A smart horror film from Korea that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but is interesting enough to keep you watching.
#Alive (2020)
Project Power (2020)
This feels well made if a little formulaic.
Snowpiercer – S:1 (2020– )
This does a good job of turning an intriguing film into an interesting television series. The necessities of making this more than just a fight to the front of the train, manages to create something with more depth, tapping into current concerns about the consequences of ecological collapse, and the political situation that collapse is creating. The rich first class passengers live the life of luxury. The poor tailies live a life of disease and poverty. The oppressed minority rise up and battle to take control of the train. It doesn’t quite articulate the zeal of revolutionary overthrow, instead playing out more like the dramas of a really dysfunctional family, ironically making it less nihilistic than the idea is.
The Nightingale (2018)
There is a brutality at the heart of this film that’s unnerving.
It might be the first film I’ve seen that captures the viciousness needed to fuel colonialism. There’s nothing romantic about empire, the entitlement of the British, or the righteousness in their treatment of all they conquer. It’s staggeringly horrible.
Framed by this arrogance, an entitled British officer holds the papers on a young Irish convict woman, with a husband and infant son. The officer, treats her as his property, and rapes her. When the woman’s husband, ignorant of the attack, demands his wife’s papers, so they can go north, he gets into a fight with officer.
Outraged by this, the officer and two soldiers visit the woman. The ensuing punishment escalates beyond any kind of humanity. The woman is repeatedly raped, her husband is shot and killed, and their baby has its head smashed against the wall.
Leaving her for dead the three men start out for a distant town.
Traumatised and angry, she enlists the help of an aboriginal tracker, and sets out after them to take her revenge. I knew nothing about this film going in, and was surprised by just how powerful it is.
Not for the squeamish, or anyone easily offended, but definitely worth seeing.
The Rain – S:3 (2018–2020)
There’s a twisted version of a superhero story at the core of this post-apocalyptic teen drama. A virus in the rain kills most of the population. A few survivors battle the virus and a malignant corporation to put the world to rights. It does well to keep going for three seasons, funnelling everything down all the love and loss, and sibling rivalry, to create a suitably optimistic conclusion.
Reality Z (2020)
An interesting reworking of Charlie Brooker’s series Dead Set (2008).
Transposed to Rio de Janeiro the original Big Brother backdrop is turned into something more Brazilian, a gameshow called Olympus.
The first five episode run close to the original storyline. Then it runs off in a new and interesting direction. These additional episodes blends perfectly with the original, opening out the story, and bringing all kinds of new drama.
As you’d expect from the genre the blood and gore is viscous and sticky. But while Brooker’s original is a swipe at unreality of reality television, and a critique of that kind of celebrity. This deals with a more authoritarian world, plagued by corruption and criminality.
There’s a bleakness to the way this all plays out perfectly in keeping with the genre, and more importantly with the series.
Definitely worth watching.
Unorthodox (2020)
Really interesting story, that throws up all kind of very difficult questions. Compelling watch.
Kingdom – S:2 (2019– )
‪This picks up exactly where season one left off. The political intrigues continue, but it’s the pace of the action and quantity of gore that’s most impressive. Think Train to Busan (2016) but set in feudal Korea. Can’t wait for season three.‬
Kingdom – S:1 (2019– )
This South Korean period drama adds a new twist to the zombie genre. There’s a lot to like in a very bingable six episodes. It’s packed with action and gore soaked teeth. The characters are well draw, with a plot that has a decent amount of mystery. A usurped prince discovers his strength fighting for his inheritance.
It Comes at Night (2017)
A very well executed thriller with a beautiful enigmatic ending. It’s what Netflix is doing best. Low budget films that once might’ve had limited theatrical release. Now it’s there for us to find for not very much a month.
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