i usually watch western films, but now im starting to get invested in korean films. so far i've only watched two korean films. i watched oldboy and parasite and i liked both of them. is there any korean films you all recommend?
A movie that really took me by surprise from Takashi Miike, a director known for his violent, cult classic j horror flicks like Audition and Ichi the Killer. I am a huge j horror fan, but I enjoyed it more than all his other films.
The fantasy genre in the 21st century in Western movies feels like it almost always targets children and young adults. Movies are family friendly blockbusters with simple themes.
To see ideas of mystical lands with unknown wonders with realistic characters and adult humor was refreshing.
The dialogue and pacing of the movie is excellent, not a dull moment. The plot is simple, but characters react to each other in funny and realistic ways. They feel like real people despite little details being given about their background. The film does not deal with its lore in a ham fisted, forced way as many fantasy films do sometimes.
Visually, the film is fantastic. Shot on location in Yunnan China, Miike was trying to recreate as closely as possible the dream world created in the book the movie was based on.
Miike was given the budget for this movie in cash, and he filmed with a smaller crew in often bad weather conditions in China just to get the movie finished.
This sort of renegade filming works really well for a movie about a journey to an unreachable land.
What the movie does better than anything else, is put you in the shoes of a modern day salary man transported to an idyllic oasis.