News

Rights to “I, The Executioner,” which will premiere as a Midnight Screening at the Cannes Film Festival this year, have been picked up by South Korea’s Cj Enm.

The crime-action film directed by Ryu Seung-wan (also written Ryoo Seung-wan) is a sequel to Ryu’s 2015 hit “Veteran” and in Korea goes by the title “Veteran 2.”

Few details of the story have yet been disclosed, but Cj describes the film as “combining Ryu’s trademark action with observations and messages about social change.” Ryu last year enjoyed major box office success with crime comedy “Smugglers.”

Hwang Jung-min, who recently enjoyed box office success in “12.12: The Day,” reprises his role from “Veteran.” He is joined in the sequel by Jung Hae-in (“Tune in for Love”) as a new member of the film’s Violent Crime Investigation Squad.

“I, The Executioner” was produced by Filmmaker R & K, the production shingle owned...

Film noir. What is it? What are its defining characteristics? What films best express its qualities? Sex appeal, violence, cynicism, anti-heroes, femmes fatales, bleak commentary on modern society, maddening twists of fate that perpetuate one’s misery, running away from danger yet never making any ground…noir is and represents a wide variety of things, so much so that film experts do not even agree on whether it is a genre unto itself. (Two of the leading voices, James Ursini and Alain Silver, agree that it represents a movement rather than a definable genre.) For well over two years now, Sound on Sight has hosted the Friday Noir column which, on a near-weekly basis, has covered a great many noir entries of the commonly recognized classic period (1941 to 1959) as well as sizable portion of neo-noirs. Slowly and steadily, the column has explored the extremely exhaustive catalogue of titles with still many to come.