Tag: South Korea

Review: ‘A Normal Family,’ starring Sul Kyung-gu, Jang Dong-gun, Kim Hee-ae and Claudia Kim

April 26, 2025

by Carla Hay

Cast members of “A Normal Family.” Pictured in back row, from left to right: Jang Dong-gun, Kim Hee-ae, Claudia Kim and Sul Kyung-gu. Pictured in front row, from left to right: Kim Jung-chul, Byun Joong-hee and Hong Ye-ji. (Photo courtesy of Room 8 Films)

“A Normal Family”

Directed by Hur Jin-ho

Culture Representation: Taking place in South Korea, the dramatic film “A Normal Family” (based on the 2009 book “The Dinner”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two affluent brothers and their wives have their parental obligations and morality tested when they find out that two of their children have secretly committed a heinous crime.

Culture Audience: “A Normal Family” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and intense dramas about power, privilege and crime.

Pictured clockwise, from left: Sul Kyung-gu, Claudia Kim, Kim Hee-ae and Jang Dong-gun in “A Normal Family” (Photo courtesy of Room 8 Films)

Riveting and tension-filled, “A Normal Family” is a twisty drama that adds excellent cinematic layers to this superior adaptation of “The Dinner” book. The movie has absorbing performances in showing how family members react to their children’s crimes. There have been four separate movie adaptations of Herman Koch’s 2009 novel “The Dinner,” also known as its original Dutch title “Het Diner.” “A Normal Family” (the fourth movie adaptation of the book) is arguably the best movie version of the book so far.

Directed by Hur Jin-ho, “A Normal Family” was written by Park Eun-kyo and Park Joon-seok. The movie premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in South Korea in 2024. The previous movie adaptations of “The Dinner” had the same title as the book.

The first movie adaptation was a Dutch film directed by Menno Meyjes and released in 2013. The second movie adaptation was an Italian film directed by Ivano De Matteo and released in 2014. The third movie adaptation was an American film directed by Oren Moverman and released in 2017. In all three of these previous adaptations, the movies stuck to the original premise of making the movie focused on a long conversation between two couples during a dinner at an upscale restaurant.

“A Normal Family” admirably expands the world of the main characters by showing much more of their lives outside of a restaurant. The dinner conversations in “A Normal Family” are lynchpins to the story but do not get the most screen time because there are many other things that are shown in the movie that make the characters and their situations more complex. “A Normal Family’s” change to the story structure allows the characters to be more developed than in previous cinematic adaptations of “The Dinner” book.

“A Normal Family” begins by showing a road rage incident that turns into a tragedy. A man in his 20s named Hyung-cheol (played by Yoo Su-bin) gets into a confrontation with a man in his 30s (played by Yoo In-sun), whose last name is Yang, at an intersection on a busy street in an unnamed city in South Korea. The two men have a car collision and a very angry argument about who is at fault.

Mr. Yang, who is a professional baseball player, happens to have a baseball bat in his car. He stops the car, takes out the baseball bat and walks toward Hyung-cheol. Hyung-cheol’s response to so step on the accelerator and hit Mr. Yang head-on with the car. Mr. Yang dies almost immediately. He was in the car with his 8-year-old daughter Yang Na-rae, who is taken to a nearby hospital and goes into a coma.

This tragedy affects the lives of two very different middle-aged brothers in contrasting ways. Older brother Yang Jae-wan (played by Sul Kyung-gu) is a cunning and ruthless defense attorney, who is hired by Hyung-cheol’s wealthy father to defend Hyung-cheol, who could be charged with murder. Younger brother Yang Jae-gyu (played by Jang Dong-gun) is the hospital doctor who is supervising the medical care of Yang Na-rae. Jae-gyu is a compassionate doctor who makes people a priority over profits, sometimes to the detriment of his own career.

Na-rae’s distraught mother Seon Ju (played by Choi Ri) tells Jae-gyu that her deceased husband had the baseball bat in the car only because he was a professional baseball player, not because he used the bat as a weapon. She thinks that Hyung-cheol wrongly assumed that her husband was a thug. For now, Seon Ju is focused on her daughter recovering from the coma, but Seon Ju wants justice for her husband’s death.

Meanwhile, Jae-wan suggests to Hyung-cheol that his defense could be that Hyung-cheol thought Mr. Kang was going to kill Hyung-cheol with the bat, and Hyung-cheol “miscalculated” an attempt to swerve out of the way when Hyung-cheol hit Mr. Kang with the car. Jae-wan is fairly certain that the Kang family will accept a lucrative financial settlement from Hyung-cheol’s wealthy family in exchange for not pressing charges against Hyung-cheol.

Jae-wan also advises that the Kang family is more like to agree to an out-of-court settlement if Hyung-cheol makes a personal apology, but Hyung-cheol is reluctant to do that. Hyung-cheol says appearing apologetic in this case should be Jae-wan’s responsibility. The movie introduces this storyline about the road rage criminal case as a parallel comparison to what happens with the children of Jae-wan and Jae-gyu.

Jae-wan has two children, both daughters. His elder daughter is 17-year-old Hye-yoon (played by Hong Ye-ji), who was born from his marriage to his deceased first wife. Jae-wan’s second wife Ji-su (played by Claudia Kim) is about 20 years younger than Jae-wan. Ji-su has recently given birth to their baby daughter Sa-rang.

Hye-yoon is pretty and intelligent but also very spoiled, materialistic and selfish. It’s later revealed that Hye-yoon has applied to Cambridge University in England and is waiting to hear if she’s been accepted. The first time that Ji-su is seen in the movie, she’s exercising to lose weight that she gained from her pregnancy. It’s implied that she wants to stay thin because she knows she’s Jae-wan’s “trophy wife.” Clearly, this a household that places a lot importance on status and image.

Jae-gyu has one child with his older wife Lee Yeon-kyung (played by Kim Hee-ae), who has a brittle personality that masks deep insecurities. The couple’s 17-year-old son Yang Si-ho (played by Kim Jung-chul) has low self-esteem, partly because of his problems at school: He is often bullied by other students, and his academic grades are low enough where he could fail his last year in high school. The unnamed mother (played by Byun Joong-hee) of Jae-wan and Jae-gyu lives in Jae-gyu’s household, and she has dementia.

Jae-wan, Jae-gyu and their wives have a tradition of going on double dates at an upscale restaurant on a regular basis. Despite these family get-togethers, Jae-wan and Jae-gyu have had tensions in their brotherly relationship. Jae-wan thinks that it’s time for their mother to be put in a nursing home. Jae-gyu doesn’t like that idea, even though he admits that being a caregiver for a dementia patient has become overwhelming and stressful for the people in his household.

Jae-wan tells Jae-gyu that he found an ideal nursing home for their mother. The cost would be a $200,000 deposit and $6,000 a month. Jae-wan offers to pay only $1,000 of that $6,000 monthly cost. It’s an example of Jae-wan’s tendency to be inconsiderate. Jae-wan is also pretentious and often likes to show off his wealth.

There’s tension between the wives too. During one of the restaurant dinners, Yeon-kyung is very standoffish to Ji-su, who is trying to be friendly to Yeon-kyung. Yeon-kyung’s negative attitude toward Ji-su seems to be because Yeon-kyung is envious that Ji-su is younger and prettier than Yeon-kyung. When they are both in a ladies’ restroom, Ji-su tells Yeon-kyung that she would like them to be friends, but Yeon-kyung says no. Ji-su feels insulted and rejected, so for the rest of the evening, Ji-su makes not-so-subtle digs about Yeon-kyung being older, by calling Yeon-kyung “ma’am.”

Si-ho is being tutored by his cousin Hye-yoon to help Si-ho improve his academic grades. However, an early scene in the film shows that the two teens are also involved in some mischief. They have a secret social media account where Si-ho has uploaded a bootlegged “snuff” video of the road rage incident and the deadly results. Si-ho tells viewers he had to pay a lot of money to get the video, so they need to “like and subscribe.”

One night when the spouses are having dinner at a restaurant, Si-ho tags along on a date that Hye-yoon has with a slightly older teen named Jaeden (played by Park Sang Hoon), who is a student at the University of California at Los Angeles. The three teens go to a house party where there’s no adult supervision. Si-ho gives in to peer pressure to drink liquor, and he quickly gets drunk.

Si-ho then sees Hye-yoon and Jaeden making out at the party, while no one is paying attention to Si-ho. Feeling like a drunk outsider, Si-ho gets angry and storms out of the party. He ends up in a nearby alley where there are trash cans. He starts throwing things around and is soon joined by Hye-yoon, who followed him.

What happens in that alley takes a horrific turn, as the teenagers’ parents find out later. As already revealed the trailer for “A Normal Family,” Si-ho and Hye-yoon didn’t know that there was a surveillance camera that filmed what took place in the alley that night. Si-ho and Hye-yoon saw a homeless man in the alley and viciously kicked him and beat him up and then dragged him into a dark corner.

