News

by Khushi Jain

17 year old Yeon-gyu bashes open the head of a fellow student in the school playground and thus begins the Korean gangster film “Hopeless.” For his debut, Kim Chang-hoon dips his toes into a dark genre and creates something that respectfully nods to its predecessors. Premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, “Hopeless” is a well-made saga of mob violence.

Hopeless Debuts Exclusively on Digital June 25 ,courtesy of Wellgo USA

Yeon-gyu (Hong Xa-bin) lives in a tiny, tightly packed apartment with his docile mother, abusive alcoholic stepfather and stepsister Hayan (Kim Hyoung-seo “Bibi”). He starts working for a local gangster Chi-geon (Song Joong-ki), mainly stealing bikes and occasionally helping manipulate a political election, so as to earn enough to one day leave the fictional ‘Myeongan City' for Amsterdam (where he believes everyone lives a good life). The world that he willingly enters forcibly...

Hong Xa-bin as struggling teen Yeon-gyu, in the South Korean gritty drama Hopeless. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

I’ve praised many Korean crime and action exports recently. Hopeless will not be one of them, perhaps due to high expectations following the others. This one is aptly titled, providing a depressing tale set among the bottom of the urban economic ladder, and the limited options available to the youth and adults stuck in the slums.

The protagonist is Yeon-gyu (Hong Xa-bin), a teen who just wants to keep his distance from an abusive stepfather and finish his education without hassles. He’s a good guy who would do well in most other circumstances. But in this neighborhood, his efforts to help others turn out to be futile, or worse, including losing his menial part-time job . Local thugs add to his woes, driving him into the crime realm for physical and financial survival.

Click on the titles for the full articles

Film Review: Snow in Midsummer (2023) by Keat Aun Chong

“Snow in Midsummer” is a film that will appeal more to the Malay audience, particularly the ones who have some knowledge of the elements mentioned above, but also to those who can enjoy movies without understanding them fully. And the truth is, that there is enough artistry and beauty here to allow just that. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

Interview with Keat Aun Chong Interview with Park Ki-yong Interview with Yasna Mirtahmasb and Parviz Shahbazi Film Review: Wakhri (2023) by Iram Parveen Bilal

Iram Parveen Bilal does one very smart thing with the film, essentially mirroring her protagonist's persona. She fills the screen with impressive colors, intriguing frames, rather entertaining music, and a truly charismatic protagonist who clearly draws utmost attention every time she appears on screen, either as Noor or Wakhri. This choice allows her to...

Oscar winner Nicholas Cage received a Red Sea Honouree award

Zarrar Kahn’s Karachi-set thriller In Flames won the $100,000 Golden Yusr award for best feature film at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival, which announced its winners on Thursday evening (December 7).

A Canada-Pakistan co-production and Pakistan’s entry to the Oscars, In Flames is the story of a mother and daughter trying to survive after losing the family patriarch. It world premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

Indian production Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh, won the $30,000 Silver Yusr. Based on the true story of an Indian couple who fell foul of the class system,...

At the closing ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, which took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in front of an audience that included Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Gwyneth Paltrow, Halle Berry, Jason Statham and Adrien Brody, the Golden Yusr for best film and a $100,000 cash prize went to Pakistani-Canadian horror film “In Flames,” directed by Zarrar Kahn.

The director said that the indie movie was shot for “just $300,000 — the size of a Red Sea Fund production grant.” He urged “everyone who gets a grant to go make a movie, because this was made for nothing.”

The Silver Yusr prize for best feature film went to Tarsem Singh for “Dear Jassi.” The film, an India/Canada/U.S. co-production, is based on the true story of a Canadian Punjabi woman who ran afoul of her family’s expectations when she chose to marry a working-class...

Zarrar Khan’s In Flames has picked up the Yusr Award for best competition film at the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The festival, which attracted such Hollywood stars as Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth and Sharon Stone, on Thursday evening unveiled the winners of its Red Sea competition honors, the so-called Yusr awards, as well as other prizes.

Khan’s Pakistani-Canadian horror pic that bowed in Cannes portrays a mother and daughter having to navigate loss, oppression and vulnerability after the death of the family patriarch. The debut feature is rendered as a ghost story as they must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.

