City On Fire's Film Review - Sea Fog | aka Haemoo (2014). "Perhaps most impressive is Park Yoo-chun as the innocent and inexperienced Dong-sik."

Director: Shim Sung-Bo

Writer: Shim Sung-Bo, Bong Joon-Ho

Cast: Kim Yun-Seok, Park Yoo-Chun, Han Ye-Ri, Lee Hee-Joon, Moon Sung-Geun, Kim Sang-Ho, Yoo Seung-Mok

Running Time: 111 min.

By Kyle Warner

I think Memories of Murder deserves to be in the conversation of the finest films ever made. Dark, thrilling, funny, and almost poetic, it’s the movie that made me a fan of director/co-writer Bong Joon-ho, who did not disappoint when he followed up that masterwork with other great titles like The Host, Snowpiercer, and Mother. But one of the voices behind the making of Memories of Murder that never got the same level of acclaim that Bong did was co-writer Shim Sung-bo. Since Memories of Murder, Shim has directed a couple of short films, but has largely remained an unknown to most viewers. Now, with his feature directorial debut Sea Fog (aka Haemoo), Shim steps up and presents himself as one of the most promising new directors in Korean cinema. And, like that modern classic Memories of Murder, Shim shared the writer’s room with the great Bong Joon-ho to help bring the dark story to life.

Sea Fog is a story of desperation. The characters are desperate to make a living, desperate to escape hardship, desperate to evade the law, desperate to survive. It’s downbeat, has the heart of pitch black film noir, and takes you in directions you wouldn’t expect.

The fishermen of the boat Jeonji aren’t catching much these days. Captain Kang (Kim Yun-seok) has a wife who is cheating on him, his rusty boat is now owned by the bank, and he has to beg the boss for money to pay his crew. Without so much as consulting his crew, Kang agrees to use the boat to pick up illegal immigrants coming out of China and smuggle them back into South Korea. What begins simple enough takes a turn when the illegals challenge the sailors, who are obviously out of their depth.

When a horrible accident occurs, the fishermen try their best to cover things up for fear of facing jail time. It’s then that things shift from a dark (sometimes politically charged) drama to a thriller, as already desperate men lose their humanity and inch closer to madness. Captain Kang, who had once seemed like a sympathetic figure, becomes merciless and cold. Some of his crew, now reduced to their base nature, obsess over money or the women among the illegal immigrants. Only one crewman, Dong-sik (Park Yoo-chun) remains largely himself throughout the ordeal. Even so, the young Dong-sik must decide how far is to go in order to survive the increasingly desperate scenario.

Sea Fog is based on a stage play, which itself was inspired by a sad true story. Like many stage play adaptations, Sea Fog has one primary set. But unlike many stage play adaptations, we never really take notice of the limited sets and locations. The boat is big and it’s surrounded by that cold, black ocean. Filmed beautifully by cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo (The Wailing), Sea Fog plays bigger than its surroundings might suggest. When the fog rolls in, strange colors shine through the mist, giving the film the surreal appearance of a film noir nightmare.

The cast is largely excellent. Kim Yun-seok (The Chaser) has made a career of playing anti-heroes and likeable villains, and Captain Kang fits somehow into both categories. It’s an intimidating performance, made all the better by the fact that Kim saves the major outbursts for the finale. Perhaps most impressive is Park Yoo-chun (Sungkyunkwan Scandal) as the innocent and inexperienced Dong-sik. Han Ye-ri (Commitment) is very good as the film’s central Korean-Chinese immigrant, giving her character enough individuality so that she is not just a damsel. And character actor Mun Seong-kun (Green Fish) is memorable in one of the film’s most showy roles, that of the boat’s old-timer engineer who starts losing his mind when the worst happens.

If the script lacks subtlety in the final act, then at least you can say that it might endear itself more to thriller/horror fans that’ve come to expect a certain level of the extreme from Korean genre movies.  I did not mind this shift in tone to a bloodier, high-pitched thriller. I do have to question the ending, however. Sea Fog ends with an extended epilogue, which felt unneeded especially after what would’ve been an excellent final shot.

