Noticias

More than 200 films selected for first in-person festival since the start of the pandemic.

South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival (April 28-May 7) has unveiled a line-up of 217 films from 56 countries for its first fully-fledged physical edition since start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A special programme curated by Train To Busan director Yeon Sang-ho is among the selection for the festival’s 23rd edition, which was announced at back-to-back press conferences in Jeonju and Seoul today (March 31).

The 10-day event will include an awards ceremony on May 4 while the Jeonju Project industry programme will run May 1-3.

This year’s...

Hellbound is the most recent Korean-language hit to make it into the U.S. Netflix Top Ten, and to top Netflix’s global (self-reported) charts. If you’ve already binged all six episodes of the ultra-violent celestial fantasy and are thirsting for more shows in a similar vein, then we’ve hand-picked a selection of supernatural fantasy series that could make the perfect follow-up. Prepare yourself for heaven-and-hell dramas, existential questions, terrifying monsters, human dilemmas, angels, demons and much, much more.

The Leftovers

Where to watch: HBO Max

Like Hellbound, The Leftovers is an existential drama that starts with an incomprehensible, potentially divine metaphysical event. In Hellbound, it is the realization that creatures that seem a lot like angels and demons exist and are coming to kill people. In The Leftovers, it is the sudden disappearance of 2% of the world’s population. Lesser shows—or at least more plot-driven shows...

Hellbound has a stellar script and gorgeous directorial execution from creator Yeon Sang-ho, but those elements would only go so far without a good cast to support the dramatic story. Luckily, the six-part Netflix series has an impressive ensemble to ground its supernatural narrative. Let’s talk about who all of these actors are, and where you might have seen them before—or where you should watch them next…

Yoo Ah-in as Jeong Jin-soo

Hellbound character: Yoo Ah-in plays New Truth cult leader Jeong Jin-soo with disturbing charisma, constantly keeping the characters and viewers on edge as to what his true motives might be. For me, Yoo was the standout performer in a stellar cast.

What to watch next: Yoo Ah-in is a 35-year-old actor who has appeared in a variety of roles prior to his unsettling turn on Hellbound. If you’re looking to see him in another role,...

The July lineup at The Criterion Channel has been revealed, most notably featuring the new Wong Kar Wai restorations from the recent box set release, including As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, and his shorts Hua yang de nian hua and The Hand.

Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.

With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...

On May 24, the 25th Bucheon International Film Festival announced the 40 official selections from 29 countries for this year’s Naff project market. The selections consist of 19 projects for It Project, 11 projects for Project Spotlight: Korea, 6 projects for Work in Progress, 2 projects for Nordic Genre Invasion, 1 project for Blood Window, and 1 project for Fantastic 7. Selected projects are listed in the table below.

A total of 202 projects from 40 countries were submitted for consideration for this year’s Naff project market. This represents a year-on-year increase of 8 countries and 21 projects. The judges for this year included Kim Donghyeon, Kim Huiyeon, Ellen Y.D. Kim, Mo Eunyoung, and Eom Yonghun. “There were many new and original projects, each captivating in their own way, that were about personal inner conflict, social irregularities, or were complex projects that merged several genres at once,” explained judge Kim Huiyeon. “I’m looking forward to everyone overcoming these difficult pandemic times,...

The industry event will run entirely online from July 8-13.

South Korea’s Bucheon International Film Festival (Bifan), Asia’s largest genre film festival, has announced 40 official selections from 29 countries for this year’s Naff project market.

The 19 titles selected for the It Project strand include director Khavn De La Cruz’s Philippines project 100 Midget Zombie Cannibals, produced by Achinette Villamore and Stephan Holl, and director Mattie Do’s Laos-Spain co-production The White King, produced by Annick Mahnert and Douangmany Soliphanh, as well as director Quentin Lee’s US project How To Talk With Spirits which he is also producing.

The Naff genre film project market that is attached to the BiFan fantasy festival in South Korea will expand to 40 projects at its upcoming July edition.

The 25th edition of the festival will overlap with Cannes, running July 8-18, 2021, with both online and offline screenings, as well as in person audience events, while Naff (July 8-13) will be held as a virtual event for the second successive year.

Naff organizers said that they had increased the number of selections from 30 last year to 40 this time, hailing from 29 countries and territories. These are spread across multiple different sections including the main It Project cluster, project Spotlight Korea, Works in Progress and those with partner events Nordic Genre Invasion, Blood Window and Fantastic 7. For the first time, the market has been opened to series, reflecting the impact of streaming services on the Asian production industry.

The lineup contains many familiar names from...

Eight years ago, I met an artist blazing new trails in Korean cinema. Disturbing and dark as pitch, director Yeon Sang-ho’s The King of Pigs {2011} was a decidedly un-family-friendly animated feature that glared unblinkingly at the ills of South Korean society through the eyes of three bullied kids. His next animated film, The Fake {2013}, tackled organised religion. Yeon’s first live-action feature, Train to Busan {2016}, would simultaneously initiate the zombie genre in South Korea, while keeping his social consciousness present. The film broke records in South Korea, and became hugely popular around the world, even without a wide mainstream release. Peninsula is the follow up to that blockbuster. Director Yeon was kind enough to send Lmd some thoughts about continuing his hit saga, and...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Yeon Sang-ho’s animated feature debut won three awards at the 2011 Busan International Film Festival and was selected to be screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. According to an unconfirmed piece of information from Wikipedia, the script is an exact depiction of events actually taking place, down to the last detail.

