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The London Korean Film Festival 2014 – Who’d have thought it! Just nine years ago, the inaugural event showed just 11 films. Fast forward to 2014 and the total is 55. And the variety of genres, directors, stars, budgets and issues has never been stronger. Try to seek out some of these gems. You won’t regret it – and it might make you just as passionate as DVD Fever is about Korean movies.
You could not get a more kick-ass start to the festival than the high-tech epic KUNDO: AGE OF THE RAMPANT, set towards the end of the Joseon Dynasty, where obscene wealth and desperate poverty live cheek by jowl. Directed by Yoon Jong-bin, this stars Gang Dong-won as the villainous Jo Yoon, with Ha Jung-woo as his nemesis, Dolmuchi, an ex-butcher who is rather handy with a pair of cleavers. Starting with a one-sided, almost comic-book fight, we are introduced to a bunch of Robin Hood-type insurrectionists – the Kundo – who steal from the rich to give to the poor, pitted against Yoon, the bastard son of the corrupt, weak governor. In classic style, Yoon aims to wipe out any opposition to his power and wealth, and when he kills Dolmuchi’s family, the butcher feels impelled to join forces with the Kundo.
No-one is beyond corruption, even officials of justice, so the outlaws have their work cut out. Jong-bin blends the Three Musketeers with the Magnificent Seven (Samurai) for their distinctive image, as a highly-motivated gang of men and women with strong personalities. Each highly choreographed fight sequence, with weaponry including spears, swords, bows and arrows, is superb – and although the ambush scenes are outstanding, it’s the breathtaking bamboo forest fight between deadly rivals Yoon and Dolmuchi that lives in the memory – with the cleaver-wielding hero clad in black, and the villain in white. With all due respect to House of Flying Daggers, and to paraphrase Brian Clough, I wouldn’t say this is the best ever Bamboo Forest Fight Sequence, but it is in the top one – as one of the characters is also holding a baby! Oh, and it’s worth noting that this entire movie is accompanied by Jo ‘Oldboy’ Yeong-wook’s fantastically funky soundtrack, reminiscent of Ennio Morricone in full spaghetti-western flow.
Han Dong-wook’s confident debut film MAN IN LOVE is a mix of comedy, love story and poignant drama, with a few brutal action sequences thrown in for good measure. The plot is propelled by the actions and passions of a deeply unpleasant protection/loan racketeer, Tae-il who uses heavy-handed techniques to recover debts. But when he unexpectedly falls for the daughter of one comatose loanee who is in hospital, Tae-il takes on the loan himself, and devotes himself to wooing her. So besotted is he, that he even bathes the ailing father, and in return for helping them out financially, Tae-il insists the daughter’s side of the bargain must be to talk and eat with him on a set number of occasions. Meanwhile he can’t escape from his dysfunctional family and criminal associates who set him up, and just as he’s made the daughter fall in love with him, Tae-il’s destiny seems to be going back into jail… again. Will they still have a future together? And does he have a future at all?
 If there’s one thing the Korean film industry is known for, it’s making thrillers with the twistiest plots imaginable. And THE TARGET is director Chang’s superb addition to the genre, starring the brilliant Ryu Seung-ryong as Yeo-hoon, a man with assassins on his tail from the first minute. Even the medic, Tae-jun, who saves his life – and the medic’s pregnant wife – find themselves under threat. For Yeo-hoon has witnessed a brutal murder, and everyone is after him: the assassins, the cops, and even Tae-jun. Without the luxury of time, and in an almost-constant hail of bullets and blood, Yeo-hoon has to piece together what happened to make him the prime suspect in the murder, try to protect his simple brother, and help save Tae-jun’s kidnapped wife. The pursued becomes the pursuer. There are car chases and shoot-outs aplenty. Yeo-hoon is framed by the corrupt cops, led by Song, of whom it’s said “he’d kill his own parents for money”. Who will be left standing at the close?
The other explosive festival thriller, Kim Seong-hun’s A HARD DAY, also deals with a corrupt cop trying to wipe out anyone who gets in his way, and similarly contains The Most Massive Twists Imaginable. Conflicted protagonist and accident-prone homicide detective, Gun-su, is expertly portrayed by Lee Sun-Kyun (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Our Sunhi), with his nemesis, Park played with huge relish by Cho Jin-woong of Kundo and Nameless Gangster fame. Already a huge hit in Korea, it’s not hard to imagine the likes of Scorsese imminently developing a US remake.
Another domestic issue, child custody, dominates the final part of THE DINNER, from Kim Dong-hyun, a drama that revolves around a series of family meals. We see the everyday mundanity, setbacks and beauty of family life and strife. Ageing grandparents look after their spoiled, hyperactive grandson; their elder son is laid off and his other half is sick from pollution; their younger son is still paying off his student loan, has a pregnant wife, and works as a taxi driver for drunken businessmen; their daughter is a struggling, stressed single mother. They’re all going through the economic downturn – and then an accident and a death happen in quick succession and events threaten to spin out of control. Go to page 2 for more films from The London Korean Film Festival 2014. |
Lee Yong-seung’s institutional, workplace drama 10 MINUTES most resembles Falling Down, except this time the person under pressure is an intern, Hochan. He works all hours while studying to enter the film/TV industry. His parents want him to stick at the office job and become a staff member for an “easy life”, and give up his dreams, mainly so he can provide for them. Should he compromise his principles? His girlfriend doesn’t want him to, but he is stitched up when full-time work is promised and then his job is given to someone else who is unqualified, but has ‘connections’. Meanwhile Hochan doesn’t dare tell his family, as their debts continue to pile up. Part drama, part commentary on the stressful lack of current work-life balance for many Koreans, this raises many questions.
