In immediate postwar Seoul — a crime haven run by the black market when South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world — Yeong-sik (Kim Hak-a) leads a gang of down-on-their-luck Korean male ruffians alongside female streetwalkers. They include his brash girlfriend/“business” partner So-nya (Choi Eun-hee) and her more soft-spoken associate Julie (Kang Sun-hee). As most of them scour around an American military base, the prostitutes serve the dual purpose of making money from serving the soldiers and sometimes also distracting them in order for Yeong-sik’s men to pull jobs stealing military goods to sell on the black market.
“The Flower in Hell” is screening at London Korean Film Festival
But then his bumpkin brother Dong-sik (Cho Hae-won) arrives there from the countryside after completing military service to take his brother back to care for their mother. Yeong-sik’s strong resistance not only to the idea of...
“The Flower in Hell” is screening at London Korean Film Festival
But then his bumpkin brother Dong-sik (Cho Hae-won) arrives there from the countryside after completing military service to take his brother back to care for their mother. Yeong-sik’s strong resistance not only to the idea of...
- 11/9/2019
- by Wally Adams
- AsianMoviePulse
Initiatives include new Kofic committee, Peace film festival and line-up of North Korean films at Bifan fest.
South Korea’s film industry is moving towards forging closer ties with North Korea, following the groundbreaking Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula announced April 27.
The Korean Film Council (Kofic) has set up a special committee for North-South Korean film exchange, which was launched on July 5. Following in the footsteps of a similar committee that Kofic operated 2003-2008, before the advent of previous conservative administrations, this new committee is expected to develop exchange projects and symposiums, and is...
South Korea’s film industry is moving towards forging closer ties with North Korea, following the groundbreaking Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula announced April 27.
The Korean Film Council (Kofic) has set up a special committee for North-South Korean film exchange, which was launched on July 5. Following in the footsteps of a similar committee that Kofic operated 2003-2008, before the advent of previous conservative administrations, this new committee is expected to develop exchange projects and symposiums, and is...
- 7/10/2018
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
With AFI Fest just a few weeks away, film-festival season is nearly over for the year. In addition to Venice, Telluride and Toronto, another fest recently concluded: the 15th annual Pyongyang International Film Festival, to which the New York Times sent a correspondent. 60 movies from 21 countries comprised this year’s selection, with with 11 of them vying for the Best Torch Award.
Read More: Tricking the Government: How to Shoot a Documentary in North Korea
The main criterion for winning said prize, according to the Nyt: “how well they symbolized the festival’s official theme — ‘Independence, Peace and Friendship’ — and whether they articulated the ideology of juche, or self-reliance, developed by the country’s founding father, Kim Il-sung.” Kim Jong-il, the country’s Dear Leader who passed away five years ago, was a known cinephile, even going so far as to kidnap a South Korean filmmaker and actress so that they...
Read More: Tricking the Government: How to Shoot a Documentary in North Korea
The main criterion for winning said prize, according to the Nyt: “how well they symbolized the festival’s official theme — ‘Independence, Peace and Friendship’ — and whether they articulated the ideology of juche, or self-reliance, developed by the country’s founding father, Kim Il-sung.” Kim Jong-il, the country’s Dear Leader who passed away five years ago, was a known cinephile, even going so far as to kidnap a South Korean filmmaker and actress so that they...
- 10/19/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Marc Buxton May 31, 2019
Has Godzilla: King of the Monsters got you in a kaiju kind of mood? You're not alone! Here are 10 forgotten giant monster movies...
The release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters is rekindling warm memories of the destructive paths of favorites like Godzilla, Gamera, Rodan, King Kong, and Mothra that we witnessed while huddled around the television for Monster Week or a Thanksgiving marathon…because nothing says warm holiday cheer like some mutated beast mashing Tokyo into a fine powder.
But there are many unsung monster movies with forgotten kaiju that don’t get the play of the aforementioned beasties. A number of giant engines of fanged death have faded from the annals of monster history. Well, it’s time to remember these stalwart, lesser-remembered kaiju, the havoc they wrought, and the shattered civilizations they left behind!
10. Gappa
First Appearance: Gappa: the Colossal Beast a.k.a...
Has Godzilla: King of the Monsters got you in a kaiju kind of mood? You're not alone! Here are 10 forgotten giant monster movies...
The release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters is rekindling warm memories of the destructive paths of favorites like Godzilla, Gamera, Rodan, King Kong, and Mothra that we witnessed while huddled around the television for Monster Week or a Thanksgiving marathon…because nothing says warm holiday cheer like some mutated beast mashing Tokyo into a fine powder.
But there are many unsung monster movies with forgotten kaiju that don’t get the play of the aforementioned beasties. A number of giant engines of fanged death have faded from the annals of monster history. Well, it’s time to remember these stalwart, lesser-remembered kaiju, the havoc they wrought, and the shattered civilizations they left behind!
