News

Hotel by the River 강변 호텔 (Gangbyeon hotel) (2018) - South Korea   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   Chances are that director Hong Sang-soo, continues his auteur journey in “Hotel by the River”. Shot in black and white once again, Hong manages to eludes the norms of Korean society and provide a soul barring look at the core of humanity and the ultimate feeling of melancholy and moodiness that is often overshadowed by interactive character dialogues. By all means this is a sad film rather than uplifting as the main character of the story is...

The Battle Roar to Victory 봉오동 전투 (鳳梧洞戰鬪) (2019) - South Korea Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia) In terms of cinematic achievements, Director Won Sin-yeon tries hard to bring the infamous epic battle of Fengwudong to life, but ends up falling over into pieces as the film fails to connect with the audience. There are so much at sake and odds on against the imperialist Japanese elite army, the film could easily have been a tense character battle with an epic showdown, instead it wielded over cliches, characters that are not memorable and more importantly, a...

Kissing Booth 2 (2020) - USA (Netflix) Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   The original “Kissing Booth” was one of the most watched Netflix original films in 2018. Therefore when the sequel comes around in 2020, there was no denying its attraction. The real life pairing of Joey King and Jacob Elordi actually dated after meeting on-set and then broken up prior to filming for the sequel. So it’s an extra degree of awkwardness when you envision the two ex lovers filming romantic scenes and rekindling romance. Putting that aside, the film follows on from the...

The Beast 비스트 (Biseuse) (2019) - South Korea Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   In depicting moral values, corruption and total destruction of the humanity, director Jung-ho Lee crafted the intense thriller “The Beast” into a dystopia. Remaking the French corruption thriller, Lee manages to bring new life into the genre with insightful details on costs of rising the ranks within Korean society, internal and external politics in the cops world and how the underprivileged will forever be grounded in their own regime. The gap of poor and rich, the weak and powerful is dutifully magnified...

Legacy of Lies (2020) - Netherlands, UK, Poland, Ukraine, USA   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   Scott Adkins has become a staple in the DTV martial arts action genre and for every film he makes, there is no denying the notion of effort being put into the fights, the acting and everything that the martial arts actor does. In “Legacy of Lies”, Director Adrian Bol delivers the typical spy action thriller that the audience have seen in bigger productions and even alluding to deeper corruptions within the ranks of CIA, Russian government and mafias. The...