The Silver Yusr award for best feature went to Tarsem Singh’s modern day tragic drama Dear Jassi, which bowed in Toronto, where it won the 2023 Platform Prize.

Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman Of The Hour and family drama Mother Couch, starring Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn, are headed to the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, running from November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah.

The titles will play in the Festival Favorites sidebar which was announced on Thursday alongside the event’s Red Sea: Treasures strand.

Kendrick directs and stars in Netflix-acquired drama Woman Of The Hour as a woman whose path crosses notorious serial killer Rodney Alcala, whilst in Niclas Larsson’s first film Mother Couch, McGregor plays a man whose mother squats the family furniture store.

Further films in the line-up – showcasing 21 buzzy festival titles from the last 12 months – include the David Oyelowo produced documentary Allihopa: The Dalkurd Story; Women’s World Cup doc Copa 71, executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams, Jennifer Esposito’s Fresh Kills,...

The London East Asia Film festival came to a close on Sunday night with the UK premiere of Concrete Utopia, Korea’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars. After the event’s Best Film award went to Iron Mask, by Kim Sung Hwan, artistic director Hyejung Jeon presented its Rising Star award to Hong Xa-bin for his performance in Kim Chang-hoon’s Hopeless and its Best Actor award to Concrete Utopia’s Park Bo-young.

Actress Park later returned after the film for a Q&a with director, Um Tae-hwa, to discuss the film’s themes of survival, which suddenly seemed shockingly relevant after recent events in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza.

Starring Lee Byung-hun, Um’s film is a dystopian fable that recalls British writer J.G. Ballard in its depiction of a South Korean high-rise that is somehow left unscathed after a terrifying earthquake rips through the country.

Leaff 2023 brings a diverse programme from East and Southeast Asia, including international and UK premieres. This year, our programme will be showcased through these strands: Retrospective: Director Chung Ji-Young, Leaff’s Official Selection, Competition, Stories of Women, Halloween Horror Special, Cherish the World, Lgbtqia+ and Classics Restored. The festival will open and close at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. Other screenings and Q&As will take place at Odeon Luxe West End and the Cinema at Selfridges.

For more information about tickets, please visit: https://www.leaff.org.uk/2023tickets

Here is the full programme:

Opening Gala

The Boys + Q&a with the Director | Dir. Chung Ji-Young | Korea | 2023 | 124 mins

Closing Gala

Concrete Utopia + Q&a with Director, Actor Park Bo-young | Dir. Um Tae-hwa | Korea | 2023 | 130 mins

Leaff Official Selection

The Breaking Ice | Dir. Anthony Chen | Singapore | 2022 | 97 mins

Dan Dan | Dir. Song Chuan | China | 2022 | 103 mins

Hidden Blade | Dir. Cheng Er | Hong Kong | 2022 | 128 mins

In Broad Daylight | Dir.

First looks at both upcoming films revealed.

South Korea’s Plus M Entertainment is set to launch sales on romantic drama Love In The Big City and revenge thriller Revolver at Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market.

A first look at both titles can be seen above.

Revolver reunites Cannes best actress winner Jeon Do-yeon with director Oh Seung-uk for the first time since The Shameless, which played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2015. Jeon is also known for roles in Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine, for which she won the best actress award at Cannes in 2007, and more recently Netflix feature Kill Boksoon,...

The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites.

“The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference.

International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”).

Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award. The Korean Cinema Award will presented to the late Yun Jung-hee, the actress who starred in “The General’s Mustache” and Lee Chang-dong’s 2010 drama “Poetry.

The Busan International Film Festival has unveiled its selections for the popular Korean Cinema Today – Special Premiere and On Screen strands.

The On Screen section, introduced in 2021, showcases series and this year boasts six world premieres – five from Korea and one from Indonesia.

Tving show “I Am a Running Mate,” about an ordinary student trying to become student president marks the directorial debut of Han Jin-won, winner of best original screenplay as a co-writer for Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite.” The series merges the coming-of-age genre with elements of a political drama, and stars Yoon Hyun-soo, Lee Jung-sic, Choi Woo-sung, Hong Hwa-yeon and Lee Bong-jun. Three of the nine episodes will screen at the festival.