The homeless man is now in a coma at the same hospital where Jae-gyu works. And the surveillance video is all over the local news and has gone viral on the Internet. The faces of the two assailants are not clearly seen in the video. Yeon-kyung is the first of the parents to see the video and immediately sees that Si-ho is one of the attackers because she recognizes a shirt that he is wearing.

What happens during the rest of “A Normal Family” shows how the parents and the teenagers handle this troubling situation. The movie goes beyond a dinner conversation in one location by depicting how the weight of this crime affects the everyday lives of the people who know who committed the crime. Not everything is clear-cut and predictable. It’s enough to say that some people change their motives and opinions, while others do not.

“A Normal Family” has very good acting from all the principal cast members, with standout performances from the cast members who portray the parents. This movie does not pass judgment on decisions that certain people make. Instead, the entire movie is an effective observation about how definitions of loyalty and betrayal can differ, depending on the individuals and circumstances. It’s also a disturbing look at how far some people are willing to go to preserve a family name and reputation to fit the image of “a normal family.”

Room 8 Films released “A Normal Family” in select U.S. cinemas on April 25, 2025. The movie was released in South Korea on October 9, 2024.

Review: ‘Dark Nuns,’ starring Song Hye-kyo, Jeon Yeo-been, Lee Jin-wook, Moon Woo-jin and Huh Joon-ho

February 26, 2025

by Carla Hay

Song Hye-kyo in “Dark Nuns” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Dark Nuns”

Directed by Kwon Hyeok-jae

Culture Representation: Taking place in South Korea, the horror film “Dark Nuns” (a spinoff to the 2015 movie “The Priests”) features a predominantly white cast of Asian characters (with one white person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A nun with a troubled past tries to break into the male-dominated world of exorcists and wants to save an adolescent boy who is apparently possessed by a demon.

Culture Audience: “Dark Nuns” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and generic horror movies about exorcisms.

Lee Jin-wook in “Dark Nuns” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

Considering the numerous exorcism horror movies that already exist, “Dark Nuns” doesn’t do enough to stand out from the pack. The visual terror setups in the movie are better than the mostly underwhelming results. Although the performances in “Dark Nuns” are adequate, the story is muddled, clichéd and often very dull.

Directed by Kwon Hyeok-jae, “Dark Nuns” was written by Hyo-jin Oh and Kim Woo-Jin. The movie takes place in an unnamed city in South Korea and is a spinoff to the 2015 South Korean film “The Priests,” starring Kim Yoon-seok Gang Dong-won as exorcist priests. “Dark Nuns” begins by showing an exorcism scene where a boy named Choi Hee-joon (played by Moon Woo-jin), who is about 12 or 13 years old, is getting an exorcism done inside a church. He is tied to a wheelchair as he does the usual writhing around and hissing that possessed people do in exorcism movies.

Suddenly, a nun named Sister Giunia (played by Song Hye-kyo) bursts into the church and announces that she’s from the Liberation Order. She’s walking quickly as she carries a gas carton. Is she going to set something on fire with gas? No.

The gas carton is filled with holy water, which Sister Giunia pours on Hee-joon. She then says to the demon that she thinks has possessed Hee-joon: “You coward, taking a child’s body.”

Hee-joon is taken to a hospital, where he is put under the care of Father Paolo (played by Lee Jin-wook), who is a priest/psychiatrist. Father Paolo thinks that Hee-joon is probably mentally ill, and there could probably be a scientific/medical way to treat him. Hee-joon’s single mother keeps a vigilant watch over him.

Father Paolo is annoyed when he hears that Sister Giunia tried to perform an exorcism on Hee-joon. For starters, Father Paolo thinks the Liberation Order is a group of phony exorcists. He believes only ordained priests in Rosicrucianism can do exorcisms. Father Paolo also sternly lectures Sister Giunia by saying that he thinks Hee-joon could be faking his mental illness to cope with the bullying that Hee-joon gets at Hee-joon’s school.

The rest of the movie is essentially about Sister Giunia trying to prove that Hee-joon really is possessed by a demon and that she can legitimately get rid of the demon by performing an exorcism on him. Sister Giunia gets help from another nun named Sister Michaela (played by Jeon Yeo-been), who basically has a sidekick role in the story. Father Paolo might or might not change his opinions of Sister Giunia, but you can still easily predict Father Paolo’s story arc.

“Dark Nuns” has flashbacks to Sister Giunia’s troubled childhood, when she was orphaned at a young age. Her birth name was Kang Sung-ae. And ever since she was a little girl, she felt she was cursed. It didn’t help that when she was a child, she found a female friend hanging from a rope in an apparent suicide.

Sister Giunia has a contradictory personality: She’s determined about the future, very insecure about her past, and somewhat of blank void when it comes to the present. Even with all the flashbacks and nightmarish visions that she has in the movie, viewers will still feel like Sister Giunia is a big mystery

Other characters in the movie are three other exorcists: Father Andrea (played by Huh Joon-ho) is another priest. Hyo-won (played by Kim Gook-hee) is a rare female shaman. Ae-dong (played by Shin Jae-hwi), who was mentored by Hyo-won, stutters when he talks, but his stutter goes away when he is saying things as part of the exorcism rituals.

“Dark Nuns” mishandles the backstory of Sister Giunia by making it too vague. The flashbacks are very atmospheric, but they have no real substance and leave too many questions unanswered. Likewise, the demon’s origins are hurriedly rushed into the story when someone finds—horror movie cliché alert—an old book with ancient myths to indicate that the demon has been around for centuries. (Aren’t they all, in horror movies like this one?)

“Dark Nuns” has probably one of the most drawn-out and long-winded exorcism showdown scenes you’ll ever see, where there is too much time wasted on showing the preparation of the exorcism and then tedious scenes of Hee-joon talking like a demon. The makeup and visual effects are compentent, but a lot of “Dark Nuns” isn’t as scary as it could be.

One of the biggest flaws in the movie is that not enough is told about Hee-joon and how he could’ve ended up possessed by a demon. “Dark Nuns” also does not completely convince viewers that Sister Giunia truly cares about Hee-joon as a person, or if she just sees Hee-joon as a convenient opportunity to prove that she’s just as capable and worthy to be an exorcist as the men who dominate the exorcist profession.

Almost every exorcism movie has a big showdown scene, which is supposed to be the highlght of the film. In “Dark Nuns,” this showdown scene turns into a nonsensical mess. Without giving away too many details, one of the main characters does something that is supposed to be surprising and tragic, but it actually doesn’t ring true as something this character would do, considering what the rest of the movie showed about this character. “Dark Nuns” has all the visual elements of being an entertaining horror movie but it’s ultimately let down by an uninspired and clumsily constructed story.

Well Go USA released “Dark Nuns” in select U.S. cinemas on February 7, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on July 15, 2025. The movie was released in South Korea on January 24, 2025.

Review: ‘A Traveler’s Needs,’ starring Isabelle Huppert

November 25, 2024

by Carla Hay

Isabelle Huppert and Kim Seung-yun in “A Traveler’s Needs” (Photo courtesy of The Cinema Guild)

“A Traveler’s Needs”

Directed by Hong Sang-soo

Korean, French and English with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Seoul, South Korea, the comedy/drama film “A Traveler’s Needs” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with one white person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A French woman, who has recently immigrated to South Korea, starts working as a private French-language tutor with unconventional teaching methods.

Culture Audience: “A Traveler’s Needs” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Isabelle Huppert, filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, and talkative movies with arthouse sensibilities.

Kwon Hae-hyo, Isabelle Huppert and Lee Hye-young in “A Traveler’s Needs” (Photo courtesy of The Cinema Guild)

The comedy/drama “A Traveler’s Needs” offers a unique slice-of-life story of an unorthodox French-language tutor in South Korea. It’s best enjoyed by viewers who appreciate dialogue-driven movies in ordinary realistic settings. Everyone else will be bored.

Written and directed by Hong Sang-soo, “A Traveler’s Needs” had its world premiere at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury’s Silver Bear prize, the equivalent of second place for Best Picture. “A Traveler’s Needs” also screened at he 2024 New York Film Festival. “A Traveler’s Needs” is the third Hong Sang-soo movie to star Isabelle Huppert, after 2012’s “In Another Country” and 2017’s “Claire’s Camera.”

“A Traveler’s Needs” consists entirely of conversations in a very limited number of settings, usually in someone’s home or in a park. The movie’s protagonist Iris (played by Huppert) doesn’t say too much about herself. However, from conversations in the movie, viewers find out that Iris has recently moved to Seoul, South Korea, from her native France. She also has a fondness for drinking makgeolli, which is Korean rice wine.

