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Colony VS Colony
Not perfect but very, very good. I can say that the film is very tense and exciting despite the predictable and unoriginal resolution regarding the threat of the zombie colony. We can call them zombies, although they’re based on a slightly different concept. Production-wise, the behaviour of these “zombies” is shown in a very attractive way. Their movements are unnatural, but in a way I haven’t seen in any other movie before — and I really liked that.Opposite the zombie colony, we have a group of people who could also be called a colony, because they too must work in sync and together to survive. However, with humans that coordination works a bit less smoothly than with zombies. That element of the challenge in human cooperation was my favourite part of the film.
A few scenes weren’t perfectly developed or edited, but I can’t really nitpick because I got exactly the kind of movie I like: a tense story with a serious survival threat and themes of humanity and human nature that leave plenty to think about and discuss.
P.S. I had the luck to watch this in a cinema in Korea and it was funny to see people running in and out of the theatre for toilet breaks because they didn’t want to miss anything from the movie. A satisfactory summer blockbuster from Korea.
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Mother's Duty
The movie has a strange title, and I didn't feel like sugar plays that big a role in the movie, but it makes sense at the end. I am a person who likes sugar maybe a little too much, so that I even avoid all the products that are sugar-free. It was very touching, even stressful, to watch a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes struggling with the prohibition of sugar and the constant fight with the disease. From the people I met, I know that this illness is very severe, medically and psychologically, on the entire family. In this movie, the central character is the mother who cares for her ill child while also trying her best to balance her personal and professional life.I would say that this movie is documentary-like, message-heavy, and emotional, but all that in a positive way. The events are shown in a realistic way, and knowing that the movie is based on a true story, at moments it feels like watching the news. There are many important messages in the movie, and I am glad that the supporting roles also had something to say. So the movie is multi-layered. The highlight was a police officer at customs for imported goods with one, if not the only, comedic moment in the movie. And the emotions... The third act of the movie really delivered with emotions. Some of them were exaggerated, but all in all, they completed the story nicely for a movie that I would recommend watching with a family.
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UFO - Underneath Firmaments of Others
After watching this strange movie I was inspired to look for a meaning of UFO's. Yes this movie has an UFO - Unidentified Flying Object but it uses that background to show something about our reality as humans so i would suggest that UFO also reveals what is Underneath Firmaments of Others. We see the emotions, thoughts, statements, experiences of many people but at the end it is impossible to identify what other people hold underneath their appearances.I can see how some people would dislike this movie if they are not ready to watch something different. This is a dynamic art film. Many people, many scenes, many words, many details, yet the viewer is lost inside trying to connect the elements of the story. But how can someone connect all humans stories?
This movie shows how people would live with the presence of UFO. For me as Christian this presence of the big flying object in the sky is like the presence of God. He is there above, watching everything, yet staying silently and lets us wonder and explore life.
To conclude, this movie was really interesting and made an impact on my philosophy of life. The music and songs added a lot of soul to the story.
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No beginning and no end
Reading Webtoon is one of my favourite hobbies and the "Sweet Home" webtoon is still one of my favourite.The first season of the series managed to caption the suspension and drama of the webtoon but this second season is just a big complicated mess. So much happens and still nothing happens.
It all felt very disoriented with every character keeping their secrets from others and also from the viewers. With so many characters i couldn't connect with anyone because the story never went anywhere meaningful. Yes there is horror and gore and action and many monsters, but it didn't help much to make the series more watchable and enjoyable. I had to force my self to watch which is a shame. What bothered me the most is slopy dialogue and inconsistent story progression. Looks like the director wants us to stop caring for humans and start rooting for the monsters.
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Hallelujah
the movie is more of the first one, but it hits stronger since the cycle of crime, double crossings and death continues and has a deeper meaning knowing the context. this movie on its own offers a look to the past movie and past events so watching the first movie is not necessary. The characters were very brutal and charismatic, they are both monsters and humans.but i wonder about the title "Believer". yes we have one gangster who is a believer and knows his bible so that he can quote it in certain situations but that is more of an example what it means to sin against the second commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
ultimately, is there belief and God in this movie? and what is death or justice if there is no God? I would have wanted more hints at that from the movie but i did get a lot to think about. so if you want to look into the soul of some criminals, this movie is for you.
