Volcano High (Hangul: í™”ì‚°ê³ ; RR: Hwasango), the original version, is a 2001 South Korean martial arts action comedy film in the same vein as Tenjou Tenge. The film proved to be a commercial success in South Korea gaining 1,687,800 admissions nationwide becoming the 9th highest grossing Korean film of 2001.
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Jang continued to appear in high-profile projects; in 2003, Jang starred alongside Lee Na-young in the comedy Please Teach Me English,[12] by director Kim Sung-su and the following year, he starred opposite Jun Ji-hyun in Kwak Jae-yong's Windstruck.[13] Although Windstruck was generally not well received in Korea, it went on to beat Shiri and become one of the best-selling Korean films in Japan.[14]
It is commonly understood that the Korean New Wave kicked off in 1999 with South Korea's first Hollywood-style blockbuster, Shiri. A spy film directed by Kang Je-gyu, Shiri had the highest budget of a South Korean film at the time ($8.5 million) and still broke box office records upon its release. It was the reason James Cameron's Titanic sunk in South Korea, the only Asian nation the movie bombed.
The fourth release from Park Chan-wook, Joint Security Area was a smash hit at home, becoming the highest-grossing movie in Korean film history in 2001. It developed an international cult following thanks in part to American directors like Quentin Tarantino giving it public praise.
Here are the best Korean high school movies ever, ranked by fans everywhere. Featuring action dramas and romatic comedies, these famous South Korean high school movies include films about love triangles, bullying, and friendship. For new and recent titles, Gang and After My Death are two of the latest Korean high school movies.
The year 2002 could probably be described as "the best of times, and the worst of times." One one level, Korean cinema continued its breathtaking run of popularity with local audiences, winning over a 45.2% market share in Seoul, only slightly lower than the 46.1% recorded in 2001 (market share in Korea as a whole was likely higher, but harder to measure). Whereas 2001 featured five smash hits that towered about the competition, box-office in 2002 was more spread out, with a string of mid-level hits to complement the top earners Marrying the Mafia, The Way Home, and Sex is Zero. There were many box-office surprises as well, from the smashing success of the low-budget rural film The Way Home to the better than expected performance of films by top auteurs such as Oasis (Lee Chang-dong) and Chihwaseon (Im Kwon-taek).On the other hand, 2002 was the year when many investors lost confidence in the industry, following the spectacular failures of big-budget genre films Yesterday, R U Ready? and Resurrection of the Little Match Girl. With budgets soaring higher and higher, even many films that did well at the box-office ended up losing considerable sums of money. As a result, many of the venture capital companies who had rushed into the industry in 2000 and 2001 decided to move out, leaving many production companies short of cash. Although long-term, the bursting of the investment bubble was probably a good thing, in the short term it caused considerable turmoil in the industry and led to the cancellation of many projects. Artistically, however, Korean cinema was in top form. Several Korean films won prestigious awards at overseas festivals, including Chihwaseon (Best Director, Cannes), Oasis (Best Director and Best New Actor/Actress, Venice), and My Beautiful Girl, Mari (Grand Prix, Annecy International Animated Film Festival). Other films were less recognized, but no less accomplished, such as Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Hong Sangsoo's Turning Gate. Reviewed below: My Beautiful Girl, Mari (Jan 11) -- A.F.R.I.K.A. (Jan 11) -- Bad Guy (Jan 11) -- Public Enemy (Jan 25) -- Looking For Bruce Lee (Jan 26) -- 2009 Lost Memories (Feb 1) -- Saulabi (Feb 22) -- No Blood No Tears (Mar 1) -- My Beautiful Days (Mar 16) -- Turning Gate (Mar 22) -- Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Mar 29) -- The Way Home (Apr 5) -- Marriage is a Crazy Thing (Apr 26) -- Chihwaseon (May 10) -- Over the Rainbow (May 17) -- No Comment (May 31) -- Bet On My Disco (Jun 6) -- Yesterday (Jun 13) -- Champion (Jun 28) -- Phone (Jul 26) -- A Perfect Match (Aug 8) -- Oasis (Aug 15) -- Three (Aug 23) -- Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (Sep 13) -- Camel(s) (Sep 27) -- Saving My Hubby (Oct 18) -- Road Movie (Oct 18) -- Popee (Oct 18) -- Wet Dreams (Nov 6) -- Ardor (Nov 8) -- Jail Breakers (Nov 21) -- The Coast Guard (Nov 22) -- Public Toilet (Nov 29) -- Too Young To Die (Dec 6) -- A Bizarre Love Triangle (Dec 6) -- Sex is Zero (Dec 12) -- H (Dec 27) -- Conduct Zero (Dec 27).
