LKFF Mini-Review: 킬러앞에 노인 (Killeoapenoin/The Killer behind the Old Man) & Jung Woo-sung Photos

Tags

Jung Woo-sung, LKFF, LKFF14, London, London Korean Film Festival

Year: 2014
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Korean
Director: Jung Woo-sung (정우성)
Studio: commissioned by Hong Kong International Film Festival (omnibus)
Screenplay: Yoon Jung Lee
Cinematography: N/a
Soundscore: Mowg
Cast: Andy Choi, Woo Sang-jeon, Yoo In-yeong
Runtime: N/a
Distribution: HKIFF
Film’s official website: N/a

Trailer: Not available

Seen at the 9th London Korean Film Festival. Special thanks go to the LKFF organisers for providing me with a press ticket.

Screening together with the feature 감시자들 (Gamshijadeul/Cold Eyes, 2013) at the 9th London Korean Film Festival,  킬러앞에 노인 (Killeoapenoin/The Killer Behind, the Old Man) is the directorial debut of Jung Woo-sung. A short originally part of the omnibus Three Charmed Lives – three works directed by individuals better known for their work in front rather than behind the camera – it comes commissioned by Fushan Features and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

April 2014 Events

Tags

Derby, Film Festival, Kaze Tachinu, KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London

This comes a bit late, as I just don’t have much time to blog at the moment. I’ll keep trying but won’t make any promises, at least not for the next half year or so (I’m in the final stretch of my studies and have a lot to write over the next few months).

April comes with all kinds of film related events – there’s plenty to choose from, but it’s quiet compared to what is awaiting us in May.

February 2014 Events

Tags

BFI, Birmingham, Film Festival, Glasgow, Japan Foundation, KCCUK, Korean Film Night, Leeds, London, Studio Ghibli

February may be a short month, but it’s not lacking in South East Asian film events. The Glasgow Youth Film Festival hits the jackpot with the UK premiere of Studio Ghibli’s「風立ちぬ」(Kaze Tachinu/The Wind Rises, Japan, 2013). London and the rest of the UK wait on as the wider cinematic release of the film has apparently been postponed for later in the year.

Last updated: 4/2/2014

Note: As always, I will be updating this post if I hear of any more events. Let me know if you see anything missing!

East Winds Opens in Coventry Today

Tags

Coventry, Film Festival

Sake-Bombin’ it.

Here is another festival I am late posting about: The East Winds Film Festival in Coventry, organised by CUEAFS and Third Window Films. The programme was released in bits and pieces over several weeks, which I don’t think is a particularly good idea. I mean, I understand announcing opening and closing films separately, but the rest of the programme should generally be available all at once – anything other than that is just very difficult to keep track of.

Anyhow, the fun starts in the English Midlands later this afternoon with some scary stuff since it’s Halloweeeeeen (And to get you into the mood, here’s a spine-chilling manhwa for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

October 2013 Events

Tags

Barbican, BFI, BFI Film Festival, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Film Festival, Glasgow, KCCUK, London, Manchester, Raindance

October madness is here. Seriously, mentally prepare yourself for this – I thought I would never finish writing this post!

Last updated: 7/10/2013

London Film Festival #57: Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong

Tags

BFI, BFI Film Festival, Film Festival, Koreeda Hirokazu, London, Matsuda Ryuhei, Miyazaki Hayao

Belatedly here are the South East Asian entries at the London Film Film Festival, aka the-biggest-film-event-in-the-UK-that-doesn’t-know-how-to-get-its-act-together-to-implement-a-functional-booking-system. Yeah, I’m presently mad at the BFI and their apology (excuses!) does nothing to lessen that. It’s not the first time this has happened, in fact it was worse than last year.

Anyhow, we get films from Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Most have already screened elsewhere as the LFF isn’t really a pioneering, world-premiering event, at least not when it comes to Asian films. The absence of Miyazaki’s「風立ちぬ」(Kaze Tachinu/The Wind Rises, Japan, 2013), which has been/is screening in Toronto, Venice, San Sebastián and now Hawaii, from the programme only confirms this.

