Tag / kim jee-woon

by Jaime Rebanal

2016: The Standouts

It’s inevitable that after a passing year one must go about with talking upon what they’ve witnessed while time had gone on and with 2016 gone, a great year of cinema has indeed passed upon us and we’re only hoping for even more with a new one. In this blog entry, what I wish to cover are some of the best and worst films that I caught all throughout 2016 as of February 25, 2017. Continue reading →

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by Jaime Rebanal

Three – Review

✯✯½

Three, otherwise known as Three Extremes II because apparently it got its American release after Three… Extremes did, is an underwhelming horror anthology that feels so much like a means of showing a series of concepts rather than ideas. I was especially rather excited to check out Three for Kim Jee-woon’s short film but even with my admiration for the director, so many of Three‘s weaknesses came so clear to me and the final results were nothing short of underwhelming. It was never weak enough to the degree that it had pushed me away from watching Three… Extremes but even at a mere two hours, every last idea felt incomplete. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

The Age of Shadows – Review

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Kim Jee-woon, one of South Korea’s most exciting voices working today, comes out with The Age of Shadows – now with the director presenting an espionage thriller set during the Japanese occupation of Korea. What I admire most about Kim Jee-woon is his versatility in terms of his body of work, for he smoothly adapts to sudden shifts in genre types without any trouble (going from slow-paced horror in A Tale of Two Sisters all the way to fast-paced action in A Bittersweet Life), yet there’s always a distinct touch that makes his films recognizable. With The Age of Shadows, we have what may be his most polished film since A Tale of Two Sisters (my favourite from him at the moment) – together with probably some of the most ambitious that one would ever see from him. Continue reading →