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Intel Chaos
What a mess this is, but mostly in a good way. The movie constantly gets tangled up in increasingly absurd scenarios, and only halfway through the movie does it become clear where the center of the plot is, but this is executed quite cleverly and in the end everything comes together like a mosaic. Therefore I have to congratulate the director for successfully untangling the chaos he created with all the Informant stuff.Genre-wise the movie is a bit too dark for a comedy, but that’s still the genre that dominates. They didn't let any opportunity for a joke go to waste. The movie constantly tries to make the audience laugh with its gags. On the action side, there’s nothing particularly special, although some scenes are quite brutal and violent. That’s why this isn’t a movie for children, but for adults who like a lighthearted action comedy. All in all this is solidly done movie with all the necessary elements to be entertaining. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a sequel.
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Under Construction
I'd say the last 15 minutes of the movie were okay. Up until that point it felt somehow strange and confusing to me. This movie can work as a mystery because I wasn't able to piece together what was happening until near the end, but it definitely doesn't work as a horror. The plot takes place underground in a dark space where work used to be done for the expansion of the subway (metro), but you can still hear the workers even though the construction site is abandoned. Still, not a single scene delivers that tense feeling or even a jump scare typical of horror movies. Instead we get a fragmented story with a lot of incoherent elements, which only gives some answers at the end. I watched the movie in Korean without subtitles, so some details might have escaped me, but it seemed like I understood what was being told. Still, I felt lost while watching, so if you like being confused while watching a movie, then this could be the movie for you.Was this review helpful to you?
Island of Men
The woman comes to an island as a tourist, and all the men follow her in a creepy way. That is how the movie starts. The beginning and the finale are quite good, but most of the runtime has no clear direction. Okay, the movie has some kind of mystery, and a certain tension is there, but the story still feels flat most of the time despite some brutal scenes which felt unnecessary. What gives the movie a bit of extra meaning is that it is based on a true event, which is scary if those events really happened. If I were a woman, I would certainly be afraid to visit Korea in the future.The movie lacks better production values. It has some potential, but it never reaches it. All in all, this is a B-movie with thriller elements that can be recommended only if you have free time to kill.
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Remember the Underground Heroes
This is a brave and important movie. It has high artistic as well as social value. I say it is brave because it honours controversial people as heroes, while some may call them terrorists. In my country of Croatia we have people who fought for independence, and history remembers them as terrorists and criminals. But I deeply believe that in the difficult historical circumstances they did the best they could and contributed to the freedom we have today. That’s why I am impressed by how Korea honours her history through this movie and promotes the underground heroes who dedicated everything they had to a higher purpose. We can always debate whether the means were justified, and this movie gives us the chance to evaluate it once again.From the production side this is a great achievement. I liked the tone of the movie. The nature shots are all very beautiful and memorable, while the majority of the movie is spent behind closed doors in dark spaces filled with cigarette smoke and high-tension conversations about how to face the challenging situations. We don’t learn a lot about the characters, but we learn enough to appreciate them. There is also a clever use of black-and-white scenes when the movie shows past events. But this movie is certainly not black and white. It invites us to draw our own conclusions about the actions of the main characters and to learn more about the history behind it.
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Almost Last Supper
School reunions are always a bit messy. It’s nice to see your old friends, but it can also be awkward to talk to someone based on fragmented memories, without really knowing what has happened in their lives over the last 5, 10, or 20 years. I recently met my primary school classmates for the first time in 25 years, at the anniversary of our graduation and there were some awkward moments.In this movie, the characters meet regularly, so this is their 23rd reunion, and the title suggests it might be their last. Maybe that is the whole purpose of the film: to show how precious every gathering is, despite all the nonsense. It’s important to make time for friends and with them, anything can happen.
For me, this movie is watchable but it doesn’t have any special value. The actors were engaging in their roles, but the film felt a bit clumsy. The dialogue was mostly unoriginal and the comedy didn’t really work. At least I practiced my Korean while watching, so I won’t complain.
Cheers to all those who still meet up with their old school friends!
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Death of Movies
30 movies in under 2 hours! I didn’t actually count them, and it was hard to stay fully concentrated, so I watched this omnibus film over four sittings. Still, I can say there are a lot of short films here, each one unique, even though they share some similarities.The first thing that stands out is that most of the shorts, feature two people in conversation and interaction. Many of them also mention or show the number 30, and they are directly or indirectly connected to movies. Each of the 30 short films speaks about the art of cinema — either directly or in an allegorical way through symbols and different filmmaking techniques. They highlight both the challenges of making and watching movies, as well as the reasons to give them another chance.