Iris has recently decided to become a private tutor teaching the French language. Her first clients are affluent—not ultra-wealthy but upper-middle-clas. “A Traveler’s Needs” shows her meeting with two of these clients for the first time. Most of the characters in the movie are not identified by their names, but they offer glimpses into their lives in the time that Iris spends with them.

First, Iris is seen meeting with a woman in her 20s (played by Kim Seung-yun) in the student’s home. While they are talking, the student suddenly gets up to play the piano. When she’s finished, Iris asks the student what she felt when playing the piano.

The student replies, “I felt happy.” But Iris asks more probing questions until the student admits she wishes she were a better piano player. Iris takes notes on index cards and translates in French what the student said about her feelings. The movie soon reveals that this is how Iris wants to teach French.

At a nearby park, the student shows Iris a stone monument that has her father’s name on it. The student tells Iris that her father’s name is only the monument because he donated a large sum of money. The student says she’s a little embarrassed about it, but she tearfully adds, “He loved me very much.”

Next, Iris meets with an outspoken woman in her early 60s (played by Lee Hye-young), who is a CEO of an unnamed major company. Her mild-mannered and quiet husband (played by Kwon Hae-hyo), who has a flirtatious side, is not the one taking the French lessons, but he is her constant companion during this teaching session. The husband eventually reveals that he is an attorney who quit his law practice to become the “right-hand man” for his wife in her business.

These two spouses have a young adult daughter (played by Kang So-yi), who lives with them. According to the mother, this daughter quit her job about a year ago and is still looking for another job. The daughter doesn’t have any specific career goals in mind, just some “ideas.” The mother doesn’t seem to be too bothered by her daughter’s aimlessness.

The daughter also acts aloof when her mother asks her to come over and say hello in French to Iris. Even though this daughter took French for three years in high school, the daughter claims not to remember any French at all. Viewers are left to ponder what this family is really like behind closed doors, when there are no strangers who are visiting. These are questions that the movie doesn’t answer.

The CEO student is surprised and disappointed that Iris will not be teaching French by using textbooks but will be using index cards instead. This student also plays an instrument. During this session, she plays an acoustic guitar, but Iris excuses herself to go up on the couple’s rooftop lounge area to smoke a cigarette while the student plays the guitar. The spouses later joins Iris on the rooftop to smoke cigarettes too.

Iris asks the CEO student how she felt when she played the guitar. The student says she felt happy, But once agan, Iris prods the student for a more introspective answer, until the student admits she felt a little proud and a little annoyed because she likes her guitar playing but doesn’t feel she’s a “good-enough” guitar player to be at the playing skills that she wants. Iris did the same thing she did with the other student: She writes down those feelings in French and tells her student to memorize this translation.

Iris eventually admits to the couple that she has no training to be a French-language teacher and she’s trying a non-traditional way of teaching. Iris’ line of questioning sounds more like something a therapist would ask. It becomes obvious to observant viewers that Iris’ method of teaching is to get her students to express how they feel, and Iris then translates those feelings, with the intent being that her students are more likely to learn French if they learn sentences that are personally relatable to them.

And who exactly is Iris? It’s a mystery that “A Traveler’s Needs” doesn’t quite answer. But some clues emerge when Iris is seen with the person who knows her best in South Korea: her platonic roommate Inguk (played by Ha Seong-guk), an ntroveted, aspiring poet who is in his 20s. It’s eventually revealed that Inguk invited unemployed Iris live with him rent-free at his apartment until she could get a job. He was the one who referred her to her French-lesson clients when she decided to make money as a French-language tutor.

Through conversations in the movie, viewers find out that Inguk met Iris randomly in a park, where he saw her playing a recorder musical instrument. (This meeting is shown in a pivotal flashback scene.) Iris wasn’t very good at playing this instrument, but Ingkuk was intrigued by her, and they struck up a conversation. There’s no sexual attracton between Iris and Inguk, but they are clearly charmed by each other.

After they became roommates, Inguk tells Iris: “You are so bright and talented.” Iris later tells Inguk: “No matter what happens, don’t give up your poetry.” Iris is paid in cash (₩200,000, which is about $143 in U.S. dollars in the mid-2020s) for her first day as a French-language tutor. She insists on giving all of the cash to Ingkuk, who has set ₩500,000, or $356 in U.S. dollars, for Iris’ share of the rent.

Inguk is afraid to tell his domineering and overprotective mother (played by Cho Yun-hee, also known as Jo Yoon-hee) about Iris being his roommate. And so, when Inguk’s mother shows up at the apartment for an unannounced visit, some low-stakes hijinks occur that won’t be detailed in this review. It’s enough to say that after Inguk’s mother makes her appearance, it starts to make sense that he emotionally gravitates to Iris, who is the empathetic mother figure whom Inguk doesn’t have with his own mother.

Because “A Traveler’s Needs” doesn’t tell a lot about Iris’ background and just shows her having conversations with people, some viewers might find it hard to connect with this movie. “A Traveler’s Needs” is by no means a masterpiece, but it invites viewers to speculate about what circumstances led Iris to move to Seoul without a job and without knowing anyone. Iris’ unconventional way of teaching already indicates that she is someone who doesn’t want to live a conventional life.

Huppert gives a very intriguing performance as “go with the flow” Iris, while Cho has a likeable screen presence as the shy and socially awkward Inguk. It’s perhaps no coincidence that these two unlikely roommates are the only two characters who have names in the movie. Ultimately, “A Traveler’s Needs” (in its very understated way) shows the impact of finding and appreciating human connections, whether people are living in a country that is familiar or unfamiliar to them.

The Cinema Guild released “A Traveler’s Needs” in select U.S. cinemas on November 22, 2024.

Review: ‘Pilot’ (2024), starring Jo Jung-suk, Lee Ju-myoung, Han Sun-hwa and Shin Seung-ho

August 14, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jo Jung-suk in “Pilot” (Photo courtesy of Lotte Entertainment)

“Pilot” (2024)

Directed by Kim Han-gyul

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2023 and 2024, in South Korea, the comedy film “Pilot” features a nearly all-Asian cast of characters (with one white person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A disgraced hotshot pilot, who’s been blacklisted from the airline industry, pretends to be a woman when he finds out that an airline is recruiting female pilots. 

Culture Audience: “Pilot” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and comedies about gender swapping.

Jo Jung-suk in “Pilot” (Photo courtesy of Lotte Entertainment)

The breezy comedy “Pilot” has similarities to the 1982 film “Tootsie,” but Pilot has updated themes that demonstrate the role that social media can play in shaping public images. Even with its amusing moments, “Pilot” has a lot to say about gender stereotypes. There are some scenes that require a suspension of disbelief, but they are explained in a way that’s fairly reasonable in the context of the story, which still has a few plot holes.

Directed by Kim Han-gyul and written by Jo Yoo-jin, “Pilot” takes place in 2023 and 2024, in unnamed cities in South Korea, although it can be assumed that much of what happens is in Seoul. The movie’s opening scene shows what appears to be a female airline employee running frantically through a busy city street while being chased by dozens of people. Who is this person? And why are so many people chasing this person?

The first two-thirds of the movie explain what happened before circling back to this scene in the last third of the movie. The protagonist of “Pilot” is Han Jung-woo (played by Jo Jung-suk), a hotshot pilot with Hankuk Air, a leading South Korean airline company. In 2023, Jung-woo is 31 years old and a star employee on the rise who has recently been promoted from co-pilot to captain. He does TV interviews on behalf of Hankuk Air, which treats him like a celebrity, because Jung-woo is featured in Hankuk Air’s advertisements.

At first glance, Jung-woo seems to have it all: He has a lovely wife named Soo-young (played by Kim Ji-hyun) and an adorable 6-year-old son named Si-hoo. Jung-woo’s career is thriving. He has the respect and admiration of many people. Soo-young, a dancer who teaches ballet to children, is also doing well in her job. What could possibly go wrong?

But things go terribly wrong. Jung-woo has become arrogant. He has a dismissive and sexist attitude toward women in the airline industry. One day, at a company meeting, Jung-woo stands up and loudly compares flight attendants to bouquets of flowers that can wilt. His misogynistic comment is controversial and causes public outrage.

Jung-woo’s comment comes during a rough time for Hankuk Air. The company is experiencing a power struggle between the two siblings who are set to inherit the company. Noh Jeong-wook (played by Hyun Bong-sik) is the vice president who takes credit for the hard work and innovative ideas of his older sister Noh Moon-young (played by Seo Jae-hee), who is the director of the company.

Due to Noh Jeong-wook’s mismanagement, the company’s stocks are plunging. Staff cuts are made. Jung-woo is one of the people who is fired, mostly because of his sexist remarks that he said in public. As a result of the scandal. Jung-woo has problems finding a job at another airline. He eventually finds out that he’s been blacklisted.

