Director / Writer : Jang Jun-Hwan
Cast : Shin Ha-Kyun, Paek Yun-Sik, Hwang Jeong-Min, Lee Jae-Young, Lee Joo-Hyun

Synopsis
Byung-Gu explains to his girlfriend Sooni that aliens live on planet earth and are responsible for all the problems on the planet. Byung concludes that the wealthy and successful businessman Kang Man-Shik is a top alien and so he and Sooni kidnap the man in the hope that he will allow them to speak to the Alien Prince of Andromeda. When Man-Shik responds with confusion at his being kidnapped and doesn’t tell them what they want to hear, Byung-Gu is already prepared. To save the planet he will torture the truth out of the man…

Review
by Martin Cleary

For some reason I thought that Save The Green Planet was a ‘crazy’ comedy. The film’s colourful posters and adverts all depict Shin Ha-Kyun smiling like a moron. Even looking at the dvd case I was still expecting something possibly Stephen Chow-like. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Green Planet is partly a comedy – and yes, it has some brilliantly funny scenes – but it’s also quite nasty. Think Reservoir Dogs meets Men In Black and that’s still only part-way to describing this amazing film from South Korea.

Continue reading

Director : Wook-Suk Kang
Cast : Kyung-gu Sol, Sung-jae Lee, Shin-il Kang, Jeong-hak Kim and Yong-gu Do.

Synopsis
Ruthless cop Chul-Joong and a merciless killer in a raincoat run into each other in a small alleyway and form a fatal bond. A free-for-all fight occurs by coincidence on a rainy street. A week later, the dead bodies of an old couple are discovered…

Review
by Edward Tang

I beg of everyone today, do not compare your film to another on the DVD cover because you won’t get my business. It’s a shame that films given this added touch like this can’t sell themselves enough to generate good buzz for just being a good f*ckin’ movie by itself. This film on the other hand didn’t need anything like “The Korean Dirty Harry” because Public Enemy is a great film without any doubt. Sure, it follows the same type of role that Dirty Harry made famous (The renegade cop not following the rules bit that has been done so many times it really sucks) but thankfully this film has enough going for it to make you forget all about that tacked on marketing shit. I enjoyed myself during this film, especially for the performance from Kyung-gu Sol whom plays the role better than most of have tried the same crappy path. This film also has a nice standard, instead of relying on a SURPRISE killer at the end, we are given him in the beginning and guess what? They still get the job done at the end of the day. Sure the plot has been beat to death, but thankfully there is enough black humor and other shit to make this film worth watching again.

Continue reading

Director : Byeong-ki Ahn
Cast : Ji-won Ha, Yu-mi Kim, Woo-jae Choi, Ji-yeon Choi and Seo-woo Eun.

Synopsis
Soon after Ji-won gets a new cell phone, her friend’s young daughter, Yeong-ju, puts it to her ear and immediately begins screaming in terror. When other strange things start happening in connection with the phone, Ji-Won does some investigating and discovers that of the people before her who had the same number, almost all of them died suddenly under unusual circumstances. As Yeong-ju’s behavior becomes increasingly alarming, Ji-won digs deeper into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the number’s first owner, a high school girl named Jin-hie.

Review
by Edward Tang

For the last year or so, I’ve seen about 15 movies that center around the telephone. The telephone is a device that can be used for many purposes, like getting pizza or calling a 35 year old woman and enjoying yourself in more ways than one. But these small ideas couldn’t fit with the writers of the world, so the phone became a demonic device which signaled your death with an eerie phone call.

Continue reading

Director : Jae-yeon Yun
Cast : Ji-hyo Song, Han-byeol Park, An Jo, Ji-Yeon Park and Su-a Hong

Synopsis
A staircase leading to the dormitory of a remote boarding school usually has 28 stairs, but every so often there appears to be 29. When someone steps on the mysterious extra stair, the horror begins.

Review
by Edward Tang

This is the second Korean horror flick I’ve seen in a row (Acacia was the first) and I must say that they should concentrate on something else. This film is supposedly the third in a trilogy of “Ghost films”, after seeing this it seems that I probably won’t be visiting the other two films.

Continue reading

Director : Baek Woon-Hak
Cast : Seok-hun Kim, Sang-min Park, Du-na Bae and Oh-jung Kwon

Synopsis
When a former undercover agent takes a crowded subway hostage, one detective must risk it all by facing the terrorist in a deadly showdown.

