andjel

Power of Faith

The movie looks good. The production is quite good, and the actors are believable in their nonsensical roles as students playing hide-and-seek with the ghost. The first few appearances of the ghost made me shiver, but later they just made me laugh. I’m not sure what the real intention was, but the movie definitely leans more toward comedy, with the horror elements subordinate to the humor.

The characters behave “stupidly,” as is typical in other horror movies. If you were really playing hide-and-seek, you would look for a good hiding spot and stay quiet, but the characters here do exactly the opposite. Maybe that’s the charm of the movie — it inverts expectations and offers random (or better yet, original) solutions to the presented danger.

The plot also revolves around studying and exams, which can be interpreted as a symbolic representation of the horror and stress of preparing for important tests. The second subtheme is faith, and I liked how they incorporated religion. In Korean cinema, we often have good examples of interreligious dialogue and cooperation whenever religion is mentioned. Here, it was done somewhat as a parody but still with respect for what we believe. In the end, I really enjoyed this movie.

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Beware your Messiah

A decent fantasy horror with strong religious and occult themes. Actually, it leans more toward occult horror than traditional religious storytelling, which reminded me of the acclaimed films like The Wailing and Exhuma. This movie doesn’t have as much charisma as those two as it mixes a lot of elements and feels a bit all over the place at times. Still, it manages to direct everything together toward its main purpose, and fans of this genre won’t be disappointed.

As the movie progressed, I became more and more engaged. I’d say the finale was the best part, even though I would have preferred a different ending. The acting is also better than in most horror films, and even the supporting characters effectively carried the creepy atmosphere throughout.

There’s a lot to discuss about the themes and story, but to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that the film draws from various religious traditions, including Shamanism, Shintoism, and Christianity. It explores the extremes of blind belief and how entire communities can descend into superstitious and dangerous cults. This can be read as a critique of religion, but it also echoes Jesus’ warning that many false messiahs will appear — so beware if you seek a messiah/savior somewhere else.

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Your Name

In my country, there is a custom of giving a baby one of their grandparents’ names as a second name. I think the purpose of this movie is to show how we carry the names and legacies of our ancestors. The film tells a story spanning three different time periods that are connected together. At first, it was confusing and unclear how they were linked, but by the end, everything comes together with a powerful impact — especially in the end credits, which list thousands of names that shouldn't be forgotten.

The main character is an elderly woman named Jeong-sun. At the beginning, the movie focuses more on her son, and I think that was a mistake. The film struggles to find its balance in the first half. It felt like the movie tricks us into investing our emotions in the young students, only to then shift the focus to the mother, who is the true heart of the story. However, the second half is almost perfect, with outstanding acting performances, beautiful cinematography, and strong dramatic moments.

The conflict connecting the two time periods serves as a tragic reminder of how easily friends and neighbors can turn against each other. This movie is a mix of historical, family, and school drama, and I am sure it will be remembered for a long time. It points to the collective memory of many people whose names have been forgotten. By carrying someone’s name, we also carry their story and, hopefully, learn from it. This movie delivers an important message and deserves to be seen by everyone. Perhaps it will even help us rediscover the dignity of our own names.

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Past Sins

First of all, I don't like the English title "My Friend Is a Murderer" because the movie is shown from the murderer’s perspective, with all the other characters in the background. The Korean title is much better as it uses clever wordplay, mixing 꽝 (slang for "failure") with 공소시효 (statute of limitations).

The main character, Seong-cheol, hides in a remote village for 30 days until his statute of limitations expires. However, instead of lying low, every encounter with the villagers turns into loud yelling and arguing. There were some genuinely funny moments, but mostly it was just noisy chaos that wasn’t very enjoyable for me to watch. I felt that all the characters exaggerated their performances too much in an attempt to be funny.

That said, the story was still interesting, and the movie kept my attention from start to finish. The filmmakers added many layers to the story and made the village feel believable with its ensemble of characters. I must admit, this movie actually has solid production — not on the level of big blockbusters or theatrical releases, but very well done for a streaming film.

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Doesn't Make Sense

From the start, this movie seemed strange. The first scene felt like it had been filmed in front of a green screen, with the characters having a distinct outline around their silhouettes. As the story progressed, it made less and less sense until the weird finale, which somehow perfectly fits the overall style. For me, the movie started slow but became more and more interesting. So when I say that things don’t make sense, I mean it as a compliment — the absurdity was used to strengthen the comedy while still delivering an inspirational story about the different roles we play in our relationships. Could i play a role of father to my wife, haha?