A film with dark moral dilemmas and increasingly raised stakes, Sea Fog is the sort of movie that’s almost impossible to look away from. It also unfolds in an unexpected way, taking you on strange detours from the storyline that you were probably expecting. It’s an excellent thriller for fans of co-writer Bong Joon-ho, who explores more of the theme of class warfare seen earlier in Snowpiercer. For writer/director Shim, Sea Fog is one hell of a feature debut, and is hopefully a hint of more good things to come.

Kyle Warner’s Rating: 8/10

Source: City On Fire

Video Credit: Movieclips Film Festivals & Indie Films

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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Lucid Dream"

Dae-ho (played by Ko Soo) is a reporter with legal troubles who struggles to make time for family. Then, one day at the amusement park, Dae-ho loses something very precious to him and is haunted by nightmares, slowly being driven mad. That is, until he learns about neurology researcher So-hyeon (played by Kang Hye-jeong), who is working to unlock the power of the "Lucid Dream" to reconstruct in fuller detail the mysteries of the subconscious.

With such a cool concept it's a bit of a shame that the actual plot of "Lucid Dream" is just a standard investigative thriller. A good investigative thriller, admittedly, as writer/director Kim Joon-seong-I has just the bare minimum number of twists and turns to keep us guessing as to the ever elusive identity of the true antagonist. It was admittedly a little silly how dubious medical practices are more of a plot point than Dae-ho's backstory, which barely gets used even as a red herring.

But as to the good stuff, "Lucid Dream" looks great. The film's climactic setpiece is beautifully set among the crumbling black-and-white dreamscape of the Digital Media City in Seoul. The atmosphere is oddly fearful and unnerving, and well symbolizes the general collapse in psyche of the three persons who ultimately meet there. It's the ultimate spookiness- trapped inside a dying mind, feeling ever conscious of the destruction of self, the hopelessness of it all, the sheer desperation.

So yep, a nice metaphor. And it's actually quite well built up to throughout the story. If writer/director Kim Joon-seong-I doesn't seem to show much interest in the possibilities of the dream world, it's because Dae-ho doesn't care. Remember, Dae-ho only wants to go into dreams to resolve the nightmare of his daily reality. We can feel this tension in all of the dream sequences. There's always this sense that Dae-ho feels as out of control there as in the real world. Consequently, Dae-ho wants to escape dreams as badly as he wants to escape reality. In both locations his sense of self is intolerable.

The contrast is well marked with Yong-hyeon (played by Park Yoo-chun), a mysterious man of the dream world who seems to have all the answers yet Yong-hyeon's powers are illusory. He is master of the dream world precisely because he is powerless in the real one. If Yong-hyeon at times seems magical in scope, and a better hero than Dae-ho can ever hope to be, it's important to realize that Dae-ho, with his actual joyful real life talisman, very much does not want to become Yong-hyeon.

Of course as is often the case with metaphysical stories it's very easy to read an amount of depth into "Lucid Dream" that may well not actually exist. So to put this movie into simpler teams, the "Lucid Dream" concept? Cool. The story? Above average. Special effects. Excellent, and frequently subtle. The emotional kicker at the end? Actually pretty good considering what an archetypal character Dae-ho. So this is an easy recommendation for me.

Review by William Schwartz

"Lucid Dream" is directed by Kim Joon-seong-I and features Ko Soo, Seol Kyeong-gu, Park Yoo-chun and Kang Hye-jeong.

Source: HanCinema

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[TRANS] 170228 ‘Lucid Dream’ review – This Man

The part of the supporting role of This Man/Park Yuchun

Appearing as a mysterious man early in the movie, he is This Man. The doubts [about him] crumple with Dr. So-hyun’s kind explanation. Meeting in a department store going after Chairman Cho Myung-chul, there is an encounter with This Man within a dream. The movie starts to come alive with the ingenious This Man [aka] Kwon Yong-hyun’s presence and character like you’ve never seen before. Contrary to a ‘maniac-fan’ shown in existing movies, he is a character of a ‘maniac-fan’ who talks a lot but his abilities are obvious, for one; and even though he cannot use his two legs, he can certainly take care of himself, for another. He brings life into the film with his fresh presence. The shared-dreaming attempted by him, as expected, makes you sense a taste of following into a ‘dreamland’ for the first time, as much as This Man’s appearance early on.

