South Korean cinema

Assassins and thieves taking young hopefuls under their wings is nothing out of the ordinary in film and television. It takes the concept of the familial bond and gives it a perverted twist which easily appeals to movie goers. What Hwayi does is put a spin on the spin itself by having the titular character actually live as the adoptive teenage son of not one but five of them. What’s more director Jang throws in a lot of side plots and stories details that take the central figure through a topsy-turvy journey of self-discovery

Both the victim and perpetrator of a crime must live with the consequences of the events they were intricately involved in. For the guilty party, provided they possess an inkling of remorse in their body, the stigma carries over an extended period of time, with reminders coming in all shapes and sizes to reiterate that they did bad in the past and that society does not look kindly to them.

The TIFF programmer introducing the new film from South Korean master Hong Sang-soo mentioned that because Hong is so prolific (he’s currently shooting another film) he couldn’t be at the premiere of his own film. It’s not uncommon for filmmakers to miss their own premieres, even at world-renowned international film festivals.

Poetry Directed by Lee Chang-dong Written by Lee Chang-dong South Korea, 2010 The most recent edition of Montréal’s AmérAsia film festival had as part of its lineup the ‘We Distribute’ section, which highlighted both some of the more recent successful Asian films but also the local film companies who willingly distributed them. Among such movies …