“The Deal,” a Waave original series, is a tale of criminal intrigue in which two young men kidnap their friend and demand KRW10 billion ($7.5 million) as ransom. The cast features Yoo Seung-ho’s streaming debut alongside Kim Dong-hwi,...

This year's edition of Cannes film festival offered a number of high quality titles from Asia, both in competiton(s) and side bar programmes. One of the most awaited films was Takeshi Kitano's “Kubi” screened in Premiere section, in director's presence. Back to the samurai genre, 20 years after the critically acclaimed “Zatoichi” and with a period piece based on his own historic novel published in 2019, Kitano struggled to bring his characters close to the audience, but stayed faithful to the title by making many heads roll. “Kubi” (which was also the title of his novel) means “neck”, a beloved target of the samurai sword. This is allegedly the last film by “Beat”, if we take his statement before the festival kicked off seriously.

A year after his drama “Broker” brought Palme D'Or for Best Actor to Song Kang-ho, and five after he was awarded Palme D'Or for “Shoplifters”, Hirokazu Koreeda...

Text written on June 6, 2023 by Jean-Marc Thérouanne

Asia in the juries :

Franco-Afghan writer and director Atiq Rahimi was the only Asian member of the prestigious jury at the 76th Cannes Film Festival

Fench-Cambodian director Davy Chou was the only Asia-related member of the Un Certain Regard jury

Davy Chou

Shlomi Elkabetz was the only member of the short film jury and the Cinef with a connection to geographical Asia.

Asia in the selections:

Asia, from the Near to the Far East, was present with 31 features and 13 shorts in all the official and parallel sections of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

In compétition :

– China: Youth (Spring) by Wang Bing

– Japan: Monster by Kore-eda Hirokazu,

Kim Dong-ho, Hirokazu Koreeda

– Turkey: About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan,

and The Pot-au-feu by French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung and Wim Wenders' Perfect Days, set in Japan.

Out of compétition :

– Korea: Cobweb by Kim Jee-won,...

by Khushi Jain

17 year old Yeon-gyu bashes open the head of a fellow student in the school playground and thus begins the Korean gangster film “Hopeless.” For his debut, Kim Chang-hoon dips his toes into a dark genre and creates something that respectfully nods to its predecessors. Premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, “Hopeless” is a well-made saga of mob violence.

Hopeless screened at Cannes Official poster – 76th edition © Photo © Jack Garofalo/Paris Match/Scoop – Création graphique © Hartland Villa

Yeon-gyu (Hong Xa-bin) lives in a tiny, tightly packed apartment with his docile mother, abusive alcoholic stepfather and stepsister Hayan (Kim Hyoung-seo “Bibi”). He starts working for a local gangster Chi-geon (Song Joong-ki), mainly stealing bikes and occasionally helping manipulate a political election, so as to earn enough to one day leave the fictional ‘Myeongan City' for Amsterdam (where he believes everyone lives a good...

With his debut feature “Hopeless”, director Kim Chang-hoon tells a story about a 17-year-old highschooler Yeon-gyu (Xa Bing-hon) who seeks to escape domestic violence in a very wrong milieu, and a mid-level gang boss Chi-geon who (Joong-ki Soon), on the one hand comes to his rescue, and on the other – involuntarily drags him into a deeper abyss. This slow-pacing noir had its premiere towards the end of the festival in Un Certain Regard competition, in the presence of the jury consisting of John C. Reilly, Alice Winocour, Paula Beer, Davy Chou and Émilie Dequenne.

We met with Kim at the rooftop terrace of the festival Palais, a day after the premiere to inquire about the brutal milieu depicted in the movie, his impressions from Cannes and his methods. Since his biography is still a blank page that needs to be filled, we asked him to present himself in his own words,...

Written and directed by Kim Chang-hoon, the debut feature Hopeless is marked by a morose atmospheric tone that forces the audience to be spectators in the dismal lives of others. Despite the story being ripe with promise, its progress is hampered by an overlong runtime, shoddy editing and its inability to tap into any other feelings besides discontent.