* Click here for Top Ten lists for 2002 *Short ReviewsThese are some reviews of the features released in 2002 that have generated the most discussion and interest among film critics and/or the general public. They are listed in the order of their release. My Beautiful Girl, MariIt's been a long time since Korean animation has occupied a major position within the industry. In the 1970s, local animated films (mostly broadcast on TV) attracted viewers with creative images and stories, but in the decades since, Korea has produced little animation outside of outsourcing work for foreign studios (much of The Simpsons was drawn in Korea, for example). In recent years, several new production companies have made an effort to revive the industry and utilize local drawing talent for homegrown films. Although several high-profile works are on the way, My Beautiful Girl, Mari is the first major animated film in years to try to forge a new image for the industry. Mari tells the story of a boy named Namoo who lives in a seaside village. Several years after the death of his father, Namoo finds himself faced with further struggles: his grandmother is ill, his mother has a new boyfriend, and his best friend will move to Seoul at the end of the summer. Struggling with the prospect of further loss, Namoo begins to lose himself in fantasy, dreaming of a mysterious girl named Mari who leads him to another world.This film's director, Lee Sung-gang, is a rising talent who had drawn notice previously for his animated shorts, which played at many overseas festivals. The images he creates for My Beautiful Girl, Mari were made on the computer with fairly simple tools, such as Flash and Illustrator. Nonetheless the end result is dazzling: a multi-textured, vibrant world that is poetic in its simplicity. The voices for the film were recorded by real children (a refreshing change from the practice of having adults speak in high pitch), as well as some famous actors: both Lee Byung-heon and Ahn Sung-ki contribute their talents. Although this film was not a success at the box-office, it represents both a major step forward for Korean animation and the birth of a wondrous film that deserves not to be overlooked. Apart from its remarkable imagery, the film also proves to be a touching portrait of how children deal with loss. With luck, someday we may look back upon this film as a first step in the rebirth of Korean animation. (Darcy Paquet) A.F.R.I.K.A.Once a successful comedy director, Shin Seung-soo's latest works haven't attracted audiences, often silently lurking at the bottom of the year's box office. His latest 'girls with guns' effort seems no different. It offers nothing we haven't seen before, and no bankable stars - at least not yet, both Lee Yo-won and Kim Min-sun could become stars in the future. But despite its derivative plot, A.F.R.I.K.A. is reasonably well made and a decent ride, if your expectations are set at the right level.The cocktail of attractive young girls, loud rock music, a few action scenes, and the usual amount of silly comedy has made many films a success, but it's probably what makes A.F.R.I.K.A. a rather forgettable affair. It tries so hard to be cool, slick and funny that it forgets to take care of the fundamentals, like a script that flows well, or engaging characters. The film follows the adventures of four girls, who meet by accident and become a runaway team of idols (the film's title means "Adoring Four Revolutionary Idols Korean Association", named after the girls' Internet Fan Club). Through robbing gas stations, stealing cars, dealing with the people following them -- a cop and a gangster, driving together! -- the four become popular. One of the film's good ideas is showcasing, with the use of pop culture references, how the girls achieve their fame. Thanks to TV and the Internet they become so famous that fake A.F.R.I.K.A. teams start to pop up.The characters are little more than stereotypes. Rising star Lee Yo-won is the classic charismatic leader with an edge; Kim Min-sun thesexy, shallow 'babe' who raises a fuss over clothes and hair. Cho Eun-ji is the annoying, ugly duckling who we're supposed to care about, and Lee Young-jin the tough girl who often acts superior. The film does a good enough job of making this obvious, so that we take nothing seriously. But, that's a double edged sword, because at the end you don't really care about the characters. Better is the supporting cast who really carries the film. Lee Je-rak, Park Young-kyu and company frequently steal the show from the four girls, creating a few memorable moments. There are even references to recent popular comedies like Kick The Moon, Attack The Gas Station, and My Wife is a Gangster.With all its flaws, A.F.R.I.K.A. still manages to be fun, in a rather mindless way. Not all the jokes work, sometimes the girls overacta little too much, but the overall tone of the film makes you forget about such things pretty quickly. If you're looking for a night of low-maintenance fun, without strings attached, you'll probably enjoy the antics showcased in A.F.R.I.K.A. (V. "x" Naldi) Bad GuyA pimp is walking through