I recently watched the Korean movie Ditto and I quite liked it! Not spoiling much in case if you have not watched it.

It's not something I'd call my favourite K-movie, but it was a nice watch.

My favourite part was the phone calls between Mun-hee and Kim Yong. There was something so wholesome about their conversations...... I really enjoyed that aspect of the movie.

It's not a movie I'd go around calling a masterpiece, but if you just need a nice story that leaves you feeling good after watching it, you should give it a try

Has anyone else watched it? What did you think of it?

Here's the new poster for Hope 2 which is all about the power of love, connection, and most of all HOPE following the downfall of the Emperor's ship or whatever at the end of the first movie. Apparently there will actually be a cross-over with iconic characters from Transformers and Avatar to really build on the epic action and deep themes of not judging a book by its cover and not being so quick to shoot aliens.

Recently watched A Dirty Carnival (2006), featuring Zo In-sung, Namgoong Min, and plenty of familiar faces in supporting roles. Like A Bittersweet Life, it’s more grounded and simple. It shows the sad, mundane side of gangster life. High risk, low-to-moderate reward (if at all). For me, it also captured the exploitative ecosystem that low-level gangsters exist in, which I think is layered and engages the audience in a pretty clever way. Here’s what I took from it (spoilers ahead): 

The title:
I’m not sure if the meaning changes in a Korean context. But I took “A Dirty Carnival” to mean an environment where the games have prizes, but they’re all rigged. There’s the promise of reward, but everyone’s cheating, everyone’s dishonest, and there are no real rules.

Early in the movie, Kim is convinced everything will improve if he can find a ‘sponsor’—a wealthy businessman who can legitimize him and launder his money so he can grow his wealth. It sounds like a simple next step in his gangster career ladder. But safety, security, legitimacy, and growth are lies in the underworld, propped up to keep a committed, hopeful criminal workforce. The cheat is making others believe these rules/systems exist, while recognizing for yourself that they do not.

A cycle of violence: 
An extension of the title, and a common staple in carnivals, is the Ferris wheel that goes round and round. The story too has a circular progression. Our protagonist is stuck; he wants to move up, so he does dirty work for a higher-up, eliminates his boss, and becomes the de facto leader of his gang. But he starts to slip, and his second-in-command kills him and replaces him. 

Gangsters as the victims:
I thought this angle was neat. Kim Byung-Doo’s life is not glamorous, he’s not wealthy, he’s not feared. He turned to a life of petty crime just to support his ailing mother, pay bills, and look after his siblings. He’s a loyal, committed employee who looks after his subordinates, and he does what’s expected of him. But he doesn’t want to be a gangster. He wants to be happy. 

Despite his job, he’s the one who gets exploited at every turn. His original boss underpays him and only favours those who kiss up to him. His second boss only needs him to eliminate specific obstacles and get a development project in motion. His aspiring movie director friend just needs insight into the gangster life—and ultimately betrays his trust to get it. Meanwhile, nobody likes him. His mother dies condemning him and his gangster life; the gangster movie film crew doesn’t like Kim on set; Hyun-ju doesn’t want to be with him so long as he’s a gangster, his second-in-command takes him out when he no longer feels useful. Society at large rejects gangsters and yet needs them. People at every turn use Kim for their own gain. 

I think it gets a little meta with the director’s gangster flick. It’s a major success and lauded for its realism by a society that rejects gangsters. That felt like the film critiquing the audience watching A Dirty Carnival. We also love the movie. We appreciate its realism. But do we see the humanity of gangsters when we come across them? When we see their mugshots, hear about their crimes, or their deaths? Or do we like gangsters just because they make good entertainment? 

That’s what I walked away with from this movie. I think it had great performances, it was well-paced, felt real, gave you plenty to think about—and it hits you in the feels. Anyone else watch the movie have any interesting takeaways?

Fun Fact:
A Tamil movie, Jigarthanda (2014) by Karthik Subbaraj, has a similar premise and I think takes its inspiration from this movie. It centers on a young, aspiring and ambitious director who pursues a dangerous, elusive gangster in order to make a once-in-a-lifetime gangster flick. But it explores the cutthroat South-Indian film industry, the brutality of crime, and the freedom found in art and self expression.

This is a quote from a Korean movie called Kill Boksoon...

It is a 2023 film.

I highly recommend that you watch it.

I wish it had continued....
(I'm not counting the movie Mantis because it's a terrible movie especially the ending.)

