Sister and I watched a Korean movie last night called "Rough Cut." Short and inadequate summary: an actor with anger issues sends his costar to the hospital and no other actor will agree to work with him. In order to make the gangster film, he ends up asking a real gangster to co-star in it, who agrees on the condition that all of the fist-fights in the movie must be real.

It's surprisingly believable and surprisingly poignant. I thought it was excellent, except for the last three minutes or so, which left me a little cold. (The ending actually seemed more realistic to me in terms of real life, but less so in terms of how the story was set up.) So I went looking for other opinions.

I couldn't find many, but I did find Korean Film.org, which reviews quite a few of what it calls the "most talked about" Korean films of each year. I like the review styles, which are informative and mostly intelligent and attempt to speak to regular audiences instead of serious film critics. I've already written down five recommendations to check out, and I've only read through a couple of years.

Out of curiosity, I read their review of "No Regrets," which is a beautifully made movie about an orphaned eighteen-year-old forced to work in a gay "host club" who falls in love with a businessman. The most interesting element of the story to me, even over its dealings with being gay in South Korea, was its examination of class differences.

I've been a little mood swing-y lately, which might partially explain why I got choked up reading the last sentence of the review: ( very slight spoiler for the end of the movie.Collapse )

I highly recommend "No Regrets." It's gorgeous and heart-breaking, but surprisingly hopeful. Melodramatic at times, but without the usual "gay relationships must always suffer tragic endings" trope that Asian cinema has been so fond of in years past.

I decided to make a list of some more of my Korean movie recommendations in case anyone is interested. I might do one for Japanese movies later, but Korea is a better place to start if you're fairly new to Asian films. It tends to be more "Hollywood" (in the good ways). If anything looks interesting, Netflix it, find a torrent, or check out jdramas.

( South Korean Movie RecommendationsCollapse )