downtown Seoul one day when he sees a middle-class college student sitting on a park bench. Smitten by her beauty, he goes and sits next to her, but she glares at him in disgust and walks away. Following behind, he kisses her violently out of the blue, but a group of passing soldiers subdue him. The girl spits in his face. Offended, yet still drawn to her, he starts to devise a sinister plan: to bring her down to his level, and make her a prostitute.Bad boy director Kim Ki-duk has been eagerly sought after by international film festivals ever since his third movie Birdcage Inn (1998). His films can be relied on to provide striking visuals and plenty of controversy. His work has become quite popular with audiences in Europe. Up until recently, however, he remained more or less unknown to Korean moviegoers, with none of his films registering more than a blip at the local box-office. This changed with Bad Guy. Several factors may have contributed to local audiences' strong interest in the film. To begin with, it was released just as lead actor Jo Je-hyun was winning over fans in the hit TV drama Piano. Kim had also slowly gained a reputation as "that director who's popular abroad", and audiences' curiosity, together with a marketing campaign centered around the film's provocative themes, turned Bad Guy into a commercial success.Few viewers are likely to leave the theater without strong feelings for or against this film. It features striking images and music, disturbing violence, strong acting, logic-defying plot developments, and a provocative epilogue that seems intended to stir up controversy. The film makes perhaps the most sense if you read it as a collision between the lower and middle classes. Kim himself is the product of a difficult upbringing that has left him feeling outraged at the inequities in Korean society.From a psychological perspective, the plot seems a major stretch, at least from the female character's point of view. Kim says he wanted to show the "inevitability" of the film's final outcome, but the change that our female lead undergoes seems calculated, and more the product of male fantasy than a response to all she has experienced. No matter, some viewers will argue -- but I still feel this film could have been stronger if it could have got more convincingly into the head of our inexperienced young prostitute. (Darcy Paquet) Public EnemyMany things have changed in the Korean film industry since Kang Woo-suk's last film, the '98 court comedy Bedroom and Courtroom. The man himself has become the most important figure in Korean Cinema. His production company, Cinema Service, is the top distributor in the country. After a three year-long hiatus, director Kang has come back with Public Enemy, marketed strongly around the Two Cops director's new 'hardboiled' streak. And indeed he has changed. Like his successful comedies (Two Cops, How To Top My Wife), Public Enemy uses social satire as one of its main selling points. But, in contrast with his previous works, it's grittier and much bloodier.Detective Kang Chul-joong (Sol Kyung-gu) is the complete antihero, stealing drugs from dealers, taking bribes left and right, neglecting his duties as a father, and dealing with suspects without the chore of following procedure. Cho Gyu-hwan (Lee Sung-jae) is the perfect case of split personality. When we first meet him, he's masturbating under the shower throwing profanities at his imaginary companion. Suddenly, out of the shower he's a normal family man, caring and considerate.The two get to know each other in the strangest of ways: while detective Kang is forced to defecate near an electric pole in the pouring rain, Gyu-hwan walks behind him, black raincoat and menacing grin, just minutes after having completed his first senseless murder. He stabs him too, and will force Detective Kang to change his habitual ways to catch him. And maybe change his life in the process.In Public Enemy there are no conventionally sympathetic characters: everybody is bad, and the film gains immensely from this. While Sol Kyung-gu and Lee Sung-jae battle each other through the course of the film, the usual array of memorable supporting characters tones down the harshness of the film. From Lee Moon-shik (who played the 'marine monk' in Hi, Dharma) as Mr. Math, to stage actor Kang Shil-in as the captain of the Homicide department. From Sung Ji-roo (a staple of Korean comedies) as the green-haired drug dealer, to Yoo Hae-jin as the retired Jopok who now acts as Chul-joong's 'knife expert.' The comedy in Public Enemy is tremendously effective. And, personally, it doesn't feel forced like in many of Kang's previous films.This mix of bloody action and comedy will not appeal to everybody. Both the murders and the jokes are pretty graphic in their depiction, and the lack of sympathetic characters might leave people used to director Kang's directorial style a bit puzzled. Still, Public Enemy is excellently produced, with a fantastic performance from Sol Kyung-gu (who gained 20 Kg for the role, and subsequently lost them again for Oasis. That's dedication), and really good chemistry between the two main