Tag: Ryu Jun-yeol

Review: Revelations

Yeon Sang-ho has built a solid reputation on both the South Korean and international cinema scenes, from crossover hits like Train to Busan and Peninsula to the sci-fi outings Psychokinesis and Jung_E. With REVELATIONS (계시록), debuting worldwide on Netflix, he returns to his The King of Pigs roots with a gripping psychological thriller.

From the opening scene, Yeon frames his film as a slow-burning mystery. A young girl nervously enters the church of Pastor Min-chan (Ryu Jun-yeol), seemingly followed by Yang-rae (Shin Min-jae), an ex-con on the sex offender register. Min-chan attempts to recruit Yang-rae to his congregation, but the man quickly flees.

Later, when Min-chan’s own child goes missing, he assumes the criminal is to blame. His next actions have devastating consequences, setting off an impossibly twisty chain of events. As Min-chan scrambles to keep his mounting lies in check, he draws the attention of Detective Yeon-hee (Shin Hyun-been), who is investigating the disappearance of a parishioner—and has her own past connection to Yang-rae.

Yeon’s tightly structured screenplay is vaguely reminiscent of crime stories like Fargo—in the sense that an ostensibly good person makes a simple mistake and becomes so consumed by it that they keep compounding the problem. Yet REVELATIONS is almost entirely devoid of humour, instead lurking in the seedier corners of the city. Min-chan may be driven by divine revelation—hence the title—and there are light supernatural elements woven into Yeon’s story, but in every other respect, this follows the conventions of modern crime thrillers.

Much of the film’s success rests on Ryu Jun-yeol, who plays Min-chan with a compelling mix of cool detachment and desperate rage. A standout scene sees him confronting his wife, Si-yeong (Moon Joo-yeo), about her affair inside a car—a slow-burning moment of almost unbearable tension, heightened by the confined space and Ryu’s ability to shift moods in an instant.

REVELATIONS is a cut above the average thriller, pulling its many narrative threads together for a tense and satisfying climax. Yes, much of the plotting hinges on coincidence, but it remains a brisk affair even at 122 minutes. And in its closing moments, the film leaves plenty to unpack, ultimately challenging the very notions of good and evil.

2025 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Yeon Sang-ho | WRITER: Yeon Sang-ho | CAST: Ryu Jun-yeol, Shin Hyun-been, Shin Min-jae, Moon Joo-yeon | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 March 2025

March 24, 2025
Review: Money

What is it that fascinates us about people getting rich by skirting the law? From Wall Street to The Wolf of Wall Street, money talks to audiences. MONEY (돈) is the Korean take on the Icarus story, as yet another wide-eyed newbie tries to fly too close to the sun on wings made of multi-coloured won.

The Bud Fox of the film is Il-Hyun (Ryu Joon-Yeol), a young broker who makes a terrible mistake early in the piece. He gets a lifeline from the mysterious Beonhopyo (Yoo Ji-Tae), or “Ticket,” who ropes him into a stock market scheme. His bad luck turns and he is suddenly getting all the big commissions.

Much of the first half of the film follows his spectacular rise in the world, complete with the obligatory buying of things, high-priced apartment settings, and fast living. (If it was set in Australia, smashed avocado would also be purchased). Things take a turn towards thriller territory, and for Il-Hyun, when Financial Supervisory Service officer Han Ji-Cheol (Jo Woo-Jin) starts sniffing around the trail that the broker is leaving behind.

MONEY is the debut feature for director Park Noo-Ri, although she has finely honed her visual craft as an assistant director alongside Ryoo Seung-Wan (The Unjust, The Berlin File) and Han Dong-Wook (Man in Love). Working with cinematographer Hong Jae-Sik (A Melody to Remember), she creates a visually rich palette, filled with all of the totems of the 21st century. At one point, Il-Hyun looks around the street and spots all the prices of things appearing like a cross between AR and an IKEA catalogue.

Much of the appeal of the film comes from its charismatic leads. Fresh off a string of hits, Ryu Joon-Yeol (Believer, Little Forest, A Taxi Driver) manages to stay likeable despite playing a character who skims a thin line between morality and criminality. The popular Yoo Ji-Tae (The Swindlers) is perfectly cast as the ostensible villain of the piece, although who is to say he is any more upstanding than anybody who is willing to gamble the money of other people for personal profit?

MONEY may not buy you love, but it definitely buys you a good time for a short spell. While the shopfront may feel familiar, and no new ground is broken along the way, there’s a satisfying conclusion and a justified comeuppance. Who knows, maybe director Park will return in 20 years with Money 2: Money Never Sleeps.

2019 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Park Noo-Ri | WRITERS: Park Noo-Ri | CAST: Ryu Jun-yeol, Yoo Ji-tae, Jo Woo-jin | DISTRIBUTOR: Korean Film Festival in Australia 2019 (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 August – 12 September 2019 (KOFFIA)

August 30, 2019
Review: Little Forest

There’s been a number of Korean remakes of Japanese films and dramas over the years, and 2018 alone has seen Be With You and Golden Slumber as box office hits. Yim Soon-rye’s LITTLE FOREST (리틀 포레스트) is actually a remake of two films from Junichi Mori, both of which were based on Daisuke Igarashi’s manga. Yet this compressed tale of self-discovery is actually ridiculously charming.

