Over the holidays, I managed to watch 5 Korean movies - Big Match, The Attorney, A Girl At My Door, Han Gong Ju and Roaring Currents.
I watched Big Match because it's BoA's film debut! About Choi Ik Ho (Lee Jung Jae) who is dragged into playing a 'game' (mostly doing seemingly impossible tasks) to save his brother. It was a lot of fun watching the action scenes but I thought the story was super messy.
The Attorney is set in the 80s and stars Song Kang Ho as a lawyer who helps to defend a bunch of university students, including Im Si Wan, against accusations of being communist. The first half was all set up but the second half moved into the court room and that is when the drama hooked me in. Worth watching, but it was the latter 3 movies I watched that I really loved.
A Girl At My Door is about the relationship between a policewoman (Bae Doona) who moves from Seoul into a small town and an abused girl (Kim Sae Ron). This show reminds me a lot of Secret Sunshine, which was directed by Lee Chang Dong who produced this movie. Both set in a small rural town which the female lead moves into. But mainly due to the slightly eerie feeling about the town that you can't help but notice in both shows. Acting is fantastic here, though that is to be expected from these 2 consistently fantastic actresses. It is difficult to review this without spoiling stuff, so watch it!! Love the tackling of slightly more sensitive issues in Korean society.
Han Gong Ju is based on a true story of a high school student (Chun Woo Hee) who is forced to transfer schools. She is cold to her new classmates, but as she slowly opens up and makes friends, the truth of her past soon catches up. Chun Woo Hee is a revelation here, and she deservedly won a bunch of Best Actress awards for this. She portrays jadedness, hope, fear and other emotions without missing a beat and without overacting. The story timeline was a little hard to follow at first but this is done on purpose to make sure the climax hits you like a ton of bricks. Loved this, but it's not an easy watch.
Roaring Currents broke all records last year to become the most watched movie in Korean cinema history. Stars Choi Min Sik as Admiral Yi Sun Shin, who faces the uphill battle of facing the Japanese invaders carrying 300 ships with his measly 12 ships. The first hour was a lot of set up and I was frankly kind of bored and was thinking about going to sleep (I watched this past midnight) but the moment he got on that ship and went to war, it was EPIC all the way. Korean cinema has really come a long way to be able to film a war epic (at sea, nonetheless). Definitely worth watching.