characters. Also, unlike many of Kang's films, it doesn't overstay its welcome, even for a 138 minute film. Kang Woo-suk has made a darker, funnier and smarter film, one of the year's biggest surprises. (V. "x" Naldi) Looking For Bruce LeeTake part DIY, part Rebel Yell, part stream of consciousness, part documentary, and mostly part promotional material for the band Crying Nut, and what do you get? Well, pretty much a complete mess. Looking For Bruce Lee stars the four young men of said band and the city they call home, Seoul. However, while most young people must sit passively and watch the city they know and love fail to be represented on the screen as they know it and love it, resolved to voice their protest by throwing popcorn, (or this being South Korea, dried squid), at the screen, director Kang Lone and the boys of Crying Nut have decided to Help themselves in this Quadrophonic teenage wasteland of Hey, Hey We're The Punkees.What there is of a plot revolves around a serial killer who leaves Bruce Lee imagery placed all artsy-like beside the victims' bodies. The band's bassist, Han Kyung-rok, takes it upon himself to solve these murders. On his way, the film takes on a disjointed narrative with philosophical ramblings, fun with special effects, and intermittent interviews with Pilipina/o, Pakistani, Chinese, and other immigrants, plus Koreans who speak German and French and one who is quite attached to India. These interviews allow for something to salvage from this wreckage. One of the immigrants interviewed, whom I'm guessing is Eritrean or Ethiopian, represents one of the core themes with this comment made in English: "Everybody's asking me if I'm American. So from this thing, I can feel that American culture is dominating Korea." The title of this film alludes to this possible domination. "Looking For Bruce Lee" can be interpreted to mean looking for American culture, since, Bruce Lee was American. However, most Americans have to be reminded Bruce Lee was American, since he made his name in Hong Kong films. And Bruce Lee resisted calls to assimilate to the American culture he heard around him. Perhaps, this resistance to American pop culture is why Han's looking for Bruce Lee, to find his own way of appropriating cultural artforms that came to his home from elsewhere. Such resistance resonates in Looking For Bruce Lee in the piercing scream of the young Korean woman who finds her fun interrupted by an American who imposes himself on her. Kyung-rok, upon hearing the scream, jumps in to address the situation. His bruises in the next scene tell us a fight occurred, hinting at his resistance to being defined fully by another culture. For all its disjointedness, Looking For Bruce Lee does challenge the view that all pop cultural expressions are examples of mimic-ing American culture. These kids aren't just appropriating straight from American culture, as the interviews with all the immigrants mentioned before demonstrate. We're following a Punk band here. Punk music itself represents a multiplicity of cultural influences. Punk came out of Rock music, a genre developed in America with heavy initial influence from other genres such as Blues which were nourished by African-American communities. Although Punk's origins are often credited to the American band The New York Dolls, so much of its variations were formed in England via Punk stalwarts such as The Sex Pistols. And just as recent American Rock bands have borrowed from Hip-Hop, British Punk appropriated heavily from Ska, as Crying Nut demonstrates in the track that opens the film. Ska is a musical genre that came to England from Jamaica. And the first Jamaican Ska band to tour England was led by a Chinese-Jamaican, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. So it's not as simple as saying American culture is taking over South Korea. It's more than just America that's influencing Korean youths. And Korean youths are not just buying what America is selling. Like all involved in the Korean movie industry, they are bringing their own flavor to the smorgasboard of genres. Culture, like its brethren Language, morphs with the local and the global simultaneously. Crying Nut just wants to tell their story through the multiple media available to them. And, regardless of how incoherent it is at times, their story is one of the multiple stories of an ever mutating Seoul. It is the inclusion of the snippets of stories of so many different immigrants in South Korea that most impresses me about the film. Although we've seen immigrant characters portrayed in such films as Failan and Take Care of My Cat, we've never seen so many presented in any Korean film before nor have they been allowed to speak for themselves. Although some of the interviews appear to be staged soliloquies, others appear to be very sincere. Many Punk lyrics revolve around feeling like an outsider and here we have a Punk journey that joins in solidarity with the ultimate outsiders, immigrants. "You can't understand me," says a Pilipina immigrant ending her interview. And you sense that, even if these kids don't know what she's saying, they definitely