Things go from bad to worse for Jung-woo. Shortly after he gets fired, Soo-young tells Jung-woo that she wants a divorce and that she’s been thinking about ending their marriage for quite some time, long before he got fired. Soo-young later tells Jung-woo she doesn’t want to be married to him anymore because he’s become too self-absorbed. In their quickie divorce, Jung-woo loses custody of Si-hoo, but Jung-woo gets unsupervised visitation rights.

Because of the divorce, Jung-woo needs a new place to live. He moves back in to the apartment that he bought for his widowed mother Kim An-ja (played by Oh Min-ae) and younger sister Han Jung-mi (played by Han Sun-hwa), who live together. Jung-woo is still paying the mortgage for the apartment, but he’s too ashamed to tell his mother that he got fired from his job. Jung-woo feels obligated to continue to give this financial support to his mother and sister because he’s grateful that they helped raise him when he was younger.

Jung-woo is dismayed and embarrassed to find out that getting too caught up in his hotshot pilot job has come at an emotional cost: His mother has become an obsessive fan of pop star Lee Chan-won (playing a version of himself) and has decorated the apartment’s spare bedroom with posters of Lee Chan-won. Jung-mi tells Jung-woo that their mother thinks of Lee Chan-won as her “new son” because Jung-woo has been neglecting his family.

During his job search, Jung-woo applies for a job at Han Air, which is owned by the same company that owns Hankuk Air. Noh Moon-young is on a panel of people interviewing Jung-woo, who is rejected. A Han Air pilot named Seo Hyun-seok (played by Shin Seung-ho), who is 35 years old and is a jealous rival of Jung-woo, tells Jung-woo that Han Air is giving hiring preference to female pilots. It’s implied that this gender preference is a public-relations move to make up for the scandal that Jung-woo caused with his misogynistic comments.

A dejected Jung-woo goes home and tries to figure out his next career move. Jung-mi is an ASMR beauty influencer who does videos for an unnamed social media platform. One day, Jung-woo gets a call for a job interview as a pilot for Han Air. Jung-mi is shocked to find out that Jung-woo used her name on the job application. Jung-woo then asks for Jung-mi’s help to make him look like a woman for this job interview.

At first, Jung-mi refuses to do it. But then, Jung-woo reminds her that he needs to make enough money to continue paying for their home’s mortgage. He tells her if he can’t pay the mortgage, they’ll lose their home. Jung-mi quickly changes her mind and agrees to help. She also promises her brother that she will keep this gender deception a secret.

The rest of “Pilot” has plot points that are a lot like “Tootsie,” the Oscar-winning film starring Dustin Hoffman as a blacklisted actor who pretends to be a woman to get a role on a TV soap opera, he becomes a popular star of the show, and he ends up falling for a female co-star (played by Jessica Lange), who doesn’t know his true gender identity. The main difference in both movies (beside the jobs of the protagonists) is that the protagonist in “Tootsie” is a never-married bachelor with no family, whereas the protagonist in “Pilot” is a divorcé with a family.

Jung-woo uses his sister Jung-mi’s name, and he dresses like a woman when he goes to the Han Air interview, where Noh Moon-young is once again the leader of the interview panel. Several uncomfortable interactions ensue as he awkwardly adjusts to presenting himself as a woman. Despite a few mishaps, Jung-woo (pretending to be a woman) quickly gets hired by Han Air.

There are some glaring plot holes that are addressed later in the movie, such as how Jung-woo was able to get hired using a fake name and by misrepresenting his gender. Some of the comedy in the movie is about Jung-woo (dressed as Jung-mi) trying to prevent Hyun-seok from recognizing him as Jung-woo. That’s explained because Hyun-seok was a casual acquaintance of Jung-woo and is too narcissistic to notice the physical resemblance between Jung-woo and the newly hired Jung-mi.

As already revealed in the trailer for “Pilot,” the fake Jung-mi eventually becomes a star employee and a social media sensation after saving 215 passengers from a plane crash. Jung-woo’s mother An-ja becomes a big fan. How could An-ja not notice that this female celebrity pilot has the same name as her daughter and looks a lot like her son? The movie has an explanation for that too.

Meanwhile, cocky Hyun-seok becomes attracted to his new co-worker Jung-Mi, whom he thinks is a woman. Jung-woo becomes attracted to female co-worker who doesn’t know that new employee Jung-Mi is really a man named Jung-woo. Jung-woo’s love interest is a career-oriented pilot named Yoon Seul-gi (played by Lee Ju-myoung), who has the same ambition of being promoted to captain. Seul-gi and the fake Jung-Mi become very close and spend time together outside of work.

Seul-gi thinks of “Jung-Mi” as a sister. Jung-woo, who can’t tell Seul-gi that he’s really a man, wants more than a friendship with her. During a “girls’ night out,” Jung-woo (as Jung-Mi) tells Seul-gi that he knows many men whom he could introduce to Seul-gi as potential boyfriends. He asks Seul-gi what type of man is her ideal man. Seul-gi says her ideal man is someone who can understand how much she loves her job and someone who doesn’t lie to her. Uh-oh.

“Pilot” has some expected slapstick comedy moments about the lengths that Jung-woo goes to keep his secret and keep up the charade. The cast members’ talent and very good comedic timing are the reasons why some of these moments are laugh-out-loud funny instead of cringeworthy. Jo’s gender-swapping performance is entertaning to watch, even if “Pilot” is nowhere near a classic movie like “Tootsie” that’s worthy of several Oscar nominations.

The most ridiculous part of “Pilot” is the plane crash scene, which has cheat editing. One minute, the plane suddenly catches on fire. Jung-woo (as Jung-Mi) and Hyun-seok are piloting the plane, but Hyun-seok panics, and Jung-woo (as Jung-Mi) takes over flying the plane. A few minutes later, Jung-woo (as Jung-Mi) wakes up in a hospital. The movie completely skips over showing how the plane landed.

Despite some obvious flaws, “Pilot” doesn’t take itself too seriously—and neither should viewers. The movie could have taken a completely sappy direction in showing the outcome of one particular problem, but “Pilot” instead shows a realistic outcome. That’s not to say that “Pilot” is entirely realistic, but it does have some clever moments that show how a man can learn to better appreciate and understand women if he had to live for a period of time as a woman.

Lotte Entertainment released “Pilot” in select U.S. cinemas on August 9, 2024.

Review: ‘Hijack 1971,’ starring Ha Jung-woo, Yeo Jin-goo, Sung Dong-il and Chae Soo-bin

July 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Ha Jung-woo and Sung Dong-il (pictured in front) in “Hijack 1971” (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures International)

“Hijack 1971”

Directed by Kim Seong-han

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in South Korea and North Korea in 1971 (and briefly in 1969), the action film “Hijack 1971” (based on real events) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A disgraced military airline pilot in South Korea comes back from a hiatus to co-pilot a commercial flight, only to have the flight hijacked by a terrorist who is sympathetic to North Korean politics.  

Culture Audience: “Hijack 1971” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and suspenseful, action-packed hijack movies.

Yeo Jin-goo in “Hijack 1971” (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures International)

“Hijack 1971” delivers everything that viewers can expect from a high-octane, well-acted thriller about a plane being hijacked in the air. The fact that this movie is based on a true story makes it more interesting. “Hijack 1971” does a very good job of showing the human stories behind this terrifying experience.

Directed by Kim Seong-han and written by Kim Kyung-chan, “Hijack 1971” is based on real events, but the names of the characters have been changed to be different from the real-life people. The movie begins on December 11, 1969, by showing a fateful event that has a profound effect on the movie’s main protagonist. Tae-in (played by Ha Jung-woo), who is a compassionate and friendly, works for a South Korean Air Force unit that is in charge of protecting commercial aircraft. This character is based on the real-life Park Wan-gyu.

On this day, Tae-in and his younger pilot colleague Choi Dong-cheol (played by Kim Dong-wook) are patrolling in the air above South Korea, when they see that a Korean Air Lines YS-11 plane going from Gangneung for Seoul has been hijacked. The hijackers took over the NAMC YS-11-125 aircraft and forced it to fly to Pyongyang, North Korea.

During this hijacking, Tae-in could see inside the hijacked plane and noticed that his supervisor Seo Min-soo (played by Choi Kwang-il) was piloting the plane without his co-pilot. Tae-in then makes the decision to not follow military protocol to shoot at the plane’s engine, in order to scare the hijackers. Tae-in’s reasoning is that he didn’t want to do anything that would anger the hijackers, who could then harm the innocent people on the plane.

Because the hijackers got away with taking the plane with hostages to North Korea, Tae-in and Dong-cheol are blamed for it, and they both get suspended. However, Tae-in gets a harsher scolding for it because he is a more experienced pilot and has a higher military ranking than Dong-cheol. Over the next several days, after tense negotiations, 39 of the 50 hostages were let go and were allowed to return to South Korea.

