Korea. Call it a comeback?

"If you sit down and think about if calmly and rationally, Jung Gil Young's dueling serial killer thriller Our Town is a film that very likely shouldn't work," writes Twitch's Todd Brown. "But it does work, and it works very well indeed... Can it be that between this film, The Chaser and Epitaph Korea is finally producing some legitimate young talent and showing signs of shaking off its extended slump? Damn straight."

"One thing Korean cinema has done rather well in the last 15 years is its continued support for, and introduction of, female directors with strong personal visions, beginning with Lim Soon-rye (whose Forever the Moment is shaping out to be 2008's first big Korean hit), Jeong Jae-eun (The Aggressives) and Byun Young-joo (Flying Boys)," writes Kim Hyun Kim. "Kim Hee-jung is the latest in this roster of talented Korean female directors. Her Wonder Years is a gentle, composed character study that will probably bore viewers expecting either a well-heeled, cliche-bound melodrama wherein copious amounts of tears are shed, or an adolescent phantasmagoria with surrealistic flights of fancy."

Also at Koreanfilm.org, Darcy Paquet on Hellcats, "a tasty two-hour diversion."

Online viewing tip. Back to Todd Brown, who points to Kweb's interview (in English) with Bong Joon-ho and notes that "among the topics covered are the upcoming sequel to The Host and Bong's upcoming adaptation of French graphic novel Le Transperceneige AKA Snow Train, which Oldboy's Park Chan-Wook will be producing."

Posted by dwhudson at April 7, 2008 3:18 PM