Here are the (available) trailers and one-sentence synopses, by country:

August 2013 Events

Tags

Derby, Inverness, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli

August is here. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like a busy month film-wise, but I’m probably just being misled here simply because it’s a) a month without any major festivals and b) I’ve probably blanked on some event. Or it might just be the quiet before the storm – after all, the film fest season normally kicks off in September…

What’s on? Well, to start with, we’ve got the nationwide cinematic release of a Studio Ghibli film to be excited about as「コクリコ坂から」(Kokuriko-zaka Kara/From up on Poppy Hill, Japan, 2011) finally makes it to the UK. Some other Ghibli screenings (in cinemas, on TV and online) also celebrate the event, making it yet again a good month for fans of the animation studio. August also sees the home media release of Sono Sion’s 「希望の国」 (Kibou no Kuni/The Land of Hope, Japan/UK/Taiwan, 2012) by Third Window Films, which too comes with a few cinema showings in different parts of the country. And there is the surprise of a secret K-horror film about which no details can be revealed, but which you can learn more about if you join the Mondo Pop email list (details below).

Last updated: 31/7/2013

Trailer Weekly #87

Tags

Ayano Gou, Inoue Mao, Takenouchi Yutaka, trailers

I hope everyone’s had a good weekend. I’ve been eating cherries like my life depended on it (got like 2 kg at the Farmers’ market yesterday, plus redcurrants, jostaberries and a whole lot of other goodies), spotted a Korean actor on the Tube (which I only took because after four hours of sleep two hours of bike commute to/from work felt too dangerous), enjoyed lovely coffee at a local café (yeah, I’m plugging my newish Tumblr account today) and I’m heading out Vietnamese food with a friend later (too lazy to cook and really want some tofu ♥).

Anyone get to see「風立ちぬ」(Kaze Tachinu/The Wind Rises)?

Trailers: I’m going for diversity today, at least in terms of countries, with films from Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and the US.

Trailer Weekly #86

Tags

Matsuda Ryuhei, Shinkai Makoto, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Finally back with this…

July 2013 Events

I’ll say it right away: it’s a good month in particular for Studio Ghibli fans, not only because Miyazaki is releasing his most recent creation,「風立ちぬ］(Kaze Tachinu/The Wind Rises, 2013) in Japan on July 20. No, Londoners get lucky too, as the Prince Charles Cinema is treating us with Ghibli films every Sunday in July, plus it’s tempting us with a Ghibli Allnighter. Maybe it’s all to get us in the mood for the August UK release of 「コクリコ坂から」 (Kokuriko-zaka Kara/From up on Poppy Hill, Japan, 2011)?

Updates will follow, where relevant.

Last updated: 19/7/2013

Mini-Review: 《不能爱》 (Bùnéng ài/Love Me Not)

Year: 2012
Country: Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese
Director: Gilitte Leung
Cast: Lee Afa, Cheng Kenneth, Yip Rebecca, Wu Siu, Hitomi Thompson
Runtime: 92 min

Trailer:

Seen at the film’s UK premiere at the 2013 Terracotta Film Festival.

Independent productions are not something you come by every day in the world of Hong Kong cinema of blockbuster action and crime thriller film fame, so every time a new indie does roll around, it seems like something better not missed.

The One I Forgot: Edinburgh International Film Festival in June

Tags

Edinburgh, Film Festival

It totally slipped my mind that the Edinburgh International Film Festival is happening in June and were it not for Genkina Hito’s post on Japanese Films at the event, I might have forgotten entirely. That would have been a real pity, because although I can’t make it up north this month, there is so much good stuff on the programme!

The festival runs from June 19 to 30 this year and is spotlighting two countries – one of which is Korea (the other is Sweden). That of course means there are tons of cinematic goodies for East Asian cinephiles. But it’s not just South Korean films that are on the programme, there are submissions from North Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and China as well, plus of course from many other countries.

