South Korea
Film Review – Exhuma
Tense, chilling, and multi-layered, writer/director Jang Jae-hyun’s Exhuma (2024) is a spooky horror mystery. To say that this is only a ghost story would be insufficient, as Jang starts from a supernatural/occult angle but uses it to broaden his thematic scope. There are elements of family legacy, the…
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Film Review – Decision to Leave
If there is one thing to expect from South Korean director Park Chan-wook, it’s the unexpected. From The Vengeance Trilogy, Thirst (2009), Stoker (2013), and The Handmaiden (2016), Park is a master of keeping us on our toes. Even when we have a familiarity with his set up, he has a knack for…
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Film Review – Spiritwalker
A man wakes up from a car crash with no memory of how we got there. He has no recollection of who he is or how he ended up behind the wheel. The only clues he has is a picture of a woman he does…
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Film Review – Hard Hit
Writer/director Changju Kim’s Hard Hit (2021) is a solid, throwback thriller. A remake of the Spanish film, Retribution (2015), this South Korean offering has the DNA of tense, location-specific action films of the past. Characters trapped in a vehicle wired with a bomb will call to mind the premise of Speed (1994).…
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Film Review – #Alive
The South Korean horror film #Alive (2020) contains just about all the usual tropes of the zombie apocalypse subgenre. This is both a good and bad thing. One on hand, there’s just enough entertainment value to make it worth watching. If you’re looking for something…
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Film Review – Parasite
Bong Joon Ho’s Korean film, Parasite (2019) is a stunning achievement. It’s a work that is as keenly prescient as it is superbly crafted. One of the joys of watching a great movie is not having a clue where it is going. As Bong Joon…
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Film Review – The Villainess
The Villainess plays with the action genre in some different ways with clever editing and good fights but it can’t quite deliver being more than just an above average revenge flick. It starts with a great epic fighting sequence shot like a first person shooter…
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