Films about the exploitation of workers in a gig economy have been on the rise over the last few years, from Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You (2019) to documentary The Gig Is Up (2021). Yet that’s only a reflection of the very real human cost that an unrestrained free market has had on the mental and physical health of workers.
NEXT SOHEE (다음 소희) is a film of two halves. In the first, we watch the wheels of capitalism grind the titular player down. When we meet the titular Sohee (Kim Si-eun), a high school student contracted to work at a call centre, she is a fiercely independent would-be dancer. Yet the conditions are punishing, with even her manager succumbing to the pressures of the job.
When a new manager targets Sohee for the poor performance of the branch, Sohee is pushed the point of breaking — and labelled unhinged when she does finally snap. When tragedy occurs, a detective is sent to investigate the situation, finding an environment where guilt, public shaming and exploitative contracts are all managed under the guise of legal mechanisms.
From this point onwards, NEXT SOHEE becomes something else entirely, shifting from drama to a film more akin to a police procedural. As Bae Donna’s cop uncovers more information on the broader system, she is pinged from office to office looking for answers. You might be forgiven for thinking you’ve wandered into Law & Order: Labour Practices Unit.
The film covers some (all too) familiar ground, although not familiar enough to result in lasting change it would seem. It mostly works thanks to the presence of the two leads, each of whom do an excellent job in holding up their respective halves. Kim, known primarily for her roles on Korean television, steps confidently into a leading feature role. Naturally, the internationally recognised Bae Donna (Cloud Atlas, Broker) brings a weight to the second half of the film, as she cooly glides through a corporate crime scene.
If anything, director July Jung doesn’t go far enough in condemning a system that allows people like the fictional Sohee to slip through the cracks. Due to the film’s construct, one would be forgiven for thinking that there’s a few bad apples in the bunch. Yet the sad truth is that major multi-billion dollar corporations continue to resist reform, and it’s only a matter of time before we see the real next Sohee.
2022 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: July Jung | WRITERS: July Jung | CAST: Bae Doona, Kim Si-eun, Kim Woo-kyum | DISTRIBUTOR: Solaire Partners,Fantasia Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 135 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 14 July – 3 August 2022 (Fantasia)
Filmmaker Park Dae-min may not be a household name for international audiences yet, but SPECIAL DELIVERY (특송) could change that. Park’s third feature, following Seondal: The Man Who Sells the River (2016) and Private Eye (2009), is a superior South Korean action thriller that kicks off with some gnarly car chases that could ram Baby Driver off the road.
The sequence introduces us to Eun-Ha (Park So-Dam), a driver working for the shady Baek (Kim Eui-Sung). Her particular set of skills are in delivering anything to anyone at any given time, backed by a cool attitude behind the wheel.
When a former baseball player gets in too deep with gangsters, he plans to use the service to get the hell out of dodge. Yet when the bad guys catch up with him before Eun-Ha arrives, she winds up with his son Seo-won (Jung Hyeon-jun) in the backseat of her car. With both the crooks and the corrupt cops after them, it’s an adrenalin-fuelled race towards an indeterminate finish line.
SPECIAL DELIVERY wears its influences clearly on its sleeves: Edgar Wright’s aforementioned Baby Driver is on one arm and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive runs down the other. Still, the mostly familiar plotting manages to work thanks to the presence of Park So-dam, reteaming with young Parasite co-star Jung Hyeon-jun for an effective if unlikely buddy actioner. Park, who more recently appeared in the effectively low-key Fukuoka, gets to flex her action chops. She makes a convincing argument that she should be fronting more action films both in South Korea and around the globe.
Park Dae-Min’s script occasionally gets a little tangled in some side-plotting, not least of which is the late introduction of a crooked cop and some revelations about Eun-Ha’s past. It’s not a major issue, it’s just that SPECIAL DELIVERY works best when the road between A and B is more or less a straight line.
All that aside, Park Dae-min maintains the initial momentum for most of the film’s tidy running time, culminating in a terrific vehicular face-off in a parking garage. It’s a throwback to the kind of South Korea action film we would have devoured on DVD in the early 2000s before smugly recommending it to friends who thought they’d seen everything. So, jump in the passenger seat as soon as you can, as this is definitely a contender for one of the top South Korean thrills of 2022.
2022 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Park Dae-Min | WRITERS: Park Dae-Min | CAST: Park So-dam, Song Sae-byeok, Kim Eui-sung, Jung Hyeon-jun | DISTRIBUTOR: Next Entertainment World, Fantasia Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 14 July – 3 August 2022 (Fantasia)
Following their historic quarter-century run last year, the Fantasia International Film Festival is back for it’s 26th edition in Montreal this year. Running from 14 July through 3 August 3, they announced their first wave of titles this week.
Although their tastes cover the full gamut of world genre cinema, their continued dedication to showcasing Asian cinema is evident in two big programs this year.
First up, Hong Kong filmmaker and general legend John Woo will be presented with a Career Achievement Award. Woo’s films run from early martial arts classics like LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY (1979) through heroic bloodshed essentials A BETTER TOMORROW (1986), THE KILLER (1989), and HARD BOILED (1992). His move to Hollywood saw the likes of FACE/OFF (1997) and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (2000), before returning to Chinese epics such as RED CLIFF I & II (2008, 2009).
