Movie Update!

I'm heading to another film festival tomorrow, it's going to be my last in Korea which is a little sad to say the least!

The film festival is about 2 hours from Seoul in Jecheon, I'm really excited about heading along as well as the films the website says there is a market area with crafty stuff. I can't wait.

But this post is to update you on films I have seen, rather than films I am going to see! So here's the films I've watched recently:

Film 42 - Cellular

This is a rather brainless movie I watched whilst returning on a long bus trip on a teachers overnight trip. It's all about crooked LA cops kidnapping the family of a real estate agent who caught them up to no good (on camera) . It's fairly horrible.

Film 43 - Down Terrace

Down Terrace is one of the best black comedies I've seen in ages, it's about a fairly working class crime family. One of the family members has just returned from the courts, escaping conviction and they want to find out who in their circle has been talking and letting their secrets out. This movie is pretty dark and has a pretty impressive body count. I loved it - but only because I have a pretty dark sense of humour.

Film 44 - Confessions

This is another incredibly dark, but beautifully shot Japanese film. It's the story of a teacher, whose young daughter has been drowned at the pool at the school she teaches at. The teacher knows two of her students are responsible for the death of her daughter but knows the justice system will allow the boys to walk free due to their age. The rest of the film is about four characters confessions about what really happened and the fall out of the girls drowning. It's a another dark movie, but it's so beautifully made.

Film 45 - Death Bell 2

Death Bell 2 is a Korean Horror film, if you're a horror film fan then it's just good fun. If you're not a horror fan then you won't like this film. It's a pretty simple plot - the brightest students at a high school are taking part in a school "camp" (by camp I mean additional study!) to better prepare them for university.

However - many of these students are responsible for a past wrong (it's a fairly BIG wrong too) and those that have suffered are out for revenge.

Film 46 - House of the Devil

I loved this film so MUCH! It's a relatively new film but it really has the feel of a 1970's style horror - helped by the fact it's set in that time. Even the opening credit's have a delightfully cheesy 1970's feel to them. It's a pretty basic story - a college girl is moving into her first apartment but is finding getting the money together a little difficult. She takes a job, which she thinks is babysitting but is actually looking after an older woman. She accepts a huge amount of money for one nights - it's also the night of a rare eclipse and things end up becoming very weird.

Film 47 - Monsters

When I started watching this film I thought - "not another cheesy monster movie". But it's not really a monster movie at all. The setting is that a US satellite that fell to earth on the boarder between the US and Mexico bought with it some rather nasty creatures from out of space. The US and Mexican governments are now trying to contain these creatures.

But, as I said, the movie isn't really about monsters. It's about how people survive when everything goes wrong.

A photographer is trying to get the daughter of the media CEO her works for out of Mexico and back home to the US as the monsters are going a little crazy. The story is about their journey - it's an amazing movie and you quickly forget about the cheesy monsters.

Film 48 - Gintama

Gintama is a Japanese Anime I found fairly entertaining. There's way too much going on in the story for me even to remember now! But I do clearly remember being surrounded by Korean Fan Boys and Fan Girls whilst watching it.

Film 49 - The Lost Boys

I watched Lost Boys in my hotel in Vietnam one day - it's one of the best vampire films - ever!

Film 50 - Crackerjack

An Aussie Comedy I watched in the hotel in Vietnam - to be honest it's not the best Aussie comedy I've ever seen - but it still made me laugh. Plus Fred Dagg plays the bad guy - go Kiwi!

Film 51 - The Prestige

A completely amazing film set in Victorian England where two magicians seem to do battle over the years to have the most incredible trick, as well as try and work out how their opposition makes their magic work. Plus it has David Bowie. Everything is better with David Bowie.

Pifan or Pucheon Fantastic Film Festival

On Friday after work Rich and I took an hour and half subway journey to Pucheon to attend the Pucheon Fantastic Film Festival (Pifan). We had been waiting for this festival forever! I was really excited as it was the first time I'd actually gone to a film festival rather than just attending whatever festival's were in my city.

Here's a couple of shots of our hotel - it's actually one of the nicer hotels we've stayed in but as it turns out it becomes a bit of a love motel after dark!

Here's a night time shot of Pucheon, it's acutally much bigger than I thought! It also seems to be a city of neon. It felt like there was more neon here than in central Seoul.Our first movie was "Down Terrace" which we watched on the first night with Joseph and his son Cohen who is in Korea for his summer break from University. We also caught up the guys the following morning to watch a Japanese film called "Confessions".

After that we had some time to kill so decided to check out some of Pucheon. Here's the Pucheon "cultural bridge" - I'm a little fuzzy on what makes it soon cultural but it's a pretty cool bridge.

