Postman To Heaven / <천국의 우편배달부> 2009

Directed by: Lee Hyeong-min / 이형민
Release date: November 2009

There is a mail box in the middle of a field. Jo Ha-na (Han Hyo-joo / 한효주) goes to mail a letter to her dead boyfriend and meets the “postman” (Hero / 영웅재중), a guy who says he delivers these letters to folks who are dead and in heaven. She doesn’t believe him and they go to a café for coffee. She still doesn’t believe him and …

Beyond that, I don't know. We quit watching the film right here, all in agreement that it was a totally uninteresting film with flat acting. My take: DD

Finding Mr. Destiny / <김종욱 찾기> 2010

Directed by: Jang Yoo-jeong / 장유정
Release date: December 2010

Ki-joon loses his job in a travel agency due to his picky personality and launches his own business which is dedicated to finding clients’ lost first loves. Much to her father’s dismay, Ji-woo rejects a proposed from her present boyfriend. She claims she can’t let go of her first love, whom she met while traveling in India, and her father drags her to Ki-joon’s office. Ki-joon and Ji-woo begin their search for her first love, not an easy task as his name, Kim Jong-ook, is a common one. In the end, will love once again triumph? But whose love for who?

An uneven film, with some funny parts and some annoying parts. The interaction in the lost-loves-found office between Ki-joon and his brother-in-law is a hoot. High on the list of annoying, for me, is the theme of one person being obnoxious yet the other person managing to fall in love with them (the same for Hello Ghost and My Sassy Girl). My take: CD

Wish / <바람> 2009

Directed by: Lee Seong-han / 이성한
Release date: September 2009

High school in Busan in the 1990s, apparently a pretty rough time and place. As the third son after a high-achieving older brother and sister, Jjang-goo is the black sheep of the family as he only gets into a technical high school. We follow him through his coming-of-age journey through these high school years. Will he flourish? Will he get bullied? Will he make a success out of his life?

An unusual aspect of the film was being able to overhear the internal dialog that goes on in Jjang-goo's head. He is an average guy who just wants to make a go of life and basically a nice person who is not understood by his cold-fish family members. The film had some very creative camera work as well and the music, a traditional music score that you more often see in a history film, was well done. The word is that this film really resonates with Korean guys who lived through this time and place. My take: CCC

I watched a unsubtitled version of this film and thought: “If this film hasn’t been subtitled yet, I would LOVE to take on this project!

Green in the wood: high school campus roads and students.

Introspective Jjang-goo (Jeong Woo / 정우) follows a different drummer.

Like a Virgin <천하장사 마돈나> 2006

Directed by: Lee Hae-joon / 이해준
Release date: August 2006

High school student Dong-kyu’s idol is Madonna—he believes he himself is a woman born in a man’s body and dreams of emulating her. Hoping to win enough to pay for a transgender operation, he signs up for a ssirim wrestling contest and begins training.

For the most part, I loved this upbeat comedy. A couple scenes were overly brutal and I could have done without the bathroom humor. That being said, the film is replete with entertaining sight gags. I also found the camera work exceptionally well done. Then the main character’s unflappable optimism and cheerful approach to life, in the face of all setbacks, endeared him to me. My take: CC

Neophyte wrestler Dong-gu (Ryoo Deok-hwan / 류덕환)

finds something interesting to do with a ssirim wrestling sash

before beginning training.

 

Our Happy End / <사랑황동의 내구성> 2010

Directed by Seong Il-seok / 성일석
Release date: November 2010

Estranged by his parents' divorce, Joon-seung is back living with his mother after twenty years  apart but the relationship is awkward and they know little about each other. First of all, she doesn’t know that he is gay. Through a series of drunken hook-ups, things get even more complicated between mother and son.

This feature film felt like a TV drama: the camera work, the lack of music for much of the film. It was funny in some parts, but uneven and not consistently funny throughout. There was little background presented for the characters and their motivations remained murky. The only thing clear by the end of the film was that Joon-seung and his mother had finally bonded. My take: C

The “older woman” (Park Kyeong-ok / 박경옥) hits up on Joon-seung (Han Tae-soo / 한태수) for the umpteenth time. How many times does a guy have to reject you before you finally realize that he is just not that into you (maybe because he is gay)?

Bravo! Jazz Life / <브라보! 재즈 라이프>

Directed by: Nam Moo-sung / 남무성
Release date: December 2010

In the 60s and 70s, a small group of musicians, out of passion for the form, dedicated their lives to playing jazz. Now mostly in their 70s or 80s, they reminisce about the hard times they lived through and speak of their love of jazz in this documentary. For the culmination of the film, they will all appear on stage together for a Korean Jazz Master’s Concert—to honor them and their music and to encourage a new generation of jazz musicians and enthusiasts.

