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Parasyte: The Grey

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2024

Parasyte: The Grey (2024, South Korea)

Director: Yeon Sang Ho

Writers: Yeon Sang Ho & Ryu Yong Jae (based on the manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki)

Mini-review:

I enjoyed this way more than I expected. I was a pretty big fan of the anime that aired a decade ago, so I was worried about this adaptation. But that wasn't necessary: instead of making a simple live-action remake, they tried to approach the story from a different point of view, making sure it could coexist in the original manga's universe (as shown by the very last scene). That being said, this one doesn't delve too much into its themes, opting instead to focus on the horror and action elements. And damn, it does deliver. The action scenes make great use of the parasytes' "tentacles", and they're shot with some stunning camerawork. Yeon Sang Ho's directing fires on all cylinders, more than making up for the pretty mediocre CGI. It also helps that the cast does fantastic job. So yeah, Parasyte: The Grey might not be as deep as it could, but if you're in the mood for a thrilling horror-action spectacle, then you should give it a try.

FLEX X COP

GENRES: Comedy, Action, Police Procedural

SUMMARY: Sometimes a gorgeous chaebol asshole is really just a deeply-struggling softie looking for something real to believe in.

THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Snowglobes, memory wipes, childhood trauma, salty jjigae, midnight ramen, true friendships, found families, exquisite eyewear, gaming chairs, iced americanos, filthy cars, murder, and upperclass privilege.

HOT TAKE: This show is one hell of an onion. It's got some seriously trope-y chaebol comedy wrapped around a core of emotional childhood trauma, trust issues, mistakes, and reluctant friendships. It will make you cry, it will make you laugh, and it will make you pump your fist in the air after the satisfying action scenes.

Although we really get to the core of Ahn Bo Hyun's character in a satisfying way, I feel that all the time spent on him sacrificed really getting to know the other cast members more. Here's hoping that we see much more of all of them in Season 2!

The Novelist's Film (Hong Sang-soo, 2022)

The Novelist's Film (2021) dir. Hong Sang Soo

[메이킹] 아지커플 웨딩 is 파서블! 전종서X문상민X김도완X배윤경 안녕, 웨딩즈♥ (ft. 종영소감) #웨딩임파서블 EP.12

I'm so happy to have silver fox Kwon Hae Hyo on my screen in Wedding Impossible. That man. I've had a photo of him from Search WWW hanging my office for two years. So fine. So funny they are having him play grandpas now. He's only 58. They expect me to believe he's old enough to have a 32 yr old grandson? Pfft.

Fukuoka (2019)

Dir. Zhang Lu

당신 얼굴 앞에서 [In Front of Your Face] (Hong Sang-soo - 2021)

WALK UP (Hong Sang-soo, 2022)

Peninsula (2020)

Peninsula isn’t as fresh, frightening, or memorable as Train to Busan. It also doesn’t quite follow through with its premise but makes up for it with something I bet you’d never see out of a zombie movie set in Korea: Mad Max-style action!

Four years after a zombie outbreak in South Korea, former Marine Corps Captain Jung-Seok (Gang Dong-won) and his widowed brother-in-law Chul-min (Kim Do-yoon) are offered a life-altering job. Inside the undead-riddled Peninsula is an abandoned truck filled with US$20 million. They've been hired to retrieve it as part of a team of four who will enter South Korea at night - when the darkness will hide them from the innumerable ghouls. Once inside, they're shocked to discover survivors in the ruins.