Tae-in becomes depressed over this suspension and begins to doubt his abilities as a pilot who can keep people safe. His supportive wife Moon-young (played by Im Se-mi) is the only person who reminds him that he did save lives, but Tae-in wants to win back the respect of his peers. Tae-in gets a chance to prove his worth when he is assigned to be the first officer pilot for a civilian Korean Air Lines on January 23, 1971. The aircraft is Hotel-Lima 5212. In real life, the aircraft was Fokker F27 Friendship 500.

The captain of the plane is Lee Gyu-sik (played by Sung Dong-il), who is calm and professional. Gyu-sik is based on the real-life Lee Kang-heun. Gyu-sik is aware that Tae-in is coming back from a suspension, but he is not judgmental and thinks Tae-in has a right to prove his merit on this flight. Meanwhile, a few of the flight attendants in the back are gossiping about Tae-in because they know why he was suspended.

The people on this airplane soon find out that there’s a hijacker of this flight: His name is Yong-dae (played by Yeo Jin-goo), a lone terrorist who in his early 20s. He has crude homemade hand grenades and a gun as weapons. The Yong-dae character is based on the real-life Kim Sang-tae.

Just like the hijacking in 1969, this motive for this hijacking is for the plane to go to North Korea. During the course of the movie, Yong-dae expresses his disillusionment with South Korea’s capitalist/democratic government and says that Koreans are better off living a North Korean communist way of life. Yong-dae mentions that his brother was one of the hijackers in the 1969 flight, and he says his brother is a hero in North Korea because of this hijacking. Flashbacks in the movie show why Yong-dae has become such an angry and violent terrorist.

“Flight 1971” has tension-filled suspense from the beginning of this hijacking until the end. The movie’s cinematography and visual effects are superb at immersing viewers in this experience. Some of the camera work is meant to evoke feelings of claustrophobia and dizziness, especially in scenes where the plane gets out of the pilots’ control.

Yong-dae is a loose cannon who frequently storms into the cockpit. He made his first hijacking move on the flight by throwing a hand grenade at the cockpit door. During Yong-dae’s attacks inside and outside the cockpit, plane captain Gyu-sik is injured in his eyes and becomes blind, possibly permanently. It should also come as no surprise that Tae-in also gets wounded. The flight attendant who is the main focus of the story is Lee Ok-soon (played by Chae Soo-bin), who does her best to try to keep the passengers calm.

Most of the passengers are anonymous. Those who have names in the movie are not given much of backstory. There’s an elderly woman from a farm who brings a chicken on board with her. A man who works as a prosecutor is traveling with his blind mother. An English teacher named Lee Soo-hee (played by Jeong Ye-jin), who works at Woochang Middle School, is accompanying a student named Lee Han-bong (played by Moon Woo-jin) as his adult guardian for the flight. A man named Nam-il (played by Kim Chul-yoon) is a newlywed who is on this plane flight to meet up his wife for their honeymoon

The main focus of “Hijack 1971” is on how the hero pilots (especially Tae-in) handle this crisis caused by this violent terrorist. It’s a test of their physical and emotional strength. In his performance as Tae-in, Ha does a very good job of portraying the inner turmoil of Tae-in, who feels had additional responsibility to prove he can stop this hijacking when he was deemed a “failure” the previous time he had a chance to stop a hijacking.

Tae is still reeling from criticism that he “wasn’t brave enough” in his previous hijacking incident. He now has to make split-second, life-or-death decisions now that he is in the middle of another hijacking. All of the cast members capably handle their roles, but Tae-in is the character that the movie reveals the most about, in order for viewers to feel the most invested in this character. Whether or not viewers know the real-life outcome of this hijacking, “Hijack 1971” is still worth seeing for this unforgettable story.

Sony Pictures International released “Hijack 1971” in select U.S. cinemas on July 5, 2024.

Review: ‘Ransomed’ (2023), starring Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon

August 8, 2023

by Carla Hay

Ha Jung-woo and Ju Ji-hoon in “Ransomed” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Ransomed” (2023)

Directed by Kim Seong-hun

Korean and Arabic with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1986 and 1987, in Lebanon, South Korea, and Switzerland, the action film “Ransomed” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A South Korean diplomat, who is assigned to duties in the Middle East, goes to Lebanon to rescue a kidnapped colleague, and the diplomat teams up with a rebellious taxi driver, who’s a South Korean living in Lebanon, as they make an unlikely duo for the rescue mission.

Culture Audience: “Ransomed” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching thrilling action films that use the tried-and-true storyline of a seemingly mismatched duo learning to work together for a common goal.

Ha Jung-woo in “Ransomed” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Ransomed” uses a familiar formula of a bickering duo forced to work together in stressful situations. However, this suspenseful political thriller transcends its clichés by having great action sequences and believable performances from the principal cast. “Ransomed” is set in the 1980s, and it’s filmed as a throwback homage to 1980s live-action films, by having action sequences done by real people, not generated by excessive computer imagery.

Directed by Kim Seong-hun, “Ransomed” takes place briefly in 1986 and mostly in 1987. An opening statement shown on screen says that the story is “based on true events,” but many parts are fiction. The “true events” part of the story is about the real-life 1986 kidnapping of Do Chae-sung, who was a second secretary of the Korean embassy and was abducted in Beirut, Lebanon. Kim Jung-Yeon and Yeo Jung-mi wrote the gripping screenplay for “Ransomed.”

The beginning of ransom takes place in Beirut, where thousands of people are dying in Christian/Muslim conflicts. Amid this turmoil, a South Korean diplomat named Oh Jae-seok (played by Kim Jong-soo), a married father who has been assigned to work in Lebanon, is kidnapped by gunpoint by a group of Lebanese terrorists. He’s thrown into the trunk of a beat-up Mercedes and goes missing for a year. During that time, many people assume that Jae-seok is dead.

Meanwhile, in 1987, at the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of Jae-seok’s colleagues has grown frustrated in the job. Lee Min-jun (played by Ha Jung-woo), a Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs director in his 40s, and has just been passed over for a promotion to be assigned to the South Korean embassy in London. The job instead went to a younger man, who is praised during a meeting as being an “heir apparent,” which implies that he got the job because of nepotism. Min-jun wanted to transfer to London instead of the war-torn Middle East, where Min-jun has been assigned to be diplomat.

Min-jun complains to his boss about someone with less experience getting the job opportunity that Min-jun wanted. Min-jun’s boss responds by saying that the other man got the job because he’s was a political science major at the University of Seoul. Min-jun mutters that he’s tired of these University of Seoul grads taking the jobs of more qualified people. Min-jun is so bitter about not getting the promotion, when he’s alone in the office, he sprays pesticide on a bouquet of congratulator flowers that his office rival has on this desk.

Min-Jun will soon have bigger things to deal with than jealousy over a younger colleague. It isn’t long before Min-jun gets a strange phone call at work. The person on the other end of the line is not speaking. Instead, whoever is calling Min-jun is tapping out a special code that only people who work for the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs are supposed to know. The coded message says that the person calling is identifying himself the long-lost Jae-Seok.

Min-jun faces skepticism from many people about this phone call. To get to the bottom of the mystery, the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs consults Richard Carter (played by Burn Gorman), a British expert on the Middle East and a private political investigator for hire. Richard is up for the challenge of finding Jae-seok, but only if Richard is paid well for this job.

As a compromise, Min-jun says that Richard will only get paid if he shows “proof of life” for Jae-seok. It takes a little while, but that proof finally comes from a photo taken of Jae-seok holding up a recent newspaper with the date of the newspaper clearly shown. Keep in mind, this is in 1987, when Photoshop and other image-altering computer technology did not exist.

Richard tells the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs that Jae-seok’s kidnappers are terrorists who want a fortune in cash, as ransom money to release Jae-seok. The terrorists insist that the money has to be paid by the South Korean government. Min-jun goes to Switzerland to enlist the help of a wealthy man named Hay Shaito (played by Marcin Dorociński) on arranging where the ransom drop-off

It doesn’t take long for Min-jun to go to Lebanon, where he encounters several obstacles during his time there. While in Lebanon, Min-jun soon meets a taxi driver named Kim Pan-su (played by Ju Ji-hoon), who is originally from South Korea. Pan-su is a Vietnam War veteran, who later admits he “went mad” after his time in this war. Pan-su is married to a Lebanese woman named Layla (played by Nisrine Adam), who is a stereotypical “worried wife at home” in this male-dominated action film.

Someone else who gets involved in this kidnapping rescue is a Lebanese intermediary named Karim (played by Fehd Benchemsi), who helps Min-jun convert the ransom money into Lebanese cash. Karim, who is accustomed to dealing with terrorists, also gives Min-jun advice on how to deal with these terrorist kidnappers and how to plan to bring Jae-seok safely back to South Korea.

Min-jun needs Pan-su to be his translator and to teach Min-jun how to adjust to being in Lebanon as someone who is originally from South Korea. To further entice Pan-su into helping, Min-jun tells Pan-su that Min-jun can arrange for Pan-su and his wife to get a U.S. visa.