Source: MediaUs
Translated by: rilanna of JYJ3

***

~other trans~

Translations by: @rng_hrq 

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REVIEW - Thursdays at the Theatre: "Sea Fog" mixes human trafficking, murky morality

REVIEW

‘Sea Fog” skillfully mixes many ingredients of a successful thriller — the moral darkness of film noir, the obsessed-captain sea stories, the contemporary edginess of human-smuggling ordeals. It even throws in a dash of global politics, in this case the Asian economic crisis stemming from problems with the International Monetary Fund.

More than anything, though, this recent Korean blockbuster is a study in the vastly different ways that humans respond to extreme pressure. And, of course, it’s also a tender love story.

Backed into a corner

The plot, based loosely on a 2001 incident involving the transport of illegal immigrants, begins, like many thrillers, on a deceptively quiet note. A rundown Korean trawler, its motley crew having failed to catch anything in overfished waters, limps back to port early in need of repairs.

The boat’s mortgage holder shows up at the dock, threatening to cash it in on a government program aimed at getting obsolete vessels off the water. It’s worth more as scrap, he says, that it is in operation.

What will the crew do, though? Fishing is all they know. As it is, failure is taking a heavy toll on their personal lives. They can’t afford girlfriends. They have to hock their belongings and pretend to their families that they’re getting paid.

In the case of the captain, Kang Cheol-joo, his wife has contempt for his skills as a provider. On this day, coming home early, he catches her in a cozy situation with a Chinese-Korean laborer. Not that anything would surprise him about her. Maybe the situation would improve for him if he could buy his boat back, but the bank won’t front him the money. It seems the missus has already taken out an equity loan on the restaurant she runs.

Bad to worse

Fresh out of options, Cheol-joo decides to accept the offer of a sleazy business owner he knows and run one load of Chinese-Korean illegals into the country. Shouldn’t be too complicated – a quick trip at night when no one is watching.

One thing after another goes wrong, though. To start with, there are far more immigrants than expected. The seas are rough as the transfer is made from the other boat; one refugee falls into the water and has to be rescued.

It turns out there are a couple of women among them, and every seaman knows that’s bad luck. A couple of others have smart mouths and start getting their fellow travelers worked up. In dealing with the issue, the captain shows the first signs of emotional instability.

Worse yet, a heavy fog prevents the return to shore, and in the daylight they get a visit from the Coast Guard. The real trouble starts when the crew has to find creative ways to hide all the extra people…

Award winner

For a non-Hollywood movie, “Sea Fog” had a pretty healthy budget to work with. It really is a tour de force of cinematic technique, with a lot of visual variety and movement, considering that almost all of it is shot aboard a modest-sized fishing boat.

The movie also was South Korea’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards a couple of years back. It features one veteran star (Kim Yun-seok of “The Yellow Sea”), a handful of established character actors and even a Korean pop star(Park Yoochun) in his acting debut.

At the helm is producer Bong Joon Ho, who directed the international creature sensation “The Host,” and who co-wrote “Sea Fog” with first-time director Shim Sung-bo. Predictably, they are able to pull out a successful film that’s a good deal darker, visually and psychologically, than Hollywood would dare attempt in a project that has large investments at stake.

If you go: “Sea Fog” will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Historic Yuma Theatre, 254 S. Main St. The screening, part of the Arizona Western College Foundation’s “Thursdays at the Theatre,” includes an independent short film and a hosted discussion. Language is Korean, with English subtitles; run time of the feature is 111 minutes. Admission is $5, $2.50 for AWC students and staff.

Details about Sea Fog's screening at the Historic Yuma on August 25.

