The Old Garden ***
Im Sang-soo, 2007
Korea
@ Cinema Village (New York Korean Film Festival)

A stunningly beautiful film. Interesting both historically and dramatically. Great use of weather and natural settings. It does drag a bit toward the end, but that's relative, since most of it's just so good.

See also: Koreanfilm.org

Family Ties
Kim Tae-yong, 2007
Korea
@ Cinema Village (New York Korean Film Festival)

I was shocked by how little I enjoyed this one. It won all kinds of awards and played a ton of festivals. There was a lot of laughter among the Koreans in the audience that I really couldn't understand all that well, so I have to assume that I missed out on some part of the movie culturally or linguistically. That said, I suppose I'm not as into really overwrought performances as the people who hand out acting awards or many types of critics. Perhaps it just seemed like we didn't really spend enough time with any of the characters to really care about their problems as much as we were clearly expected to. The film ties together various dysfunctional family groups over the course of a couple of decades. The families are all humorless and masochistic.

See also: Koreanfilm.org

Cruel Winter Blues (Yeolhyeol-nama) ***
Lee Jeong-beom, 2007
Korea
@ IFC Center (New York Asian Film Festival)

It's about a gangster from Seoul and his inexperienced sidekick who travel to a small town in order to take revenge on a mob boss. Difficulties arise when the gangster makes friends with the mother of his arch-enemy. This is an awesome movie for all kinds of reasons. There are interesting, richly detailed male and female characters of all sorts of ages and backgrounds. The protagonist is at once both sympathetic and kind of disgustingly greedy and egotistical. Plot twists. The final death scene. The shopping scene. I don't know.

See also: Koreanfilm.org

In Between Days, *
Kim So-yong, 2007
US
@ IFC Center

This was my first ticket purchased as a member (w/ free popcorn!) and since it's been a busy month I haven't yet been back, but from the newly released calendar, I'm hoping to see This Is England, Helvetica, Jeff Garlin's I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, Charles Burnett's My Brother's Wedding, and basically as much of their twelve-film mumblecore series, The New Talkies, as possible. Oh, and In Between Days felt like a movie that somebody else would really enjoy, but for some reason I was not into it. It's a fairly intimate portrait of the trials and temptations an adolescent Korean immigrant girl who lives somewhere in New Jersey.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic

Traces of Love ***
Kim Dae-sung, 2007
Korea
@ IFC Center (New York Asian Film Festival)

A young, likable lawyer loses his fiance when a building collapses downtown. He feels responsible because he'd told her to wait for him in a cafe there. He goes on a trip through a national park area to trace the route she'd planned for their honeymoon when he meets up with someone else doing the exact same thing (well, sort of). Wistfully melodramatic and very pleasing to look at.

See also: Koreanfilm.org

The Show Must Go On (Uahan segye) ***
Han Jae-rim, 2007
Korea
@ IFC Center (New York Asian Film Festival)

Song Kang-ho here exhibits the same brilliant befuddledness and inner frustration that mark his performances for Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host). He plays a hapless gangster trying his best to provide for his family despite inept and ungrateful associates and several dangerous rivals. A plot synopsis would probably look pretty bleak, but Han plays the hardships for laughs, albeit tastefully--we're not talking Todd Solondz here, or anything.

See also: Koreanfilm.org

Woman on the Beach ***
Hong Sang-soo, 2008
Korea
@ BAM

I'd planned to see two more of Hong's films in this series, but missed out for whatever reason. Woman on the Beach was a total crowdpleaser, full of unfortunate characters at once both sympathetic and slightly too selfish not to laugh at when they screwed up. A great date movie for the mildly misogynistic couple!

See also: IMDb

The Host (Gwoemul)***
Bong Joon-ho, 2007
Korea
@ Landmark Sunshine Cinema

I'd meant to see Voyage in Italy but forgot that Free Friday Nights mean really well-attended movies at MoMA, and so it was sold-out half an hour in advance. In fact, after wandering over to the AMC Empire, where the 8:05 was sold out, I only avoided an hour-long wait at the Landmark because as I was purchasing a ticket for the late show, somehow a spot opened up for the screening just about to start. I'm glad I saw it the night it opened with a packed house rather than, say, at a mid-week pre-noon matinee.

See also: IMDb | Metacritic