10. Gappa
First Appearance: Gappa: the Colossal Beast a.k.a...
- 7/7/2013
- Den of Geek
We now live in a world where a 1985 monster movie is topical because of both nuclear sabre-rattling from North Korea and an upcoming Guillermo del Toro movie, and where you can see that movie thanks to the magic of the internet. Like almost anything related to North Korea, the Kim Jong-Il-produced Kaiju flick Pulgasari has a depressing beginning. In fact, it only exists because Kim had North Korean intelligence officers kidnap South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee. Held in captivity from 1978 to 1986, this was the last of seven movies that Shin was forced to make. In the film, a feudal King subjugates the lower classes to a life of misery, but a jailed peasant makes a doll out of rice that comes to life when it touches a drop of his daughter’s blood. As you’d expect (if you paid attention in middle school science class), this living doll hungers for...
- 4/4/2013
- by Scott Beggs
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
I was a sceptic; I thought it could not be done. I did not believe that London could host such an important global event, let alone pull it off with such grandiose confidence. But now the Olympics are over and to be honest, I don’t want it to end. Particularly considering my last images may be that of Jessie J ruining Queen, or Liam Gallagher proving he needs Noel. But with Britain standing 3rd in the medal rankings, we can be proud of our athletes’ efforts. Whether it was handball, hockey or dressage, my eyes were opened to the magic of the Olympics and I’m sad to see them go. So why not cling on for a little bit longer and join me as I attempt to blur the realms of Film and the Summer Olympics.
Every country has its stars, its athletes who we can look up...
Every country has its stars, its athletes who we can look up...
- 8/13/2012
- by Dan Lewis
- Obsessed with Film
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il is dead, and while the record of horrible things he inflicted upon the North Korean population is well documented, no one ever seems to mention Pulgasari in his seemingly never-ending list of atrocities. The 1985 monster movie stands as the most famous film to ever emanate from North Korea, which is ironic, since it was made by South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and his actress-wife Choe Un-hee – who Kim Jong-il had kidnapped and imprisoned until they made this cult classic Kaiju flick for him. Website io9 ran a piece on the film awhile back, and have reprinted it to mark the dictator’s passing. It basically revolves around a giant iron-eating bull monster that helps peasants overthrow a tyrant king. Reportedly, it’s...
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- 12/20/2011
- by Mike Bracken
- Movies.com
AP In this March 1979 photo from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, distributed by Korea News Service, leader Kim Jong Il gives advice at the shooting of “An Jung Geun Avenges Hirobumi Ito,” a narrative film.
Kim Jong Il, who passed away Saturday after 14 years of absolute rule over the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea, will be remembered by history as an idiosyncratic despot and a capricious threat to world peace, but his personal eccentricities also made him...
Kim Jong Il, who passed away Saturday after 14 years of absolute rule over the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea, will be remembered by history as an idiosyncratic despot and a capricious threat to world peace, but his personal eccentricities also made him...
- 12/19/2011
- by Jeff Yang
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
So, folks…I’ve been pretty lazy in my necessary duties as a staffer at the Liberal Dead. I don’t really pull my weight and even though I’m not doing this for pay or anything like that, I do feel consequences whenever I don’t pitch in. And it’s not because of my editors or anything—no, every single person at Liberal Dead is a great person who understands that I’m a busy man. I still feel like I have an obligation, however, to present my corner of weirdo horror cinema to you, the reader. As a result, it’s time for me to make it up to you. Simple sex won’t suffice. We’re going straight-out clusterfuck on this one. I present unto you as many reviews as I can do in one weekend, in one big, snappy package. I hope it’s enough.
- 10/16/2011
- by Adam Bezecny
- The Liberal Dead
Up until a few years ago, “monster movie” in Korea usually meant something to elicit laughter, a long dead cinematic recollection fading into the dusty pages of history, the spark for brewing nostalgia, like those “smoke trucks” spreading pesticide the kiddos would follow, or the wild, bizarre pages of magazines like Sunday Seoul. You had the terrifying monsters in pajama by kitschmeister Shim Hyung-Rae, and Shin Sang-Ok’s 불가사리 (Pulgasari), Kim Il-Sung’s favorite toy up in ye olde northern shores. But then it changed, when an eternal Peterpan like Bong Joon-Ho decided his visions of childhood weren’t going to remain constrained inside his mind. Enter 괴물 (The Host). What’s more interesting than once again singing the praises of Bong’s miraculous little dream project is noting how much the landscape for monster flicks in Korea has changed. The least said about 디워 (D-War), the better, but by all accounts,...
- 9/1/2009
- by X
- Screen Anarchy
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