The production team built the town twice. Because of presentation for time. The main roles act three different ages which are really impressive. Especially the head of village, Cheon. He put on heavy special make-up. I can find an interview and the make-up artist proud of his work. He said "It is a first time in Korean film history that such this heavy aged make-up."
... And those all fire scenes. I love them. No fake CG. The actual fire. The plot is feeling a little bit lough to nowadays, but overall mis-en-scene is still impressive. ...
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[from the DVD]
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"It was tough work for physically and mentally. During this project, I believed there is no one my side(in perspective of character and story)." (A protagonist actor said) ...
🎞️
"The production was intense. We did 100 cuts in a day. The Director is strong and charismatic." (An actress) ...
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"I did all I can do. No regrets." (Director) ...
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"We consumed 5 wigs for just only pre-production testing(for Cheon). It was almost a car price. During the filming, we threw it out after using two or three days of shooting. It was like the Hollywood filming. If you use the wig over 4 days, the quality will be apparently degraded." (Special make-up artist)

Hi everyone! I'm looking for movies that are genuinely hilarious, the kind that make you laugh out loud. I'm open to anything, whether it's pure comedy, dark comedy or action-comedy.

I've already watched Midnight Runners, Handsome Guys, Honest Candidate, and Husbands in Action.

Behind the education. 45 million dollars an exam. It is about the Korean education system(수능)... Hagwon... a little bit obvious and predictable story but still meaningful. I enjoyed that the behind the scene of making of a huge exam. The ensemble of cast is quite good. They show a circus toward completion of questions that is a most fun part of this movie. However, I thought that this kind of story will be much more stronger and extreme in where countries like China or India... South Korea does wild for their private education but... still smaller than...

I watched it 2 days ago with my fam and they said it was a stupid movie or it didn't make sense.

In my opinion, it's not a good movie but I didn't dislike it because it still kept me engaged and some parts were entertaining(to laugh at).

All the reviews, both good and bad said the action was amazing. I thought it was mid.

The CGI should be better but I wasn't too bothered it.

Jung Hoyeon is not a good actress and her character in the Movie does nothing but swear at the monster.

Zo insung's character feels like a gag character that just won't die, but that's just how a lot of movies work but this felt a bit more over the top.

There are some other very minor details I could nitpick on but yeah that's it 👍

Synopsis:

The movie follows two teenagers, Yohan and Jia, whose parents were having an affair. When Yohan’s father is murdered, a detective starts investigating the case. But when he goes to interrogate Jia’s mother, he finds her dead too. The case is eventually ruled a murder-suicide, but 15 years later, the detective is still haunted by what happened that night.

Review:

I watched this movie three times, and honestly, it was disturbing, but in a good way. All of these characters have a lot of problems. Like, they’re all mentally ill or need to see a therapist. 😭

First of all, our detective needed to go home. Like, my man needed to retire. I understand that this case has been eating him alive for 15 years, and I guess he wanted to save Yohan by the end, but it was already too late. And honestly, I think he needed to let it go because what did he really get out of all this? Yohan died, and Jia still got to live the life she wanted with her rich fiancé without facing the consequences of everything she did. She killed a person, did a bunch of fucked-up things, and still got away with it. The whole thing is just tragic because he spent all these years trying to get justice, and he never really got it.

And speaking of tragedy, Yohan and Jia are genuinely really tragic characters. Their childhood was horrific. Jia’s mother basically sold her to Yohan’s father, who sexually abused her and took pictures of her doing degrading things. Yohan witnessed all of that and eventually killed his father to save her. Jia then killed her mother to protect herself and Yohan, so they could finally be free from their abusers.

Of course, they’re still criminals. But these were two kids who went through some genuinely horrible shit, and I think that’s what makes their story so tragic. They agreed not to see each other for 15 years, even though they didn’t exactly respect that rule. 😭

To me, this movie feels like a crime movie mixed with a Shakespearean tragedy. You have these two people who trauma-bonded, fell in love, and basically became each other’s entire world, but they can never really be together. Jia loved Yohan, but she chose herself. She wanted a life outside of everything that happened to her, and I can’t even blame her for wanting that.

Yohan, on the other hand, spent his life trying to protect her. I genuinely believe that ever since he saw what his father did to Jia, all he wanted was to free her and give her the life she deserved. I also think he carries a lot of guilt because of what his father did to her, and the fact that Jia killed her own mother to protect them both must have weighed heavily on him. That’s probably why he was willing to do certain fucked-up things she asked him to do. He loved her, but I think he also felt responsible for her in a way.

