A grotesque animated feature, Padak is the most morbid metaphor for a fish out of water story. Perhaps there is something to the revolting aesthetics of Padak, a means of staring into the abyss. It’s harder, though, with its shifting off-putting styles, to put any emotional stake in its attempted emotional manipulations. And perhaps all of them are so surface level and overstated to the point of breaking the metaphor, again and again, that the center of the story no…
Reviews tagged ‘sksummer’ by Calvin Kemph 🤠 Patron
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Seoul Station 2016
I’m weary of saying Yeon Sang-ho has one trick before exploring everything — and Train to Busan is a moving gimmick, if it’s a one-time gimmick — but the animation, sequel and terrible hero film aren’t helping any other arguments I might make about his work. The style here is stilted and shows little understanding, intellectually, for why zombies work, or what their function even could be in a movie about them.
Join us for the Summer of South Korean Cinema, hosted by my dear friend Benjamin. Here’s my working list.
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Barking Dogs Never Bite 2000
Bong confronts class-based fatalism in grim basements, with wealth and division fragmented by the verticality of spaces. His debut feature runs like so many of his others. There are elemental pieces of the filmmaker here. Parts that could later be slotted into more resonant filmmaking. There’s a dark and biting humor (the film certainly bites, whether or not the dogs do), arriving with a sense of the same bleak storytelling that would define his better works. A film for cat…
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The Foul King 2000
A wrestling comedy collaboration between serious genre director Kim Jee-woon and Song Kang-ho in his first leading role where he does his own stunts. So physically and visually, it’s all great. Actor Kang-ho exhibits physicality in his comedic and wrestling performances. The film feels somewhat disconnected outside the ring. It doesn’t tie the plot up in a neat headlock, and lets some fragments escape. Despite a miscommunication between in-ring theatrics and real-life dramatics, it still captures the ignited charisma of…
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Moebius 2013
Kim Ki-duk creates wordless, gruesome scenarios in a way I’ve never seen and felt before. That is, I’ve never seen such violence and grotesque mutilation paired with intentional silence. His other films I have seen have some mute characters but Moebius goes all the way. It’s intriguing, of course, and comes from such a profound and simple place, of wanting to explore unspoken pain and trauma.
Nobody speaks, everybody gets choked.
Join us for the Summer of South Korean Cinema, hosted by my dear friend Benjamin. Here’s my working list.
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Josée 2020
Fantasia Fest — #11
If Josée were to be a flower, it would be annual. It would be hardy all year but then maybe it would fade away. That’s the kind of love Josée is about, sure some seasons, and gone in others. It’s a South Korean romance film about a poor man and the woman, a wheelchair user, he loves. They are together because the shifting seasons have dictated that, for a while, that is the right thing to…
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The Host 2006
It’s a battle of South and North Korean Kaijus in this week’s Ranking the Monsters. It’s Pulgasari vs. The Host, two fascinating productions with a world of difference between their styles and cultural expressions. Won’t you join us for this week’s Ranking the Monsters with guest host Vaughn.
The more Kaiju I see, the more I must advocate for the genre.
My rewatch of The Host reveals that the Kaiju formula is a nice fit for Bong Joon-ho, one of…
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Hotel by the River 2018
A literal and metaphorical conversation about death. Hong arrives as a close observer, with handheld footage of saturated wintry black and white framing his closeness to the subject. Generally a Rohmerian film is talking about love by a beach, but his Mauds’ also freezes over with analytical black and white. The cinematography here captures the same feeling, of winter and light, and the distance between man and woman, but without the academic interests. The film is a nice, small meditation…
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The Day He Arrives 2011
Capturing interiority and self reflection through his conversational text, Hong Sang-soo rattles off another idealistic open dialogue between audience and creator. It’s profound and smartly developed. The apathy and general dejection from the lead, an artist circling the drain, is pointed and poignant. There’s something to the idea of stripping it all down, having filmmaking with just the most essential parts. It allows humanity to come through and fill in the open spaces of the rigid black and white photography.…
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On the Beach at Night Alone 2017
The idea that directors fall head over heals in love with their muses is hardly rare. There’s a whole cinema of directors who fell for their actors. Where the tensions are felt between the direction and the alluring performance.
Hong Sang-soo takes a more direct path with these things. He’s always ready to process the understood relationship between author and the viewer. His films are open conversations, without being expository and listless. Every conversation means something and matters, or has…
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Night Fishing 2011
I love short films that dramatically benefit from their short runtime and tight framing. Night Fishing is one such fully worked out project. Shorts can be so much more than shots at creating something that can become a feature. This one is complete in itself. Nothing should be taken away, nor added. The music is fascinating here, the psychedelic band in the opening, the crescendo wall of Jazzy sound the film builds up to. Full of ideas and bright in its singular vision, great short.
Join us for the Summer of South Korean Cinema, hosted by my dear friend Benjamin. Here’s my working list.
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A Taxi Driver 2017
The title and poster almost betrays the openness and capacity of the plot. It begins with the struggling Seoul cab driver (Song Kang-ho, endearing as ever), just trying to feed his daughter and get by. It’s what it looks like, then, an endearing portrait of a family man who has become a sweet taxi driver after losing his wife and his fortune. Then the whole thing twists, as a German (Thomas Kretschmann, complimentary) comes to town looking for a ride…