'Devils' Movie Review

The easiest, most obvious comparison point for director Kim Jae-hoon’s Devils is John Woo’s 1997 Face/Off. While not an exact one-to-one correlation, the two are similar enough that it’s definitely worth a mention and provides a good idea of what to expect. Both revolve around a cop and a serial killer who swap bodies and the ensuing game of cat-and-mouse, though Kim’s film works more in thriller territory than Woo’s bonkers action realm. None of this is meant to be dismissive, and though they walk similar lines, Devils does enough by the end to differentiate itself and make excellent an intriguing use of its core concept.

'The Roundup: No Way Out' (2023) Movie Review

By the time you get to the third installment of a franchise, you often know what to expect. Sometimes that can be repetitive and stale, but when it comes to The Roundup: No Way Out, the sequel to 2022’s The Roundup, itself a follow up to 2017’s The Outlaws, the filmmakers know exactly what audiences want—star Ma Dong-seok punching dudes very, very hard and being droll and hilarious as he does—and delivers a substantial amount of that. And it is good.

'Project Wolf Hunting' (2022) Movie Review

“How come you’re always covered in blood?” This single line of dialogue between characters accurately encapsulates Project Wolf Hunting, the new action movie from writer/director Kim Hong-sun (The Chase). The answer is also relatively simple: because there is so, so much blood in which to be covered. Not only is the movie over-the-top violent, but every last wound is an absolute gusher, just nonstop blood spurting out of heads and necks and severed limbs of all varieties. Everything is some combination of slippery and sticky and showered in red.

'The Killer' (2022) Movie Review

A frenetic action movie about a tired-of-life assassin that begins with a hatchet fight? From the director and star of The Swordsman? Uh, that’s a big old hell yes from around these parts. And that’s precisely what we get from Choi Jae-hoon’s The Killer. Not to be confused with John Woo’s 1989 classic of the same name, this is nevertheless also a kickass time. (This latest Killer is an adaption of Bang Ji-ho’s novel, The Kid Deserves to Die, and it’s easy to understand why the title was changed for multiple reasons.)

Fantasia 2022: 'Confession' Movie Review

Yoo Min-ho (So Ji-seob, A Company Man) is arrested for killing his mistress, but released on bail as his trial is in progress. Fleeing the prying eyes of the media, he retreats to an isolated, snow-bound cabin to meet with a Yang Shin-ae (Yunjin Kim, Lost), a new lawyer, one who has never lost a case. Over the course of a night in director Yoon Jong-seok’s Confession, Yoo spins his tale, lies pile up, perspectives shift, and true intentions come to light. 

'Paid In Blood' (2021) Movie Review

Just a heads up right out of the gate, Paid in Blood has been marketed as a fast-paced action film, which it is decidedly not. Despite a few quick flurries, there’s really only one straight-up action scene. More than that, director Yoon Young-bin’s film, also known as Tomb of the River, aims to be more of a taut, sprawling underworld epic. It eternally lingers right on the verge, on the precipice of violence, but even punctuated by quite a few stabbings, they’re honestly pretty low-key as far as stabbings go.

Fantasia 2022: 'Special Delivery' Movie Review

As a concept, writer/director Park Dae-min’s Special Delivery plays like a riff on stories like Drive or The Transporter. A solitary, hot-shot driver, against their personal rules, gets personally and emotionally involved in a job, which upends their life. Though a familiar set up, full of high-speed chase scenes, an escalating mean streak, and a fantastic performance from Parasite star Park So-damn, the film offers up a throttle-cranking action blast.

Fantasia 2022: 'The Roundup' Movie Review

Ma Dong-seok, also known as Don Lee, just wrecking dudes, is a true thing of beauty. That single fact is more than enough reason to watch a movie; I’ve watched movies for far, far less. If that wasn’t enough to get The Roundup to pop on my radar (it certainly was), the fact that director Lee Sang-yong’s film is a follow up to 2017’s The Outlaws, which prominently features Ma running amok through the Seoul underworld. And while this new chapter may not quite live up to its predecessor, it’s still a more than worthy successor. 

'The Witch 2: The Other One' (2022) Movie Review

Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch: Part 1—Subversion is a deliberately paced, gradual build toward a brutal, bloody action/horror/sci-fi hybrid. It takes its time to lay the groundwork and establish the emotional stakes to that violence, toying with audience expectations along the way. The second chapter in this proposed trilogy, The Witch 2: The Other One, is a jumbled, tedious misfire that fails to accomplish much of any note.

'Decision To Leave' Trailer: Park Chan-Wook's Latest Brings The Mood And Mystery

UPDATE: We've now added a full trailer for Decision to Leave as well as two additional clips. Find them down below.

