Grape Candy / <청포도 사탕> 2012

Full Title: Grape Candy: A 17-Years-Ago Promise

청포도 사탕: 17년 전의 약속
Directed by: Kim Hee-jung / 김희정
Release date: September 2012

Jin-hee, a bank clerk, lives with her fiancé who works for a publishing company. She is suspicious when a femme fatale novelist shows up in her fiancé’s life, only to discover that So-ra was her friend in high-school. Jin-hee is uneasy about this time in her past, as she has lost all memory of those days. Sora hints at some questions about this shared past, seeming to involved their mutual friend, Yeo-eun. But what happened to Yeo-eun is also something Jin-hee can’t remember. Jin-hee and So-ra set off on an uneasy journey together to negotiate what is hidden in Jin-hee’s memory. Will this destroy Jin-hee … or re-make her?

A visually sumptuous film; the cinematography is breathtaking! The filming technique created a monochromatic feeling of claustrophobia, brooding, and mystery. The story-telling was also flawless. 

My take: 5 stars!

So-ra and Jin-hee on their journey

(Park Ji-yoon and Park Jin-hee).

Everything About My Wife / <내 아내의 모든 것> 2012

Directed by: Min Gyoo-dong, 민규동
Release date: May 2012

Doo-hyeon met, fell for, and married Jeong-in while they are both in Japan and she had sworn to speak only Japanese and was playing at the part of a “submissive Japanese woman”. Once she is back in Korea, she reverts to the annoying, neurotic, self-centered motor-mouth she apparently always was. After seven years of marriage to this bizarre woman, Doo-hyeon wants out. He tries to get a job relocation to the boondocks, but she follows him. He hires a Casanova to seduce his wife so she will have to leave him first but she won’t fall for the guy. Doo-hyeon is ready try anything to get her out of his life. But then when he succeeds …

If you are a really, really big fan of Im Soo-jeong, then that might be a reason to watch this film. Otherwise, don’t bother, it is long and tiresome. The humor is thin on the ground and the plot pretty weak. Just lots and lots of on-screen time of Im running her mouth. The only humor for me was the epilogue while the credits were running.  

My take: 1 star

 Jeong-in (Im Soo-jeong) gets snarky

at a company dinner party.

Doomsday Book / <인류멸망보고서> 2012

Directed by: Kim Ji-woon & Lim Pil-seong / 김지운, 임필성
Release date: April 2012

A science-fiction omnibus film, presenting different views of the future. The first piece features zombies—a virus develops out of waste-food being re-cycled as feed for cattle which turns folks into flesh-eat ghouls. Lot of staggering zombies, charnage and bodily fluids, and even a zombie Adam and Eve. The second story posits the question of what makes humankind different from other entities. What if a robot gains so much intelligence that it might reach… enlightenment? The robot in question lives in a temple and questions existence (in a very Buddhist sort of way) while the other monks and nuns come to consider it as a great teacher. Will society be able to accept such a robot or will it be seen as an abomination? No matter how much an entity feels, thinks, and questions like a human, can it ever be considered anything more than a machine? The third piece tells a tale of a family preparing a doomsday shelter in the heart of Seoul in anticipation of the collision of an asteroid with the earth.

For "The New Generation", the piece featuring zombies, I was bored to tears. The only flash of genius was in the television news panel. It was also puzzling why re-cycling would be depicted as the danger to the future of humankind rather than as one important part of the effort to save the earth. Odd choice. My take: no stars

The middle piece, “Heaven’s Creation”, was beautifully created, well-acted, gorgeous to watch, emotionally moving and thought provoking—a masterpiece! This must have been an interesting film for the cast and crew to work in, with one of the protagonists being basically a life-size dummy of wire and shiny plastic. The thoughts and emotions that flickered across the robot’s face were sheer filmic wizardry! The director for this segment, Kim Ji-woon, has directed an eclectic variety of films, I look forward to more in this more speculative vein. My take: 5 stars!

The third section, “Happy Birthday”, had some great comic visuals and an unfathomable plot: something about an asteroid coming to destroy life on earth and a billiard ball being launched to try to save the day. In this work as well, sequences focusing on TV news panels or the shopping channel were wildly funny. The direct of the first and third pieces, Lim Pil-seong, has a genius for satirizing broadcasting. My take: 5 stars!