These two unlikely partners have opposite personalities, Min-jun is very orderly and “by the book.” Pan-su is a freewheeling loose cannon. Min-jun doesn’t know if he can fully trust Pan-su. A series of events force them to work together to keep each other alive.

“Ransomed” has some aspects of the story that seem far-fetched by actually makes some sense, under the circumstances. Min-jun is essentially the only Korean Foreign Ministry of Affairs official who’s going to be the one dropping off the money. Why doesn’t Min-Jun have more backup from his colleagues?

It’s explained in the movie that the terrorists have spies who are checking to see if Min-jun is planning an ambush with his colleagues or law enforcement. Typically, in a kidnapping ransom dropoff, the kidnappers only want to see one person dropping off the money. An exception is made for Min-jin, who relays a message to the terrorists through Karim, that Min-jin needs Pan-su to be with him as a translator.

As is expected in this type of action flick, there are car chases and shootouts. However, these scenes are better-than-average because of the skillful cinematography and the way these scenes are filmed to put viewers right into the action. Hardly any of it looks fake, although there are a few moments that look somewhat far-fetched in a “dangling from a building” scene.

Aside from the action scenes, the believable chemistry (sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile) between Min-jin and Pan-su will be what viewers will remember the most about “Ransome.” The argumentative conversations between Min-jin and Pan-sue are often intentionally comedic. The performances of Ha and Ju are completely entertaining to watch.

The last half-hour of “Ransomed” takes a turn into something more meaningful than just a “heroes versus villains” story. “Ransomed” also gives a realistic look at how the trauma of captivity can really damage someone and what human compassion looks like in the midst of death and destruction. “Ransomed” won’t be considered a classic action movie, but this adrenaline-packed movie gets the job done well in all the right places.

Well Go USA released “Ransomed” in select U.S. cinemas on August 4, 2023. The movie was released in South Korea on August 2, 2023.

Review: ‘The Childe,’ starring Kim Seon-ho, Kang Tae-ju, Kim Kang-woo and Go Ara

July 3, 2023

by Carla Hay

Kang Tae-ju (facing camera) and Kim Seon-ho in “The Childe” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“The Childe”

Directed by Park Hoon-jung

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Philippines and South Korea, the action film “The Childe” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A 24-year-old underground fighter in the Philippines travels to South Korea to get money from his estranged father to help pay for the medical bills of the fighter’s ailing mother, but the fighter gets more than he bargained for when he finds out that people are trying to kill him.

Culture Audience: “The Childe” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching neo-noir action films.

Kim Kang-woo (center) in “The Childe” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“The Childe” is an intriguing action film with plot twists that will keep viewers riveted. The principal cast members give solid performances. There are also frank depictions of the prejudices experienced by half-Korean, half-Filipino people in South Korea. These bi-ethnic people are called Kopinos, which is sometimes used as a derogatory term, depending who’s saying it and the context.

Written and directed by Park Hoon-jung, “The Childe” is an often-violent story about greed, ambition, and family relationships. The movie’s protagonist is 24-year-old Marco Han (played by Kang Tae-ju), who lives in the Philippines and makes illegal money as an underground boxer. Marco is desperate for cash because he’s the only one who can pay the medical bills of his ailing mother (played by Caroline Magbojos), who raised Marco as a single parent. Her medical situation is urgent because she needs a life-changing operation.

Marco’s biological father, who was never in Marco’s life, is a wealthy South Korean businessman who has some medical issues of his own. Because of heart problems, he is comatose and currently on a ventilator in a hospital in South Korea. Marco’s father has not kept in touch with Marco’s mother. It’s mentioned that Marco’s father kept his distance because he was ashamed of having an illegitimate child who’s half-Filipino.

Marco’s father, who is currently a widower, has two other children, who were both raised in this wealthy family: Adult son Director Han (played by Kang-woo Kim), who is in his 40s, is the heir apparent to the family fortune, which includes the Hokyung Foundation. His sister Han Ga-young (played by Jeong Ra-el) is in her late teens. Director Han knows about Marco. In a scene where Director Han is talking to their comatose father in the hospital, Director Han calls Marco a “mutt” because of Marco’s half-Filipino/half-South Korean heritage.

Back in the Philippines, Marco is enticed by a shady criminal to rob a warehouse. When Marco arrives at the warehouse, he finds out too late that it’s all a setup for an ambush. He’s physically attacked by about 10 thugs and runs away into a street, where he is almost hit by a car driven by a mysterious woman who’s about the same age as Marco. Viewers later find out that her name is Yoon-ju (played by Go Ara), who knows more than she initially tells Marco.

When Yoon-ju and Marco first meet, she’s very apologetic for almost hitting him with her car. When she sees his injuries, she insists on taking him to a hospital. The thugs that were chasing Marco back off and leave when they see that Marco is being helped by a potential witness. Yoon-ju makes the mistake of asking Marco if he’s a Kopino. It’s a question that offends Marco, and Yoon-ju makes an apology for it.

After Marco leaves the hospital, another mysterious stranger comes into his life. He’s only identiified in the movie as Nobleman (played by Kim Seon-ho), and he is a frequently smirking assassin. Nobleman tells Marco that he was sent by Marco’s father to bring Marco to South Korea. At first Marco is suspicious, because he’s been estranged from his father for Marco’s entire life, so Marco wonders why he is being summoned by his father at this point in time. But then, Marco decides he can use this visit to South Korea to ask his father for money to pay for the operation that Marco’s mother needs.

The next thing that Marco knows, he’s being whisked on a private plane to South Korea. But what about those thugs that attacked him? Why did that happen? Marco soon finds out that he’s also under attack in Korea. There are several scenes in the movie where he is chased by men who obviously want to kill him. It should come as no surprise who’s behind these attacks, but the motivation for these attempted murders is meant to be a surprise, which is revealed in the last third of the movie.

Nobleman and Marco develop an unusual like/dislike rapport, where the lines are blurred on whose side Nobleman is really on. The offbeat and sometimes sarcastic banter that Nobleman and Marco have with each other is the darkly comedic part of the movie. Kim and Kang have great performance chemistry with each other. Between the action scenes, Marco is trying to find out exactly who Nobleman is, just like how viewers might be wondering the same thing.

A few of the action sequences are unrealistic in how certain people should end up with broken or fractured bones but don’t. However, the stunts mostly look believable and don’t over-rely on visual effects. The mystery behind Marco’s invitation to South Korea eventually reveals a truth that is not as obvious as it first appears to be. “The Childe” isn’t a perfect action movie, but it offers enough thrills and suspense to satisfy any fan of the genre.

Well Go USA released “The Childe” in select U.S. cinemas on June 30, 2023. The movie was released in South Korea on June 21, 2023.

Review: ‘Past Lives’ (2023), starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro

June 1, 2023

by Carla Hay

Pictured in front: Greta Lee and Teo Yoo in “Past Lives” (Photo by Jon Pack/A24)

“Past Lives” (2023)

Directed by Celine Song

Some language in Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1990 to 2014, in Seoul, New York City, and briefly in Toronto, the dramatic film “Past Lives” (partially inspired by a true story) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Twenty-four years after moving from South Korea to North America in her childhood, a 36-year-old married woman reconnects with a single man of the same age who could have been her adolescent sweetheart if she hadn’t moved away from South Korea. 

Culture Audience: “Past Lives” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in well-acted dramas about missed connections, immigration, and contemplating “what if” scenarios, when it comes to love, friendship and romance.

Greta Lee, John Magaro and Teo Yoo in “Past Lives” (Photo courtesy of A24)

“Past Lives” beautifully tells a mature and realistic story about love, friendship and heartbreak for two people whose lives have gone in different directions, but they find a way to reconnect. It’s a relationship drama that’s an instant classic. If you’re looking for a movie with a formulaic ending, then look elsewhere. “Past Lives” authentically conveys the unsettling effects of when people begin to wonder if the lives that they have are the lives that they really want, and if past decisions they made were the right decisions.

Written and directed by Celine Song, “Past Lives” (which had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival) is a movie that is inspired by events that happened in Song’s own life. The movie isn’t autobiographical, but it explores many of the same feelings that came about when Song (who is originally from South Korea and married to an American man) was visited by man who was her childhood sweetheart in their native South Korea. Song is a New York City-based playwright whose feature-film debut is “Past Lives,” which opens with a scene that’s based on one of Song’s real-life experiences.

As she explains in the “Past Lives” production notes, she, her husband and her close childhood friend went to a restaurant/bar together during this visit. “I was sitting there between these two men who I know love me in different ways, in two different languages and two different cultures. And I’m the only reason why these two men are even talking to each other. There’s something almost sci-fi about it. You feel like somebody who can transcend culture and time and space and language.”

