하녀 (The Housemaid [1960, Kim Ki-young])

Here is a film from South Korea that is aesthetically stunning, but less convincing on the content side, unless you accept the inconsistencies for the sake of the morale.
A piano-teacher and composer is teaching at a women's factory. His wife is working until a break-down, so that they can pay their bills. However, their bills become only so big because of their consumerist behavior:  he buys a new paino, they move to a new and bigger house and they also buy a TV. So the wife cannot look after the children and therefore they decide to make the bills even bigger by hiring a housemaid.
The second string is about keeping up experiences. It doesn't matter that it was the housemaid that almost raped her employer. The main thing is that it happened and the victim, who is supposed to be in the strong position has to bear the consequnces. The couple never sees calling the police as option to get their house back. There might be rumours and as consequence the teacher might lose his job. Everything - including the forced abortion - is an attempt to restore the shining surface. Even the epilogue, addressing the viewer directly, is an attempt to restore the ruling moral.
The technical and esthetic aspects of this film are the most of the film. There are quotations from and references to American Noir. The film is rather fast-paced, the soundtrack is jazzy with a hint of modernism. Interesting watch

북촌 방향 (The Day He Arrives 2009, Hong Sang-soo)

I have learned that the Korean title means "In the Direction of Bukchon"; thus being bound for that place, but it doesn't say if he ever gets there.
I like In Another Country as a light and funny study of different plot developments. Something like Run Lola Run, seeing a story from different angles. Something similar is here, but this time kit is far from interesting. Here - and similarly in HaHaHa - Hong takes a film maker (himself), puts him in an intellectual environment and let him talk about, love, life, encounters, fate and chance and whatever. In a Groundhog Day manner, they are bound to go to the same places, have the same talks all over again with different and the same persons. This is not very engaging, it feels like overhearing an irrelevant talk in a bus.This is a pity, as the premise of this movie is promising, however the execution is rather lousy.
Is Hong really so afraid of re-inventing himself?
3/10

The Day He Arrives ---- nobody will care

He is wasting our time.

.

시 (Poetry, Lee Chang-dong 2010)

A wonderful film! Mija is an elderly woman who starts forgetting words, it's the beginning of Alzheimer's disease. She enrolls in a poetry class - an attempt to find words again. She also has a problem to use the words she still has, as she is communicating very badly. Her grandson is living with her and this lout doesn't talk at all, at least not to his grandmother.
The teacher of the poetry class asks his students to look carefully at things. Mija starts to write words and observations in her note book.
It shows that the grandson has raped a girl for some time and that that girl committed suicide. Too make a long story short: the tales of the girl and of Mija melt together until Mija gives her voice to the raped girl.
Yes, the film is proceeding slowly, but never standing still. And as Mija is learning about poetry, poems form a considerable part of the film. Mija's way to find her own voice is central, the supporting roles never develop completely.
So beautiful - left a deep impact on me.
10/10
 

Seeing an apple for the first time - Mija learns poetry

뫼비우스 (Moebius, 2013 Kim Ki-Duk

This is a daring experiment and also a vastly repulsive film. Hard to believe that it was made by Kim, whom I like for his poetical films. Also the underlying theme, an exploration of the connection between lust and pain is far from what I like to see.
We don't need subtitles, as nobody is saying anything in this movie, yet it is action-packed. Man cheats wife, wife wants revenge and tries to castrate him. Husband can defend himself, so instead she castrates their only son and eats his willy. At this point 10 minutes of the film have gone - what more in there?
The mother leaves the house and roams around the city. The father also castrates himself. The former mistress of the father gets a crunch of the son, who, of course, cannot answer her flirting. When a street gang rapes that mistress, the son is sent in to rape her also and then he fakes an assault.
The father is looking for sexual satisfaction and finds a web site that explains that pain also can induce orgasm (the whole body is a genital). They practice that kind of self-content. The boy also gets a penis transplantation, but still isn't capable of intercourse. One day the bell rings and the mother returns. Now an incestuous relationship with the mother is about to begin, but the father first shoots his wife and then himself. The boy castrates himself  again.
Take that! A rough world, a world without words. There may be heaps of hints to mythology who cares? It may also be equipped with a thick layer of Freudian junk, but I still don't care when the central message is that pain is lust. I just don't agree (and maybe this is why I have a problem with Haneke and especially The Pianist). And I am not interested in the subject of incest either.
However, in terms of story telling there is a lot of praise here. It's an action-packed movie without words, but with lots of grunts, moaning and screaming in agony in this bleak world.
A beautiful disgusting movie.
5/10

Father, Mother and Son - a trinity united by lust and pain?

Holiday (양윤호 Yang Yun-Ho 2006)

Another movie that is rather hidden in IMDb. Again it might not be a master piece, but again it might reflect what might be viral in Korea. This is a kind of Shawshank Redemption in Korea.

Oh - wow - I started writing this almost a month ago. As time goes by...

So, I have seen this film from Korea. Good to know that they also know how to make mediocre films. Petty criminals are kept in prison perpetually as the rules trigger more a longer and longer term in captivity
Add a nasty prison guard and you have the recipe for a something that can make you furious, if you are in the mood.
Well; something disturbed me from completing this entry also during the second attempt Now it turns out that I have few living memories of this movie. In other words: it didn't succeed to plow itself very  deep into my consciousness.
It was entertaining while it lasted and forgettable when it was over - so why watch it at all?
4/10.

The Misery - The Misery!

In Another Country ( 다른 나라에서) (Hong sang-soo 2012)

This film is light and airy like a meringue; entertaining and intriguing - and that's it.
A young film-student is passing time at a desolated seaside resort somewhere in Korea. She is writing the same plot about a woman and her encounter with local lovers. These are three variations of the same plot, three variations in their own right, like Theme and Variations as knows in music.
I don't think that these is about the failures in the process of creative writing, as I see each of the episodes as valid variations, three possible developments.
I don't see why some reviewers call the plot extremely complicated. It's is very easy to follow the story line in each episode. Those who get easily confused might notice the color of Isabelle Huppert's dress. But even without that it should be easy to follow the plot and its many amusing variations and some overlapping also.

Muscular, but not too bright -- Yoo Jun-sang as lifeguard with an interest in Isabelle Huppert

 Forget all about meta-narrative and cross-cultural encounters, just lean back and enjoy this movie. I think I have recorded more films by this director.
9/10

War of the Arrows (2011)

This film is set during the second Manchu invasion into Korea. I was told to watch this movie, being a history buff, so I gave it a chance. It's about a warrior who knows how to shoot his arrow and who wants to save his sister. During the movie there is a lot of fighting, actually nothing but fighting. I was not always sure who was fighting against whom and for which reason and it doesn't matter very much either. There is some stuning videography when the camera follows the arrow, but that doesn't save the movie.
Is it about history? No. What was the result of this Manchu invasion? What was its impact? Were there major incidents? Nothing we learn about history. Maybe it's common knowledge in Korea?  History is just a pretext to make yet another  war movie.
It gets 3/10.