Then there’s AXIS: ACCENT ON ANIMATION FROM ASIA, which has a special Korean Animation Spotlight along with Japanese animated titles, including new works from the legendary Masaaki Yuasa.
With only a fraction of the full program announced, there’s already stacks to get excited about. Here’s what we’ve seen from their Asian focus so far.
Convenience Story
One of two films from Satoshi Miki (Louder! Can’t Hear What You’re Singin’, Wimp!) at this year’s fest. Kato (Ryo Narita) is a struggling screenwriter who, one day when stepping out to buy dog food, stumbles into a mysterious convenience store where he discovers he can find anything his heart desires.
What to Do with the Dead Kaiju?
It’s a legitimate question. This glorious titled film is coming out from director Satoshi Miki this year is about the aftermath of a kaiju attack. As the giant monster lays rotting in the streets, a small team must race against time before bloated corpse explodes and destroys a nation. Why we aren’t all talking about this more, we may never know.
The Mole Song: Final
Slowing down to only two or three films a year, the third and (presumably) final entry in Takashi Miike’s adaptation of the popular manga follows The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (2013) and The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (2016). This time we’re promised nipple-targeting seagulls, old men rapping in a bathhouse and drugs smuggled as Italian pasta. Bring it.
Kappei
Takashi Hirano, producer of Kamikaze Girls, makes his directorial debut with the story of a group of doomsday warriors, isolated and trained since their childhood for the end of the world in 1999. Cut to 2022 and the world has not ended, and they must learn to go out into society.
Anime Supremacy!
From Gone Wednesday director Kōhei Yoshino comes this new film based on the novel of the same name written by Mizuki Tsujimura and illustrated by manga artist group CLAMP. It’s about the rivalry between director Hitomi Saito (Riho Yoshioka), who is finally about to break through with her own anime series, and the difficult but undeniably brilliant director Chiharu Oji (Tomoya Nakamura) is gunning for his big comeback.
Next Door
South Korean writer/director Yeom Ji-ho arrives with a first feature that makes use of a single set. Chan-woo (Oh Dong-min) is on his fifth attempt to get into the police academy, when his friends make him a strange offer to pay the registration fee in exchange for just one drink at the bar. The next morning, he wakes up hungover in his loud neighbour’s apartment with a corpse lying face down in a pool of blood.
Just Remembering
Daigo Matsui’s Remain in Twilight was one of our favourite films at Fantasia last year. With films like Our Huff and Puff Journey and Japanese Girls Never Die under his belt, Matsui remains a staple on our list of filmmakers to get excited about. Described as a bittersweet love story inspired by a Jim Jarmusch masterpiece, it follows a former dancer and his cab-driving former partner re-sparking memories against the backdrop of COVID-stricken Tokyo.
Fast & Feel Love
Thailand’s takes us on a journey into the world…of competitive cup-stacking! When a world champion of sport stacking is dumped by his long-time girlfriend, he has to learn basic adulting skills in order to live alone and take care of himself.
Chun Tae-il: A Flame That Lives On
The story of Jeon Tae-Il, a South Korean sewing worker and workers’ rights activist who killed himself immolation at the age of 22 in protest at the poor working conditions of South Korean factories, has made its way to the screen before in A Single Spark (1995) and the documentary Mother (2012). Here director Hong Jun-pyo uses animation to bring his story to a broader demographic.
The Girl From the Other Side
A dark and monstrous creature becomes the guardian of an innocent human child in this gothic anime fairytale, co-directed by rising talents Yutaro Kubo and Satomi Maiya. The pair world-premiered their short film adaptation of Nagabe’s cult manga at Fantasia 2019, and with this feature they bring the elegant, enigmatic tale of Shiva and Teacher to the screen once again.
Inu-Oh
Masaaki Yuasa, who brought us the sublime Night is Short, Walk on Girl and the terrific Ride Your Wave is back with a new animated feature. Ancient Japanese history is reimagined as a riotous rock opera, rendered all the more feverish and fantastical by Yuasa’s storytelling panache and astonishing inventiveness, not to mention Taiyo Matsumoto’s amazing character designs.
Baby Assassins
Director Yugo Sakamoto brings the story of teenage assassins who must adjust to being roommates and searching for menial part-time jobs while battling a psychopathic yakuza boss and his bratty son and daughter. A double-barrelled blast of action-comedy that teams up stage musical star Akari Takaishi and stuntwoman Ayaori Izawa.
On the Line
We all hate spam callers, right? South Korean directors Kim Sun and Kim Gok bring a world of tension to a call centre world of phishing scams as they follow an ex-detective embarks on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and dismantle a huge cartel of invisible fraudsters.
The official selection has been announced for the 75th Cannes Film Festival running 17-28 May 2022 in its home in the south of France.
In addition to new films from David Cronenberg, Kelly Reichardt, Claire Denis, Ethan Coen and more, some of our favourite filmmakers from Asian will debut some new films at the trendsetting competition. Kore-eda Hirokazu, Park Chan-wook and Lee Jung-Jae are just some of the greats bringing us new fare in 2022.
Check out the full line-up, competition, Un Certain Regard and more on the official Cannes site.
