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As the Korean “coffee culture” booms, these cozy and ubiquitous establishments continue to appear in almost every drama and every movie. Indie film director Kim Jong Kwan knew exactly how to jump on the bandwagon through his latest project, “The Table”.

“The Table”, which premiered at last year’s Busan International Film Festival, is a one-of-a-kind movie, with a captivating, albeit not-so-new, concept, showcasing stellar performances from three of the country’s hottest, upcoming actresses and one beloved, veteran actress. Joining distinguished actress Im Soo-Jung (“All About My Wife”, “Tale of Two Sisters”) are “Train to Busan” actress Jung Yu-Mi, Han Ye-Ri (“Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade”) and Jung Eun-Chae of “Nobody’s Daughter Hae Won” and “The King” fame.

If lengthy and ambiguous conversations over coffee, in an almost deserted coffee shop, wouldn’t pique your interest, then this movie might not be your cup of tea. The film definitely...

Kirsten Howard Jul 19, 2016

From Blonde And Blonder and You Stupid Man, through to Edmond: we go through the recent straight-to-dvd films of Denise Richards...

So far in this series of pieces that look at the straight-to-dvd or VOD movies of some of our favourite actors who have fallen on hard times, we’ve only looked at men (to date: Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Travolta). That’s because, mostly, actresses find themselves almost completely out of the game once they hit 30ish – an unnecessary full stop that a lot of us would like to see removed in the future.

Denise Richards, sadly, is no different. After marrying a man she found herself in an abusive relationship with, her career climb stumbled and she was forced back down into TV roles, where she’s currently still putting in the hours.

Richards had a sparkling, American Dream-like start in life.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, someone once said. In Kim Ji-woon's I Saw The Devil, revenged is served so fucking cold it's like a block of ice smashed across your face. Kim Ji-woon takes the tried and true serial killer formula and flips it on it disturbed head with fantastic results. Korean superstars Lee Byung-hun (Bittersweet Life, The Good, The Bad and the Weird) and Choi Min-sik (Old Boy) headline this sucker punch of a movie that one wasn't expecting from the man who delivered Tale of Two Sisters and most recently The Good, The Bad and the Weird. Lee plays a secret service agent who's wife has been brutally slain by a sick and twisted serial killer played by Choi. With the help of the girl's father, who's a retired police chief, Lee is able to track down the closest suspects and delivers a swift beat down...

"Nothing will go wrong," is about the must amusing thing to ever hear in a Kim Ji Woon film. The director has made a number of films spanning a number of genres and they are about just about everything going terribly, terribly wrong. Even if the players fancy themselves in control of the situation. Here we have a methodical (Oldboy's Choi Min Sik) but unhinged killer of young women, who drives a small school bus and has a torture dungeon for scattering body parts across town. When he kills the fiancée of a state policeman (A Bitter Sweet Life's Lee Byung-Hun) he gets far more than he bargained for. Instead of spending his grief-time mourning the loss of his beloved, he uses that time to go full vigilante, initially soliciting help from the victims father (also a retired cop), but rapidly killing and torturing his way to cut through the...

Just a happy little update for this mornings Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance article. During the day, HMV also added the retailer exclusive Blu-ray Disc releases of Ji-woon Kim’s A Tale of Two Sisters and Chan-wook Park’s (Sympathy for) Lady Vengeance. Both films were first announced in 2008 and then pushed back to 2009 when Tartan went belly up. HMV lists November 2nd for Tale of Two Sisters but still the old 2008 release date for Lady Vengeance.

[Our thanks to Lauren Baggett for the following review.]

There are about fifteen minutes of sublime imagery, atmosphere, and ideas in Orochi. Pity that those fifteen minutes have to come attached to the rest of the film. I was lured in by the trailer, which promised a film full of lush visuals, psychologically tormented women, and something very nasty hiding in the attic. It presented itself as a sort of b-movie version of Tale Of Two Sisters, which would have been fine by me if Orochi had fulfilled these promises. Held up by a shaky skeleton of a story, its visuals aren’t fantastic enough to make up for an anemic plot.

Hello again Boxwishers. What a gorgeous week it’s been for weather on this little island of ours and we cross our fingers that the sunshine spills into the weekend. But if the clouds and rain make an unwanted appearance, we’ve got you covered with an eclectic mix of movies to lure you to your local cinema. There are political thrills in State of Play, dark comedy with Observe and Report and creepy supernatural horror in The Uninvited. One features Anna Faris being sick – can you guess which one?

If you see… State of Play, the Hollywood version of the BBC programme starring Russell Crowe as a journalist investigating the murder of a Congressman’s mistress co-starring Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren and Rachel McAdams.

Why Not Get the original 2003 BAFTA award-winning television drama serial starring John Simm, David Morrissey and Bill Nighy. Join Crowe’s character Cal McAffrey in...

Fango got a chance to speak with ace Korean director Kim Ji-woon, whose latest movie, the oddball Western The Good, The Bad And The Weird, has garnered him some of the best reviews of his career. However, what we really wanted to know is whether he had any input on the upcoming U.S. remake of his acclaimed ghost story A Tale Of Two Sisters (the Hollywood version, opening January 30 from DreamWorks, has been rechristened The Uninvited—itself the name of a different Korean frightener from 2003!).

“I was never involved with The Uninvited,” he tells Fango. “But I believe the overall mood will be much different from my Tale Of Two Sisters. My movie was a horror film, but it had a sort of sadness and subtle feeling from within. It was meant to be remembered as uniquely colorful, feminine and beautiful, and I don’t think you can expect...

The remake of the Korean spooker Tale Of Two Sisters was announced so long ago that I nearly forgot about it (the rights were originally optioned in early 2004), but it's finally coming in January under the title The Uninvited. Despite the "dead zone" dump (although January has become an increasingly profitable time for horror releases), the movie has an impressive cast, including Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn and that strangely pretty girl from Lemony Snicket, and at...