Country: South Korea

An unflinching look at a violent part of Korea’s history and how the terror of war really does tear people apart both figuratively and literally.

Sentimental, yet never schmaltzy, inspiring though certainly not preachy, ‘Canola’ strikes a beautiful balance between its elements that makes for a hugely admirable whole.

‘Cart’ is an admirable and very sympathetic version of a pro-longed event that may have happened in Korea, but has echoes through the developed world where profit is evermore as valued as simple human decency.

Joo Won and the stunt people do give it their all and there are some creative sequences on show, but it doesn’t quite come together into a satisfying whole.

An entertaining if hardly revolutionary piece of sports bio, ‘Champion’ benefits from some fine photography, a commitment to do the subject proud and some excellent performances from the cast.

This slick Korean production offers a fair amount of rampaging animal attacks, goofy horror fun and dashings of gore to make it a decent monster movie.

Lee Kyoo-Man provides us with a well shot, gently paced ‘what if?’ that might not be gripping, but is much more than just a distraction.

Director Park Jin Pyo once again handles a harrowing subject with sensitivity and respect for his characters.

‘Crying Fist’ feels fresh and exciting thanks to the considerable skills of its director, the novel use of two storylines happening at the same time and the excellent performances of the leads.

‘Cyrano Agency’ is a clever distillation of all of those sweeping moments that Korean love stories are known for.

I’m normally a sucker for a cheesy monster movie but ‘D-War’ fails to produce the goods on just about every level.

‘Death Bell’ is certainly not the best the genre has to offer, but it is a harmless little frightfest that has a few hints of ‘Saw’ and ‘Battle Royale’ thrown in.