Posts Tagged ‘Korea’


Yoga

October 8th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
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a.k.a. Yoga Hakwon
company: Opus Pictures
year: 2009
runtime: 98′
director: Yoon Jae-yeon
cast: Yoo Jin, Cha Soo-yeon,
Jo Eun-ji, Park Han-byeol,
Kim Hye-na, Lee Yeong-jin
writer: ?
cinematography: ?
music: Choi Seung-hyun
Order this film from Amazon.com

Hyo-jeong (Yoo Jin) works as a host for a home shopping show. Unfortunately, her producer thinks she’s starting to show her age and replaces her with a younger beauty pageant winner, the fact that Hyo-jeong is not even nearing middle age notwithstanding.

Understandably Hyo-jeong is completely broken up about this career low that also fits in well with the copious amounts of self-doubt and dissatisfaction with her life she is carrying around. Fortunately (or so she thinks) there’s hope for her on the horizon. On a meeting of former class mates she had met her former friend Seon-hwa (Lee Yeong-jin). “Former” friend because Hyo-jeong one school day decided that Seon-hwa wasn’t pretty enough to associate with. But now Seon-hwa suddenly looks like the ghost of a supermodel.

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The Flying Monster

August 30th, 2010 | article by | 6 Comments »
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film rating:
a.k.a. Bicheongoesu
company: Woo Sung Enterprises Co., Ltd.
year: 1985
runtime: 86′
director: Noriaki Yuasa
cast: Kim Ki-ju, Nam Hye-gyeong,
Kim Da-hye, Moon Tai-sun,
Kim Uk, Jang Cheol,
Lim Hae-lim, Choe Sung-kwan
writer: Lee Mun-ung
cinematography: Jaong Il-man
music: Lee Cheol-hyeok
Not available on home video

If there’s one thing that I always find myself thinking in the midst of a Korean monster movie experience, it’s that whatever is on screen is certainly not what I was expecting. From the unnecessary rectal bleeding of Yongary, Monster From the Deep to Pulgasari’s ironic anti-oppression narrative to Craig Robinson and Robert Forster’s supporting roles in the awful Dragon Wars and so on, there’s always something there to defy my assumptions about what should or shouldn’t be happening at any given time. 1984’s The Flying Monster, directed by veteran Kim Jung-yong, happily carries on in that tradition, though in this case that’s not necessarily a good thing.

The story, such as there is one, concerns a monster-obsessed paleontologist who, after his theory of monster resurrection (or something) is ridiculed by mainstream science, escapes to the Korean coast. There he spends his time wandering around and making goofy faces, looking for monster eggs so that he can destroy them before they hatch and cause trouble. A young female reporter poses as a maid to gain access to the paleontologist and finds herself growing unexpectedly close to his daughter, who is still very sad about the loss of her mother some time before.

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