Broker
(South Korea/Japan, Kore-eda Hirokazu)
Kore-eda’s last appearance at Cannes was with Shoplifters, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes before going on to win Best International Feature at the Academy Awards. Following his French-language debut with The Truth, Kore-eda transplants his operations to South Korea. In this movie, a group of people, brought together by a baby box, set off on a journey that will lead to destinations they never expected. The announced cast so far includes Song Kang-Ho, Gang Dong-Won, Bae Doo-Na and IU.
Decision to Leave
(South Korea, Park Chan-wook)
It’s been five years since Park Chan-wook’s (Oldboy, Snowpiercer) staggeringly good last feature film, The Handmaiden. Starring Tang Wei and Park Hae-il, it follows a detective who falls for a mysterious widow after she becomes the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation. While no official release date has been set, Park is said to be in post-production and it’s a fairly good bet for a festival release this year.
Plan 75
(Japan, Hayakawa Chie)
A debut feature, according to distributor Cinando it’s set in “Japan of the near future –– Government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized in order to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino laborer faces choices of life and death.”
All the People I’ll Never Be
(Davy Chou, Cambodia)
Not as many details on this one, but cast stars South Koreans Ji-Min Park, Oh Kwang-Rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-Young, Hur Ouk-Sook, Lim Cheol-Hyun and Son Seung-Beom, Belgium’s Yoann Zimmer and France’s Emeline Briffaud alongside Louis-Do de Lencquesaing.
Hunt
(South Korea, Lee Jung-Jae)
Park Pyeong-Ho (Lee Jung-Jae) and Kim Jung-Do (Jung Woo-Sung) are agents for the National Security Agency. They are both elite at their jobs and rivals. The two men chase after a North Korean spy director sent to South Korea. They soon uncover a hidden truth.
Next So-hee
(South Korea, Jung July)
From the director of A Girl At My Door comes a story of a high school student who gets involved in a mysterious murder case. Starring Bae Doo-na as a detective, the film has been selected as the closing film of the Cannes International Film Festival’s parallel sidebar Critics’ Week.
Canker
(China, Lin Tu)
This short film from the director of award-winning shorts Sports Day and Playground has a curious premise. As the flashy life of the influencer 33 gets crazier, the canker sore inside her lower lip keeps growing larger.
Dang Wo Wang Xiang Ni De Shi Hou (Will You Look At Me)
(China, Shuli Huang)
After the Wenshou-born director moved to New York in 2019, his debut feature as a cinematographer (Farewell, My Hometown) won the New Currents Award during the 26th Busan International Film Festival in 2021. His second short film as director (following last year’s Exposed) sees a young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search for himself, a long due conversation with his mother dives the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love.
What to make of LOVE AND LEASHES (모럴센스), the third feature from director Park Hyun-jin? A romantic film released on Netflix globally to coincide with Valentine’s Day 2022, it combines all the tropes of the formula with a strangely nuanced exploration of BDSM. In doing so, it might be South Korea’s first femdom rom-com.
Based on the webtoon Moral Sense by Gyeoul, it focuses on media and communications team member Ji-woo (singer and actor Seohyun). Struggling with the casual misogyny of her boss (Seo Hyun-woo), she meets new recruit Ji-hoo (Lee Jun-young). While supporting her opinions, she discovers Ji-woo’s secret BDSM desires when she mistakenly opens a package intended for him.
As the lightly plotted narrative unfurls, Ji-woo becomes more assertive in areas outside of their relationship. Director Park visually signals her transformation by alternating his montages from being bathed in blue to a more sensuous red light. “A dom must know how to play without toys,” a wizened Ji-woo opines, at least before secrets are exposed and old flames reappear.
Yet make no mistake: Park never laughs at these characters, instead bringing us a surprisingly tender and layered depiction of a master-submissive relationship. The focus is never on the sex either, although there are some lightly erotic moments that stay on the cleaner side of the sheets. The tone ultimately lands on mildly suggestive (or ‘adult themes’ as the ratings might say), making it a rare kink-positive exploration of how a relationship changes over time.
Fans of Seohyun will enjoy seeing her get her dom on, grasping the lead in this film much as her character takes the strap of Ji-hoo’s leash. Likewise, others may just relish the opportunity to see Lee Jun-young at the pointy end of a dog collar, but he’s clearly having a ball with the character. They both are really, and there’s a particular fun scene set in the office after hours that lets them both cut loose for a while.
LOVE AND LEASHES lands on an odd note, but an essentially good natured one. Indeed, if you don’t take it literally, there’s progressive commentary to be found in there about everything from workplace harassment to victim shaming. Even with the BDSM shopfront, it’s a film about the unique love one finds if they open themselves up to new opportunities – even if you might take a different path to this would-be couple.
2022 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Park Hyun-jin| WRITERS: Lee Da-hye, Park Hyun-jin | CAST:Seohyun, Lee Jun-young | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 11 February 2022 (AUS)
In January this year, a Seoul court denied a same-sex couple’s rights for spousal health benefits. In a country where homosexuality was only declassified as “harmful and obscene” in 2003, these lack of legal protections for LGBTQIA+ communities are still indicative of widespread prejudice. In COMING TO YOU (너에게 가는 길), director Byun Gyu-ri attempts to give a face to the people most impacted by these attitudes.
Byun’s film primarily focuses on two mothers who initially have differing responses to their children coming out. Nabi, a veteran fire officer of over three decades, enters the film after her child Hankyeol comes out as a trans, non-binary, and asexual polyamorist. Nabi tries to understand the challenges that they might face, and joins the local chapter of PFLAG.