understand what it's like not to be understood.Regardless of this melody hidden within the distortion, for those who have no affection for Punk music or ADD-like, art-school, filmic meanderings, this film will be a wrenching pain to watch. It veers off in so many directions with what appears to be editing as an afterthought, or as no thought at all, that it's difficult to discern a coherent whole. (What's that whole woman cutting off her leg story about? A metaphor for "selling out"? Sadly, whatever it is, it turns into yet another stereotypical portrayal of the Disabled, what Martin F. Norden would describe as the "Obsessive Avenger" trope.) Perhaps Kang could get away with this disarray by claiming an anarchic punk expression, but that would be too easy an out. The movie wants to present a theme. It's "Looking For Bruce Lee," isn't it? And exploring subthemes haphazardly with very weak editing choices, such as intertitles placed at random, mostly defeats the film's mission. One band member, perhaps intentionally, sums up the film when he narrates how his pre-Punk forays into writing "lacked structure, syntax . . ." and how his "metaphors weren't harmonious." Right there, the film provides its own review. (Adam Hartzell) 2009 Lost Memories2009 Lost Memories unfolds from an intriguing premise: what if An Jung-geun had failed to assassinate Ito Hirobumi in Harbin, 1909, and this single incident opened an alternative historical path -- in which Japan had never lost the Second World War, Korea had never gained independence, and still remains Japan's colony as of 2009? Based on a novel by Bok Geo-il (who sued the production companies to have his name removed from credits), the film proved a hit with moviegoers, although its expensive production cost (estimated at more than 6 million dollars) made it less profitable than more cheaply made The Way Home and Marrying the Mafia.The idea behind the project gets high marks for innovation and daring. It is extremely rare for Korean cinema to tackle subjects even half-heartedly science fictional, much less such hot-potato topics as the impact of Japanese colonization on Korean history. Sure, I can find numerous faults with the movie's narrative logic, historical authenticity and production details ("Furei senjin," a real historical term, is never spelled correctly; All Japanese women in this movie look and behave in the way middle-aged Korean men would like to think of them, i.e. kimono-clad, utterly subservient housewives, already stock figures in early twentieth century Japan; Jang Dong-gun's Saigo shoots his erstwhile colleague dead, seemingly having figured out the latter's betrayal through telepathy; to name only a few problems), but all these can be called minor caveats. Neither do I feel like taking the movie to task for toeing the hoary Koreans-not-Japanese- should-conquer-the-world- nationalist line. (Is it just me who thinks that the movie's vision of the utopian "unified Korea" looks suspiciously like North Korea's "paradise on earth"?) After all, one can argue that Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury also presents gross, Sinocentric stereotypes of Japanese. Finally, I am willing to ignore the film's failure to satisfactorily resolve the time-travel paradox in its frankly ludicrous ending.All these problems could have been forgiven, if only the movie itself was entertaining. Before seeing it, I expected Lost Memories to be one of those overproduced quasi-Hollywood blockbusters: the kind of movie you are slightly ashamed of admitting that you enjoyed it -- crass, maybe, but fun.What I ended up with was anything but: a lugubrious, turgid "epic," wallowing in its own sense of teeth-rattling pseudo-profundity. Its idea of "action" is having people running back and forth in flat, boring setups, firing tons of bullets from submachine guns at each other, and showing in gory details their bodies being punched full of bloody holes. Jang Dong-gun, obviously speaking his Japanese dialogue phonetically, and Nakamura Toru, as two male leads, acquit themselves through sheer star charisma, even though their characters are not much more than Action Movie Types: you know these men have never sneezed or cracked a joke once in their lives. Director Lee Si-myong, obviously a sincere fan of John Woo, rigorously copies the Hong Kong-born auteurs's worst traits -- his aggressively macho sentimentality and lack of restraint, to cite two examples -- without having learned a shred of the latter's wit or visual poetry. In one sequence, a little boy is brutally killed by gunfire, and his mid-air "balletic" death throes are cross-cut with shots of another child running into her father's embrace, all shown in agonizing slow motion. Scenes like this remind me, instead of the romanticized violence in a John Woo film, of an old propaganda TV drama in which North Korean Communist guerrillas mow down Commie-hating South Korean children in, what else, excruciating slow motion. (Can a Korean director ever make an action movie without using slow motion cinematography? Every second or third gong-dang scene in Lost Memories winds down to a crawl, in