Blog Archives

Assassination (2015)

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Posted on August 13, 2017 by Andrew

Some movies opt for a mysterious title to incite audience interest, while some movies are more up front. Assassination is pretty up front. Yet there’s so much more to it than that one noun bluntly seems to state.

Director Choi Dong-hoon returns with another big-budget rollercoaster of a film, sharing many faces with his last feature The Thieves. Also similar to his previous hit is the basic structure of Assassination, with a large cast maneuvering their way to … (read more)

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The Terror, Live (2013)

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Posted on September 2, 2014 by Justin

The Terror, Live is a nail-biter of a thriller that screened in South Korea about a year ago, managing five million domestic tickets sold — a pretty decent showing given that it opened against Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer (which set domestic opening records, and eventually ended up at 9.3M admissions). Terror is a very different film, though: recalling Hollywood “maniac on a phone” films of yesteryear (think Phone Booth, or perhaps even Speed), it sets almost the entire film … (read more)

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The Berlin File (2013)

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Posted on August 13, 2013 by Eugene

Who knew?  North Korea, despite being the diplomatic Bogeyman of the western world still maintains an embassy in Berlin.  Admittedly, now that I’ve looked it up on Wikipedia, it does seem less impressive to have a Korean spy thriller set specifically in Berlin (which I was led to believe was somewhat unique).  Nonetheless the city still retains a residual cloak and dagger ambiance from years of the Cold War and films about the subterfuge that once went on in … (read more)

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The Client (2011)

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Posted on August 7, 2012 by Justin

The Client begins with an oddly blank-faced young man clutching a bouquet of flowers, walking slowly through a crowded parking lot into an apartment crawling with police. It’s his anniversary, but his wife’s not there: instead, there’s a blood-soaked mattress and a police officer holding out a pair of handcuffs. … (read more)

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The Yellow Sea (2010)

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Posted on May 29, 2011 by James

Na Hong-jin’s second film confirms that he is the number one crime-action auteur to emerge from Asia in recent memory. I like his films more than Park Chan-wook’s head-scratchingly abstract work since Oldboy and also Kim Ji-woon’s fun but sadly empty and pointless excursions post-A Tale of Two Sisters. Na’s first film, The Chaser, is a taut, horrific thriller with great momentum and some shocking surprises. It starred two very good but nonprominent Korean actors, Kim and … (read more)

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