Flight attendant Vivian’s son Yejoon also comes out as gay by letter to his mother. She struggles with how this will impact his life in the conservative Korea, while Yejoon travels to Canada in an attempt to live outside those narrow confines. Or, as Yejoon puts it, to simply “kiss without danger.”
Working in parallel with, and in stark contrast to, Graham Kolbeins’ Queer Japan (2020), here we see South Korea at a crossroads. Like Japan, there is a complex scene that is caught between social change and a group of people who aren’t quite willing to move on yet. For every fledgling pride march moment that Byun captures, there’s an equally strong protest movement against LGBTQIA+ rights. One mother recounts being punched in the face at a pride march in front of police, also demonstrating who institutionalised the prejudice remains.
Which is where we find the real strength of Byun’s documentary. By concentrating on a handful on individuals, we get to witness firsthand how difficult the journey through the South Korean legal structure is for Hankyeol and Yejoon. For example, while South Korea does have facility for a change of legal gender, we see the courts deny Hankyeol’s right to do so under a technicality.
Yet there is hope thanks to the hardworking efforts of PFLAG and the LGBTQIA+ communities across South Korea. What started as a self-help group in 2014 was reformed in 2018 as a human rights advocacy group, positioning South Korea for more social and legal changes in the future. As PFLAG parents affirm their support to camera over the credits, there’s a good chance that dream could become a reality sooner rather than later.
2021 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Byun Gyu-ri| CINEMATOGRAPHY: Byun Gyu-riand others | EDITOR: San Kim | CAST: Eunae ‘Nabi’ Jeong, Sunhwa ‘Vivian’ Kang, Hankyeol Lee | DISTRIBUTOR: M-Line Distribution, Mardi Gras Film Festival 2022 | RUNNING TIME: 93 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 17 February – 3 March 2022 (AUS)
Lim Sang-Su’s debut feature opens with a gloriously vivid shot of a lake surrounded by mountains. As we soak in these seemingly tranquil surrounds, the title DROWN (드라운) drops on screen, positively dripping with foreboding. So begins this moody thriller that skirts the lines between waking worlds of grief and trauma and a dreamlike otherness.
When we meet Do-woo (Lee Joong-ok), he is scrubbing the toilets of the Motel Alps. Moments later, he see the swinging feet of someone who has killed themselves by hanging from a water pipe. As the owner of the rundown motel, largely used by GIs, his defeated attitude is indicative that he has seen it all before. The lake is filled with the bodies of thousands of Korean War victims after all.
Coupled with the burdens of caring for his mother, who is suffering with dementia, he maintains a remote and quiet existence. When his mother goes missing in the dead of winter, everyone pitches in to help him find her. Yet when she fails to turn up, suspicion turns towards Do-woo. The fact that he was under the influence of his mother’s sleeping pills doesn’t help his defence.
What follows is an atmospheric mystery, with a perpetual question hanging over the film: did Do-woo do it? More to the point, does Do-woo even know if he did? When a local hostess and a mysterious stranger also start staying at Do-woo’s otherwise empty hotel, we’re left with even more questions. In fact, for part of the movie one might even wonder if these figures are there at all or simply other aspects of Do-woo. It’s the kind of ambiguous drama South Korean cinema has been so good at, from Bong Joon-ho’s Mother through to Lee chang-dong’s Burning. Even if you aren’t engaged in the core mystery, the world that Lim creates has a way of drawing you in.
With its snow-capped surroundings and dense forests, there’s some serious Twin Peaks vibes coming out of this isolated corner of South Korea. As we see the recurring motifs of a woman’s hands, violent encounters or a dog named Fluffy, Lim skillfully refuses to let us know how much of it is in Do-woo’s head. Sometimes we will see him wake up in a cold sweat. Yet there’s another scene where someone dramatically vomits blood over him at a restaurant, and the scene plays out as though it is a waking moment.
Lim doesn’t leave us with any easy answers either, ostensibly wrapping up one mystery while leaving us with dozens of other questions. For some viewers, this approach may not sustain engagement for the duration, and that’s fair too: Lim is deliberately cold and chaotic in equal measure. Yet as the closing shot arrives, a near-mirror shot of the opening save for the sun hanging low in the sky, we acknowledge that Lim has taken us full circle. Whether the cycle will repeat is yet to be seen.
2022 | South Korea | DIRECTOR:Lim Sang-Su| WRITER: Lim Sang-Su | CAST: Lee Joong-ok, Kim Daegeon, Kim Yeongyo, Byeon Junghui, Kang Malgeum, Kong Minjeong | DISTRIBUTOR: Studio Bonanza, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2022 (NL) | RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 26 January – 6 February 2022 (IFFR)
With Mardi Gras fast approaching, Queer Screen’s 29th Mardi Gras Film Festival invites audiences on a mission to the Queer Frontier, to meet emerging and established filmmakers and explore new stories, styles and genres – online, in the cinema, or both.
Running from 17 February to 3 March, the Festival includes screenings at Event Cinemas in George Street and special ‘one night only’ sessions at the Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne and Event Cinemas in Parramatta and Hurstville before touring to the Blue Mountains and Canberra in March. If you can’t attend physical events, especially during these uncertain times.