some cases totally trivializing whatever it is that the scene tries to convey, in other cases compromising perfectly fine effects shots or performances. I wouldn't have been surprised if the movie showed Jang Dong-gun chewing sushi in slow motion)Lost Memories picks up its pace only when there are some explosions, light shows or other excuses for CGI effects. The "time gate" sequence, while not original in conception, is nicely done and is a refreshing contrast to all the preceding action set pieces. The best sequence in the entire movie is in fact the credit-sequence montage, in which an alternative history of the flourishing Japanese colonial empire is told with a series of ingeniously doctored stills, Forrest Gump-style, a minor triumph for the CGI and editing staff. Only if the movie could live up to one third of the expectations set up by this introduction.The kindest thing I can say about 2009 Lost Memories is that it was a nice try. I sincerely hope that there will be another Korean film that explores the possibilities of counter-factual history or science fiction with more imagination and ingenuity -- without John Woo's living spirit breathing down its neck -- in slow motion. (Kyu Hyun Kim) SaulabiLet us not forget that the edit is a special effect. How scenes are pieced together establishes the trajectory of the narration, be it linear, flashbacks, etc. Shot/reverse-shots establish points of view the audience is encouraged to take on. Particularly effective is the jump cut. As Norman M. Klein reminds us in his massive tome, The Vatican To Vegas: A History of Special Effects, the first special effect is argued to be the jump cut that took place in Mary Queen of Scots (Alfred Clark, 1895). According to Klein, Clark "stopped the camera before the ax fell, told the players to stand still, then replaced the actress with a dummy" to present the illusion of a beheading. Back in its day, this provided quite a shock. Yet when used ad nauseum and with such unrealistic looking dummies as is the case in Moon Jong-keum's Saulabi, the effect doesn't hold much affect. It's so bad it isn't even laughable, but steps into the pathetic.The film begins at the end of the Paekje Kingdom in the year 600 AD where soldiers commit suicide out of respect for their king's loss of his kingdom. Then we jump 475 years later where over a dozen warriors commit to re-establishing their domain. They are up against Japanese samurai in their efforts to reclaim what was theirs, allowing for some swordfights. Sadly, what could have been Saulabi's saving graze, the choreography of the swordfights, becomes that which underscores how much this film underperforms. Considering that the choreographer, Takakura Eizi, had a longtime relationship with Akira Kurosawa, the fact that Saulabi can't hold a dinner knife to the better choreography in A Sword In The Moon is even more startling and disappointing. Lee Hwan-kyung's screenplay and Moon's film are a bit of attempted myth-making. They wish to attach the myth of the Japanese samurai to that of the Korean saulabi, or bearers of the "spirit sword." This reference to a mythologized aspect of Japanese culture extends further with how the komun'go is utilized as a plot device. The komun'go is a large stringed musical instrument played while laid flat, what some may know as a "zither". Those who are familiar with a similar Japanese instrument, might be thinking to themselves, "Oh, you mean like the kotto, right?" And, yes, that's the point here, to establish another connection between something better recognized in its Japanese form. As Koudo (the very handsome Lee Sang-hoon - Windstruck, Mutt Boy) tells us in the subtitles, the komun'go is "similar" to the koto, "but has different origins." Osame (Uememya Masako) is drawn to Koudo by the sound of the komun'go. Although not drunk, which is the state of being a famous Korean calligrapher named Ch'u-sa claimed one must be in to appreciate the komun'go, Osame finds herself transfixed by its sound, surprised she could find an instrument that could compete with her country's koto. It is this instrument that brings these two together as lovers, and since Osame's father has promised her to the Japanese Lord of the area, this dooms both their fates. Moon and Lee are obviously quite earnest in their attempts here to broaden the myths of South Korea against those of Japan, unfortunately, they are too earnest, too serious. Perhaps if the intensity was broken up with some humor, (there were a couple efforts but they fail miserably), this film may have survived as something watchable. However, as it stands presently, I cringe at the thought of a second viewing, barely able to withstand revisiting certain scenes to make sure my comments are supportable by the text. (I used to have this personal ethical rule that I must watch every film twice before I settled on my feelings about it. Films like Saulabi are the reason I've since tossed that rule aside.) Historians might be able to excavate more from this film, but unless you've chosen that professional or hobbyist path, I can't possibly recommend this. The soldiers at the beginning