June 2013 Events

Tags

#Women on Screen, BFI, Derby, Edinburgh, Film Festival, ICA, Korean Film Night, London, Miyazaki Goro, Miyazaki Hayao, Prince Charles Cinema, Sheffield, Studio Ghibli, Takahata Isao, Terracotta, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Year of 4 Actors

I’m not quite ready to be back yet (still busy marking exams)… but I thought some of you might appreciate not having to wait too long for the monthly Events post.

So, what’s on offer this June for South East Asian film fans in the UK? We have got「009 Re: Cyborg」screenings in Edinburgh, Liverpool and elsewhere, a Jackie Chan film in Derby as well as a fabulous Imamura Shohei Retrospective at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, but for the rest it’s all happening in London Update 7/6/2013: Not quite. I totally blanked on the Edinburgh International Film Festival – so there is loads outside of London as well! Anyhow, it’s a month of festivals and celebrations to commemorate a number of anniversaries.

We start with Seasons in the Sun: The Heyday of Nikkatsu Studios, one of the calendar highlights at the British Film Institute in June. The Terracotta Film Festival is about to kick off and promises to be bigger and better than ever with 27 films (and plenty more) from all over East Asia in store for cinephiles. June is also a good month for Studio Ghibli fans as multiple screenings are scheduled for two animations that were first released 25 years ago, plus another Double Bill at the Prince Charles. I’m also looking forward to「長州ファイブ」 (Chosyu Faibu/Choshu Five), an anniversary screening organised by the Japanese Embassy that commemorates an event from 150 years ago and I’m super-thrilled that a rare indie gem,「はなればなれに」(Hanarebanareni/Kuro), has popped up on the East End Film Festival programme. So we are really not short on choice this month, heck, it almost feels like October, which is normally the height of the film festival season in London town. Anyhow, peruse what’s on and, if you are not in the capital, it might be a good time for a visit!

Last updated: 24/6/2013

Terracotta 2013 = East Asia x 27

Tags

Film Festival, London, Terracotta, trailers

Here it is… the much awaited line-up for this year’s Terracotta Film Festival, bigger and better than ever. It’s divided into four sections (Current Films, Terror Cotta,  Spotlight on Indonesia and In Memoriam of Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui), all screening at the Prince Charles Cinema (June 6–9), except for the Indonesia section, which will be held at the ICA (June 11-15). Further festival highlights include masterclasses and a short film competition (with a trip to Hong Kong as top prize).

Because it’s such a lengthy list of films, I’ve limited myself to one-sentence synopses. If it grabs your interest, watch the trailer and/or hop over to the official festival website, where longer summaries are featured.

The official website has just gone live, although links for booking (which is meant to open today) don’t yet work. I would expect booking to be available some time later this afternoon.

May 2013 Events

Tags

#Women on Screen, BFI, Derby, Film Festival, Korean Film Night, Leicester, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Prince Charles Cinema, Studio Ghibli, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Year of 4 Actors

May brings Cannes with many exciting film premieres. With the English Channel in our way, we’ll however have to make do with events on this island instead. Luckily, a whole lot is on offer this month, in all corners of the UK – Derby, London, Leicester and even Inverness. You can get a taste of Hong Kong cinema as well as watch quite a number of Japanese olden goldies (directed by Ozu Yasushiro and Kurosawa Akira, among others) at various cinemas and festivals across the country. There is also the Chinese Visual Festival, but nothing Taiwanese this month. Korean films fare a bit better – though only because our beloved Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) is, as always, screening two films as part of its Year of 4 Actors Korean Film Nights for year. The good news, however, is that the KCCUK has just launched another film season, Women on Screen, which commences in May and will run until August, doubling the monthly offering of screenings.

For trailers, click on film titles (where available).

Note: As always, I’ll update this post if I hear about any other events.

Last updated: 6/5/2013

Trailer Weekly #81 (all timely, all Koreanly)

And one more, this one being country-themed: it’s all films from South Korea.