Frustrated by her life in the city, Hye-won (Kim Tae-ri, best known for The Handmaiden) returns to her childhood home in the country. Reuniting with friends Eun-Sook (Jin Ki-Joo) and Jae-Ha (Ryoo Joon-Yeol), she searches for her own meaning by farming and cooking. So much cooking.

There’s not a lot to LITTLE FOREST, even though it reduces an entire year’s worth of stories down to a comparatively bite-sized version of Igarashi’s tale. The manga creator’s work has often been compared to Hayao Miyazaki, although the unhurried structure that moves between past and present probably has more in common with Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday that it does with Miyazaki’s magical realism.

The gentle and measured pacing, a sharp left turn for screenwriter Hwang Seong-gu (Anarchist from Colony), is structured around the seasons. (In the Japanese versions, the films are actually called Little Forest: Summer & Autumn and Little Forest: Winter & Spring respectively). The two main sources of drama are a tiny love triangle with Eun-Sook and Jae-Ha, although this is forgotten with the change, and Hye-won’s relationship with her estranged mother (played by Moon So-Ri, Kim Tae-ri’s The Handmaiden co-star). “It’s like I’m always competing with her,” she remarks when cooking.

It’s the cooking that provides the most gorgeous photography though, as Lee Seung-Hoon’s cinematography lovingly capturing all of Hye-won’s food porn moments. The passing of seasons is marked by different hues used for each chapter, as well as time-lapse moments of crops growing. Lee Jun-oh’s quirky synth score adds to the gentle happy vibe.

It might be trite to suggest that LITTLE FOREST is a little film, but it never has any want to strive for anything greater than quite self-reflection. Backed by a charming performances by Kim Tae-ri, it’s wonderful to see a film where the primary outcome is something as powerful as a young woman finding her place in the world.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2018 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Yim Soon-rye | WRITERS: Hwang Seong-gu (Based on the manga by Daisuke Igarashi) | CAST: Kim Tae-ri, Ryu Jun-yeol, Moon So-ri, Jin Ki-joo | DISTRIBUTOR: Megabox Plus M, New York Asian Film Festival (US) | RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 July 2018 (NYAFF), 9 August 2018 (KOFFIA) [/stextbox]

July 15, 2018
Review: A Taxi Driver

In these troubling times, it’s important to remember how easily government can paint villains out of democratic protesters. The Gwangju Democratization Movement in South Korea in 1980 was one such moment in history, where students and other citizens protesting the Chun Doo-hwan government were fired upon, killed, and beaten in a display of military force.

A down on his luck taxi driver from Seoul (Song Kang-ho) accidentally gets caught up in German journalist Peter’s (Thomas Kretschmann) mission to film the Gwangju Uprising, with the intention of exposing the government violence to the world. Throughout the journey, the titular taxi driver is exposed to the truth behind the government’s fabricated stories of violent students, shaking his core belief system and galvanising him into being more than just a mere spectator to other people’s actions.

While the politics are heavy-handed, so was the military response. Jang Hoon’s film, and Eom Yu-na’s screenplay, follows a familiar trope of a non-believer slowly having his perceptions changed. During the deceptively optimistic opening, our taxi driver expresses strong opinions against the protesters, setting up a very simple dichotomy of “us” and “them.”

For the audience the choice is never ambiguous, with sinister music and brutal beatings whenever the Korean military is on screen. Through the titular taxi driver, the film reduces the movement to a personal level, following his personal changes and touching on the lives of students like Jae-sik (The King‘s Ryu Jun-yeol), whose naivety is shattered.

Which isn’t to say we don’t get a sense of the scale of the clashes. The photography of Go Nak-seon (Inside Men) almost takes on a vérité quality, mirroring the footage of the camera that Kretschmann’s character is always toting. Tense roadblock clashes, heartbreaking pans across bloodied hospital floors, and an unexpected (and slightly indulgent) car chase sequence keep the momentum going throughout. Song Kang-ho gives a marvelous performance, turning from comical buffoon to captivating and dramatic on a dime. Kretschmann comes off as a jerk more often than not in comparison.

Unlike certain world leaders, A TAXI DRIVER (택시 운전사) does not claim that there was blame to be had “on all sides,” instead squarely pointing a finger at the strong arm of the government and their ability to subvert the truth. As relevant and powerful today as it was over 30 years ago.

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | South Korea | DIR: Jang Hoon | WRITER: Eom Yu-na | CAST: Song Kang-ho, Thomas Kretschmann, Yoo Hae-jin, Ryu Jun-yeol | RUNNING TIME: 137 minutes | DISTRIBUTOR: Showbox | RELEASE DATE: 24 August 2017[/stextbox]

August 28, 2017