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[HanCinema's Digest] Cinema Snippets

Explore the "strange and unfamiliar" world of North Korean children's cartoons, Hong Sang-soo's "On the Beach at Night Alone" reviewed on The Los Angeles Times, KoBiz's latest infographic tracks the most successful documentaries in Korea compared to the United States, and Pierce Conran thinks Ma Dong-seok's performance in the sleeper hit "The Outlaws" is his best yet.

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[REVIEW] "Hong Sang-soo turns personal scandal on its head in 'On the Beach at Night Alone"

Justin Chang reviews Hong Sang-soo's "On the Beach at Night Alone" for The Los Angeles Times. The film's lead, Kim Min-hee, won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival, and the film won awards at the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards and the Jerusalem Film Festival. At the local box, Hong's 101-minute drama was released late March 2017 and attracted 56,158 admissions. "Hong is a tirelessly prolific filmmaker", says Justin. "Few other directors have shown such ruthless consistency in charting the layers of awkwardness and misunderstanding that exist between the sexes, and few others have made these familiar insights feel like such a renewable source of comic and melodramatic confusion".

...READ ON THE LA TIMES

"Bazooka-Toting Squirrels & Hedgehogs: The Wacky World of N Korean Kids' Cartoons"

South Korea's webtoon industry is booming, but how's the cartoon industry evolving in North Korea? In this fascinating piece for Sputnik, Andrei Olfert takes us through the "strange and unfamiliar" world of North Korean cartoons and reveals some of the messages/values they contain. "Squirrel and Hedgehog", for example, one of the most popular North Korean animated series, "shows the exploits of brave woodland critters as they bravely fight off hordes of evil machinegun-totting weasels, mice and wolves with savvy and some heavy firepower".

...READ ON SPUTNIK

[REVIEW] "THE OUTLAWS, Familiar but Punchy Thriller Shows Us New Side of Seoul"

Film journalist and critic Pierce Conran reviews Kang Yoon-Sung's sleeper hit "The Outlaws" starring veteran action star Ma Dong-seok. Ma plays detective Ma Seok-do-"his best leading role to date", says Pierce-on the hunt for a Chinese gang head, a story that was actually inspired by real events that took place a decade ago in Garibong known as the "Heuksapa Incident". The film was a huge hit at the box office: since its release just before Chuseok weekend, the film has grossed $51.2 million (6.8 million admissions), making it the fourth highest-grossing film of year behind "Spider-Man: Homecoming" ($54.1 million), "Confidential Assignment" ($58.4 million), and "A Taxi Driver" ($87.8 million). Click on through to hear why Pierce gave this slick modern noir four out of five stars...

...READ ON MODERN KOREAN CINEMA

"Box-office hits of Documentary film"

As KoBiz writer Hwang Hee-jun notes, documentaries are no longer the small fish in a big pond. "These days, we can see various documentary films competing with thriller and romance films for box office superiority", writes Hwang. In Korea, documentaries have seen significant increase of interest for the public, that has, in turn, "led to an increase in audience-friendly content". In this latest infographic on KoBiz, Hwang's puts Korea's top five documentaries of all time side-by-side with the documentaries American audiences have favoured. Are you a fan of documentaries? What are some of your favourite Korean ones? Let us and others know in the comment section below...

...READ ON KOBIZ

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