The opening scene of “Past Lives” does something clever in introducing this potentially uneasy love triangle: In 2014, two men and a woman are sitting side-by-side at a counter in a New York City bar, with the woman the middle. This trio is being observed by a man and a woman nearby (who are never seen on screen), who have a conversation trying to guess how these three people know each other. “Past Lives” (which takes place from 1990 to 2014) circles back to this bar scene later in the movie to show what led to this pivotal conversation between the trio.

After this opening scene, “Past Lives” flashes back to 1990 in Seoul, South Korea, where 12-year-old Moon Na Young, also known as Nora (played by Moon Seung-ah), and is hanging out with her best friend, Jung Hae Sung (played by Leem Seung-min), who’s about the same age as Nora. Hae Sung is a basketball enthusiast, who gently teases Nora because she’s crying over the fact that Hae Sung got first place in a contest that they entered. Hae Sung asks Nora why she’s angry over not getting first place. “I’m always second-place to you, and I never cry,” he says.

Viewers will soon see that Nora is the more talkative and ambitious of this duo of friends. She’s excels in academics and wants to be a writer when she grows up. At this point in Hae Sung’s childhood, he is less certain of what he wants to do with his life. He is well-mannered and throughtful, which are personality traits that carries throughout his life. He’s also not as quick as Nora to reveal his feelings.

In another scene, Hae Sung’s mother (played by Min Young Ahn) tells Nora’s mother (played by Ji Hye Yoon), who both don’t have names in the movie, that Na Young/Nora and Hae Sung look cute together. Hae Sung’s mother implies that these two kids will probably get married to each other when they’re adults. Hae Sung seems to also think that this will be the natural progression of his relationship with Nora.

However, the lives of Nora and Hae Sung will soon go in very different directions. Hae Sung is shocked to find out one day that the Moon family is moving to Canada to try something new in their lives. It’s a relocation that was decided by both parents, although Nora’s father (played by Wong Young Choi), who works in film production, seems to be more of the driving force in this decision. Nora’s father is the one who decided what the English-language first names would be for Na Young and her younger sister Si Young (played by Yeon Woo Seo), who is quieter and more passive than Na Young/Nora. Nora wanted to be renamed Michelle.

Before moving away, Nora tells her classmates that her family is moving to Canada because “Koreans don’t get the Nobel Prize for literature,” which is another way of saying that Nora believes that she has to become part of Western culture to achieve what she wants in life. Viewers can infer that these beliefs were instilled in her by her parents. It also explains why Nora doesn’t go back to visit South Korea after she has moved away.

The first third of the movie ends with a poignant goodbye between Nora and Hae Sung outside on a street near her home, and then the Moon family is shown arriving at Toronto International Airport. The farewell between adolescent Nora and Hae Sung becomes a defining life moment that gets compared to something that happens later in the movie. Nora and Hae Sung don’t fully understand at the time how momentous this goodbye will be in their lives.

The middle section and last-third section of the “Past Lives” shows the adulthood of Nora (played by Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (played by Teo Yoo), who are leading two very different lives. The second-third of the movie begins in 2002, when 24-year-old Nora is a university grad student in New York City. Hae Sung is enlisted in the South Korean military, which is required for South Korean men in his age group. Hae Sung eventually becomes an engineering student.

Nora finds out that Hae Sung has been trying to contact her, by leaving a message on the Facebook page of her father’s production company. Nora is slightly amused and very intrigued, so she decides to reach out to Hae Sung through social media. They reconnect with Skype conversations that are flirtatious with underlying potential for romance. In her 20s, Nora is proud to tell Hae Sung that she’s no longer the “crybaby” that he knew her to be when they were kids.

There’s an unspoken “push and pull” going on in these conversations. Nora and Hae Sung both know that if they start a romance with each other, the issue will inevitably come up about who is going to move to another country to be with that person. It’s an issue that’s the main wedge in preventing this relationship from blossoming.

Nora, who is fluent in Korean and English, is very happy and settled in New York City. Hae Sung, whose English is limited, sees himself as always living in South Korea. Nora tries to motivate Hae Sung to visit her in New York City, but he asks her a question that has a ripple effect on their relationship thereafter: “Why would I want to go to New York?” Observant viewers will notice that Nora doesn’t offer to visit Hae Sung in South Korea.

The last third of the movie takes place 12 years later, in 2014. Nora is still in New York City and now happily married to an American book author named Arthur Zaturansky (played by John Magaro), who is an easygoing and loving husband. However, Nora’s world gets rocked when she hears from Hae Sung after not being in contact with him for many years. Hae Sung, a never-married bachelor, is coming to New York City to visit for a week. And he wants to see Nora. It will be the first time Nora and Hae Sung will see each other in person (not over a computer or phone screen) since they said goodbye to each other as 12-year-old in South Korea.

None of this is spoiler information, because “Past Lives” (which is told in mostly in chronological order) is being marketed around the last third of the film. The movie has occasional flashbacks showing Nora and Hae Sung in their childhoods. The chronological narrative of the movie helps better explain how the relationship between Nora and Hae Sung changed over the years.

Nora’s anticipation for Hae Sung’s visit doesn’t go unnoticed by Arthur, who is trying to be open-minded and not jealous. Arthur knows that Nora and Hae Sung were close friends in a relationship that didn’t blossom into a romantic dating relationship. However, even though Nora doesn’t say it out loud, it’s very obvious that Nora wonders if Hae Sung is her true love/soul mate, the “one who got away.”

What Nora does say out loud to Arthur is this defensive response when Arthur wonders if Nora is still attracted to Hae Sung: “I don’t think it’s an attraction. I think I just missed him a lot. I miss Seoul.”

It’s not that Nora doesn’t love Arthur. It’s just that Nora knows her emotional connection with Hae Sung goes much deeper that what she has with Arthur. Hae Sung is a reminder of Nora’s past, but he’s also an example of a future she could have had but chose not to have. After Hae Sung arrives in New York City, the time that Nora and Hae Sung spend reconnecting are mostly on platonic dates to various places in New York City. During a few of the conversations in these get-togethers, Hae Sung brings up the concept of past lives determining future lives.

“Past Lives” shows how two people who could be passionate soul mates might not be compatible when it comes to marriage and life goals. Unless someone wants a long-distance or unconventional marriage, part of the commitment of marriage is spending time living together. Curiosity is a huge reason for Nora’s willingness to meet up with Hae Sung. What does he really want from her? And has he changed his mind about living in the United States?

These questions linger during the most memorable conversations in “Past Lives,” until Nora gets some definitive answers. But the emotional heart of the story has to do with the unanswered “what if” questions that Nora and Hae Sung have about their lives. Lee and Yoo are stellar in their performances as Nora and Hae Sung. These two co-stars skillfully depict showing the restraint of two characters who don’t want cross boundaries into inappropriateness but have the openness of two formerly close friends who are eager to reconnect.

As for that bar conversation featured in the movie’s opening scene, it realistically shows how Arthur feels like a “third wheel” when he’s around Nora and Hae Sung, who frequently speak to each other in Korean. Arthur knows a little bit of Korean, but he’s not fluent in the language. Magaro is quite good in a role that is meant to be a supporting role, but it never looks diminished or undervalued. Feeling like the “odd man out” is as awkward for Arthur as it is intentionally uncomfortable for viewers to watch.

Unlike other movies that would turn this love triangle into heavy melodrama or unrealistic comedy, “Past Lives” is about how people who are emotionally mature adults can navigate this tricky situation. A sign of great acting is when viewers can sense what the characters are thinking but are not saying out loud. The biggest truths of “Past Lives” are in those unspoken moments, with a lot of these truths showing themselves in the movie’s very last and unforgettable scene.

A24 will release “Past Lives” in select U.S. cinemas on June 2, 2023, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on June 23, 2023.

Review: ‘Hunt’ (2022), starring Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung

March 11, 2023

by Carla Hay

Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung in “Hunt” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Hunt” (2022)

Directed by Lee Jung-jae

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place mainly in South Korea (and briefly in Washington, D.C., Japan, and Thailand), in 1983, the action film “Hunt” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two agents of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) work together and clash with each other in their efforts to find a mole who has been leaking valuable information. 

Culture Audience: “Hunt” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and complex spy movies.

Lee Jung-jae in “Hunt” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Hunt” sometimes gets too convoluted for its own good, but it offers a mostly engaging mystery for viewers who have the attention span and interest to follow this twist-filled spy thriller that’s set in the 1980s. The movie has commendable acting and enough tension-filled action to keep viewers interested in what’s going to happen next. However, this movie is not going to have much appeal to viewers who want a more straightforward narrative in a spy movie.

