Country: South Korea

Eschewing, for the most part, extensive wirework and CGI enhancement, ‘The Swordsman’ delivers clean, crisp, albeit brutal swordfight action.

‘The Thieves’ is the kind of bloated, star-studded jolly up that you may have been mistaken for thinking that Hollywood had copyrighted.

It hits all the disaster movies tropes and delivers some spectacular sequences of destruction, mayhem and general disaster insanity.

It’s certainly a noble effort and a refreshingly grown up horror movie but unfortunately, ‘The Uninvited’ is just a little too serious in its intentions to be a thoroughly satisfying spooky tale.

‘The Villagers’ is a fine action-thriller, tackling darker themes while still being able to weave in humour and pathos. Highly recommended.

As much a twisty-turny drama as an all out action flick, ‘The Villainess’ overdoes both its noble attempts at gritty drama and action technical wizardry.

A western, samurai, comic book, video game, ‘The Warrior’s Way’ is marred by this muddled mix of genres and styles.

A truly beautiful tale of personal growth and self-discovery that is more than perfectly in tune with many Asian ideals of family and the implicit importance of such.

A blend of classy slow burn filmmaking and bloody violent action, the film may not be to everyone’s taste, but it certainly sets out to find its own rhythm and style.

Park Hoon-Jung certainly knows how to craft action but he also imbues the film with a dark tone, slow build tension, and a subtly cool vibe that contributes to the atmosphere and world building.

The characters are realistic and have sympathetic worries to consider, the twists keep the viewer guessing throughout and it benefits from Kim Sang-ho at his very best.

A relentless journey through the low rung end of society the film is an endurance for both us the viewer and the protagonist Gu-nam.