We also visited a park near one of the many venues where they were playing films - this was a very cool park and they had closed down the road near the park so kids could ride their pedal cars around. Which was pretty cute.


Here's a few photo's we took outside on of the venue's for the festival, the Pucheon town hall, there was some kind of competition on where people make sculptures out of food packaging.



Here I am, feeling rather happy with a whole bunch of movie tickets! A lot of ghouls turned up for the screening of Death Bell 2 - I even got to meet a couple of them. I thought afterwards maybe I should look more scared in this photo.Part way through the festival, we all decided we needed a break so we headed to Aiins World, a theme park which features minitures of some of the worlds great buildings and monuments. It was great cheesy fun!





Here's a few photo's from our last day, we watched our final film at a museum in Pucheon. It was a pretty cool museum - it even had a Miffy exhibition on but we didn't really have time to check it out.



I'll blog a little more about the films I actually watched later when I have a little more time.

I'm leaving for Hanoi and Hong Kong early tommorrow, so blogging will be pretty limited in that time.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Movie update - Movies 33 & 34

It's time for another movie update! The first movie is a Korean film called "Three Iron" which we recently watched on TV without subtitles. This isn't due to our Korean language skills greatly improving (sadly) , but rather due to the fact that the film has limited dialogue and what dialogue it does have is pretty easy to understand.

It's the story of one of those guys who put's fliers on everybodies doors here in Korea (every time we return to our apartment, the door is plastered with fliers for food, gyms, beauticians and even prostitutes!).

Basically, he puts the fliers on people's doors and comes back later to see if they have been pulled off - if they haven't been pulled off he figures the owners must be away. He spends a few days in the person's house or apartment, fixes the stuff that is broken, does the cleaning and cooks himself and meal or two and then moves onto the next house.

It may sound like a boring premise but it's actually really amazing - it really gives you an insight into the life of everyday Korean homes and people.

One day he "let's himself in" to a beautiful house, but it turns out the wife is still there (and has been beaten by her husband). She isn't scared and doesn't want him to leave but instead follows him around the house and then joins hime. This is after he meets her husband and hits a few golfballs at him with a three iron (her husband is not a nice guy).

Yes, it turns out that this nomad is actually a golf fan as well and practices his game in parks with a golf ball attached to wire.

Anyway, the movie just gets more and more dreamlike from here as their relationship develops and they visit other people's homes and life gets crazier and crazier.

This is a really incredible movie and the cover really doesn't do it any justice!
The next movie I've seen recently is "The Ghost Writer" which is a Roman Polanski film.

It's basically an espionage type thriller, a ghost writer goes to help a former British Prime Minister write his memoirs but it seems that something isn't quite right with the whole situation. Especially as the former Ghost Writer was found dead in the ocean (and he was a great frend of the Ex-PM).

The movie (and I assume the novel it's based on) takes a few digs at Tony Blair and UK/US relations in general and it was a good movie, except for one thing, the horrible accents!

There were so many American actors with horrible English accents and vice versa it was a little painful! I'm sure all this was lost on the Korean audience but it made me cringe a little.

New Years Resolution Update - Movies 25, 26 & 27

I'm not sure if my new years resolution is going all that well, in fact I feel as if I should have watched twice as many films by now! But who knows maybe I will still make it to 110 movies by 31 Decemeber.

Here's a few films I have watched recently, first of all, Robin Hood. I really liked this film, it wasn't the typical Robin Hood story that TV shows and movies are usually based on - in fact it focuses on the story just before the "legend" begins.

Second is a Korean film, the English title is "Poetry". It's not often we get to see new Korean films but some of the cinema's in Seoul have started playing a few showings of current films with English subtitles which is just awesome. Poetry was a good movie but not a feel good movie - it deals with a grandmother and her grandson (who she is raising). Her grandson has committed a rather horrible crime with his friends and the grandmother finds herself dragged into a plan by the other boys fathers to deal with the "problem" with money. At the same time she's trying desperately hard to write a great poem for her poetry class. Like I said, this movie doesn't leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside but it does have something really important to say.
Finally, on Saturday we saw the remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street", I've been wanting to see this for a while as it's a remake rather than another sequel and I was interested to see how the new film would interpret the original story. Unfortunatly, I have to say I really do prefer the old movie. Like a lot of new horror movies, this version of an old story is really dark, no great one liners and everything is so so serious and dark.

Thirst

Movie 17 of my new years resolution is a Korean movie loaned to us by Joseph - it's a love story and a vampire movie but no Twilight soppiness here. This movie is really incredible and there isn't really a dull moment from beginning to end, I especially like the end, it's incredible. You should find a copy of this movie and watch it as soon as possible.