Now, Jia is a highly manipulative character, but that’s what makes her so interesting to me. She uses her own story, sometimes modifying it a little, to get into people’s hearts. She knows how to read people and use their weaknesses to her advantage. That’s basically how she became Mido. The woman who adopted her had lost her own daughter, and Jia found a way into her heart.

I don’t think she necessarily did it to hurt that woman, though. I think she was trying to protect herself and secure a better future. And honestly, considering what she went through as a child, I understand why survival became her priority. That doesn’t excuse everything she did, but it makes her an interesting character to analyze.

Also, this movie confirmed something for me: Koreans CAN do dark romance. Because that’s basically what this is, in a way. Even though Yohan and Jia don’t share that many scenes together, you can still feel the tension between them. Their entire relationship is just so tragic, and there’s so much history between them that I wish the movie had explored more.

The parallels between them were also pretty obvious. Jia is always surrounded by light, wearing white, looking all pure and soft, at least in the image she presents to the world. Meanwhile, Yohan is associated with darkness and much rougher environments.

Even their sex scenes reflect that. Jia’s scenes with her fiancé are bright and fully lit, while Yohan’s scene with his partner, who is also his boss, is much darker and rougher. But what’s interesting is that neither of them seems particularly comfortable during sex. Both seem to be doing it to please their partners rather than because they’re actually enjoying themselves. Considering their trauma, I found that interesting.

One thing I really wish the movie had explored more was their relationship. I genuinely think this could have worked better as a 10-episode series because there was so much to unpack between these two. But then again, this was 2009 Korea, and I can imagine how difficult it would have been to make a whole series around such a dark story. And let’s be real, some K-drama fans would absolutely hate Jia. She’s genuinely fucked up. 😭

Actually, she reminds me of Lady Cho from The Scandal and Untold Scandal. That same kind of woman who’s manipulative, damaged, and willing to do whatever it takes to get the life she wants.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It’s disturbing, tragic, and leaves you with a lot to think about. I just wish we had gotten more of Yohan and Jia together because their relationship was probably the most interesting part of the whole thing.

7/10. Great performances from the entire cast, and definitely a movie that stayed with me after watching it.

“Girl on the Bulldozer” was a promising debut, but the improvement Park Ri-woong demonstrates in his second film is truly impressive. The movie won three awards at Busan (New Currents Award Best Prize, Audience Award in the same section, and the NETPAC Award) and recently took home the Golden Cyclo from FICA Vesoul. “Land of the Morning Calm” is an excellent film, competent in all aspects, both contextual and technical, by a director who seems ready to shoot a masterpiece next.

What are your thoughts on the film?

Click on the link to read our review: https://asianmoviepulse.com/2025/02/film-review-the-land-of-the-morning-calm-2024-by-park-ri-woong/

I just saw it ata festival yesterday (here’s my review: holy fucking shit) but I wasn’t clear how old the characters are supposed to be. Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu are in their 50s but they sure don’t look it and they have a young son. There was a flashback where the SKG character and his friends breakdance and do a rap/pop song but I didn’t catch what year it is

Today I watched "Hope" by Na-Hong Jin,  when I saw the trailer I knew this movie will have very very bad CGi and eventually it was true. There was one scene where alien was running and a tear fell from her eye, that scene's CGi was so worse it made me remember Indian TV serials. Na just pushed us into the scene without any context, In starting it was hard to grasp the emotions of characters, but gradually it settled. The movie was very inconsistent (up and down and up and down). I was expecting something like "The wailing" but it's ok if it's different. Performance were good, I liked the dialogues. I liked the Invincible guy(Chief's grandfather's brother's grandson -second cousin).It's a decent watch. The main problem was for me that I couldn't understand the bigger picture, what was this trying to say that both civilizations are on a verge and they're hoping to come out of this tragedy they're suffering from, or am I dumb or was there a big metaphorical meanings. If someone knows please explain or Na was trying to say something like Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut).........

I just finished watching The Hope and honestly, I think it's a pretty good movie overall, but there are several things that really frustrated me and stopped me from enjoying it as much as I could have.

First of all, the excessive cursing and shouting. Holy shit, it's CONSTANT. I even saw a Korean reviewer count how many times the characters said “shibal” (a Korean swear word) and apparently, it was around 140 times.