 PASCHA, from Ahn Sun-kyoung, takes on the controversial subject of not so much a May-December, but more of a February-November romance. Puppyish 17-year-old Joseph is in a relationship with 40-year-old woman Gaeul, and their apartment is filled with numerous cats as surrogate children. Her screenwriting career has stalled and they’re living on credit. She is a vegetarian, yet her mum tries to push beef on her, and get her to date a widower. But once the, er, cat is out of the bag about the age of Gaeul’s lover, her mother is appalled. He hasn’t even done his military service? Gaeul’s bullying father and brother try to take her away, and Joseph’s parents forbid him from seeing her again, so the now-pregnant Gaeul is forced to consider desperate action. When some filmmakers would be tempted to give us a glib, happy ending, there is no hint of that here. And it surely makes viewers confront their own position on such unions.
Woo Moon-gi’s sweet sports comedy, KING OF JOKGU (right), is filled with scenes of love and food, but mainly the curious sport of Jokgu, a hybrid of volleyball and football. Our hero, Hong, has done his military service and excelled at his favourite pastime. But on his return to college, he finds that the Jokgu court has been destroyed and his sport is now considered totally uncool. With a well-placed kick or two, he wins a sporting bet and everyone starts taking up his passion again, building up to a big tournament. Expect equal portions of tension, unrequited passion, comic action… and noodles. Directed by screenwriter Shim Sung-bo, produced by Bong Joon-ho (best known for The Host and Mother), and written by the two of them, HAEMOO is based on a true story of everyday fisherfolk. It’s 1998 and they’re having a hard time making an honest living, captain Kang’s boat is in urgent need of repairs – and back home his wife is carrying on behind his back. Extreme circumstances force Kang to accept a job smuggling Chinese-Korean immigrants across the ocean, and he bribes his conflicted crew with extra cash. Everything seems to be going well for the trafficking novices, despite the number of immigrants, until the boat is boarded by inspectors, and the immigrants are forced to hide down below in the unventilated fish hold. The plan falls apart and what happens next is horrific, grisly, bloody, and almost incredible, as Kang loses his mind, turns on the crew and seeks only to save his vessel. Can anyone survive? |
 Two films at the festival addressed modern issues of sexuality in very different ways. NIGHT FLIGHT is director Leesong Hee-il’s response to CCTV footage of a recent bullying victim who committed suicide. His narrative focuses on schoolboy Yong-gu, who has a crush on one of his schoolfriends, Gi-woong, who in return steals his bike to escape a gang of attackers. Yong-gu also has to defend his loyal, geeky friend Gi-taek from daily bullying, so when he is initially rebuffed by Gi-woong, and then betrayed and ‘outed’ by Gi-taek, and beaten to a pulp by the homophobic bullies, he feels pushed to the edge. For once, it’s good to feel that there is some chance of hope in the future for these boys.
Jang Jin’s MAN ON HIGH HEELS (right) provides a very daring role for Cha Seung-won as hard-as-nails cop Yoon, who secretly wants to be a woman, and is waiting for the operation. Transgender dramas are rare enough, but Jin gives us something even harder to find: a transgender action movie. In his personal life, Yoon may be a woman trapped in a man’s body. But in his work Yoon always comes out on top and nobody messes with him, notably in the opening sequence involving a nightclub dinner party with an expert and bloody cutlery skirmish. And there’s another stunning bit of choreography with an entire, rain-soaked fight, with all the participants’ umbrellas raised. But when two criminal brothers need him to return seized documents, they start to bring down everyone around him. Can Yoon flee to have his op – or will they lure him back? That Jin actually pulls off such a tonally tricky film is in no small measure due to Seung-won’s three-dimensional portrait of a conflicted character. |
 The festival’s closing film, REVIVRE, is not only greatest-living-Korean-director Im Kwontaek’s 102nd movie, but also has legendary star Anh Sungki as its leading man, and is based on an award-winning short story by Kim Hoon. The central narrative in this drama is an imminent death, as the wife of middle-aged businessman Oh Sang-moo (Sungki) gets progressively sicker from a second brain tumour. He sleeps at her hospital bedside by night, and continues to work at the top of the cosmetics industry by day. Meanwhile his head has been turned by a younger, attractive colleague in the shape of Kim Qyu-ri as Choo Eun-joo, and we begin to sense that his marriage wasn’t filled with passion, despite his outward devotion. At work Oh is distracted by his infatuation, and though his glances are not unwelcome, his disappointment can’t be disguised when the object of his desire announces that she’s betrothed to be married. Structurally it flips back and forth in time, and is loaded with dream sequences, so you’re not always on firm ground as to what’s real and what’s imagined. But you still know you’re in safe hands with Kwontaek, and both lead actors are superb in finely-tuned and complex roles, well supported by Kim Ho-jung as the dying wife.
If you haven’t already sampled The Korean Film Festival in London, then I encourage you to go next time. And in the meantime demand that your local arthouse cinema show some of the best releases, including KUNDO: AGE OF THE RAMPANT, A HARD DAY, THE TARGET, HAEMOO, REVIVRE and maybe even MAN ON HIGH HEELS. But you can also look out for DVDs, streaming services, and on-demand Korean films. So mark it in your diary: next year’s festival will take place in November 2015 – and you can keep up-to-date with these websites: http://london.korean-culture.org/ and http://koreanfilm.co.uk/ |
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