Buy This Title

The story revolves around two former classmates, businessman Kyung-min and writer Jong-suk. In the present, both of their lives are in shambles. Jong-suk is forced to do menial work, like ghost writing, and has to face a rather obnoxious boss who keeps demeaning him. His frustration erupts violently towards his wife, who, despite his behaviour, seems to love him very much.

Jong-suk is in an even worse position since his business has gone bankrupt, and he has just killed his wife. After the murder, he calls Jong-suk, who he has not met for 15 years,...

Our first ever giveaway has come to an end, and we a re truly happy to announce the list of winners. Some geographical restrictions did apply, so a number of the winners ended up with more than one present. Anyway, here is the list of the winners and their “spoils” . We will contact the winners through Youtube, so please check the video comments

The winners of one copy of One Cut Of The Dead, courtesy of Third Window Films are: Sharon Walsh Connecticut, USA Wan Dinnie. Malaysia. Fabio Canessa, Alghero, Italy The winner of 4 Chirashi, courtesy of JPosters.net is :

Earl Jackson, Taichung, Taiwan

The winners of Absurd Accident and Who Killed Cock Robin?, courtesy of Cheng Cheng Films, are: Jeffrey Wang, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Absurd Accident)Jonathan Rock Tavern NY, USA (Who Killed Cock Robyn?) The winners of 2 of This is Not A Khavn Collection and 2 of KFC,...

Director Yeon Sang-ho’s debut feature animation, The King of Pigs, was made with a 150-million-won budget, yet achieved a triple crown at Busan International Film Festival, including the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (Netpac) Award, Movie Collage Award and Dg Director’s Award.

The film, with computer and hand-drawn animation, is purposely crude and rough, with plenty of graphic head-turning moments. It’s technically adept and highly cinematic in its storytelling.

The King of Pigs is naked and unflinching from the beginning, which is of a female body strangled to death, in an apartment waiting for repossession, while Hwang Kyung-min (Oh Jung-se) has a shower after killing his wife. His middle-school classmate Jung Jong-suk (Yang Ik-june), a writer, whose reaction to a dressing down by his editor is to throw his fists at his girlfriend. Hwang calls Jung up for a reunion after 15 years of mutual silence.

South Korea’s Yeon Sang-ho explored fantastic cinema for the first time with his diptych about a zombie invasion, Seoul Station and Train to Busan. After a couple of totally sordid animated features, The King of Pigs and The Fake, Yeon found some sort of poetic justice in Seoul Station and a taste of hope at the end of Train to Busan, the latter being his first feature length film in which not every main character have a miserable outcome. Closer to a satisfactory type of cinema, Yeon presents his second live-action movie, Netflix’s Psychokinesis, which keeps him in the fantastic genre and, at the same time, takes him to a new direction. While Train to Busan had moments of pure heroism, Psychokinesis belongs legitimately to...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

★★★☆☆ Korean animation has skulked in the shadows for some time: South Korean animation houses have long performed the grunt work for countless popular Us cartoons - from The Simpsons onwards - whilst homegrown efforts have always had to compete with the established heritage of the neighbours on the other side of the Sea of Japan. However, a quiet renaissance has occurred over the last few years and the Lord of the Flies-esque The King of Pigs (Dwae-ji-ui wang, 2011) is one such example. Directed by débutante Sang-ho Yeon, it's a grim morality tale, mostly told through flashbacks to a violent school classroom.

We open on a woman, lying dead on a dining table. This is the wife of Kyung-ming, a depressive CEO, and in the wake of his business collapsing, it is implied that he murdered her. This sudden spark of barbarity compels Kyung-ming to reconnect with his old school friend,...

★★☆☆☆ The inherent darkness and cruelty of youth is not an alien concept to Asian filmmakers. The Japanese have provided two excellent examinations of the escalating brutality of out-of-control school children with the gore-soaked cult hit Battle Royale (2000) and 2010's Confession. South Korean director Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2004) also told of the repercussions of childhood malice, and now Yeon Sang-ho has joined the party with his debut animation The King of Pigs (Dwae-ji-ui Wang, 2011). The story of two sheepish classmates searching for an escape from constant bullying is an interesting, if flawed, exploration of anger, violence and idolatry.

Read more »...

The King of Pigs Trailer, Dwae-ji-ui wang Trailer. Sang-ho Yeon‘s The King of Pigs / Dwae-ji-ui wang (2011) movie trailer stars Ik-Joon Yang, Jung-se Oh, Hye-na Kim, Kkobbi Kim, and Hee-von Park. The King of Pigs‘ plot synopsis: “Kyung-min, a businessman, and Jong-suk, a failed writer, are former schoolmates. During [...]

Continue reading: The King Of Pigs / Dwae-ji-ui-wang (2011) Movie Trailer: Sang-ho Yeon...