BUGONIA Review: Timely, Wickedly Entertaining Abduction Thriller
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons star in Yorogos Lantimos' remake of 'Save the Green Planet!'
Busan 2025 Review: COMING OF AGE, Death Comes for Us All in Morbidly Amusing Korean Indie
Time and its many forms form the core of Coming of Age, one of the standout new titles at this year's Busan International Film Festival. Director Jeong Seung-o explores familial responsibility and personal desire with wit, frankness and lucidity in...
Busan 2025 Review: THE GORALS, Animals and Outcasts in Twee Teen Tale
Four teenage outcasts team up to save the animals in the quirky and quietly metaphorical The Gorals. This second film from Yoo Jae-wook, the co-director of Limecrime, another tale of teens on the fringe, recalls several indie films about young...
Busan 2025 Review: BUGONIA, Vivid and Deranged Remake of Korean Cult Classic Seeks the Truth
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons star in Yorgos Lanthimos' 'Save the Green Planet' remake.
Busan 2025 Review: THE GREAT FLOOD, Thrilling Disaster Drowns in Confounding Sci-fi
Following Omniscient Reader this summer, Director Kim Byung-woo returns with his second effects-heavy tentpole this year, the Netflix original The Great Flood, an ambitious film that dazzles and confounds in equal measure. The Witch star Kim Da-mi plays An-na, a...
Busan 2025 Review: BEAUTIFUL DREAMER, Social Stigma of Suicide Takes Center Stage in Measured Korean Indie
Indie cineaste Lee Kwang-kuk returns to Busan with his fifth film, Beautiful Dreamer, a sensitive tale of social stigma that dials down the wry humour that marked earlier works such as A Matter of Interpretation and A Tiger in Winter....
Busan 2025 Review: FUNKY FREAKY FREAKS, Korean Teens Put Through the Wringer in Livewire Debut
Han Chang-lok announces himself as a talent to watch with the grungy and livewire debut Funky Freaky Freaks, one of the titles duking it out in Busan's revamped competition section this year. This Korea National University of Arts (K'Arts) feature...
Busan 2025 Review: EN ROUTE TO, Poignant and Wry Debut Film Handles Difficult Subject with a Light Touch
Teenage pregnancy, parental abandonment, abusive teachers, suicide: En Route To has all the hallmarks of a meaningful but potentially heavy-going indie social drama. This even extends to its producer, the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA), which excels in topical...
Busan 2025 Review: GOOD NEWS, Ambitious and Jangly Period Political Satire Channels DR. STRANGELOVE
Following Kill Boksoon, director Byun Sung-hyun teams up once again with Netflix for Good News, a high-concept and ambitious black comedy that pulls a few pages straight out of the Dr. Strangelove playbook. Very loosely based on a fascinating real-life...
BiFan 2025 Review: I KILL U, Yoo Ha's Action Melee High on Punchy Set Pieces, Low on Narrative Beats
In I KILL U, from director Yoo Ha, taekwondo athlete Kang Sun-woo (Kang Ji-young) reluctantly agrees to pose as the double for an heiress (also Kang) implicated in a hit-and-run scandal. The money is good and the task seems simple...
BiFan 2025 Review: MANOK, Yang Mal-bok Shines in Charming Queer Indie Drama
Yang Mal-bok, who delivered one of the most powerful Korean indie film performances of recent memory in The Apartment with Two Women, is back in the indie realm with the rural-set queer drama Manok, the Korean Fantastic Audience Award winner...
BiFan 2025 Review: SUN WUKONG, Dynamic Early Korean Animated Take on the Monkey King
Sun Wukong (aka 'The Monkey King'), the mischievous protagonist of the celebrated 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, has been a familiar figure in Far East media for decades. While most of the cinematic adaptations of his exploits have...
BiFan 2025 Review: TEACHING PRACTICE: IDIOT GIRLS AND SCHOOL GHOST 2, Horror-Comedy Reaches Delightful New Heights
A year after their first outing, the "Idiot Girls and School Ghost" return to the Korean competition section of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) with Teaching Practice, a bigger and better sequel which builds on the ample passion...
BiFan 29th Edition Looks Back on Lee Byung-hun while Doubling Down on AI
The Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), Asia's go-to destination for genre film aficionados, this week announced the lineup for its 29th edition, which will open its doors on July 3rd. Kicking off the festivities this summer in the sweltering...
Jeonju 2025 Review: 3670, Fresh and Vibrant Drama Dives Into Life of Gay NK Defector
Away from the incandescent lights of K-pop and the bubble-gum romance of K-dramas, Korean independent cinema often compels us to grapple with more difficult emotions and take a good hard look at the less-well represented sectors of local society. It...
Jeonju 2025 Review: SEA TIGER, Lo-Fi Experiment Boldly Tackles Sewol Tragedy
Eight years after Warriors of the Dawn, director Jung Yoon-chul returns with a far more intimate project that is all the more powerful and impressive due to its small scale. Recalling Lars Von Trier's Dogville, Sea Tiger takes place almost...
Jeonju 2025 Review: THE DREAM, Gender Politics Take Center Stage in Dark Period Fable
After tearing through the 1980s with a range of celebrated films such as People in the Slum, Whale Hunting and Deep Blue Night, all starring Ahn Sung-ki, director Bae Chang-ho kicked off the 1990s with The Dream--once again starring Ahn--a...
Berlinale 2025 Review: MICKEY 17, Bong Joon Ho Takes Us to the Stars in Angry and Amusing Sci-fi Comedy
With his latest film, Bong Joon Ho reaches for the stars but what his characters discover in the far reaches of space is just another version of the messed-up world they left behind, a world Bong has laid bare for...
Busan 2024 Review: THE KILLERS, Lee Myung-se Masterminds Gleefully Cinematic Hemingway and Noir-Inspired Anthology
Some 17 years ago, viewers were both maddened and mesmerized by the tactile fever dream that was M, a cornucopia of sound and motion that is, for the moment, Lee Myung-se's last feature-length testament to the cinema medium he so...
Busan 2024 Review: THE FINAL SEMESTER, Youth Enters the Workforce in Empathetic Korean Indie
Four years after her layered character study A Leave, director Lee Ran-hee returns to the Busan International Film Festival with her sophomore film The Final Semester, a film that also examines the professional struggles of the trade-bound working class. While...