Mismatch is a 2026 South Korean comedy-drama that really made me laugh when I least expected it, and it was thoroughly entertaining overall. Some movies have jokes that are so stupid or silly they become funny. In this film, the jokes are so unbelievable that they end up being hilarious.

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Let's Be Friends

Who would have thought that a movie called "People and Meat" would be this good? This is indeed a gem of a movie about the unlikely friendship between three elderly people with good balance between drama, humor and social commentary. Try avoiding the synopsis if possible, as it reveals too much of the story. While the plot revolves around eating meat, the main focus is on portraying the issues elderly people often face in Korean society.

The movie makes you instantly like the characters, largely thanks to the veteran actors who all delivered perfect performances. It feels like watching your own grandparents. In fact, after watching this movie, you should go and treat your older family members to a dish they like. This film gives us a lesson on how to live an authentic life. We might not always agree with the characters or fully understand them, but we have to respect them.

There were a few special moments during the movie when my heart just opened wide. Since I am already over 40, maybe this movie touched me more than it would younger viewers, but still, I would sincerely recommend it to everyone.

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Dance Psychotherapy

Office work is very stressful, and employees need some form of refreshment so they don’t carry their work issues back home. The main character in this movie is the office leader, Guk-hee. I heard her name as “Cookie” :) She seems very strong and confident, but she is bursting at the seams, both personally and professionally. Eventually, she discovers flamenco dance and things start to change.

The movie tries to portray a social drama, but it felt overly complicated. It was hard to keep up with all the office issues. Since I’m not an office worker, I had a hard time relating to the characters. On top of the drama, the movie also tries to be a comedy, mostly through weird and childish bodily humor. The main actress often stretches her face in exaggerated ways, probably to make us laugh, but for me it was sometimes uncomfortable to watch rather than being funny. I don’t think the actors did anything wrong — it just didn’t suit my personal taste. Hopefully the movie will be more successful with other viewers.

What I appreciated is that the movie presents dance as a remedy to help people find balance and emotional relief from the stress of daily life. We all need a way to break free from our problems — not to run away from them, but to face them in a healthier way.

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Busan Dream

Jung Woo is Jjang-gu. He is not merely acting the character — the character actually represents him and his real-life story. I didn’t know that before watching the movie.

Audition 109 starts like a classic Korean action comedy, so I was expecting action scenes to begin at any moment, but they never came. Instead, the movie turned out to be a slice-of-life drama with a good amount of comedy. It was enjoyable to watch, but it felt like the film didn’t have a clear direction. However, knowing that it is largely a biographical movie, made the story development feel much more understandable.

Jjang-gu continues attending auditions and failing every single one of them, while also trying to build a healthy social life with roughly the same level of success. Yet he stubbornly keeps pursuing his dream, showing truly commendable and inspiring resilience. The production quality is very good. There’s also a surprising number of guest actors I hadn’t seen in a long time. The movie features plenty of footage of Busan — its clubs, restaurants, and especially the delicious-looking plates of meals.

If you know who Jung Woo is, you should definitely watch this. After checking his filmography, it appears I’ve seen all of his movies, and it was really nice to get to know him better through this feature.

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Emotions are okay

Emotions at 18 are the strongest, and sometimes they can lead young people into bad decisions. Therefore, it is important to find a way to express them and put them in the right place. This movie centers on a class of female students and their new teacher, who tries to approach them with friendship. We see how negative emotions influence the students, and we are reminded that it is hard for teenagers to understand life from an objective perspective. At the same time, it is also difficult for adults to understand the youth. In this movie, the teacher is the one who manages to break down the walls of emotions and truly understand her students’ hearts. In my opinion, she stole the spotlight and became the real main character of the film.

The acting was good, but I wouldn’t say it was excellent. The male characters weren’t very good, and I think the movie would have been even better without them. I didn’t see any real need to add the foreign boy into the story because he just vanished as if he had never been there. As far as I know, he wasn’t either in the original novel on which this movie is based.

Since I am in a Korean book club, I will suggest reading this book there. I’m interested in connecting with the characters on a deeper level because I really liked the topic and the movie simplified it. The church setting served the story well, as did the beach. All in all, it was a nice movie about being honest with your emotions and finding someone to share them with.

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Countdown of Life

I must say, this movie did something to me. It moved my heart in a new direction and made me look at life differently. The description puts it into a genre of fantasy, but the story is as real as it gets. At first glance this is a simple drama about a son concerned about his mom, while he notices strange numbers appearing. The numbers are symbolic of a countdown, but what do they really count?

The movie started slow and unconvincing, but thanks to the great performances of all the actors, it slowly got under my skin. So at the end, i didn't feel at all as if watching a movie or actors performing. Instead, their characters felt like real people, or should i say, like my own family.

