April 20, 2010

Dream (Kim Ki-duk, 2008)

Kim Ki-duk has shown he's an art-house auteur to contend with. Here, he adopts an esoteric premise, developing it as a meditation on love and passion.
November 24, 2010

A Frozen Flower (Ha Yu, 2008)

I’ve heard good things about the Korean film, A Frozen Flower. Outside from the gorgeous production value and box-office success, it has also been heralded for its inclusion of homosexuality in a period setting. I was hoping I would get to see it at this year’s festival and was glad to see it on the schedule, even if for only […]
December 5, 2010

The Housemaid (Ki-young Kim, 1960; Sang-soo Im, 2010)

The Housemaid (Ki-young Kim, 1960) is one of the oldest films known to have survived South Korea’s evolution from Third-World country to G20 powerhouse. The print shown at Fantasia this year was restored by Martin Scorsese’s World film Restoration Foundation in tandem with the South Korean government and follows The Housemaid (Sang-soo Im, 2010) remake’s stellar performance this year at […]
March 11, 2013

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Te-sheng Wei, 2011)

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is an epic tale about the indigenous people of Taiwan before the encroachment of the Japanese.
March 4, 2011

The Clone Returns Home (Kanji Nakajima, 2008)

Although the premise seems ripe for the movie becoming a welcome addition to the minimalist cerebral sci-fi genre, The Clone Returns Home disappoints.