Big titles like Paul Verhoeven’s BENEDETTA, the critically acclaimed WILDHOOD, and documentary REBEL DYKES will join an amazing collection of LGBTQIA+ features, documentaries and shorts from around the world. You can buy tickets and check out the full program at queerscreen.org.au.
For our Asia in Focus stream here at The Reel Bits there’s a terrific selection of films from China, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Let’s take a closer look at them.
The First Girl I Loved
Hong Kong, Directors: Candy Ng, Chiu Hoi Yeung(AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE)
The co-directing debut of actor Chiu Hoi Yeung tells the story of two girls who start a lesbian affair while they’re students at an all-girl Catholic school. Hedwig Tam and Sz-Wing Yeung lead this unique coming of age Hong Kong romance.
Coming to You
South Korea, Director: Gyuri Byun (AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE)
A documentary that explores the tale of two mothers in South Korea. Nabi’s child Hankyeol comes out as a trans, non-binary, and asexual polyamorist, so she seeks to understand and support her child and the challenges they face. When Vivian’s son Yejoon comes out as gay, she at first struggles to understand how this will impact his life in Korea.
The only thing that seems to be as versatile and adaptable as Shakespeare is new Taiwanese cinema. Adapting the Bard’s works, it follows the romance of Orlando and Rosalind, who is disguised as a man. Directors Chen Hung-i and Muni Wei (2019’s Always Miss You) have an all-female cast in a flip on the classic play. Check out our review from its debut at IFFR.
Moneyboys
Taiwan, Director: C.B. Yi
With his first film, Chinese-Austrian filmmaker C.B. Yi arrives as a fully-formed voice with a unique point of view. The first of a planned thematic trilogy, including Paris-set Purelands and a third set partly in Paris in the 60s as well. With this debut, Yi offers a point of view that transcends geographic boundaries, and it will be exciting to see what he does with connected material against a different backdrop. Read our full review.
A Distant Place
South Korea, Director: Park Kun-Young
Described as having hints of Brokeback Mountain, director Park Kun-Young follows 2018’s To the River with this story of Jin Woo, who lives and works on a farm with his young daughter, Seol. They are treated as part of the family by the owner and his daughter. This bond is tested with the arrival of his lover, Hyun Min, a poet from Seoul.
Shorts
Rounding out the Asian offerings are two amazing shorts programs. The Trans & Gender Diverse Shorts stream includes Sungbin Byun’s multi award-winning GOD’S DAUGHTER DANCES from South Korea, in which a transgender female dancer, Shin-mi, gets a call from the Military Manpower Administration, to attend for the Military Service Examination.
There’s also an amazing Asia Pacific Shorts program. In Shin Seung Eun’s comedy/drama MOTHER IN LAW, the titular Hyoung-suk visits Hyun-seo’s room to give her some Kimchi — and there she encounters Min-jin, her daughter’s friend. Taiwan’s UNDERCURRENT sees director Weng Yu-Tong transport us back to 1979 where two gay men meet in a city filled with anti-government protests and curfews. Finally, China’s AND WILL WE COLLIDE sees two men, two worlds and a real rocket come together as a wanna-be astronaut and a village farm boy meet.
A complete selection of all the Mardi Gras Film Festival films can be found on the official site. Read more coverage of Asian Cinema — from the silent era to current festivals and other contemporary releases — all throughout the year in our dedicated Asia in Focus area.
More than any other year, Asia in Focus has been a massive part of this site in 2021.
East Asian cinema still doesn’t get a huge amount of attention at western cinemas, at least not here in Australia. This is after a Korean film swept the Oscars last year, and Cannes the year before. Or a Japanese film the year before that. On the small screen, Squid Game has been one of the most watched shows of the year, and Netflix has committed to even more Korean and Japanese content in 2022.
Melbourne’s Chinatown Cinema shuttered in May 2021.
As I sit here writing at the end of the year, there seems to be more Asian content arriving than ever. You can currently see Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark and Dante Lam’s The Battle at Lake Changjin — the most expensive Chinese film ever made — in local cinemas. Japan’s Sword Art Online: Progressive Aria of a Starless Night is also playing in theatres. Ji Zhang’s Fire on the Plain and David Lam’s G-Storm are only days away. Netflix has just dropped films like Asakusa Kid and The Whole Truth alongside new series from Korea and Japan. Even Disney+ released Blackpink: The Movie alongside K-drama Snowdrop (starring Blackpink’s Jisoo) this month.
Still, you really have to pay attention if you want to get outside the mainstream. Which we did our best to do in 2021. Thanks to the proliferation of online festivals this year, I had the privilege of seeing so many offerings from around the globe. Kicking the year off in Rotterdam, I was pleased to see that the Berlinale, Fantasia Festival, SXSW, MIFF and the Sydney Film Festival all had an impressive array of Asian titles. Of course, Nippon Connection, JAPAN CUTS, NYAFFF, the Japanese Film Festival, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia and KOFFIA are still the go-to sources for the best country-specific content. I’ll also take the opportunity to thank each and every one of them for their support and kindness this year, and I look forward to working with them again in 2022.
Until then, here’s a fond look back at the best offerings of the last 12 months.
Drive My Car
It’s been a bumper couple of years for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and this adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story continues a terrific run. Like Happy Hour, it’s simultaneously and contradictorily much longer than it could have been and exactly the right length. The longer you spend with these characters, the longer you want to. Each passing moment reveals a little bit more of their pain and desires and it’s kind of addictive. Hamaguchi’s measured drama of a life lived with one foot in the past puts the viewer in the back seat and takes us along for every inch of the journey. Read our full review.
Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
Depending on your point of view, the fourth and probably final film in the Rebuild of Evangelion series has been either 14 years or several decades in the making. At last, here is the culmination of all of the various narratives the series has created over the years. It’s frustrating at times, awe-inspiring at others, and quietly emotional when you least expect it. In other words, it is Neon Genesis Evangelion. You can (not) miss. Check out our full review.
Memoria
In a film screening that turned out to be a social catch-up as much as a festival outing, I was asked several times afterwards (in typical Antipodean vernacular) ‘How’d you go with that?’ Each time I found myself responding in more or less the same way ‘I was wanting a film that would just wash over me, and this was the ticket.’ Weerasethakul presents another terrific and meditative piece that links the language of cinema with people connected across time and space. To say anything more would be criminal, but I’ve already committed that crime: read my full review here.
Bipolar
Who is the dreamer and who dreams the dream? Queena Li’s film is all about the journey, beautiful photography, an eclectic cast of characters and one possibly spiritual lobster. A film that stays true to its name in the divisive feelings it will evoke in viewers. On this particular road, we find a dreamer aware they are in a dream and wanting to wake up. If that isn’t an apt metaphor for the last few years, then I don’t know what else is. Plus, it has the best use of a lobster in a narrative since Annie Hall. Read the full review now.
Aristocrats
Beautifully shot and impeccably cast, Sode Yukiko’s third feature unfolds in bookish chapters to give a portrait of a life, well…lived. Based on novel by Mariko Yamauchi, Sode’s film is tale of two women. When we meet the fairly upper-class Hanako (Mugi Kadowaki), she has recently split with her fiancé. The provincially born Miki (Kiko Mizuhara), worked hard to earn a place in a fancy university but has since fallen on more difficult times. ARISTOCRATS may not be be for all tastes: it’s wanders to the slow beat of its own drum. Yet its themes of belonging and expectation are universal, and one can’t help but feel that this is the kind of film that will reveal more of its subtleties on repeat viewings. Read full review.
Introduction
INTRODUCTION may feel like a minor Hong Sang-soo film, running just 66 minutes and split across two countries, but it maintains his distinctive style. Hong has refined his snapshots to a series of recurring motifs, a deceptively carefree style, and a company of familiar actors. Read the full review.
Remain In Twilight
An emotional, and often disarmingly strange, journey about the bonds of friendship, dealing with grief and learning how to move on. In other words, it’s a Daigo Matsui film. Set over the course of 12 years, Matsui’s use of long takes allows us to really know these characters. That is, a group of men seeing each other for the first time in 5 years for a wedding. Oh, and one of them is dead but just keeps on hanging around with them. That’s not even the strangest thing about this film. Read the full review.
Pompo: The Cinéphile
Have you ever felt completely seen by a movie? Based on the manga by Shogo Sugitani, the animated film from director Takayuki Hirao and studio CLAP is made for film lovers. This joyful and film literate feature is a sophisticated and clever insider look at the film industry while also celebrating the medium that we all love so much. Read our full review here.
Go Seppuku Yourselves
Toshiaki Toyoda has rapidly become a festival staple, thanks in part to his outstanding collisions of sound and vision in Wolf’s Calling and The Day of Destruction. As with the latter film, the global pandemic lurks behind the Meiji facade. The demon that is assumed to have ‘poisoned the well’ could very much be an analogy for the intangible nature of a pandemic, even if the film treads a fine balance between literal and figurative causes. You can read our full review of that film here.
Raging Fire
The film world lost Benny Chan last year after a short bout with cancer. His final film — starring Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse — gets a posthumous release, and it’s as fitting a tribute as any to one of the true heroes of Hong Kong action filmmaking. As the film closes out with footage of Chan at work, coupled with a dedication to the late director, even the most hardened of HK action fans will probably feel a little emotional. This is a film that knows its audience. Read our full review.
Soak
Hannah Bang has managed to pack a feature’s worth of emotional arcs into a 16 minute short. With an innate sense of scene – from the bathhouse to ritualistically sitting around eating food in front of the television – it’s a heartbreaking coming-of-age that comes in a small package but packs a big punch. Read Brooke Heinz’s full review here.
Space Sweepers
A live action cartoon on a grand scale, filled with sophisticated special effects, a terrific cast and a few surprises to boot. Plus it’s got Thorin Oakenshield as an anime villain. If 2020 was the year that Korean cinema got global attention, then SPACE SWEEPERS signals the breadth of what the nation’s film output can offer. Read our full review.
The Goldfish: Dreaming of the Sea
A remarkable coming of age story that manages to package several worlds of hurt and rebuilding into a delicately slender vessel. It’s a film that slowly unfolds, which is a deft feat for a film with such a slender running time. It’s rarely said overtly, but we soon learn that both lead characters Hana and Harumi have a shared experience of a difficult and sometimes abusive relationship with their mothers. Sara Ogawa signals her arrival as storyteller to watch. Read our full review.
Spaghetti Code Love
Murayama Takeshi’s debut narrative feature begins with a question: “Why? Why me?” It’s the anguished cry of a child in an arcade, and all a (as-yet-unnamed) woman can do is just hold him. So begins a series of interconnected stories of people looking for love and companionship in Tokyo, and the collision of their expectations with reality. Read full review.
