In the past week, I caught up with two Korean films from the opposite end of the prestige spectrum: North American art cinema favorite Kim Ki-Duk’s 3 IRON (2004) and the mystery-thriller THE CASE OF ITAEWON HOMICIDE (aka WHERE THE TRUTH LIES) (Hong Ki-seon, 2009). Oddly enough, both have certain similarities in terms of their themes as well as what I ultimately think is their weakness. Both deal with the elusiveness of truth and reality, but unfortunately both neglect the social dimension of their tales and thus miss the opportunity to make their themes deeper and more evocative. (more…)

From December 22nd until January 3rd, there is a 10 film program of movies from the Classical era of the Hollywood studio system. The time period covered is 1940-1961, and features the following films, many of which are masterpieces from the greatest of the studio auteurs: REBECCA (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940), TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942), THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947), LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (Max Ophuls, 1948), WHITE HEAT (Raoul Walsh, 1949), THE LUSTY MEN (Nicolas Ray, 1952), GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (Howard Hawks, 1953), BIGGER THAN LIFE (Nicolas Ray, 1956), BONJOUR TRISTESSE (Otto Preminger, 1958), and THE HUSTLER (Robert Rossen, 1961).

The schedule can be viewed here.

This year’s skating option for the masses has opened in downtown Seoul for the winter season. Gwanghwamun Plaza is not nearly as large as, say, Lotte World’s skating rink, but 1,000 won (about $0.80 USD) for admission and skate rental is hard to beat. (more…)

Starting Tuesday, December 15th and running until Sunday, December 20th at the Seoul Cinematheque is a program devoted to the poetic cinema of Jean Cocteau and the radical vision of theatrical giant Jean Genet. Included in the program are five Cocteau films: BLOOD OF A POET (1930), BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946), THE TERRIBLE PARENTS (1948), ORPHEUS (1950) and THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS (1960). All are in French and all but BLOOD OF A POET include English subtitles. For Genet, there is his only film as a director, the short silent work A SONG OF LOVE (1950), as well as two Genet adaptations/inspirations by later queer filmmakers who he inspired: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s QUERELLE (1982) and Todd Haynes’ POISON (1991). Both are in English.

As promised, this year’s SantaCon Seoul proved to be a merrymaking event. The pictures and description from theyeogiyo.com didn’t quite do the concept justice: dress up as Santa, enjoy meeting other Santas, enjoy a beverage or three, and so on. Think of Santacon like a costume party where everyone wears the same costume. If you want a history lesson, check out this version that claims some level of official-ness. The short version: 1994, San Francisco, guy pulls a prank with people wearing Santa suits; resurrected years later by a second group in a hope to play with the image of Santa Claus. (more…)

MY DEAR ENEMY is the latest work by Lee Yoon-ki, a director of realist dramas such as THIS CHARMING GIRL and AD LIB NIGHT. Lee has never achieved much of an audience outside of Korea, and even domestically he is still under the radar. But he has gained a small reputation as a filmmaker, and as a result, was able to make MY DEAR ENEMY, a film with a wide release in both theatres and on DVD. The reason for this popularity is not the story, which is in Lee’s typical low-key style, but because Lee was able to attract two major stars to the film, Ha Jung-woon and Jeon Do-Yeon. Because the story is quite slight, the movie is very much a character study and relies on its two leads, and luckily, both are very good in roles that are quite challenging.  (more…)

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