Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
The Nth Room targeted Korean women in a lower socio-economic class who needed money. They also set their marks on underage girls, who were too young to handle what they had been tricked into. These crimes are continuing, but now with with teenage boys at the helm.
In the Academy Award-nominated film “Past Lives,” the Korean concept of inyeon is used to lead viewers into believing that Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae-sung (Teo Yoo) are destined to be together – if not in this lifetime, then in the future. Or perhaps they were together in a distant past that neither can recall. The introduction of the word leaves moviegoers hoping that these two can have a happily-ever-after ending, despite his living in Seoul, 7,000 miles from her apartment in New York City.
Based on the real-life Homeless World Cup (which was held in September in Seoul), “Dream” offers a more cynical look than Great Britain’s “The Beautiful Game,” which shares the same topic.
“The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” is not a good film, but it’s watchable because its star is Ma Dong-seok. The burly actor stars as a mob boss whose street credibility takes a beating when he is nearly killed by a floppy-haired serial killer (Kim Sung-kyu) — whose modus operandi is rear-ending drivers and then savagely stabbing them to death.
After learning that his long-time girlfriend is deathly allergic to dogs, Min-soo sets out on a journey to to find a new home for his beloved golden retriever. In the end, he realizes that the solution to his problem was nearby the whole time.
“Rebound” is based on the true story of Busan’s Jungang High School basketball team. Long past its glory years, the team isn’t a priority for the school’s administration. They hire a young and inexperienced basketball coach, Yang-hyun (Ahn Jae-hong), who during his own Jungang school days was a champion athlete.
A thoroughly entertaining cop-buddy film, “Midnight Runners” does a great job of blending comedy with action, while delving into the world of human trafficking and organ harvesting. The film is driven by the camaraderie between musclehead Ki-joon (Park Seo-joon) and nerdy by-the-book Hee-yeol (Kan Ha-neul).
A fast-moving action film, “Yaksha: Ruthless Operations” is a spy thriller full of special ops, backstabbing and political intrigue. Last year, I stopped watching about 20 minutes into the movie, because it didn’t hold my interest. But when I went back to it this year, I found it to be thoroughly entertaining. Is this a prestige film? Absolutely not. But it was a fun ride with a (straight-laced) fish-out-of-water concept.
“Unlocked” came out a few months after the Korean series “Somebody.” Both revolve around cunning, good-looking serial killers who utilize technology to hack their way into their victims’ lives. In this 2022 film, the cell phone is the device of choice.
Back in my era, the teachers encouraged immigrants to only speak English at home so that we wouldn’t fall behind. But what they didn’t know at the time — or perhaps they didn’t really care about — was that in the rush to make us understand English, many of us lost our ability to converse in our birth language.