Thursdays at the Theatre, a film series by AWC Foundation, will be showing, "Sea Fog", "crisp, starkly beautiful compositions, contrasting claustrophobic human activity with the ocean's vastness." – Maggie Lee, Variety 

South Korea | 2014 | Drama- Thriller| Korean w/ English Subtitles | 111 min| Club Date: 12/1/2015

Synopsis Kang, a long time captain of the Junjin, is disheartened to learn that his ship has been sold by its owner, leaving Kang's entire crew in danger of losing their livelihood. Swallowing his pride, Kang pays a visit to Yeo, a human trafficking broker, and decides to take on the dangerous job of smuggling illegal migrants into South Korea. When the Junjin arrives at the pickup point, a violent storm forces the boat to stall in the open waters, inevitably pitting Kang's crew against the migrants. As tension and unrest spread throughout the Junjin, a dense sea fog envelops the boat, and tragedy unfolds in the mysterious depths of the fog... 

This movie will be showing in our beautiful Historic Yuma Theatre at 7:00pm. 

Enjoy our great tasting popcorn and refreshments.

Movie will start at 7:00 pm

$5 AT THE DOOR, AWC/NAU STUDENTS $2.50 W/VALID ID

Sources: yumasun & yumaaz

As warming as melancholy, it’s not JYJ but Park Yuchun

The choice by Park Yuchun was right. Park Yuchun put out an album that’s full of winter sensibilities, with overripe emotions.

Park Yuchun, who is in the middle of his military service, surprised us and presented his first solo album, 12 years after debuting. Park Yuchun, who is active as both a member of group JYJ and an actor, left meaningful tracks that were gathered and saved from his love toward music. Not JYJ’s, not actor but solo singer Park Yuchun’s emotions were comparatively earnest. In his low-pitched, deep voice, he painted even loneliness. It is music that is matches the cold winter.

The solo album ‘How Much Love Do You Have in Your Wallet’ released by Park Yuchun, for the first time since his debut, is filled with emotional ambience and lyrics as though its title must have been suited for a collection of poems. All the while aware that he had to try to soothe the emptiness of fans after he enlisted, he had his strongly concealed reasons.

In JYJ, other than be pure like Kim Junsu who show offs a powerful singing ability with a unique voice and Kim Jaejoong who boasts a rock disposition with rugged and high-pitched tones; Park Yuchun has the role of the bass where he is more solid producing the chord to support them. However, Park Yuchun supplements heaviness in a singing style that whispers yet purrs, when he stands in front of a microphone by himself.

Park Yuchun heightened the perfection of his album, working together with emotional artists pianist Yuhki Kuramoto and Yozoh. Yuhki Kuramoto composed the song ‘Nostalgic, While Turning Over the Page..’ solely for Park Yuchun and up to his performance, flaunts its significance playing it. In Park Yuchun’s own song ‘Until the Last Album..’, he harmonizes with Yozoh and confirmed his affection. As if it can be felt in the title, he had his will and gratitude toward fans now and forever contained together in the lyrics. Also, he included the live version of ‘Walking With Her in Spring’ as a bonus track and rekindled the emotions of a concert.

Park Yuchun added two of his own songs in the solo album, too, and exhibited his talent as a singer-songwriter again. He puts out his own songs that were developed little by little when it was presented in popular songs on his individual stage; and is the outcome that was created from his own stage. How did he achieve a thing like that? Park Yuchun went the path that was the clearest rather than make changes. He is not fancy and does it without technique.

In this album, Park Yuchun is collected but spills out letter after letter, with a voice chock-full of tenderness. In a manner, it is formed from Park Yuchun’s steadfast emotions. It is sentimental like Park Yuchun himself. With recognizable innate timbre that doesn’t need to be arduously searched for. Although it is a big yielding by himself, you can feel a warm winter while discerning melancholy in his five songs. It is noteworthy that he is able to confirm another potential of his, as an unconventional vocal. Buried under the name JYJ, Park Yuchun’s intrinsic value has been newly discovered.

