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).