Decision to Leave
A homicide detective (Park Hae-il) falls for a victim’s widow (Tang Wei) in this unprocedural thriller. For his 11th feature, Park Chan-wook makes the bold decision to leave behind the […]
Tag Archives: Oldboy
The Villainess
As far as opening action sequences go, South Korean actioner The Villainess might just have the best: a first-person, single-take fight through corridors packed with scores of assailants, like Oldboy meets […]
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
Happy Mother’s Day from Netflix, thanks to whom mums around the world can spend today with a nice glass of antifreeze watching a Mother’s Day classic. Not Psycho. Or The […]
Memories of Murder
Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder would have passed most of us by in 2003, coming a few months before South Korean cinema had its international breakthrough with Oldboy. Following Parasite‘s Oscar […]
I Saw the Devil
I sometimes wonder what Secret Cinema would be like in South Korea. Do they put you in a box for 15 years then feed you a live octopus and chase […]
Snowpiercer
Chris Evans stars in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi set on a train that never stops running. Told you it was sci-fi. This 2013 tracktion movie follows the revolutionary lower-class tail-section passengers […]
Ichi the Killer
One of eight films Takashi Miike made in 2001, this Japanese cult classic follows a yakuza gang whose boss goes missing; for most of us a cause for celebration, but sadomasochistic enforcer Kakihara (Tadanobu […]
Lady Vengeance
Lady Vengeance is not a gender-swapped version of the Vengaboys, but the third installment in Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy. Lee Young-ae is superb as Lee Geum-ja, another brilliantly ambiguous character from […]
The Handmaiden
From Park Chan-wook, the South Korean mastermind behind Oldboy and Stoker, comes the best film about a handmaiden since The Phantom Menace. Ostensibly the story of a pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) […]
Oldboy (2013)
In the 1990s Joe (Josh Brolin) wakes up locked in a room where he is kept for 20 years. When he’s mysteriously released he goes in search of answers…and revenge. […]
Screen Goblin 