Escape from Mogadishu
The biggest South Korean release of the year is a top-notch action thriller set against not-too-distant history. In January 1991, amidst rising rebellion and the ultimate collapse of Somali President Barre’s government, the South and North Korean embassies find themselves working together to flee the country before the violence escalates further. The aftermath of this event, and broader Somali Civil War, has famously been depicted by Ridley Scott in Black Hawk Down (2001). Although playing out on a more focused scale, and with a drastically smaller budget, Ryoo skilfully manoeuvres the audience to a bittersweet ending via a breathless series of spectacularly staged action sequences. Read our full review.
The Book of Fish
A remarkable and beautifully shot monochrome gem that is equal parts meditative and poetic. Two central performances carry this, but the supporting cast is charming and effective. While there are some specific cultural touchstones here, they are not really a barrier to entry. Read our full review.
Belle
It’s interesting seeing this so close to The Matrix Resurrections as I was totally into the vibe of virtual worlds and duality. It’s a vibe that Mamoru Hosoda knows so well, with his films often exploring the lines between this world and something ‘other.’ Hosoda continues his thematic journey, linking early Digimon and especially Summer Wars with this modern fable. From the visually stunning opening to the gut-punch of an emotional conclusion, this is one of the most beautiful animated films of the year. While it debuted at Cannes and in Japan during July this year, it releases in the US from GKids on 14 January 2022 and in Australia on 20 January from Kismet.
Sasaki in My Mind
Developed in collaboration with actor Gaku Hosokawa, and based on someone he knew at school, Takuya Uchiyama’s latest project is both personal and universal in its themes. This film for the downtrodden is an intimate character study of the people who impact our lives and learning to shine in one’s own spotlight. A film that’s quietly affirming and a reminder that it’s never too late to be true to yourself.Read full review.
Aloners
The art of the struggle of being alone is explored with a floating intimacy in Hong Sung-Eun’s debut feature. The phenomena described in Hong’s film is so common there’s a name for it: honjok. The term refers to people who engage in typical social activities — eating, drinking, leisure trips — alone. The film is a collection of moments that add up to a major character shift, but could just as easily have gone in the other direction. This is the skill of Hong’s delicately balanced film. Lead character Jin-A ultimately works to break a cycle that was taught to her, and eventually concludes with some irony that “I just need some time to myself.” Read our full review.
Ushiku
Ian Thomas Ash (Sending Off) takes a look at refugees in Japan, where a shockingly low 0.4% of applicants are accepted. Ushiku Detention Center is the focus of Ash’s film, using it as a microcosm of the hardships refugees must undergo after fleeing their home countries and being denied refugee status by Japan. “This isn’t a ‘foreigner’ problem,” says one official. “It’s a Japanese problem.” Going one step further, let’s agree that it’s an issue the whole world needs to agree on how to move forward with. Often heartbreaking, always confronting, this film needs to be seen by lawmakers everywhere.
Fan Girl
Fandom and power dynamics get interrogated in this brilliantly performed two-hander. Fandom can be intense and life-changing, and at its best connects you with a wider community. Yet Jane is not necessarily left in a positive place by the end of the picture. So, don’t expect any easy resolutions here, but do expect to ponder this film long after it’s finished. (While this is officially a 2020 release, it received an international release in 2021 so we’re counting it here). Read our full review.
Cliff Walkers
Zhang Yimou’s impeccably produced film shares a similarly thin line (and time period) of historical fiction and overt nationalism as this year’s Railway Heroes (see below). Yet in a year when Zhang already impressed festival audiences with One Second, this handsomely produced film about four Communist Party agents being trained in the Soviet Union reminds us of what he looks like at the height of his talents.
Green Snake
This may seem like an odd choice given some of the company on this list. As the sequel to the magnificently animated film White Snake, it’s officially known as White Snake 2: The Tribulation of the Green Snake. After a cold open, it takes a hard turn away from Chinese folklore and into a post-apocalyptic wasteland reminiscent of the Resident Evil franchise. Somehow this works, with director Amp Wong maintaining the visual highlights of the first outing while boldly combining mythology with hyper modern elements. Sure, the ending is confusing as all hell, and it seems less concerned with the overall arc than the moment to moment action. Yet when the moments are this good, it’s hard to complain too much.
Best of the rest
After whittling my top ten down to just 23 films, I had about dozen other films I still wanted to talk about. So, welcome to the afterword.
In the three years since director Kazuya Shiraishi released The Blood of Wolves (2018), he’s released a whopping four more films including dramas Sea of Revival and One Night. LAST OF THE WOLVES, the sequel to The Blood of the Wolves, takes everything up a notch with a more sophisticated story and a compelling central rivalry. Check out my full review.
Another terrific sequel was THE FABLE: THE KILLER WHO DOESN’T KILL. All the esoteric elements come together nicely, with some large scale set-pieces that are world class. While the film can be happily enjoyed as a separate entity to the original, it’s clear that knowing these characters is learning to love them. My full review comes from the screening at NYAFF.
