Tag: koreanindie
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: 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...
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...
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...
Busan 2024 Review: THE LAND OF MORNING CALM, Grim Coastal Drama Offers Satisfying Character Portrait
Following his intriguing debut The Girl on a Bulldozer, which screened at the Busan International Film Festival in 2021, directed Park Ri-woong returns to the festival with the New Currents competition title The Land of Morning Calm. Set far away...
Busan 2024 Review: KIKE WILL HIT A HOME RUN, and So Does This Kaurismaki-esque Korean Indie Delight
Possibly the highlight among the new Korean Indies on show at the Busan International Film Festival this year (though this critic hasn't quite seen everything yet), Kike Will Hit a Home Run is a quirky, charming and assured follow-up from...
BiFan 2024 Review: BASE STATION, Paranoia Reigns in Dystopian Indie Sci-fi from Talent to Watch
After impressing many viewers and critics two years ago with his wildly original debut film The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, Park Syeyoung returns to BiFan with his second feature, Base Station, which he co-directed with artist and filmmaker Yeon Yeji, who...
Busan 2023 Review: WORK TO DO, Downsizing Drama Examines Moral Quagmire of Middle Management
Caught between professional duty and personal responsibility, a young man navigates through a maze of grey with a spinning moral compass in the compelling debut Work to Do from director Park Hong-jun. Jun-hee is a diligent young man, now in...
Busan 2023 Review: HERITAGE, Korea's Generational and Social Divides Under the Loop in Ruminative Indie
What sort of a world has the older generation left behind for the incoming one, how do they expect them to navigate it, and what do they anticipate in return? These questions and more concerning the uneasy ties that bind...
Busan 2023 Review: FAQ, A Young Girl's Surprising Journey Takes a Sci-Fi Turn
The intense and at times faintly ridiculous extremes of Korea's private education system are laid bare in the disarming fantasy satire FAQ. Morse code and Farsi language classes are just some of the things an elementary school girl is forced...
Udine 2022 Review: THUNDERBIRD, Money Makes People Do Bad Things in Grim and Gripping Korean Indie
Money can make people do funny things. It compels them to trust the wrong people, drives them to makes risky bets or, when all else fails, forces them to act out of desperation. Yet unlike riding a bike, when it...
Busan 2020 Review: SNOWBALL Gently Strikes with Familiar but Well-Told Tale
A wide variety of films find their way to the Busan Film Festival every year, but one thing you can always count on is the polished, youth-driven social indie that has become the de-facto Korean indie template, at least on...
Busan 2020 Review: VESTIGE Ponders the Ineffable with Grace and Mystery
Two Korean masters of arthouse cinema join forces for one of Busan's most intriguing offerings this year. Commissioned by the Muju Film Festival, Vestige features two mid-length films from Kim Jong-kwan (Worst Woman) and Jang Kun-jae (A Midsummer's Fantasia), which...
BiFan 2019 Review: FILM ADVENTURE, Well-Performed Drama Less Exciting Than Its Title Suggests
The accomplished young actor Cho Hyun-chul returns to screens as a neurotic actor who embarks on a pensive journey peppered by unusual encounters after a row with his girlfriend in Film Adventure, the second feature film by Lee Sang-deok, following...
Jeonju 2018 Review: HELLO DAYOUNG, Korean Comedy Goes Full Chaplin
For the third year on the trot, and after already receiving two prizes, director Ko Bong-soo returns to the Jeonju International Film Festival with his third work, Hello Dayoung. Largely working with the same troupe of actors, who are taking...
Busan 2017 Review: LAST CHILD, a Powerful Tale of Guilt and Grief
Grief and guilt get a thorough review in Shin Dong-seok's debut film Last Child, one of three Korean films competing in this year's New Currents competition in Busan. A trio of powerful performances ground this emotionally gritty tale and lure...
Busan 2017 Review: TAKLAMAKAN, Introspective Drama Dashes Dreams
Ko Eun-ki's sixth film Taklamakan, takes its name from a red desert in China which, as legend maintains, won't let you out once you step inside. In this dark and introspective drama, featuring characters that use the word as a...
