It's so exciting to be following his work, particularly with him being so prolific right now. But there's a lot to like in that film as well.) I really do think Hong Sangsoo is at the peak of his career right now. (I was slightly less keen on Claire's Camera, which screened at Cannes but was not released in Korea. If I had to choose between the two I'd take On the Beach At Night Alone, because it really knocked me flat, but both deserve a place on the top ten and I want to save room for other films. I'm cheating a bit by putting both of Hong's 2017 releases at the top of the list. On the Beach At Night Alone and The Day After, dir. These low-budget films are much more likely to surprise, inspire and challenge their audience, and most of them don't get nearly the exposure they deserve.ġ. But it won't be hard to tell from looking at my list that these days at least, my heart is in the independent sector. The box office success of A Taxi Driver was encouraging (and a testament to the acting skills of Song Kang-ho), while I was also both impressed and entertained by Yang Woo-suk's political thriller Steel Rain. The Fortress, like 1987 another CJ production, was surprisingly introspective and dark for such a big-budget film. That it came at a time when Korea is reckoning with the damage wrought by a decade of corrupt leadership made it even more poignant. There were a few exceptions to this rule, to be sure - Jang Jun-hwan's 1987 was a truly inspiring look at a critical turning point in contemporary Korean history. If you would like to contribute your own top ten lists with commentary to this page, please email me.Īlthough 2016 featured a gold mine of masterful big-budget releases ( The Wailing, The Handmaiden, Train to Busan, The Age of Shadows), in 2017 we were back to a familiar pattern: independent directors, struggling to shoot their films on tiny budgets, completely outclassing the lineups of the major studios. Some focus exclusively on the films that were released in theaters in a given year, while others focus on the films a contributor was able to watch in that year. There is no unified format for the lists that follow. Your understanding is requested on both fronts. Then there are people like myself who live in Seoul, but typically aren't organized enough to get these out on time. Partly this is due to the fact that many of our contributors live outside of Korea, and so it takes some time before they are able to actually view the films, either at festivals or on DVD. The time-honored tradition of producing top ten lists at the end of the year is also followed here at, with the caveat that they are often posted very late.
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