South Korea
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The Films of 2025, Ranked
It’s that time of year: It’s time to look back at and rank every 2025 film that I saw. Instead of doing a top 10 or bottom 10 or anything like that, I’m ranking absolutely everything. And this year, I saw a whole bunch. I’ll say up front that I don’t bother with movies that… Read more
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No Other Choice Finds Park Chan-wook at the Top of his Game
“No Other Choice” is South Korea’s submission to the best international feature film category at the 2026 Academy Awards, and I’ll tell you right now, it’s a lock for one of the five nomination spots. If you want my predictions, I’ll call it now that the real International Oscar category is a race between “The… Read more
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Peppermint Candy is Essential Cinema
“Peppermint Candy” is one of South Korea’s finest dramas. Writer, director Lee Chang-dong might not be quite as well known and admired in the U.S. as the likes of Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, but he is undoubtedly a filmmaker that deserves adulation worldwide. This video was originally intended as a normal review but ended… Read more
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Confession of Murder (2012) Review
My review of the 2012 action thriller Confession of Murder from director Byung-gil Jung starring Jae-yeong Jeong and Shi-hoo Park. 6/10 Read more
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A Taxi Driver (2017) Review
A Taxi Driver is a South Korean drama from 2017 starring Song Kang-ho and Thomas Kretschmann. 7.5/10 Read more
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How to Craft the Perfect Car Chase
A video essay examining the construction and execution of the car chase sequence and a tribute to the best car chases throughout cinema history. This video essay includes footage from The Seven-Ups, Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Shadows in an Empty Room, Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Fury Road,… Read more
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The Top 100 Best Action Movies Ever Made
The full list is available below the video and on Letterboxd. Read more
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The Best Films of 2023
At the time I made my 2023 recap video, I had only seen eight or so films released in 2023, so I instead ranked best films released any time that I watched for the first time in 2023. You can find that video below, but now that I’ve seen way, way, way more films released… Read more
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The Many Faces of Song Kang-ho
A tribute to the wonderful South Korean movie star Song Kang-ho, who I consider to be one of the finest actors of all time. Read more
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How a South Korean Horror Film Became A Japanese Musical
1998’s The Quiet Family from South Korean writer/director Kim Jee-woon is a dark comedy horror/thriller. When Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike decided to remake the film as The Happiness of the Katakuris, he did so as a musical with goofy humor and wild stop-motion animation. This video essay explores how the story translated into different genres… Read more
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