In Myeongan City, South Korea, 17-year-old Yeon-gyu (Hong Xa-bin) is starting trouble. He gets into a violent altercation at school and is quickly reprimanded. His mother expresses disappointment but doesn’t do much to discipline him. In addition to his mom, he lives with his alcoholic stepfather and step-sister Hayan (Kim Hyoung-seo), who he treats like trash. Yeon-gyu is working to save enough money to travel to Holland, but with everyone in the family making meager earnings, travel outside the city is a distant goal. Outside of that, the young boy doesn...

Kim Chang-hoon’s feature directorial debut plays in Un Certain Regard.

Korea’s Plus M Entertainment has sold Cannes Un Certain Regard title Hopeless to a raft of territories led by Japan (Happinet) and France (Bac Films).

The first feature from director Kim Chang-hoon stars top Korean actor Song Joong-ki of TV’s Reborn Rich and rising actor Hong Xa-bin. The latter plays a teenager who is sucked into the violent world of a local thug.

The film has also sold to Taiwan (MovieCloud), Hong Kong (Edko Films), India (Mvp Entertainment), the Philippines (Viva Communications), Thailand (Sahamongkolfilm International), Vietnam (Lotte Entertainment Vietnam), Singapore,...

South Korean executive Jeongin Hong never planned to become a movie mogul. After studying economics at Princeton and putting in distinguished stints in private equity at Boston Consulting and Goldman Sachs (“I’m a science and economics guy,” he says), he was lured back to the family business in 2015. His family’s firm happens to be JoongAng Group, arguably Korea’s largest media conglomerate. Founded by Hong’s grandfather, Hong Jin-ki, the company publishes Korea’s most widely read newspapers, owns a university and a skyscraper, and controls major broadcaster Jtbc, among many other business lines. Hong was initially pulled back into the patrilineal corporate fold to help with corporate strategy; but in 2017 he proposed to his elder brother, JoongAng Group’s current CEO, Jeongdo Hong, that the time was right to further capitalize on the Korean content wave still sweeping the globe by restructuring their conglomerate’s collection of...

As film events kick into full swing with no shortage of highly anticipated releases this year, the prestigious Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the Official Selection for its 76th edition, which will take place from May 16 to May 27, 2023. Here is a list of the Asian films selected for each section including Competition, Un Certain Regard as well as special screenings:

Competition

Monster

Kuru Otlar Ustune / About Dry Grasses

Perfect Days

Jeunesse

Monster, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan Un Certain Regard

The Breaking Ice

If Only I Could Hibernate

Hopeless

Out of Competition

Cobweb

Midnight Screenings

Kennedy

Cannes Premiere

Kubi

Special Screenings

Man in Black...

Get your tux out of the mothballs and brush up on your French phrasebook: After feverish speculation about what might premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the lineup has finally been announced.

Thierry Frémaux’s annual press conference, which you can watch below, has wrapped and we now know what will debut on the Croisette when Cannes takes place May 16-27. We already knew there’d be a spot for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” that Harrison Ford and James Mangold would be bringing fedora couture with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (filling this year’s blockbuster spot reserved by “Top Gun: Maverick” last year), and that, controversially, the Johnny Depp-starring film “Jeanne du Barry” by Maïwenn would open the festival.

Among the titles now confirmed to appear at Cannes are Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” Todd Haynes’ “May/December,...

It’s Christmas morning for cinephiles. As per tradition, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled its 2023 selections in a press conference early this morning––at least for those of us stateside. Now in its 76th edition, this year’s event will take place May 16-27.

With Killers of the Flower Moon and Indiana Jones’ fifth and supposedly final outing previously confirmed, both out of competition, new highlights in competition include Todd Haynes‘ May December, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, and Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves. Additional selections include Víctor Erice’s long-awaiting return to filmmaking Cerrar los ojos, Steve McQueen’s documentary Occupied City, Takeshi Kitano’s Kubi, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures of Ghosts, plus two films from both Wang Bing and Wim Wenders.

While more announcements will be made in the coming weeks, and there...