If you’re looking for a heist movie with zombies in it, you want Army of the Dead. Peninsula starts with the team going in to grab the money but within minutes, half of them are dead. Chul-min is taken captive by crazed militants who’ve established a society in the ruins of the city, while Jung-Seok is rescued by Min-Jung (Lee Jung-hyun), her father Kim (Kwon Hae-hyo), and her two daughters, Joon (Lee Re), and Yu-Jin (Lee Ye-won). Now, the ghouls are the least of everyone’s worries. Unit 631 roams the streets, looking for any strays to put in their arena. There, the people have to run away from hungry flesh-eaters while the soldiers bet on who will die. Chul-min needs a way out ASAP. Unfortunately, the satellite phone he would’ve used to call his Chinese mobster bosses has been confiscated. Now Jung-Seok needs to save his brother, get the phone, get the money and leave with the help of the family who rescued him… but things are on the verge of getting dicey. See, Jung-Seok’s met Min-Jung before. She asked him for help four years ago when the zombie plague began. He refused and left her behind. Oops.

As a zombie movie, Peninsula disappoints. They don’t really play a big part in the film except at the beginning and then at the end. Mostly, this is an apocalyptic film. People scrambling for food, cobbling together equipment, setting up dodgy institutions where might makes right, that kind of thing. And of course, there’s the driving. If you’re going to check out Peninsula, it should be for the movie’s best scene, a spectacular race in the city featuring dozens of vehicles with our heroes in the lead and everyone trying to turn them into roadkill. Whereas the rest of the film barely uses zombies, this part of Peninsula brings the two genres together. The dead are obstacles to be dodged, they’re also weapons to use against those pursuing you. It’s fast-paced, expertly coordinated and loads of fun.

Plenty is going on in the film, which makes the nearly two-hour running time go by plenty fast… except at the end. During the conclusion, Peninsula tries to do too much. It pours on the drama as people have to make heroic sacrifices, there are double-crosses that make escape impossible, hope is renewed, then dashed, then renewed again, and so on. Some of this should’ve been cut, not only so we could end on the high we got from the driving scenes but also so the cheese could be kept at a minimum. Still, it works more than it doesn’t.

Peninsula is not a memorable zombie film and when we examine Seoul Station (the prequel to Train to Busan) we see that the terrific 2016 picture that spawned this franchise was more of an anomaly than a revival of the genre. You can still enjoy this follow-up if you love zombies and you want a bit of something new but anything more than the price of a rental is too much. (Original Korean with English Subtitles, May 21, 2021)

Wedding Impossible

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2024

Wedding Impossible (2024, South Korea)

Director: Kwon Young Il

Writers: Oh Hye Won & Park Seul Ki (based on the webtoon by Song Jung Won)

Mini-review:

Well, this drama was entertaining, but nothing more. It was especially funny at the beginning, thanks to that sort of 'rivalry' between the leads. However, once they solved that and started moving into purely romantic territory, the story began to lose steam quickly. Tbh, I kept watching to the very end because of the sizzling chemistry between Jeon Jong Seo and Moon Sang Min. And I guess I wanted to see how in the world they were gonna clear up the mess created by the characters, which was pretty fascinating. I feel like the show would have been better if the director had put more thought into its style, cause the whole thing looked pretty cheap and bland. But still, Wedding Impossible is fun enough, and I can see fans of classic romcoms enjoying it a lot.

Happy 57th, Kwon Haehyo.

Hong Sangsoo’s Walk Up (2022).

WEDDING IMPOSSIBLE

GENRES: Comedy, Romance

SUMMARY: An actress plans to fake-marry her best friend but ends up going from enemies-to-lovers with his brother.

THIS SHOW HAS EVERYTHING: Lonely house dogs, lazy workdays, day trips to Busan, bus trips to undefined countrysides, acting contracts, bratty step siblings, thumb drives full of secrets, and a lot of running while holding hands.

HOT TAKE: This show could have taken a really earnest look at how people come to terms with their identity, their future, and how that intertwines with family expectations. Instead, it was a masterclass in vapid, stubborn chaebol power struggles, a vacuum of romantic chemistry, and never getting to the fucking point.

I kind of hate every character in this show? There was no real character development for anyone, so they just came off as not really acting for their own benefit OR the benefit of others. The plot's pacing was all over the place, there were too many sub-plots, and everything got wrapped up in an unsatisfying bow during the last 15 minutes of the series.

Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo, 2022)    

The Day After. Hong Sang-soo. 2017