Tom Jolliffe offers up some essential Korean cinema gems… While Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite garnered global attention on its way to becoming the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture back in 2020, Korean cinema has been crafting trend setting, ahead of the curve cinema for years and always comfortable to […]
If Film & TV Is A Game… Is Korea Winning?
Tom Jolliffe looks at the booming worldwide popularity of Korean film and TV. With the Western studios so preoccupied with IP, are we getting more engaging films and shows from Korea? German cinema in the 30’s. American noir in the 40’s. Japanese cinema in the 50’s. Nordic cinema from the 50’s and 60’s. British cinema […]
The Art of Giving Film Recommendations
Tom Jolliffe on the art of giving film recommendations… You’ve got to see The Matrix! You have to! It’s 1999, and there’s a distinct transition between the recommender of The Matrix as being ahead of the curve, to a couple of months down the line when such a recommendation is lost in a cacophony of […]
Audience Manipulation Through Character Perspective
Tom Jolliffe on playing with character perspective to take the audience exactly where you want them… In the history of cinema, many writers and directors have sought to transfix an audience and take them to very deliberate places. Sometimes these tales fire straight like an arrow, leading us on a linear and clear path, with […]
Movie Review – The Handmaiden (2016)
The Handmaiden, 2016. Directed by Park Chan-wook Starring Min-hee Kim, Tae-ri Kim, Jung-woo Ha, and Jin-woong Jo. SYNOPSIS: Japanese heiress Hideko employs a new handmaiden, Sook-hee, but what she doesn’t know is that the girl is a pickpocket. She’s been recruited by a con artist who aims to marry her mistress and swindle her out […]
60th BFI London Film Festival 2016 Review – The Handmaiden (2016)
The Handmaiden, 2016 Directed by Park Chan-wook Starring Min-hee Kim, Kim Tae-ri, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-woong Jo SYNOPSIS: During the Japanese occupation of Korea, young con-woman Sook-Hee is hired to be a wealthy heiress’s handmaiden at an isolated countryside estate. Joining forces with a fellow thief, she plans to swindle the heiress out of her fortune, […]