My take for the whole ensemble: 3 stars

The robot at its prayers.

Quiz King / <퀴즈왕> 2010

Directed by: Jang Jin / 장진
Release date: September 2010

A pair of gangsters with their victim locked in a car trunk, a man who visited his coma-stricken wife in the hospital and his engineering-student son, a wife furious with her husband’s gambling, a support group for depression sufferers – these disparate groups of people will all become involved when a woman committing suicide throws herself on the freeway and a pile-up ensues. When the whole crowd is assembled in the police station, they will find out she has given them the key to the final, million-won question of a quiz show. The group sets themselves to prepping to become contestants on the show.

In a signature move for director Jang Jin, a widely (and wildly) varying group of people end up all assembled in one place, with madness ensuing. With an all-star cast (rumor has it stars leap at the chance to join the cast on a film directed by Jang), the humor and gags are exquisite and they just keep on coming. Jang Jin is, without a doubt, my favorite director. Jang himself appears in the film as a police detective. 

My take: 5 stars... no, 6 stars! I LOVE this film!

The whole chaotic group involved in the suicide

and resulting four-car pile up hits the police station.

As One / <코리아> 2012

Directed by: Moon Heon-seong / 문현성
Release date: May 2012

After years of beating each other in international meets, then losing against the powerhouse Chinese team, the two Koreas come together to field a combined table-tennis team, the first time for such a sports team in the fifty years since the division of the Korean peninsula. The story is based on real people and events of 1991. First, the two sides find working with each other a daunting task, they are so different in conduct and attitude, then the two sides begin to bond.

As a film plot, it’s been done before: disparate individuals are forced to work together as a team to overcome great odds: first they grate, then they bond and overcome the odds. Nothing unexpected here. The film is done well and is fun to watch. It has got to be a hit even in North Korea, as the super-star Bae Doona was cast as the North Korean table-tennis team leader!  

My take: 4 stars

 The first day of training as a combined team:

the film emphasizes the style differences between

the South Korean and North Korean teams.

Two Weddings and a Funeral <두 번의 결혼식과 한 번의 장례식>, 2012

Directed by: Kim-Jho Kwang-soo / 김조광수
Release date: June 2012

Min-soo and Hyo-jin are doctors working in the same but they have a huge problem: if the hospital discovers their sexual orientation—they are both gay—it would mean the end of their job. Their solution: get married to each other, purely a marriage of convenience, and live across the hall from each other with their respective partners. It seems like a workable solution, but trying to pass off their marriage as real to their families and, eventually, the world at large, proves more difficult than they had hoped.

A very fun film to watch, also a very annoying one. The earth-moved-and-angels-wept cinematic effects for romance—in this film, between two men—were a hoot to watch. On the other hand, too many of the plot twists were unlikely and seemed comic-bookish. The hyper-femininity of most of the gay male characters in the film got to be a bit cloying to watch, giving the film an anti-gay feeling, a surprise considering the director Kim Cho himself is a “spokes director” for the gay community and outspoken in his views.  

My take: 3 stars

Five gay friends discuss “sham marriages”,

marriages to keep one’s sexual orientation a secret

from an intolerant society (Kim Dong-yoon, Park Jeong-pyo,

Park Soo-young, Kim Joon-beom, and Lee Seung-joon).

Dangerously Excited <나는 공무원이다> / 2012

Directed by: Koo Ja-hong / 구자홍
Release date: July 2012

Mr. Han is a civil servant in the Mapo district office, working and living in Hong-dae—the clamorous and glamorous center of nightlife for the youth of Seoul. He prides himself on his uneventful lifestyle: off to work and back to home again at the same time every day, never losing his temper with the most unreasonable complaints that come into his office, and evenings spent enjoying TV at home. His life may be repetitive and dull, but that’s the way he likes it. One day, this straight-laced public official will meet up a spirited indie band. The band and the official are repeatedly thrown together, first testing Han’s temper like never before, and then Han begins to change.

A well-crafted film, from beginning to end, with some nice, edgy, indie camera work. The film is driven by music, wacky humor, and the idea that people can change and that change can be awesome!  

My take: 5 stars!

An old dog learns new musical tricks,

with a little help from his new friends

(Yoon Je-moon, Seo Hyeon-jeong, and Seong Joon).