Review
by Edward Tang

When you see a film that is compared to others in this fashion “In the same game as Speed and Under Siege, comes this rip roaring action packed film straight for South Korea!”, just avoid it like the f*ckin’ plague. They tried to hard with that line, but I’m still a sap, and knowing that Korea has produced some good action films (Namely Shiri), this one was a no-brainer considering the low price tag. Through the notion that some films can be crap but still be “entertaining” can be used in many categories, I”m afraid “Tube” falls a little bit short. I don’t know what this film tried to accomplish, because it wasn’t a fast-paced film. There were many parts that were trying to build this dramatic side to the characters, which just didn’t do anything for the time at hand. Sure it’s like Speed and Under Siege, it successfully takes their plot and characters and makes them even worse! Alas, the action sequences weren’t that good at all, there were two in general that involved big bitch machine guns and thousands of slugs being sprayed all over the place, but they looked sloppy and belong in the “visited territory” box.

Continue reading

Director : Bong Joon-ho
Cast : Song Kang-Ho, Byun Hee-Bong, Bae Doo-Na, Park Hae-Il, Go Ah-Sung, Lee Jae-Eung, Kim Roi-Ha, Park No-Shik, Yoon Je-Moon, Im Pil-Sung

Synopsis
As it has done for ages, the Han River continues to pierce the very center of the capital city Seoul. But one day in the year 2000….Through an unfortunate incident, a creature of an obscure nature is conceived in the waters of the river. As the creature slowly starts to grow in the depths of the river, people fail to sense signs of an impending disaster, devoting themselves to the Korea-Japan World Cup soccer finals, the President elections and to their individual lives. Then one day in 2005, in front of countless citizens taking a stroll and enjoying the weekend on the banks of the Han River, the creature reveals itself in a shocking display of horror.

Review
by Jin Hien Lau

Infusing the high concept entertainment values of Jaws or Snakes On A Plane with Oscar worthy portrayal of humanity’s struggle for survival with a pinch of tongue in cheek anti-bureaucracy subtext. That’s the best I can describe Bong Joon Ho’s “The Host” (Goemul) .

Continue reading

Director : Park Chanwook
Cast : Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Du-na Bae, Ji-Eun Lim, Bo-bae Han and Se-dong Kim

Synopsis
This is the story of Ryu, a deaf man, and his sister, who requires a kidney transplant. Ryu’s boss, Park, has just laid him off, and in order to afford the transplant, Ryu and his girlfriend develop a plan to kidnap Park’s daughter. Things go horribly wrong, and the situation spirals rapidly into a cycle of violence and revenge.

Review
by Edward Tang

Park Chanwook is awesome. Not only did he produce the ever popular Oldboy (Excellent movie) but he also put his name on JSA: Joint Security Area, a masterpiece in it’s own right. His third film in the Vengeance Saga (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) picked up the best picture award at the Korean Blue Dragon Awards. Basically, the guy knows how to direct movies that deserve attention and are well worth the price of admission. The same can be said for his first Vengeance-fueled romp in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Okay, so it doesn’t have the BIG surprise at the end or power that Oldboy dishes out but who cares? Sympathy has mucho going for it, including great direction, storytelling and some great performances. I’ve seen three out of the four and I’m currently creaming my pants in anticipation for the third because a guy like this doesn’t come around often when he can make three involving films that basically punch you in the head. And don’t think that you won’t ask for another smack in the face, because this kind of pain is awesome.

Continue reading

Director : Park Chanwook
Cast :  Min-sik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, Hye-heong Kang, Dae-han Ji, Dal-su Oh, Byeong-ok Kim and Seung-Shin Lee.

Synopsis
Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter. After a drunken night on the town, he is abducted and locked up in a strange, private “prison.” No one will tell him why he’s there and who his jailer is and his fury builds to single-minded focus of revenge. 15 years later, he is unexpectedly freed, given a new suit, a cell phone and 5 days to unravel the mystery and discover the identity of the enemy who had him imprisoned.

Review
by Edward Tang

Basically seeing this film for the first time is probably one of the better experiences you can have watching cinema. I didn’t think that film could live up to expectations. Frankly, I was surprised that this film was over two years old when I first saw it because it felt so very new to me when I was given the opportunity to view probably one of the true masterpieces of modern cinema. The film has basically everything going for it, whether it’s a complete story that moves you along and never stops until the credits role, or the fact that the actors truly capture their roles, or just because you can still have fun with this film. “Old Boy” is the second Vengeance film in the Park Chanwook trilogy, the first being Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and the final being Sympathy for Lady Vengeance which was just released this year. Old Boy fits into that classic middle chapter that might just make it the most disturbing of all films. During this film we are given some horrific details on why this all went about, which still has me thinking up these entire theories on how Dae-su will live with himself. The only part that makes me scratch my head is the final scenes, a little bit stupid for my taste, but it doesn’t take away from the movie.

Continue reading