Thank You, Korea

A few years ago, a bevy of great filmmakers made up the Korean New Wave. Among them, and my personal favorite, is Bong Joon-Ho, director of The Host and Memories of Murder. He has two movies due out this year; the first one is a section of the anthology film Tokyo!, with two other sections by Michel Gondry and Leos Carax. Here's a synopsis and trailer below (taken from Collider.com):


"Shaking Tokyo" (Dir. Bong Joon-ho)

Teruyuki Kagawa stars as a Tokyo shut-in, or hikikimori, who has not left his apartment in a decade. His only link to the outside world is through his telephone, which he uses to command every necessity from a series of random and anonymous delivery people, including the pizza that he lives on and the hundreds of discarded pizza cartons he meticulously stacks in and around his cramped apartment. But one day is different - his pizza arrives thanks to a lovely young woman who succeeds in catching the shut-in's eye. Suddenly an earthquake strikes Tokyo, prompting the beautiful young delivery woman to faint in her client's apartment. And then the unthinkable happens - the hikikimori falls hopelessly in love. Time passes and the shut-in discovers through another pizza delivery person that the improbable object of his affections has become a hikikimori in her own right. Taking a bold leap into the unknown, our hero crosses the threshold of his apartment and takes to the streets in search of his mystery girl, at last discovering his kindred spirit at the very moment another earthquake strikes.



Here's a link to full information about the film, and another with an interview with Joon-Ho.

The other film coming out soon is Mother, a small dramatic production that tells "the story of a mother who desperately searches for the killer that framed her son for their horrific murder." Here's a link for info, and the new teaser below.



Also, here's a great NY Times interview from 2006 regarding his river-monster/family drama/dark satire, The Host.