I’m not much on documentaries. Korea seems to produce a lot of them, though, so I thought I’d give this one a try. It was well-done (though a little long at 105 minutes) and if you are interested in jazz and Korea, it’s well worth seeing. My take: C

Percussionist Ryoo Bok-seong (류복성) discusses the early

days of jazz in Korea with the documentary makers.

Take Off <국가대표> 2009

Directed by: Kim Yong-hwa / 김용화
Release date: July 2009

It’s 1996 and the small Korean town of Muju hopes to host the Winter Olympics only to be turned down as there are no Korean teams in any of the official winter sports. A group of misfits are assembled to form a ski jump team—and they are a totally unlikable bunch. But they will prevail and go on to do Korea honor.

A jingoistic vehicle, this film. The film follows the typical underdog-makes-good line, which I was hoping to enjoy as I did Bend It Like Beckham or Bang the Drum Slowly or Like a Virgin <천하장사 마돈나>. For my tastes, Take Off's characters were so utterly unappealing that I really didn’t care what happened to them and I got tired of watching the film.
My take: DD

Bob, a Korean-American adoptee who will reluctantly become the team captain, is some sort of misfit, though the film never makes it clear why … maybe just being an adoptee makes one a misfit? The portrayal of the American ski jump team as a bunch of anti-Korean hoodlums and the repeated rulings against the Korean team by the International Olympic Committee would warm the heart of any anti-American, anti-foreign zealot. The film, in places, is also blatantly misogynist and racist.

Choi (Kim Dong-wuk /  김동욱) , the drug addict (and soon to be

Olympic athlete), sends his fellow workers away so he can

molest an unconscious female nightclub patron. Ha? Ho? Hee?

Bob (Ha Jeong-woo / 하정우), the Korean-American adoptee,

is embarrassed, and all the participants on the tv-show panel horrified,

when a photo of his sister with her husband and child are flashed on the

screen. Worst ultra-nationalist nightmare: a Korean female with

a black husband and a mixed-race child.

The Good, The Bad, and Weird <좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈> 2008

Director: Kim Ji-woon / 김지운
Release date: July of 2008

This film had major problems for me. It was way too long and could have used a lot of editing or deletion of scenes—the scene in the brothel, for example. I took a liking to the philosophical Chinese warlord, with his pipe and Buddhist prayer beads. I thought his whole multi-national troop were a hoot—Easterners and Westerners; riding horses, motorbikes, and jeeps; dressed in a riot of clothing styles—they were a funny and appealing bunch … but then they all get slaughtered in the big chase/shootout scene! The film was an all-male romp pretty much, okay it’s a Western, they tend to go that route, but the way the two women on the train were abused—the one used as a storage container, the other terrorized, forced to shovel coal, and shot when she whimpers too much—left a bad taste in my mouth.

The Weird brutalizing a female passenger

during a train robbery.

Hello, Ghost / <헬로우 고스트> 2010

Directed by Kim Yeong-tak / 김영탁
Release date: December 2010

All alone in life, Sang-min (Cha Tae-hyeon) tries to unsuccessfully to commit suicide, only to find himself haunted (and sometimes possessed) by four eccentric ghosts. He must fulfill a wish for each one in order to get rid of them. In the meantime, he meets and falls for a young woman but puzzles her with his strange behavior while “possessed”.

I did not find this comedy amusing. The tone was uneven: the ghosts were, for the most part, over-the-top obnoxious or even hostile for most of the film, then suddenly turned nice when the film reveals who they really are at the end. An annoying (and recurring!) sight gag was of Cha, his mouth and cheeks stuffed with food. My take: D

The first three ghosts come to haunt Sang-min

(Lee Moon-soo, Ko Chang-seok, Jang Young-nam).

Actresses / <여배우들> 2009

Directed by: Lee Jae-yong / 이재용
Release date: December 2009

Six top Korean actresses (playing themselves!) assemble for a fashion photo shoot on Christmas Eve (the rest of the cast are photography studio staff, also playing themselves). What happens when six potential prima donnas are thrown together? The actresses preen, get snarky some, then let their hair down.

An interesting concept for a film: How much is scripted? How much is the actresses being themselves? The film comes together, well-paced but playfully. My take: CCC

When the fashion shoot stalls, the actresses treat

themselves to an impromptu Christmas Eve party.