Source: Newsen
Translated by: rilanna of JYJ3

ACTION CUT’s Review 2015 : TOP 20 THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR – 4. Haemoo/Sea Fog

[TRANS]

4.
HAEMOO
(SEA FOG – THE STOWAWAYS)

2014, Shim Sung-bo – SOUTH KOREA
Scenario/Story by : Shim Sung-bo and Bong Joon-ho
With Kim Yoon-seok, Park Yoo-chun, Han Ye-ri, Moon Sung-keun, Kim Sang-ho and Lee Hee-joon
Cinematographer : Hong Kyung-pyo
Music by : Jeong Jae-il

No, it was not The Raft of the Medusa, this boat… but almost! A marine tragedy produced and co-written by Bong Joon-ho, whose personality (black humor, pessimistic and cynical view of humanity) infuses the image, Sea Fog makes an extremely disturbing observation of the Korean soul, by examining the repressed impulses of the unsavory male protagonists with a chilling violence and a thick suspense.

Source: ACTION CUT
Translation by: rilanna of JYJ3

[REVIEW] 'The Girl Who Sees Smells' by Funcurve

The Scent of Crime

I suppose most people, upon hearing the title of the drama, will not understand how a convincing plot can revolve around a girl who sees smells. However, The Girl Who Sees Smells (a.k.a. Sensory Couple) may have struck gold by weaving this outlandish idiosyncrasy into a crime/mystery series. There are several dimensions to the drama which make it compelling and enjoyable. I’m sure the first question on everybody’s minds is, “How exactly do you visualize scents?” The drama does a tasteful job of depicting her ability while tying it in nicely with enigmatic murder cases that can only be solved with her help. Not only that, The Girl Who Sees Smells delivers such a suspenseful narrative, and viewers become so engaged with how the main arc unfolds, that they might just end up forgetting that seeing smells is not very plausible.

The story commences with our two leads, Choi Mu Gak (Park Yoo Chun) and Choi Eun Seol (Shin Se Kyung), who are both plagued by family murders. Eun Seol, who gets hit by a car after witnessing her parents’ murder, suffers from memory loss. She is shocked to discover that she sees odd, floating colors and shapes, which she later identifies as smells. Mu Gak is so torn by the wrongful death of his sister that he loses sleep and becomes desensitized to all pain. Their lives eventually collide (literally) as they join forces to ultimately catch the “Bar Code” serial killer, who is connected to the murder of their family members.

Although I usually enjoy the intensity of thrillers, I particularly appreciate that The Girl Who Sees Smells interlaces murder mystery with bizarre comedy. Choi Eun Seol, who assumes the alias of Oh Cho Rim, pursues her passion of performing 만담개그 (man dam gae geu, Korean slapstick comedy), and ropes Mu Gak in as her partner. Thus, the ordinarily stoic Mu Gak transforms into such a laughable dork that you can’t help but find him absolutely adorable.

Most of all, what makes this drama memorable is that the villain is so hauntingly villainous that the combination of the audience’s trepidation and demand for justice beckons them to continue watching. In fact, unlike other mystery dramas, the criminal is identified early on in the storyline. So, the tension that hooks viewers isn’t in trying to deduce who the mastermind is behind the murders, but in knowing the identity of the culprit yet being powerless to do anything about it.

Episodes 1-3 Review 

Although the title seems to point to a light-hearted drama, the plot setup indicates suspense and thriller. Immediately, we witness a dramatic opening scene from the past as we stumble upon separate murders. First, Eun Seol’s parents are identified as victims in the “Bar Code Murders,” in which the killer inscribes cuts in the victims’ inner wrists resembling bar codes. Soon after, Mu Gak’s sister is cruelly stabbed on the hospital bed. These two crimes seem unrelated, until we realize that Mu Gak’s sister shares the same name, Choi Eun Seol.

