Her Body 2023
When a True Story Becomes Everyone’s Story Her Body is not just another biopic. Directed by Natálie Císařovská, this Czech-Slovak film tells the tragic true story of Andrea Absolonová — once a high-diver, Olympic hopeful, until an injury shattered her dreams. When the body that once flew for the gold could no longer dive, Andrea […]
Darker Shades Of Elise
A Story That Began With Desire and Secrets 2017 was the year that Darker Shades of Elise was released into the ingrained adult thriller genre of the industry. Promising something deeper than simple seduction, it tells the story of Elise, a woman who appears to have everything. A comfortable marriage, and a safe life. But […]
Obsessed
Obsessed was the first romantic drama directed by Kim Dae-woo. The movie was set in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, but chose to focus not on the war but on the conflict within the characters’ passions, desire, and social constraints. Illustrated in the film is the life of Korean war hero Colonel Kim Jin-pyeong (acted […]
The Handmaiden
A Film That Dared to Break Conventions When Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden premiered at Cannes in 2016, it wasn’t just another addition to Korean cinema—it was a thunderclap. Adapted from Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith and transposed to Japanese-occupied Korea, the film was lush, erotic, violent, and poetic all at once. At its heart, it told […]
High Society 2018
A World Draped in Power and Desire Releasing in 2018, High Society emanated the kind of intrigue a Korean drama about wealth, ambition, and forbidden passion would inspire. Directed by Byun Hyuk, the film promised not only steamy romance; it also made a bold statement about the intersection of class and corruption. From the first […]
American Pie Presents: Girls’ Rules
A Familiar Franchise with a New Voice Having warranted both concerns and curiosity, American Pie Presents: Girls’ Rules was released as a part of a larger franchise in 2020. The American Pie franchise, iconic by this point, was part of the cultural lexicon of the late 90s and early 2000s and was characterized by a […]
Empire of Lust
A Kingdom Built on Desire and Betrayal When Empire of Lust was released in 2015, it was first marketed as a historical Korean film. Over time, however, it came to be recognized as a provocative exploitation of power, loyalty, and forbidden desire inscribed in the tumultuous founding years of the Joseon dynasty. Ahn Sang-hoon, the […]
American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile
The Excitement Leading Up to the Mile By the mid-2000s, the American Pie franchise was not just a series of films but a cultural touchstone of a teenage comedy. The first American Pie in 1999 recorded a cultural phenomenon that shocked, entertained, and touched audiences globally, while its sequels sustained the balance of raunch and […]
The Taste of Money
When Desire Becomes a Currency Cinema has often exposed the hidden greed of powerful families. Few films, however, do it with the raw intimacy of The Taste of Money (2012) directed by Im Sang-soo. The film explores the darker corners of South Korea’s upper class, where the inherited wealth of families comes with a curse, […]
Serve the People
Serve the People (2022), directed by Jang Cheol-soo, is a South Korean adaptation of the controversial 2005 novel Serve the People! by Yan Lianke, which was banned in China due to its explicit content and political satire. The film relocation the narrative to a fictional socialist state in the 1970s, closely resembling North Korea. It […]