Movie review: 1987 When The Day Comes

I like it! First I watched it because Kim Taeri starred in this movie, but then I really liked it because it was definitely my cup of tea. 1987: When The Day Comes is a patriotic historical movie released in early 2018, telling about June Democracy Movement in South Korea (or popularly known as June Struggle) that generated mass protests from June 10 to June 29, 1987 (source: wikipedia). The demonstration forced the ruling government to hold a fair and democratic election. It started when Park Jong-cheol, a SNU student activist, died after being interrogated by official authorities because he refused to reveal the whereabouts of his fellow activists. This sparked many questions from reporters as his caused of death was said to be shock. He was a healthy 22yo man before this happened. The Seoul Office Prosecutor was forced to sign the permit to cremate the corpse as soon as possible, but he refused since it’s not 8 hours after death and his family needed to see him for the last time. The Prosecutor asked for an autopsy and the result showed that he died because of waterboarding techniques during his interrogation. Doctors were also asked to keep quiet but one of the doctors leaked it to a reporter when they accidentally met in the toilet. The issue blew up fast; people started to question about it. Authorities were told to find and arrest Kim Jeong-nam, the leader of democratic movement at that time so that the truth about Park Jong-cheol’s death would never be known. The story continued on how they would reveal the truth by the help of the prisoner guards, civilians, student activists, reporters, prosecutor, etc since this case involved higher authorities. There’s also Lee Han-yeol, another student activist from Yonsei University, who recruited people for the movement through his school student club. During the protests, he was seriously injured when a tear bomb hit the back of his head. His condition provoked another protest in the following weeks, which resulted in an agreement for direct presidential election by the Republic of Korea in June 29, 1987. Through 1987 I learnt a lot about Korea’s history as it was based on true story but still you need to confirm for the historical accuracy by browsing articles ok? If you are interested in history like me, then this movie is really recommended! All of these actors are Chungmuro movie veterans so no doubt their acting are the best. Enjoy!

Rate: 9.3/10

 

 

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Movie review: Little Forest (리틀 포레스트)

At first, this movie was not in my list but I decided to give it a try because of the positive reviews I read about it. Little Forest was said to be a healing movie, made you felt relax and peaceful. It's released in early 2018, starring Kim Taeri as Hyewon, a girl who failed in her university exam and decided to go back to her father's hometown. She has two bestfriends: Jin Kijoo as Eunsook, a banker and Ryu Junyeol as Jaeha, now a farmer. Hyewon was born in Seoul but then moved back to her father's hometown when he was sick and stayed till his death. She and her mother continued staying there but one day when she just came back from school, her mother disappeared without saying anything. Because of it, she hated her mother so much and learnt how to survive alone in the changing four seasons. Studied hard to pass the national exam, Hyewon was eagered to move to Seoul as soon as possible. She was back to her hometown again when her university entrance exam failed but her boyfriend passed. Tried to adjust to village life, she planted, harvested, and cooked by herself and didnt tell anything to her friends. Not to mention how her foods were awesome and portrayed aesthetically. It felt like she was having a vacation and taught us how to cook with her recipe. I was really amazed when she cooked spaghetti with some kind of flowers; in another scene she fried the flowers to make it looked like tempura. It definitely made people wanted to move to rural hometown and lived a simple life. Her friendship was another thing to admire: both her bestfriends are always by her side. They were also the one telling her not to run from her problems but she needed to settle it. Some of you may have known Kim Taeri from The Handmaiden which I hadnt watched (so dont ask me about it) but reviews were mostly positive. She's the rising new actress because of her versatility in acting. Currently Im watching her drama Mr. Sunshine and all I can say is it's really awesome! If you hadnt watched any of her works, this one is a must try. Little Forest teaches us a lot about life, probably one of my favorites because the storyline flows naturally and every scenes are just so beautiful. 

Rate: 8.5/10

 

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Movie review: The Swindlers (꾼)

Here another movie review again after I went on hiatus watching movies since earlier this year. It’s a korean movie released in the end of 2017, starring Hyun Bin, Yoo Ji-tae, Bae Seong-woo, Park Sung Woong, and Nana called as The Swindlers. I watched this in flight on my way to Japan. It started with Hwang Jisung (Hyun Bin), a conman, who was searching for his father’s killer. His father was a conman too who worked with gang members to falsify their passport information. One day his father was found dead; he felt suspicious as his father was working on something secretly the day before and told him he would retire after finishing it. Because of his job (he falsified passport, used other people's face as masks, etc), Hwang went on jail and met Prosecutor Park Hee Soo who asked for his help to find another conman, Jang Du-chil (Heo Sung Tae). Jang has committed huge fraud and was rumored dead, but someone said he saw him alive. Hwang was also tailing the same man because he felt Jang has a connection with his father’s death cause. Prosecutor Park’s team consisted of Go Seok-dong, Choonja, and Ahn Se-ha together with Hwang tried to track down Jang Du-chil whereabouts through Kwak Seung-gun (Park Sung Woong), who was his righthand man. Hwang was told to befriend with Kwak and made a business agreement so that they could tail on him meeting Jang. Prosecutor Park has his own motive: he wanted to kill Hwang after all his tasks had finished. Hwang also has an ulterior motive: finding his father’s killer. This movie really gave a big twist in the end; I was stunned for a while thinking about how it can end like this. You might find there's no connection between Prosecutor Park and Hwang but it was wrong at all. Pay attention to the details in the movie because at first I found the storyline was quite confusing. The movie's vibe was similar to The Thieves (2012) so if you like the latter, you might like this one too. I liked the way they concluded everything in the end as sometimes korean movies didnt have a great ending. Just give it a try!
Note: I've done other movie and drama reviews before but because I changed my blog url a while ago, the links werent connected. in the left side of this blog you can see 'LABELS' section and just click movie, drama, or review. Thanks!

Rate: 8/10

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