Coming to Cannes in 2013: Koreeda, Miike, Zhangke & Co

Tags

Cannes, Film Festival, Koreeda Hirokazu

As May approaches, so does the Cannes, which is of course one of the highlights of the European film festival calendar. This morning the line-up was revealed, with a number of films from Asia to look foward to. I have listed them all below, with trailer and synopses as far as they are available.

Asiana at Sci-Fi-London in May

Tags

BFI, Film Festival, London, sci-fi

Every year Sci-Fi-London comes to town and brings, as its title suggests, “all things science fiction” (quote) with it, meaning apocalypse and robot galore among other things.

The festival will be running from April 30 to May 6, 2013 this year, with a costume parade for “[c]osplayers, zombies, stormtroopers, steampunks, daywalkers, superheroes” or whichever other fantasy character tickles your fancy starting off the fun on April 28.

Films, which will screen at the Stratford Picture House and the BFI Southbank, come from all over the world, with multiple offerings from Asia included:

April 2013 Events

Tags

BFI, Dublin, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, Korean Film Night, Leeds, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Prince Charles Cinema, Shinkai Makoto, Studio Ghibli, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Year of 4 Actors

April, April… this year is flying by… I would rather not think about it though. Instead, let’s just see what April has in store for us, film-wise mostly but also otherwise as there are some exciting events at the London Book Fair and elsewhere too.

Note: As always, I’ll update this post if I hear about any other events.

Last updated: 17/4/2013

Trailer Weekly #78

What to say? I was going to introduce this post with a few words on all the food thoughts I had today thanks to filling my bag with lots of goodies from the farmers’ market today (tomatoes, for the first time in months!) and my cooking plans (1, 2, 3) for the week (to spoil my ‘little sister’ that will be visiting), but after a long day at work I’m a bit tired and too lazy to write anything much. So, we’ll get right to this week’s trailers instead.

Review: 2012 Hong Kong Fresh Wave Shorts

Tags

Film Festival, London, Pan Asia Film Festival

Seen at the ICA as part of the Pan-Asia Film Festival. A special Thank you! goes to the Coventry University East Asia Film Society (CUEAFS) for two free tickets.

Although I watch quite a lot of films, there are generally few shorts among them. I like to be entertained for an hour or two because it’s a length that allows a decent amount of development in a story and characters. When there is a film festival, it is for this reason that when I have to choose between seeing a feature film or multiple 5-, 10-, 20-minute clips, I’ll habitually always go for the former and leave the latter as an afterthought – as also happened when the Pan-Asia Film Festival rolled around. Then CUEAFS had a ticket competition for the HK Fresh Wave Shorts screening on Twitter and somehow I got lucky (and I didn’t even mean to… only retweeted to spread the news about the competition).

Trailer Weekly #74

Tags

Ann Hui, Horikita Maki, Kora Kengo, Matsuda Shota, Sato Takeru, Sometani Shota, trailers

I’m actually not multiple days late with this Trailer Weekly but just right on time! I haven’t had dinner yet though 😉 … but that’s more so because I can’t make up my mind what to have. Ideally soup (which is comfort food in my book) with dumplings (gyoza, mandu, momos, whichever) but I haven’t got any dumplings and I’m not about to start making any from scratch on a Sunday night at 10 p.m. (if I had wonton wrappers, maybe). Ramen would do as well, but no ramen noodles in the house either so I think it’ll end up being a soup concoction involving some sort of Asian noodles, seaweed and miso. No tofu though, boohoooo. I really wish, by the way, corner shops would carry tofu (I eyed some halloumi cheese today, vaguely hoping it might turn out to be a block of soy, but of course it wasn’t). Anyhow, before I get too deep into my food contemplations, better I go cook something and leave you to peruse this week’s Trailer Weekly selection.

March 2013 Events

Lots of stuff again – something from pretty much every (South East) Asian country. And nicely spread out over all the UK too, so it’s not just film-fun for Londoners!

Click on titles for links to trailers (when available).

As always, if I’ve missed anything, get in touch!