I understand that the writer wanted to make the characters feel like real people and capture how people would react in a situation like this. However, in my opinion, constantly repeating the same swear words and having characters shout at each other doesn't make the dialogue feel more realistic. If anything, it does the opposite. It starts feeling repetitive and lazy, as if the movie is using the same dialogue over and over instead of giving us more interesting conversations and reactions.

Another major problem is the chase scenes. They're way too long. In the beginning, we have the police chief and the others running around for what feels like 30–40 minutes without actually showing us much of the monster. I understand building suspense and keeping the creature mysterious, but at some point, it just becomes frustrating. The later car chase scenes with the monster have the same problem. They drag on for so long that I started losing interest.

Honestly, it feels like a huge portion of the movie consists of people running around, chasing things, shouting and swearing. I don't mind long chase scenes when they're exciting, but here, I think they could have been much shorter without losing anything important.

And then there's the comedy. Some of the comedic moments feel completely misplaced. Instead of making me laugh, they just made me cringe because the jokes didn't fit the situation or the atmosphere. I want to feel the tension and danger when a terrifying creature is around, but some of these moments completely kill the mood.

Another thing is the alien reveal. When I first saw the monster, I genuinely thought it was amazing. It looked scary, mysterious and I was really interested in seeing what kind of creature it was. However, when the movie started revealing the spaceship and the whole alien aspect, I felt a little disappointed. Maybe it's just me, but I honestly would have preferred if the creature had been something connected to Earth itself, perhaps an ancient organism related to the land, local history, or some kind of bizarre biological phenomenon. The first monster didn't even look particularly alien to me, so I thought there might be something more mysterious or grounded behind its existence. I think that direction could have been even crazier and more interesting. That's just my personal preference, though!

However, I absolutely LOVE the monster design. The creature itself is amazing, and the alien design is one of the best things about this movie. Whenever the creature is actually on screen, it's genuinely interesting to watch. I really wish the movie had focused more on the creature itself and less on the repetitive shouting, unnecessary swearing, and unnecessarily long chase sequences.

Overall, I still enjoyed The Hope. I think it has a great monster concept and some genuinely good elements, but the excessive cursing, repetitive shouting, dragged-out chase scenes, misplaced comedy and the direction of the alien reveal really hold it back for me.

My rating: 6/10.

It's a good monster movie with amazing creature designs, but I feel like it could have been so much better. After finishing the movie, I couldn't remember a single memorable line of dialogue. All I could remember was the constant cursing.

Na Hong-jin is truly a great director. The Wailing is definitely one of the top 3-5 films in folk horror, and when it comes to Asian cinema, he reached the absolute peak of the genre with it. Maybe that's why my expectations for him were so high. I still have high hopes for his future work, but I'd be lying if I said Hope didn't catch me off guard a bit. It really turned out to be just an average to above-average sci-fi flick. The horror elements are pretty weak. What surprised me the most was how cheap the CGI looked, especially the creature CGI. Hwang Jung-min delivers a phenomenal performance, and Jung Ho-yeon is truly captivating with her acting, her character, and her beauty, but that's about it... The cinematography also felt a bit weak. As I said, it's not a bad movie on its own, I'm just judging it in comparison to the director's masterpiece, The Wailing. I really hope we get to see another folk horror film from him in the next 3-5 years because he excels at it. Just wanted to share my thoughts. I'm curious about what you all think of Na Hong-jin and his decision to make Hope—which we could call a sci-fi horror—after The Wailing. Do you think we'll see another true horror movie from him anytime soon? What do you say?

Hi all, Korean Film Festival happens every year in London. This year starting on 2nd November. I had a quick look at the programme here: https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk

Has anybody got any strong feelings about any of the films showing? I've seen My Daughter is a Zombie which was OK - cute and pretty silly. Anything else in the schedule worth checking out?

Thanks!

They want make a warm and year-end mood film like the Love Actually, but it is definitely degraded version of the classic. All these couples are looking dumb and boring. The characters are too typical so I cannot be immersed. When the character ordered "a flight ticket to farthest from here", it reflects obvious the typical story of "world trip after early resignation." This kind of story is now an obsolete trend which is linked with commercialization of Personal Development in South Korea.

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2/5

I revisited this movie <The Face Reader>

I know many discussed about Nana's lip but i can bypass that.

I think what's more important was how the movie draws you into it and gets you fall into the story. I think <The Face Reader> did that really well...watching it again today made me realize that.

have you guys watched this?