of this film who disemboweled and poisoned themselves when the Paekje Kingdom fell are the truly lucky ones, for they didn't have to stick around and watch the rest of this horrible film. (Adam Hartzell) No Blood No TearsIn summer 2000, young director Ryu Seung-wan became the talk of the Korean film industry for Die Bad, his debut film pieced together from four thematically-related 16mm short films. Die Bad's pacing, humor, and adrenaline-charged violence impressed even veteran directors, and it ended up becoming one of the most widely praised films of the year. A few months later, Ryu made a further impression with Dazimawa Lee, a 30-minute comedy shot on digital video and released over the internet, where it became a runaway hit. The film recorded over 1.5 million views and attracted a cult following for its grossly overstated spoof of 1970s action films. So when Ryu finally got around to making his first feature-length film, he was already somewhat of an industry darling. No Blood No Tears is the story of two tough women who get sick of being kicked around by the crooks in their life, and decide to steal a bagful of money. Starring one of today's top actresses in Jeon Do-yeon and a major star from the 1980s in Lee Hye-young, the two promised to deliver Korea's first "women's action buddy movie", and the film was expected to become a popular hit.It was not to be so. Although certainly not a bomb at the box-office, it did less than what most people were expecting, and it seems to have been quickly forgotten. This is a shame, because even though it wasn't a crowd-pleaser, No Blood No Tears is forceful, well-crafted, and distinctively grim.Perhaps the film's biggest achievement is the look and mood it creates. Marketed as a "pulp noir", the movie features gorgeous dark lighting and colors, with strong doses of violence. At first, the story jumps about from past to present before settling down to present its complex plot filled with detours and reversals.It also features a rich array of unique and twisted personalities. The obsessed boyfriend hell-bent on revenge is played masterfully by Jung Jae-young from Guns & Talks. Making an impressive acting debut is Jung Du-hong, Korea's most accomplished action director who has worked on a wide number of films from Musa to The Foul King. His moves in this film show clearly why he is so respected. The director's younger brother Ryu Seung-beom, one of the hottest acting talents in the industry, also takes a role, together with a number of older actors who became famous for their action roles in the 1970s.One thing the film does not have is the amount of humor seen in Ryu's previous works. It also fails somewhat to deliver on its claim of being a women's action movie, with the women getting roundly beaten up for just about the whole film. In this sense the finished product has not been what people were expecting, but it is nonetheless an entertaining, visceral treat. (Darcy Paquet) My Beautiful DaysAmongst the year's biggest disappointments was seeing this underrated film completely vanish from theaters, just a few days after release, crushed by Hollywood blockbusters and big Korean films. Director Im Jong-jae's My Beautiful Days is one of those understated dramas that doesn't really fit conventional (commercial or arthouse) canons, which seems to spell boxoffice trouble in the current climate of Korean Cinema. The film mixes commercial aspects next to subtle performances, and a realistic characterization. The final result might seem of little importance to impatient viewers, waiting for something exciting to happen. Quite frankly, nothing much happens indeed; but it's what the characters experience during this timespan, how they grow out of it, which makes this film interesting.More than a simple love story, this is a voyage through aparticular phase of adulthood, when people in their mid twenties (the Koreantitle means "24") aren't sure yet of what to do with their future. This uncertainperiod when doubts and fears arise often leads people to stay still, afraidof their ever changing life. The story centers around Jun-i (Kim Hyun-sung,of Resurrection of the Little Match Girl fame), a civil servant nearthe end of his duty. He spends his free time working for Jun-i's (Myung Kay-nam)dry cleaners store, living with the only person he could call friend. Healso has an affair with an older, married woman (Pang Eun-jin); the two rarelycommunicate, and their relationship seem solely based on sexual attraction.Past the characters' introduction, the film intertwines in a rather effectiveway the emotional problems of the two men named Jun-i. Young Jun-i meets his ex-girlfriend(Byun Eun-jung), who introduces him to her sister (Kim Min-sun). He is instantlyattracted by her vitality and joy of life. What seems to intrigue him themost is her confidence and determination to achieve her goals, somethinghe clearly lacks, and couldn't find in his previous companions. The olderJun-i is living in an emotional limbo of his own, escaping his past loves(a woman, and painting), surviving day by day by ironing shirts and talkingwith his younger aide. 2ff7e9595c