LAST UPDATED: 17/3/2013

Leesong Hee-il (and More) at the BFI’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

Tags

BFI, LLGFF, UWC

Leesong Hee-il

The BFI has released its line-up for this year’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, with Leesong Hee-il films appearing threefold:

We have a feature and two mini-features from one of the most exciting contemporary gay Asian directors Leesong Hee-il with White Night, and Going South and Suddenly, Last Summer – moody, melancholic tales of suppressed desires.

February 2013 Events

Tags

Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Film Festival, Glasgow, ICA, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield, Studio Ghibli

You are not going to run out things to do (or, rather, films to watch) in February, regardless of where you are in the UK.

Note: I’m not really providing synopses this time round, there are simply too many films. Just click on the external links, where you’ll find more info.

As always, if I’ve missed anything, get in touch!

LAST UPDATED: 6/2/2013

Pan-Asia Update: Full Programme

The programme for the Fifth Pan-Asia Film Festival has been finalised and, as I predicted, there are several more goodies for us to enjoy now. In addition to films already announced – 穷人榴莲吗要偷渡客 (Qióngrén liúlián ma yào tōudù kè/Poor Folk, Taiwan/Myanmar/Thailand, 2012), पतंग (Patang/The Kite, India/USA, 2011),「ラビット・ホラー３Ｄ」(Rabitto horā 3D/Tormented 3D, Japan, 2011), 111 Dokhtar (111 Girls, Iran/Iraq, 2012)* and ฝนตกขึ้นฟ้า (Headshot, Thailand, 2012), see also my previous post on the festival – there are seven more feature-length productions, plus a slot for shorts.

January 2013 Events

Tags

Barbican, ICA, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Manchester, Studio Ghibli, Terracotta

It’s January, which means it’s a new year. And plenty of things for you to do and films to see this month already, although we are bit on the thin side Korean-wise (at least for the moment).

Let me know if I have missed anything!

LAST UPDATED: 14/1/2013

Review: 무적자 (Moojeokja/A Better Tomorrow)

Tags

KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 2010
Country: South Korea/Japan/China
Language: Korean
Director: Song Hae-seong
Remake of: John Woo’s 英雄本色 (Yīngxióng běnsè/A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, 1986)
Screenplay: Kim Hyo-Seok, Choi Keun-Mo, Lee Taek-Kyung, Kim Hae-Gon
Cinematography: Kang Seung-Ki
Soundscore: Lee Jae-jin
Cast: Joo Jin-Mo, Song Seung-Heon, Kim Kang-Woo, Jo Han-Seon
Runtime: 124 min

Trailer:

Seen at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) during the Song Hae-seong (송해성) month of KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

There is one particular problem with Moojeokja, a remake of John Woo’s 英雄本色  (Yīngxióng běnsè/A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, 1986): it is an action film made by a director that is in reality only interested in sentimental melodramas.

Trailer Weekly #61

Tags

London, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi

My sister was visiting this past week so I played tour guide and ate a lot. Japanese food, Taiwanese food and South Indian food and, twice, at the awesome Candy Café. Plus goodies like ตะโก้ from the various Asian supermarkets in Chinatown (one of my favourite places in London). The brilliant thing about having an equally Third Culture Kid sister is that we just walk into these places and go ahhh! in total and utter delight of things we both know from childhood days. Or take pictures of the Doraemon cake slices in the Asian bakeries (invoking memories of cakes that never tasted like anything much but had the most elaborate, sometimes even 3-D scenes realised in buttercream). We/I didn’t do much film-wise, though I did drag my more cinematically mainstream oneesan into Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Trailer Weekly #59

Tags

adaptation, KCCUK, London, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Year of 12 Directors

I am still in Dublin and loving the Irish (so unlike grumpy, I-won’t-talk-to-you-even-if-you’re-standing-right-next-to-me Londoners!). And loving the Japanese too, because somehow quite a few of them turned up at the conference I was at. Given that it was a small postgraduate event that was unusual as these are normally only attended by people geographically placed in the same region. So, quite unexpectedly, I walked away with several めいし, invitations to visit Nagoya and Tokyo (and Dublin again) and some words added to my J-vocab. Plus, apparently I’m kawaii. 😀