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Reviews
Aju teukbyeolhan sonnim (2006)
Not so improvised at all!!
When "Love Talk" (the last Lee Yoon-ki film) came-up, all those who praised the beloved "This Charming Girl" (his debut film) went quite disappointed by the flamboyant change from the modest and sincere gaze of "This Charming Girl" to a little pretentious and not so sincere "Love Talk" filmed at LA with a Korean crew. Then some critics asked themselves "Then was 'This Charming Girl' just beginner's luck?". When "Ad Lib Night" came-up the answer came with it: It wasn't. Lee Yoon-ki shows us again his gifted gaze and creates for us (based in a short story), a film where the transparent and crystalline feelings of the main character is teased by the outer forces of society in order to look at herself. The beginning scene of a lost and nervous young girl just feels like the director was taking "Ab Lib Night" just where "This Charming Girl" finished. Some themes of "This Chaming Girl" are recurrent in "Ab Lib Night". At first, we have again a young and shy girl at her twenties. Just like the charming Yeonhae, Lee Bokyung (Ab Lib Night's main character) is living alone in a routine. But Lee Bokyung is at the beginning of the film on the same situation of Yeonhae when she is sitting next to her "Nemesis" (just to say something) with her hand on her purse holding a jackknife and ready to avenge her past. Lee Bokyung is just waiting to take a risk only for the sake of broke her monotonous life. But then, the boys that are looking for the so-called "Myungeun". And is in this moment where Lee Bokyung choose her path and take this risk at last. This decision is the trigger to a slow-paced but excellent movie. Maybe just for those who are looking for something new, or the "This Charming Girl"-fans ;)
Romangseu (2006)
Koreans, Tango, Romance, Action, Guns... Bla Bla Bla...
This movie provoked my curiosity when I first knew the cast, and when I saw it was a surprise for me just by the appearance of the protagonist of two of my favorite movies: Kim Ji-su of Yeoja Jeon-hae (aka This Charming Girl) and Jang Hyeong-seong of Git (aka Feathers in the Wind). I must say this wasn't the worst Korean movie ever made but has it's own defects. Is all about a beaten married woman dating in secret with a troublesome cop, tango, guns, romance (not so much), tragedy, and very-very-very much Koreans. Cinema of Korea is world's finest, on my personal view. This movie shown great actors, both of the just mentioned, but not an original plot, neither any original film-making, so it's just a Sunday's night movie to see it with your girl or boy, and be more entertained kissing her/him than watching it. I'm a sincere admirer of Kim Ji-su (This Charming Girl), this movie wasn't such a proof of her talent, but the illumination suited her very well, so I think she must do this kind of movies to obtain a major role in any other masterpiece of all those that Korean cinema provides. Just a curiosity is the appearance of Jang Hyeong-seong, who is very well related with tango loving movies (Git, was about a loser filmmaker and a tango-lover girl). If you want to see good Korean movies, check out the filmography of Kim Ki-duk or Park Chan-wook, maybe Song Il-gon if you like slow and artful movies, but if you want to see a movie well accompanied, then I fully recommend it.
Yeoja, Jeong-hye (2004)
Wonderful and totally realist!
I fall in love with the Korean cinema since I saw "My Sassy Girl", it was a great romantic comedy and all that, but this movie is the opposite to the greatest "Sassy", this charming girl twist present and past using a excellent technique, she is walking in a present full of voices and echoes of and anguishing and melancholic past, a camera that caught the phantoms of the Charming Girl's memory. Is actually my favorite Korean movie (sorry "Sassy Girl"). The walking and breathing camera don't lie about every single feeling in Charming girl's life, and is a patient camera for a patient spectator. This is a subtle and slowly movie that involves a twisting life masked on a common young girl's life.