Flash forward to present day, and we learn that Mu Gak is trying to enter into the homicide division of the police force to catch his sister’s murderer. At the same time, Oh Cho Rim lives a happy-go-lucky life, unaware of her past. While in pursuit of a criminal, Mu Gak is hit by Cho Rim’s car, and Cho Rim ends up using her special senses to help capture the perpetrator. Their lives continue to intertwine as Cho Rim desperately needs Mu Gak to be her comedy partner, and Cho Rim convinces him that she can use her olfactory sight to further help him with his investigations.

 IT’S A RARE TREAT TO SEE THE MAIN FEMALE LEAD IN A KOREAN DRAMA WITH CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS!

At this point, I’m pretty sold on the two main characters. I find Shin Se Kyung refreshing, and I think her chemistry with Park Yoo Chun is splendid. I especially enjoyed the scene when Cho Rim convinces Mu Gak of her sensory powers by passing all of Mu Gak’s petty tests, to his childish dismay. I’m also starting to buy in to Cho Rim’s sleuthing abilities as she exposes some critical clues during the investigations. It’s a rare treat to see the main female lead in a Korean drama with critical thinking skills!

Episodes 4-6 Review 

There is much to highlight in these episodes. I actually appreciate that The Girl Who Sees Smellsdoesn’t have a cliche love triangle. The relationship between Mu Gak and Cho Rim is progressing at a rate that suits my taste. You can clearly perceive the ways that they subtly flirt and are growing in attraction towards one another. On top of that, I cherish how the once aloof Mu Gak is now displaying playfulness and personality.

Meanwhile, things are quickly surfacing, which is a refreshing pace from the usual Korean drama storyboard. These episodes are comprised of smaller murder cases, so for the most part, I’m kept entertained by the detective work and crime solving. Along the way, there are heart-wrenching confessions and nerve-racking criminal chases, which cause me to question my assumptions about who can be trusted. It also helps that the supporting cast is quite likeable with their endearing side stories, such as Detective Ki, who can’t resist answering calls from Elena Vashilivnashivanova.

I can’t say that there aren’t any filler scenes during these episodes, but it’s hard not to be completely engrossed when shocking truths regarding the “Bar Code Murders” are abruptly revealed.

Episodes 7-10 Review 

The pursuit of the “Bar Code” murderer ensues except, unlike the main characters in the drama, we now have become omniscient. It just kills us to know that the killer is right under the police’s nose, and yet he manages to elude them. It’s a race between the cops and the criminal to see who can outsmart the other, and it seems the villain has the upper hand, always being one step ahead.

Many viewers may become exasperated that the special investigation unit persistently fails to apprehend the criminal. Personally, I didn’t have such averse frustrations about their incompetency. In my opinion, the detectives made astute observations and devised clever strategies, but resulted in poor execution because the villain was made to be quite shrewd and calculating. In fact, just when you think that the criminal has blundered and given himself away, you realize that he’s outwitted you too.

I will concede that there are parts of the storyline that The Girl Who Sees Smells could have simply omitted. Most often, I bypassed any scenes involving Cho Rim’s adoptive father, who seemingly abandoned her for the better part of this drama, and Detective Yeom, who falls under the infamous “noble idiocy” persona.

EVERY SCENE IN WHICH THE KILLER APPEARS FEELS OMINOUS AND LIFE-THREATENING.

Yet, this part of the drama thrives for me because everyone is so close to discovering pivotal information that will change everything, and my nerves are tingling, hoping that the good guys will figure it out before the bad guy does. Meanwhile, the killer is too close for comfort, and every scene in which he appears feels ominous and life-threatening.

Episodes 11-13 Review 

In my experience, this segment of a Korean drama (episodes nine and on) is usually when my interest begins to wane. Unfortunately, The Girl Who Sees Smells is not immune to this pattern. Since the main conflict has already been developing for the first half of the series, the drama now need to manufacture new conflict by forcing characters to make foolish decisions, senseless self-sacrifices, and basically renounce all sound logic. In this case, the victim of bad writing is our heroine, Cho Rim, with the investigation unit trailing close behind. 