This is a minimalistic movie perfect for Mothers Day. The second best option is watching it at lunch, preferably eating Kimchi stew which i did eat today. That way, you might feel as if sitting with the characters at the same table.

PS. I give the movie one extra star for mentioning my Rap Idol Outsider :)

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Back To Darkness

This is a collection of four short, depressing films, as the title itself suggests: There Is No Salvation! However, even though they are short films, they feel quite long because there is almost no dialogue, and the scenes often remain static, requiring the viewer to fill them with their own interpretation.

All the stories presented here are ambiguous, and it is never entirely clear what is really going on. In the first part of each segment, the challenge is to figure out what the story is about, and even the endings do not provide definitive answers, leaving plenty of room for reflection and personal interpretation. Since there is very little dialogue, the film relies heavily on visual impression and the depiction of action, though this could have been executed better. Still, I appreciate that the film does not lead the viewer by the hand, but instead allows them to reach their own conclusions. There are also several striking and unsettling scenes by which these films will likely be remembered.

Of the four films, the first one ended up being my favorite, although the last one also leaves a strong impression. What they all have in common is that they depict unusual, perhaps even symbolic situations in which people search for some kind of salvation—and whether they find it is revealed by the title of the entire omnibus.

The final story includes English subtitles, but despite having only about ten spoken lines, there is still a gramatical slip in one of them, where the main character says: “Hlep me!” If only people in desperate situations would remember to cry out to God.

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Our Neighbours

The reason I watched this film is that it is a new release. I didn’t know anything about it, and I was surprised by the simplicity with which it was made. It contains only eight scenes, each set in a different location: in a parking lot, on a road, in an apartment, in front of a building, in a park, on a mountain, in a dead-end street, and in a café. These are all places where city dwellers meet.

What is interesting is that each scene lasts a little under ten minutes and consists of a single shot in which the camera does not change, although it sometimes moves slightly so that it doesn’t feel completely static. In each shot, there are two people engaged in some kind of argument. So across the eight scenes there are sixteen characters in total. All the actors were unknown to me, but I can say they performed their scenes very well, since it is not easy to film a ten-minute scene in one take.

The scenes are both realistic and absurd at the same time. They portray situations that constantly happen around us in cities, yet they express a certain unnaturalness caused by the urban conditions of life. This is not a standard film, but it offers an interesting portrayal of city life that many of us can relate to.

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The Portrait of a Director

According to koreanfilm.or.kr data, only 597 people have seen this movie, which makes me one of the few who have seen it. This is, of course, an indie film, and it certainly isn’t for a general audience, but it has its own beauty and attractiveness.

At the center of the movie is a film director who meets and talks with people in preparation for his new project. The conversations resemble those in Hong Sang-soo’s films, where characters simply converse naturally, with meaning that often remains unspoken. I liked the short moments of instrumental music between the shots and the beautiful natural scenery, but I couldn’t really grasp the theme of the movie through the acting. Maybe the film simply portrays the life of a movie director.

There is also the symbolism of the title: *Utopia*, or even better, in the original Korean: 몽유도원, an old traditional Chinese and Korean utopian concept of finding a hidden paradise. In this movie, the characters share their dreams and visions, mixing reality and fantasy, and pointing to art as something that helps us go beyond basic existence.

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Sound Recording

The movie starts with loud city noise and a quiet human humming. This is an effective start to a simple film that searches for the voice of a lost young actress. The whole movie has a melancholic tone, despite the youthfulness of the girl. Also, as much as I think I understood the dialogue, I don’t think the film explicitly explains what happened; instead, it leaves things open to debate and interpretation. The actors are appealing and I liked them, but their portrayal felt somewhat limited. I wanted them to engage a little more.

So, this is not a mainstream movie for the general public, but rather an independent film for movie lovers and lost souls who happen to stumble upon it. The movie did succeed in making me hum, which I hadn’t done in a long time, so that’s something.

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School of Violence

Uh. These high schoolers sure are violent. I never read the comic book, and I was intrigued and invested in the story for the first half of the season. But when everything switched, the show felt off-balance. There were no more good guys left — just pure madness.

Maybe the production overexaggerated, but every time they fight, it feels like the students literally want to kill each other. And then, miraculously, everyone recovers quickly with only a bruise or two.

And Si-eun, our main hero... He seems intelligent in the first episodes, but his reasoning becomes more and more sinister as the story develops. Some may argue that he didn’t do anything wrong, but I’d say he did many wrong things. Unfortunately, by the end, I stopped caring about him. In fact, I lost interest in watching Season 2.

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