| 'Money' Comes Up Rather Short (Source) |
2009/09/03 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Ten rising South Korean filmmakers present seriocomic stories about money matters in the omnibus project "Short! Short! Short! 2009": Show Me the Money.
As much as the opening film for the 10th Jeonju International Film Festival is about money, the tight budget for the project ($5,000 per director) is most palpable. The screaming individuality and experimentalism of each episode compensate, but commercial prospects seem slight and the flick will most likely find a small niche in arthouse cinemas.
The omnibus reel opens with Choi Ik-hwan's one-cut flick "Our Last Words, Live". The "Life Is Cool" director offers a mock home video featuring two despairing young men, who, defrauded, bankrupt and about to get arrested for false charges, try to assert their innocence by recording their last words on tape before committing suicide. But life ― and death ― are often beyond one's control.
In "A Tip for Cigarettes" by Nam Da-jeon, a news rep... |More
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| [DVD Review] 'Roommates': Study Hard, Then You Die (Source) |
2008/09/28 |
 The true horror is the win-at-all-cost mentality
Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)
The third film in the series of HD-lensed horror films produced by Yoo Il-han is "Roommates - 4 Horror Tales" (2006), connected to the previously reviewed "Hidden Floor" ("Forbidden Floor - 4 Horror Tales") via the central character of Bo-ram (Eun-seong): she is the girl with burn scars briefly glimpsed by the "Forbidden Floor - 4 Horror Tales"'s possessed toddler in the train station.
"Roommates - 4 Horror Tales" directly delves into probably the most important subject for the K-horror, the evils of education system, specifically a setup in which one shot of college entrance examination basically formalizes and entrenches one's status (economic, social, martial, yo... |More
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| 'February 29': Deja Vu All Over the Place (Source) |
2007/12/02 |
 [DVD Review] You Il-han's horror short given a lackluster adaptation
Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)
"4 Horror Tales" was the 2006 summer season's top-line experiment of producing four horror movies based on Yoo Il-han's short stories on the cheap in high definition video. The tab was picked up by CJ Entertainment and TV station SBS. Yoo himself was involved as executive producer, teaming up with Korea's resident horror specialist Ahn Byeong-ki ("Phone", "A.P.T", among others) and giving opportunities to four young directors to scare up the audience in theaters as well as on TV screens.
The first installment "February 29 - 4 Horror Tales" might be of interest to the fans of "Dae Jang Geum" ("Jewel in the Palace"), a mega-hit Korean TV drama, since ... |More
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| Brussels Fantastic Invites 2 Korean Films (Source) |
2007/03/20 |
Two of last year's big budget fantasy thrillers have been invited to compete at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film (BIFFF), set to run April 5th – 17th, 2007 in Belgium. BONG Joon-ho's record-smashing monster film "The Host" and JO Dong-oh's purgatorial fantasy "The Restless" will vie for the top international prize in the program.
Other Korean films selected to participate in the non-competition category are AHN Byeong-ki's residential horror "A.P.T" (2006), KIM Eun-kyeong's boarding school nightmare, "Roommates - 4 Horror Tales" (2006), JO Beom-jin's scatological animation "Aachi and Ssipak" (2006), LEE Si-myeong's biting comedy "Vampire Cop Ricky" (2006) and LIM Ah-ron's animated children's feature "Mug Travel" (2006).
BIFFF ranks along with Spain's Sitges and Portugal's Fantasporto as one of the world's top three fantastic film festivals. Previous Korean awardees at the festival include KIM Ki-duk's "The Isle" (2000) and JANG Joon-hwan's "Save the Gree... |More
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