At this point, the detectives are pretty certain who the killer is but are unable to provide cold, hard evidence to capture him. This pretty much remains the status quo for the next three episodes. The only new intel I’m able to gather is that Cho Rim can’t see smells when it’s raining. On the other hand, our killer is taking advantage of all the snooze and is actually getting closer to achieving his goal.

Episodes 14-16 Review 

I won’t spill the beans on how The Girl Who Sees Smells ends, but viewers will experience a rollercoaster of emotions up to the final moments, including a hilarious dream sequence by Mu Gak that I could rewatch forever. I also applaud the calm and collected Detective Yeom, held hostage in the killer’s concealed lair. She plays mind games with the clearly disturbed murderer, who has shown nothing but superbly chilling acting. The significance behind the bar codes is also finally brought to light.

The concluding episodes prove to be one of the stronger endings I’ve seen, fillers and all. I depart the drama feeling content and satisfied, with a new respect for many of the actors and a new ship that has sailed.

written by: Stephanie of Funcurve

[REVIEW] HAEMOO: Tragedy and the Very Worst in Human Nature on the High Seas

Tragedy and the very worst in human nature on the high seas in this Bong Joon-ho production…

Another of the maritime-themed Korean 2014 releases, Haemoo(a.k.a. Sea Fog) marks the directorial debut of Shim Sung-bo, screenwriter of the acclaimed Memories of Murder, whose director Bong Joon-ho returns the favour by serving here as producer and co-scripter. The film was adapted from a 2007 play which in turn was based on real life events, and is a dark drama revolving around human smuggling on the high seas, headlined by award winning veteran actor Kim Yoon-seok (The Thieves) and popular television star Park Yoo-chun. Chosen as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards and the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, the film also won several plaudits for its acting back at home.

The film takes place in 1998, with Kim Yoon-seok as Kang, captain of the fishing boat Jeonjiho. Having failed to land a decent catch for some time and with the threat of having the boat sold by its owner, Kang agrees to illegally transport a group of ethnic Koreans from China across the Yellow Sea. Promised a cut of the profits, the crew reluctantly agree to go along with the plan, though when the weather turns stormy and the authorities appear things soon get complicated, and it’s not long before tragedy strikes. With the ruthless Kang and the other senior members of the crew only looking out for themselves, a young ship hand called Dong Sik (Park Yoo-chun) decides to try and protect a woman called Hong Mae (Han Ye-ri, Commitment), with unpleasant consequences.

Haemoo is very much an exploration of the darker side of human nature, and without wishing to give anything away, Shim Sung-bo quite quickly sets things in motion with a series of shocking plot developments. Dong Sik aside, there’s very little in the way of kindness or decency here, Shim showing a cynical, dog eat dog view of the world, with almost all of the crew being motivated by self-interest and the worst of base desires – the grim situation on the boat aside, the film does suggest an unflattering picture of Korean society in general, and there’s certainly social criticism to be found here if looked for. The film does have the air of a play in places, though thankfully in a good way, Shim making the most of the claustrophobic setting and mining it for a feeling of being trapped, the characters having no escape from each other or their sins. The tension is successfully notched up throughout, and while the overall atmosphere of doom is unlikely to leave viewers expecting hope or happy endings, there are enough surprises along the way to hold the interest, events spiralling further and further out of control and into chaos and violence.

The film does have its flaws – Shim’s approach is more rooted in basic genre film making than Bong Joon-ho and the script is less complex and subtle thanMemories of Murder, the characters gradually being reduced to villains and stereotypes as things escalate. This criticism is deflected somewhat by the cast’s solid performances, and Kim Yoon-seok is effective in the fairly straightforward role as Kang, Park Yoo-chun impressing as the naïve Dong Sik (his work here winning him Best New Actor awards from the Blue Dragon and Daejong Film Awards, plus the Korean Association of Film Critics, marking him as a talent to watch in future). The film does work better as a thriller than anything too deep and meaningful, and Shim does well as a first time helmer, showing a strong visual sense and the ability to generate suspense while keeping things moving at a gripping pace.