Directed by Lee Jung-jae (who co-wrote the “Hunt” screenplay with Jo Seung-hee), “Hunt” has the tried-and-true spy movie plot of a rivalry between colleagues fueling much of the tensions and suspicions in the story. The movie takes place mostly in South Korea, in 1983, the same year that there was an assassination attempt South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan in real life. North Koreans airplane pilots were also defecting to other countries in record numbers in the 1980s. These historical facts are used in the context of “Hunt,” which is Lee’s feature-film debut as a director and writer. “Hunt” had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

In “Hunt,” Lee portrays Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) Foreign Unit chief Park Pyong-ho, who often clashes with KCIA Domestic Unit chief Kim Jung-do (played by Jung Woo-sung), because each man thinks he is better than the other. Pyonh-ho has been with the KCIA for 13 years. Jung-do is a former military officer who is newer to the KCIA.

The movie’s opening scene takes place in Washington, D.C., where Pyong-ho and Jung-do have been assigned to the protection team for the South Korean president, who is visiting amid a storm of controversy. During the South Korean president’s arrival at a government event, there are local Korean American protestors outside the building who are angry over the how the return of military rule of the South Korean government.

Although the name of the South Korean president is not in the movie, this part of the movie’s plot is a reference to the real-life Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, when numerous people were killed over protesting military rule of South Korea. President-elect Chun Doo-hwan was largely blamed for this massacre. In the movie, some of the protesters have sign that call the South Korean president a “murderer.”

The head of the CIA’s East Asia unit, whose name is Director Gee (played by Paul Battle), has relayed information that there’s an assassination plot against the South Korean president that is expected to happen at this event. Pyong-ho is ordered to have his team on high alert. And sure enough, the assassination attempt happens, but Pyong-ho is able to thwart it by taking it upon himself to shoot and kill the assassin. Instead of praising Pyong-ho as a hero, Pyong-ho’s boss Director Kang (played Song Young-chang) scolds Pyong-ho for killing the suspect instead of wounding the suspect and taking the suspect into custody.

The investigation into this assassination attempt reveals that an unidentified mole with the code name Donglim is in the KCIA. It leads to Pyong-ho’s team and Jung-do’s team investigating each other. Early on, a economics professor named Shin Ki-Cheol, who was part of the delgation in Washington, is considered to be part of the assassination conspiracy. But is this professor really involved or just a scapegoat?

The people on Pyong-ho’s team include Bang Joo-kyung (played by Jeon Hye-jin) and Agent Yang (played by Jung Man-sik). Jung-do’s team includes Jang Cheol-seong (played by Heo Sung-tae). In between all this espionage intrigue, Pyong-ho has been tasked with protecting a slightly rebellious college student named Jo Yoo-jeong (played by Go Youn-jung), who unfortunately is a character that looks like a token female in this movie where the cast members with significant speaking roles are almost all men.

Under the direction of Lee, “Hunt” does a pretty good job of increasing the suspense, but at the expense of causing more confusion in the plot. The stakes get higher for the characters when Pyong-ho’s team and Jung-do’s team are each convinced that the mole is on the other team. Both teams also want to impress the newly appointed KCIA Director Ahn (played by Kim Jong-soo), who is an ex-military officer. Double-cross plots are uncovered. And the race to find out the identity of Donglim leads to uncovering more assassination plots that take some of the characters to Japan and Thailand.

Lee, who is best known as a star of the Netflix series “Squid Game,” performs admirably in the role of Pyong-ho, always leaving audiences guessing until a certain point in the movie how much Pyong-ho really knows about the Donglim the mole. Woo-sung does very well in his scenes when his Jung-do character has conflicts with Pyong-ho. Will these fierce rivals ever trust each other? And who is Donglim? The movie answers these questions in some ways that are less predictable than others. The last 20 minutes of “Hunt” are an adrenaline-packed knockout that achieves the intentions of “Hunt” to not have a typical ending for a spy movie.

Magnet Releasing released “Hunt” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on December 2, 2022. The movie was released in South Korea on August 10, 2022.

Review: ‘Project Wolf Hunting,’ starring Seo In-guk, Jang Dong-yoon, Sung Dong-il, Park Ho-san, Jung So-min, Ko Chang-seok and Jang Yong-nam

February 28, 2023

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left: Seo In-guk, Ko Chang-seok, Lee Sung-wook, Jang Dong-yoon and Park Ho-san in “Project Wolf Hunting” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Project Wolf Hunting”

Directed by Kim Hong-seon

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly on a ship going from the Philippines to South Korea, the sci-fi/horror/action film “Project Wolf Hunting” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: South Korean criminals, who are being transported by ship from the Philippines to South Korea, take violent control of the ship, and they find out that they have been captured for reasons other than to face criminal charges. 

Culture Audience: “Project Wolf Hunting” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful horror movies and have a high tolerance for watching scenes of bloody violence.

Jang Young-nam and Jung So-min in “Project Wolf Hunting” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Project Wolf Hunting” revels in a lot of gore, but this sci-fi horror movie also has a solid story that’s packed with thrilling action. Plot twists and memorable characters make “Project Wolf Hunting” better than the average bloody horror flick. The movie starts off looking like it will be one type of story, but then it turns into something else that is far more intriguing. “Project Hunting” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Kim Hong-seon, “Project Wolf Hunting” doesn’t waste time before the mayhem starts in the first 15 minutes of its 123-minute total running time. The movie begins by showing several South Korean criminals being escorted by law enforcement officers onto a ship going from the Philippines to South Korea. All of the criminals were arrested and convicted in the Philippines for their crimes, but the convicts are being deported to South Korea to serve out the rest of their prison sentences. At least, that’s what they’ve been told.

A cunning, handsome and ruthless prisoner named Park Jong-doo (played by Seo In-guk) has no intentions of going quietly on this trip. He is a leader who has concocted a plan with some of the other prisoners to take over the ship, in order to escape. The other prisoners who are part of the scheme include Lee Do-il (played by Jang Dong-yoon), a baby-faced killer who is famous; Lee Seok-woo (played by Park Ho-san), who is; and Choi Myeong-ju (played by Jang Young-nam), one of the few women on the ship. Myeong-ju has a secret connection with someone else on the ship, and this secret is eventually revealed.

Before the hostage crisis on the ship happens, several of the police officers are seen gathered in the ship’s kitchen. They express frustration and disdain that the prisoners are getting special treatment by the South Korean government. One of the cops complains, “The perps are getting better food than us.”

Elsewhere on the ship, a severely burned man, who is lying down on a gurney and breathing through a ventilator, is in a secret room that looks like a scientific lab. He has maggots coming out of his mouth. This mystery person is then given an injection. It won’t be the last time that viewers will see this charred-looking and infected person.

The criminals’ hostage plan is set into motion when a guy dressed in a mechanic’s uniform secretly takes a wrench and tampers with a safety bolt on this ship, causing a mechanical malfunction. The ship’s crew is distracted by trying to fix this problem (just as the criminals had planned), when Jong-doo and the rest of his cronies attack the crew and police officers, take weapons, and commit a brutal slaughter. How vicious is Jong-doo? He bites off an ear off of a man, chews up the ear, and then spits it out.

One of the ship’s crew members whose life is spared is Go Kun-bae (played by Ko Chang-seok), because the criminals need a few of the crew members who know the ship’s mechanics, in case anything goes wrong with the ship. Meanwhile, the ship has mysteriously gone off the radar of the South Korean government. A few other characters in the movie have pivotal roles, including a corrupt government official named Chief Pyo (played by Choi Gwi-hwa) with the code name Alpha; the ship’s captain Oh Dae-woong (played by Sung Dong-il); and a young police officer named Lee Da-yeon (played by Jung So-min), one of the other few women in this movie.

“Project Wolf Hunting” has some predictable moments, but there are some plot developments that steer clear of the usual stereotypes. It’s already shown in the movie’s trailers that what’s happening on this ship is somehow related to Japan’s 1910 to 1945 occupation of South Korea. The movie also reveals in the first 15 minutes that the massacre isn’t the only sinister thing happening on this ship.

“Project Wolf Hunting” is certainly not going to win any prestigious awards. And some of the violence is very excessive. However, Seo’s performance as the evil gang leader Jong-doo is riveting but might be too disturbing for some viewers. What makes “Project Wolf Hunting” a twist-filled story is that Jong-doo might or might not be the movie’s biggest villain. And who ends up in the final showdown cannot be easily predicted in the movie’s first 15 minutes.

“Project Wolf Hunting” has well-paced action, competent acting and some social commentary about how governments can treat prisoners and other people whom society has deemed “undesirable.” It’s not a groundbreaking film, but the plot surprises are indications that the filmmakers made an effort not to stick to the usual formulas found in similar sci-fi horror movies. Viewers who think they’ll want to watch all of “Project Wolf Hunting” just have to prepared to see many gruesome depictions of humanity at its worst.

Well Go USA released “Project Wolf Hunting” in select U.S. cinemas on October 7, 2022. The movie was released in South Korea on September 21, 2022. “Project Wolf Hunting” was released on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on February 14, 2023.

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