ITO (or ITO-MICHI if you prefer) is the only 2021 film about a shy shamisen-playing country girl who winds up working in a maid cafe. Thanks to director Satoko Yokohama and co-writer Koshigaya Osamu, not to mention the amazing talents of Ren Komai (True Mothers) in the titular role, it absolutely works. A heartfelt coming of age drama with some of the best shamisen-based denouement you’ll see in a film this year.
At the other end of the scale is the short film KOREATOWN GHOST STORY, in which directors Minsun Park and Teddy Tenenbaum cast Margaret Cho and Lyrica Okano in a horror comedy show how far one mother will go to match up an unmarried young woman with a boy just like her son. Filled with genuine scares and some laugh out loud moments, if this was a feature you’d be seeing it on best-of lists all over the place.
Arguably one of the more original blockbusters to come out of China in the last few years, A WRITER’S ODYSSEY is a surprisingly dark special effects and action piece that doesn’t mind piling in the narrative layers and expecting you to keep up. Here’s a full review of that.
Genuine joy is to be had in WONDERFUL PARADISE, a film where weird and wonderful go hand in hand. Yet nothing can really prepare you for the back half of this film. From a child transforming into a stick through to a mutant coffee bean growing out of control, the script is equal parts midsummer sex comedy and pure train of thought. Read our full review.
Rounding things out are a collection of other highlights I’ve reviewed this year, including China’s RAILWAY HEROES, Hong Kong’s LIMBO, Japan’s YES, YES, YES, and Taiwan’s MONEYBOYS (pictured above).
It would also be difficult to leave this column without mentioning Sion Sono’s PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND, a film that spent three consecutive years on my most anticipated lists. The incomparable Sono meets the immovable Nicolas Cage and the results are exactly as expected. Although ‘expected’ is not a word you’d readily apply in this situation. While this may not be the greatest Sono in the canon, it’s a great example of how his voice can successfully transition with something resembling western aesthetics. There is nobody else on the planet who could say ‘testicle’ in quite the same way as the man assigned the name Nicolas Kim Coppola. My very full review can be found right here.
A complete selection of all the 2021 films I’ve viewed for Asia in Focus can be found on Letterboxd. Read more coverage of Asian Cinema — from the silent era to current festivals and other contemporary releases — all throughout the year in our dedicated Asia in Focus area.
If there’s a constant in Yeon Sang-ho’s career, then it’s change. After beginning his career with the animated King of Pigs, he has since crossed over into the global mainstream with Train to Busan. Since then, he’s kept adapting with Psychokinesis and Busan sequel Peninsula. With HELLBOUND (지옥), Yeon’s second foray into television, he brings the blockbuster sensibilities of his features to serial storytelling.
Co-created by Yeon and Choi Gyu-seok (Awl), adapting Yeon’s own webtoon, it begins as three hulking demonic figures appear out of the ether, beat down a fellow fleeing from a café, and leave nothing but a pile of ashes. It soon emerges that people are hearing predictions of when they will die, and these monsters are sending those people straight to hell.
Jung Jin-Soo (Yoo Ah-In) of the religious cult New Truth, explains the phenomena as a revelation from god, gaining enthusiastic and dedicated followers across Korea. Jin Kyung-Hoon (Yang Ik-June) is a detective investigating the deaths while dealing with the darkness in his own past. Intersecting with these strange events is lawyer Min Hey-Jin (Kim Hyun-Joo), who stands up to the Arrowhead group who follows Jung Jin-Soo’s teachings.
Following the based-on-a-spiritually-themed-webtoon sub-genre that made Along With the Gods such as success, HELLBOUND wastes no time in wowing us with the scale of its ambition. From giant heads appearing to tell people they will die through to the aforementioned demons, there’s clearly some of that good Netflix money involved here. Of course, if it was just a special effects outing it wouldn’t be a Yeon Sang-ho joint.
Genuinely creepy in parts, especially as revelations about the various characters come to light, much of the first half of the series is investigative in nature. There’s the more obvious plots from the cops and journalists, but as aspects of Jung Jin-Soo’s character unfurl, one suspects that this will end with some major reveals. Where it gets especially interesting is where the intersection of ‘cult’ behaviour and media intersect. Jung Jin-Soo’s followers might seem blind, but there’s a spectacularly tense scene in which hundreds of onlookers and the assembled media have gathered ostensibly to watch a woman die.
Yoo Ah-In, known most recently for zombie films like #Alive, is an intriguing lead character — we genuinely don’t know what motivates him for the longest time, and that’s properly scary. Similarly, Yang Ik-June brings a rounded performance to a character that has some layers to unpick.
Festival viewers have been treated to the first three episodes of this six part series, with the remainder coming to Netflix at a future date. So, it’s difficult to give this a complete review at this stage, but the bones are good. There’s several notable cliffhangers that will make this compelling viewing when it hits the streaming giant later this year, and I can’t wait to see how it ends.
HELLBOUND is reviewed as part of our coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2021.
2021 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Yeon Sang-ho | WRITER: Yeon Sang-ho, Choi Kyu-sok | CAST: Yoo Ah-in, Park Jung-min, Kim Hyun-joo, Won Jin-ah | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix, TIFF 2021 | RELEASE DATE: 9 September – 18 September 2021 (TIFF 2021), TBA (Netflix)
![Review: Next Sohee [Fantasia 2022]](https://thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Next-Sohee001f-203x150.jpg)
![Review: Special Delivery [Fantasia 2022]](https://thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/special-delivery001-203x150.jpeg)