Though a bit limited and during its later stages, Shim Sung-bo perhaps finding himself trapped and in search of a resolution along with his characters, Haemoo still stands as a superior and polished offering. Entertaining if depressing, it’s a striking debut, and well worth checking out.

Reviewed by: James Mudge of easternKicks

Review of Haemoo by Marty Mapes[Movie Habit]

What starts as a "conventional" drama set on a fishing boat (is there such a thing?) turns into something much darker by the time the credits roll.

The film opens with men working on a fishing boat. It’s South Korea, 1998, during the World Cup that was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.

Younger sailors take advice from the older ones, but the working-class men are quick to taunt each other. The film’s score tries to make their poverty noble, but fails. Even the older men are careless and dumb, one getting caught in a net. I didn’t think any of these people, at first glance, seemed heroic enough to be protagonist material.

Captain Kang (Yun-seok Kim) returns home after his boat, the Junjin, docks. He catches his wife in flagrante delicto. “You’re home early,” she manages after a quick scuffle, sending the lover out the wrong door. The casual embarrassment reveals the disdain husband and wife have for each other. Yet another shred of evidence that nobody in this film is very likeable.

At a meeting, the captain discusses his future with the owner of the boat: should they sell the boat and take the Government buyout? It’s free money for abusing a government program, at the expense of jobs for a dozen men.

Instead, they decide to set out on another expedition, but this time instead of trawling for fish, they’re going to accept some money from Chinese “investors” to help bring some human cargo into prosperous South Korea.

A night transfer from a larger ship to the Junjin has migrants hopping across a variable-sized gap between the two boats. Most of them make it aboard safely, but one woman, Hong-Mae, lands in the precarious gap between ships. A sailor — the mostly good-hearted rookie named Dong-sik (Yoo-chun Park), jumps in to save her from drowning.

Many of the other sailors see the presence of women on board as an opportunity for either coerced sex or outright rape. The engineer is a walking id, groping freely. Dong-sik is at least “a gentleman,” although he seems to have the expectant air of a ... well, of a romantic movie protagonist, who believes that so long as he’s a gentleman, he will win the heart of any female in the vicinity.

Luckily, the movie (or is it the performance by Ye-ri Han?) gives Hong-Mae a bit more dimensionality than that. She’d rather not have to have sex with any sailors, though she realizes she’s in a dangerous situation. If a “gentleman” sailor is willing to give her special treatment, more food, or better shelter, she’ll accept it without making him any promises.

The film to this point is fairly grim. The crew is unprepared for human cargo, and some of the “cargo” seem much more streetwise than the crew. That leads to escalated tensions.

And then there is the fear of the coast guard, some of whom are corruptible, which makes them all the more dangerous.

I don’t want to say too much, but I’ll say I was repeatedly surprised by how low the desperate characters were willing to sink.

Luckily for audiences, the “lowness” seems more attributable to the characters than the filmmakers. As awful as parts of Haemoo are, it doesn’t feel like an exploitative movie. It feels like a serious film about a bunch of characters, almost all of whom are badly flawed, and almost none of whom are likeable.

An unnecessary coda lengthens the movie. Luckily it doesn’t really spoil it.

The tone is sad and somber. Haemoo is not a horror film, but a melodrama and a tragedy. Long scenes hold you captive, as the characters make selfish or risky decisions.

The English title is “Sea Fog,” which matches the tone well. And after the migrants arrive on board, it seems like the rest of the film takes place in a heavy fog that permeates the very souls of those on board.

Is it powerful? Or is it just grim? I would say Haemoo falls somewhere in-between those two options. I was grateful that the film was steadfast in its ruthlessness ... even if that made the film harder to watch.

But I also thought the film could have been more clear about its intentions. I suspect other audiences will read the film much differently from how I did. They might have even taken the film to be sunnier than I imagined. And if so, I’m glad I didn’t see it that way, as I think that would have cheapened the grim and foggy depths.

Reviewed by: Marty Mapes of Movie Habit