I liked how each segment feels different and original. The actors were very good, but there’s only so much they can do in under three minutes. Such short stories can have an impact, but they are just too short. In a collection this large (30 films one after another), many of them tend to blend together and lose their individual strength.
Is there any special segment I will remember? Writing this a month after watching i can say that I remember the first short with the woman writing a movie script, the priest chewing gum for three seconds, and the one with the woman with a sword. I can recall a couple more, but many of the shorts were simply too experimental and confusing to remember in the long run.
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Dangerous Family
The Korean title of this film, 가화만死성, means "Blessing of a Harmonious Family," but the Chinese character in the middle (死) means "death." I think the English title Home Sweet Home is quite overused, so they could have chosen something more original.After watching all three stories, I was wondering what connects them. Is it the religious elements that appear in the first two stories, or revenge, which seems to link the second and third? In the end, I realized the unifying theme is family relationships and how terrifying it becomes when someone you trust turns out to be your enemy. Each story has its own distinct unsettling atmosphere, and all of them are quite interesting.
핏줄 (Bloodline) — This is a real horror story. I would have liked to watch a full-length feature film of this. It was dynamic and scary, but everything felt a bit rushed and ended too quickly.
체크메이트 (Checkmate) — This one is strange. It feels more like a social drama and uses chess as a central analogy. The main character is in constant danger of being put into "checkmate" in his life, yet he desperately tries to make moves that will help him escape his fate.
전세, 역전 (Jeonse Reversal) — Out of the three stories, this one feels the most familiar. It reminds me of many other Korean revenge stories where the victim seeks justice in a cruel way.
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Priest and a Woman
If you see a priest with a woman, what will you think? Probably that something fishy is going on. But that is your problem, not the priest’s. This biographical movie about an important Buddhist monk, Kyung Heo/Gyeongheo, starts with exactly that issue — him accepting a woman into his room. Rumors quickly spread that a monk is with a woman, and so the drama begins.Kyung Heo, as depicted here, was indeed unconventional, but he had a pure heart and pure intentions — and that is what truly matters, both in Buddhism and in Christianity. As a Catholic priest, I found many connections between our beliefs in this Buddhist movie, especially the message that the Buddha is in each of us, just as Christ is.
On the surface, this is a drama feature, but in reality it is a deeply religious movie with meditative and philosophical moments. Especially in the scenes that are occasionally interrupted by symbolic imagery and, I believe, actual quotes from the monk. We also witness a real temple ritual as the film gently draws us into meditation and reflection on our own hearts and minds.
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Mongolian sound
I don’t know if this can even be called a film. It is so experimental and complicated that it would fit better if it were screened somewhere in a museum accompanied by an explanatory note. The film shows close-ups of static things that feel more like photographs than cinema, accompanied by strange sounds.The sounds are sometimes present, sometimes absent, sometimes just noise, sometimes a murmur, sometimes the sound of construction work, and sometimes a Mongolian song. I think the director’s intention was to place the emphasis on the sound, so that we listen to his film rather than watch it, but the problem is that the sounds also seem random and it is hard to connect them into any coherent whole or story.
A story can be vaguely discerned, yet it is still difficult to say what is reality and what is imagination. The film is abstract and somewhat depressing. I got a little refreshment from the audiovisual experience of Mongolia in the film. Watching this film is certainly a real experiment. I had a similar experience watching it as when I was renovating a room in our old house together with my father.
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Why God?
There is a famous old Korean movie with the same title from 1977, so this is some sort of remake or reimagining of the story. From the very beginning, it’s clear that this is an amateur film because none of the actors really know how to act, and there are a lot of them. That said, it’s commendable that they are dedicated to their roles and fully immersed in them. From a production standpoint, you can see that the people involved really tried to make everything look convincing. There are plenty of shots and a lot of details.The child actors, who carry the main story, deserve special praise.
The story itself is beautiful and inspiring, but unfortunately it lacks a bit of tact in its narrative development. Some scenes are too long, some are unnecessary, and some are poorly integrated into the whole. The prayer scene and the conversation with the priest were particularly interesting to me. It doesn’t provide a solution, but it adds some depth to the story. What I liked most, however, was the music — both the melancholic instrumental pieces and the song about the mother who is no longer there.
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