K.A. Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003)

A South Korean drama thriller directed by Kim Jee-woon.
A girl is released from a mental institution into the care of her stepmother. Her sister also lives there and there are haunting style events in the house.
This didn't make any sense. The plot failed to hold my attention. The characters were shallow and even mysterious. The video was excellently done. There was a variety of creative shots and transitions. The audio was in Korean with English subtitles and the dialogue and music seemed to be mixed correctly. Overall, I couldn't pay attention and when I could, failed to figure out what was going on. I rate this poor. You probably shouldn't watch it.

Three... Extremes A.K.A. Sāngēng 2, Sseuli Monseuteo, Utsukushī Yoru, Zankokuna Asa (2004)

A Hong Kong Japanese South Korean horror directed by Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook and Takashi Miike.
Three short story films are presented. See my post on Dumplings for the first. The second involves an acting extra who has conflict with the film director. The third is about performing sisters who have a conflict over incestual fatherly love that leads one to kill the other.
Far-Eastern films always have something special, don't they? The plots of these three stories definitely held my attention. The characters were just deep enough to fill the length and not seem like dull people. The video was extremely varied with many techniques and the audio all sounded good. It was in the original languages and had good subtitles. I would go on a little bit more, but I don't want to spoil it. Overall, this is very much worth watching. I rate it good. Watch it!

Mother (2009)

A South Korean crime drama directed by Bong Joon-ho.
An old woman's son is accused of murder and imprisoned. She does her own detective work to prove his innocence.
This was really strange in that way that only Asian cinema can be. The plot barely held my attention and I think the characters were a tad stereotypical. The technical aspects were fine and everything made sense. There were some moments that really stood out to me. The mother hiding in her son's friend's closet while he has sex with his girlfriend was one. Another was the mother's meeting with the junk collector toward the end. These moments were the strange ones that caught my attention. Oh, and in the beginning, the mother feeds her son while he pees on a wall while waiting for the bus. Overall, not a great movie, but it had it's odd moments. I rate this o.k.

Memories of Murder (2003)

A South Korean crime drama directed by Bong Joon-ho, starring Song Kang-ho.
Police detectives try to find a serial killer. The killer strikes beautiful women wearing red on rainy nights when a certain song plays on the radio and has soft hands. He uses the women's clothing to strangle them.
This was alright. The plot was on the meandering side and the characters were not developed very well. There was almost a comedy element because people kept falling down in a slapstick manner, the cops were incompetent and kept arresting innocent people and trying to beat them into confessing to the crimes. The technical aspects (camera-work, pacing, style) all made sense. It was put together very well and conveyed the story clearly. That was what I noticed. I watched it last night and am writing this afternoon, so it's not exactly fresh in my mind.  Overall, I couldn't tell whether to laugh or be horrified. I rate this o.k.

Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)

A South Korean drama directed by Bong Joon-ho.
An aspiring professor is annoyed by a barking dog in his apartment building. He catches it and traps it in the basement, only to find that it is the wrong dog. When he goes to get the dog, the maintenance man is eating it. He then finds the right dog and kills it. An office worker girl sees this happen and shows the dog's owner, who dies shortly after. The professor's wife gets a dog, which he loses and the office worker helps him try to look for it.
This was a very complex plot with lots of characters, but there were memorable scenes that made everything fit together nicely. The camera-work was awesome. It showed everything very clearly and there were some unique shots. The most memorable parts for me were the maintenance men telling a ghost story in the basement and the office worker hanging out at her fat friend's store. Everyone and everything tied into the story very well and the script is probably a masterpiece worth reading on it's own. Overall, excellently made and it held my attention. I'm rating this good.
I know I've been giving too many good ratings recently without enough nudie pics. Fortunately for me, Far-Eastern cinema is just that way. The humor is cleaner, plots are better, characters are more memorable and the camera-work is superior. I'm talking modern here, not dime-a-dozen fuvies like "Shaolin Twelve Drunken Monks of the Buddhist Palm vs Wu-Tang Invincible Sleeping Fist" or other such '70s trash. Asian cinema has come a long way in a short time, leaving America in it's dust. Just read back a page or 2 on my blog for evidence of this.

Snowpiercer A.K.A. Seolgungnyeolcha (2013)

A South Korean science fiction action adventure directed by Bong Joon-ho, starring Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, John Hurt and Ed Harris.
A new ice age has been created by a failed solution to global warming. All of humanity now lives on a train that travels the entire world at high speed, with a hierarchal class system based on compartments. A leader in the low class tail compartment leads a revolution to reach the elite nose of the train.
This was pretty good. We've got some good characters in a mostly good plot with a unique premise. There were many majestic arctic shots of the train travelling through snowy landscapes and many action scenes of conflicts along the journey from back to front. The style was new movie 2000s+ too perfect, but it worked for a science fiction flick. Some of the action scenes were crappily shot with too much editing, too many different camera angles and shot styles in too little time. Some sections of the plot got a tad muddy and the version that I got did not have English subtitles for when the security expert junkie was speaking. For some odd reason, I found the woman in white depicted here to be irresistably attractive. Overall, I think it's worth watching and was generally a pleasant experience. I rate it adequate. You might want to watch this.

Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)

A South Korean war comedy directed by Park Kwang-hyun.
An American pilot crashes his plane in the mountains of Korea and is rescued by people from a village who haven't heard that a war was going on. A few days later, a group of North Korean soldiers and a group of South Korean soldiers also show up in the village.
I liked the premise and the plot was looking to go epic. The characters were a little confusing, but that did not hinder the film. I can't think of anything coherent and intelligent to write right now, but I liked it. I rate it good.

Solace (2006)

A South Korean romance by Byeon Seung-wook.
A woman whose father died left the family with unpaid debt. Her sister wants to get married. A man runs a pharmacy and lives with his mother and retarded brother. The 2 characters form a romantic relationship.
Things move pretty slowly in this slightly odd film. Not much changes besides the romance and almost every detail of their everyday lives is shown. On a side note, Bacchus is a real South Korean energy drink (actually called Bacchus-F) and is similar to red bull and other similar beverages. I'm rating this poor for being on the boring side.

Vampire Cop Ricky (2006)

A South Korean action film by Lee Si-myung.
A mosquito in Transylvania bites a vampire and flies away. It is hit by a Korean airplane and bites a man in Korea. The vampire mosquito gives the korean man vampire powers, but he can only use them when he is sexually aroused.
The premise is great and the cover is absolutely absurd. I thought it was going to be really cool. It was not. There were some funny moments, but overall, it was really boring. The pacing was so slow that no momentum could build up. The main character's name wasn't even Ricky! I'm rating this poor.

The Restless (2006)

A South Korean kung fu by Dong-oh Jo.
A wandering man saves a woman from demons and is thanked by her small village. They cite the fact that he is a wanted criminal and they have poisoned his wine. He escapes and falls asleep in a house. When he awakens, he is in Midheaven and is the only living person there. Soon Midheaven is attacked and the wandering man fights to protect a woman there who looks like his ex-girlfriend.
The plot is very complex and I'm sure that some of it was lost in translation. The style is very similar to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, with beautifully peaceful sets and lots of action. There was also a lot of flying and technologically assisted acrobatics. Some CG was used as well. I'm rating it good because I like pretty kung fu flicks.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

A South Korean crime drama by Park Chan-wook.
A deaf mute is trying to get his sister a kidney transplant. He sells his kidney to organ thieves who don't pay him and when a suitable donor comes up, he lacks the funds because the organ thieves took all of his money. The brother and sister team kidnap the owner of the factory where our main character was fired from in an effort to raise the money. The sister kills herself and while the main character is burying her (as per her wishes by a river), the kidnapped daughter drowns. It only gets more complicated from there.
Convoluted plot and too many characters don't work out very well here. This is part of a trilogy including Oldboy and Sympathy for Mrs. Vengeance. Needless to say, Mrs Vengeance will not be reviewed here. Because it's overcomplicated and confusing, I rate this bad.

Sunflower (2006)

A South Korean drama by Kang Seok-beom.
A gangster gets out of jail and tries to be good.
The simplistic plot lead to a lot of "lost in translation" things happening. Personally, I thought it was boring as watching grass grow, I'm rating it bad for being not worth watching. I've been a real hard-ass lately and I don't plan on quitting soon.

Oldboy (2003)

A South Korean crime mystery directed by Park Chan-wook.
A man is imprisoned for 15 years without knowing why. When he is released, he finds himself in a tangled web of conspiracy and violence.
Let's talk about murky plots! I know the main character is supposed to be confused by the situation, but is the viewer to suffer this same condition? The characters were not very identifiable, as one Korean in a business suit looks much like another to me. Obviously the plot and characters don't get rated very well. The style was alright and the production value was good. However, I don't see what good that does for the film in this case. One of the redeeming factors was the creative violence. The main character rips some guys' teeth out with a claw hammer and ends up cutting his own tongue off with scissors. Pretty brutal! I'm rating it poor for murkiness of plot.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

A South Korean drama by Kim Ki-duk.
The life of a Buddhist monk is shown in 5 stages. He starts off as a child in the care of a monk and when he is a young man, he leaves the monastery. He later returns.
The style was very good. There were lots of scenes of the monastery and the lake and forest around it, accompanied by traditional music of the region. The plot and characters were good and even though nothing outside the monastery was shown, the pace seemed to fit. This is one that you have to see to appreciate. I'm rating it awesome.

Natural City (2003)

A South Korean science fiction by Min Byeong-cheon.
In a futuristic society, a man has fallen in love with his cyborg, but it only has a few days left to live.
The characters were unidentifiable and the plot was unnecessarily confusing. The production value was very low and there was no style to speak of. I had to turn this off half-way through. Hence, I rate it shit.