ORIGINAL POST: In this house we celebrate Park Chan-wook. The South Korean director has helmed a ton of masterpieces and films that rank among our all-time favorites. (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Stoker, to name a few.) So, of course, we’re excited anytime he has a new movie coming out. His next, Decision to Leave,  premieres at Cannes this month and there’s a brief, esoteric trailer to get us pumped up.

'Seobok' (2021) Movie Review

Movies love to look to the near future in order to delve into the topic of human cloning and the various moral and ethical ramifications of playing god and creating life in a lab. As often happens, these stories also turn into meditations on what it means to truly be human, a whole other can of metaphorical worms. And into this framework comes writer/director Lee Yong-ju’s Seobok.

'The Witch: Part 1-The Subversion' (2018) Movie Review

Koo Ja-yoon (Kim Da-mi) looks like a normal teenage girl. Sure, she’s exceptionally bright and talented, and extraordinarily devoted to her aging parents and their failing farm, but by most measures, she’s an average kid on the cusp of adulthood. Except in Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch: Part 1—The Subversion, she’s also an escaped child soldier with telekinetic powers on the run the government agency that genetically created her in a lab,  and she may or may not remember all of that. The result plays like an action-heavy sci-fi/horror version of The Long Kiss Goodnight, with Dark Angel flourishes thrown in for good measure. (And yes, I mean the James Cameron/Jessica Alba show from the late 1990s, and yes, I mean that in a good way.)

'Peninsula' Trailer: This 'Train To Busan' Sequel Promises Bloody Zombie Action

2016’s Train to Busan is one of those zombie movies that comes along every few years and reminds everyone how good the genre can be. The South Korean horror film was a big international hit and now the sequel, Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula, is on the way, with another new trailer as proof.

'Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula' Trailer: This Sequel Promises Gnarly Zombie Survival Action

Movie new has been pretty dead as of late, what with most of the movie industry worldwide being shut down due to COVID-19. Still, there were plenty of movies on the way, and a bunch remain en route. One we’re looking forward to around these parts is the South Korean zombie film Peninsula, a new horror set in the world of Train to Busan and now titled Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. We finally got a look at trailer and damn, this is the stuff we’ve been waiting for.

'The Witch: Subversion' Trailer: This Brutal South Korean Action Movie Hits Home Video Soon

Now that the Oscars are in the rearview (yay, Parasite), we can return our attention to our regularly scheduled programming: ultra-violent international genre cinema. To that end, here is the trailer for South Korean director Park Hoon-jung’s The Witch: Subversion. (Or The Witch: Part 1—The Subversion if you prefer.)

The Latest 'Parasite' Trailer Sings Bong Joon-Ho's Praises

When people toss around the word “masterpiece,” I usually tune out, especially when it comes to new movies—that’s a term that, to truly apply, I feel needs sit and simmer and have some perspective and distance. That said, when I hear it applied to a Bong Joon-ho movie, while I have to see it for myself, it gets me all revved up because the South Korean filmmaker is a non-stop hit machine. As you might imagine, I’m rather excited for his latest, Parasite, which has been collecting rave reviews, is almost here, and dropped this new trailer.

'Parasite' Trailer: Bong Joon-Ho Returns With A Dark, Funny Tale Of Class Conflict

Any time Bong Joon-ho makes a movie, it tops the list of things I need to see like right this damn minute. That’s just a fact. Since it debuted at Cannes earlier this year, folks have hailed his latest, Parasite, as one of the best of the year, which I find entirely plausible. We don’t know much about it, nor have we seen a ton of footage, but distributor NEON just dropped a new U.S. trailer and, also not a shock, it looks great and dark and weird in that particular way Bong does so well. Watch it below.

'The Divine Fury' (2019) Movie Review

If you haven’t been waiting for a South Korean MMA exorcism movie, Kim Joo-hwan’s The Divine Fury is here to inform you that you need to get your priorities in order. It deftly blends horror and action and is sure to call to mind the likes of Blade at times, while grappling with weighty themes of loss, faith, loss of faith, and evil.

Fantasia 2019: 'No Mercy' Movie Review

A modern incarnation of a muscle car, a silver mustang in this case, rumbles across the screen. A woman in a red dress and high heels, her legs noticeably scuffed and scraped and bloodied, emerges. In casual but deliberate fashion, she walks across an auto shop. She asks a question of the mechanic working beneath a car. When he pokes his head out to answer, she smashes him with a sledgehammer. So begins South Korean director Lim Kyoung-tack’s revenge thriller No Mercy.

Fantasia 2019: 'The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil' Movie Review

This is an updated version of an earlier review.

To lump all South Korean cinema together and paint the industry with a singular, this-is-what-they-do brush is to do it a disservice. It cuts across genre boundaries, topics, and subsets, with standouts in each category along the way. But goddamn, do the South Korean filmmakers do dark, thoughtful crime thrillers really well. Oldboy, I Saw the Devil, The Yellow Sea, the list goes on. The latest addition to this canon is Lee Won-tae’s The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil.