From South Korean, Noh Dong-seok's GOLDEN SLUMBER is a fun conspiracy/chase thriller that boasts a delightful lead performance

Several smart things distinguish the new South Korean action movie GOLDEN SLUMBER, the first of which is the fact that the film's success rests upon its unusual idea of friendship and kindness as the twin columns that hold firm its fast-paced plot via the character of its hero, a sweet young delivery man suddenly enmeshed in a political conspiracy that goes right to the top of the government. Friendship and kindness in a conspiracy thriller? Yup. And how bracing, enjoyable and finally even moving this is!

South Korea has come into its own as the purveyor of slick, entertaining and fast-paced action movies -- sometimes transgressively sexual and violent movies, too -- but this may the first I remember that relies on the positive and kindly characteristics of its hero, rather than his fighting skills, to see him through the crises. And as portrayed so beautifully and skillfully by Gang Don-won (shown above and below, and earlier seen in The Secret Reunion), this unusual performance wins us over in a flash and keeps us rooting for our hero throughout.

The film was directed by Noh Dong-seok, (two photos above) who appears to be a first-timer in the "action thriller" realm. If  true, his work here is pretty extraordinary. He is able to give us oodles of necessary exposition in a zippy pre-credit sequence that sets up just about everything that's necessary for us to know, and once this set-up is in place, the movie keeps unfurling at break-neck speed, with much of the dialog, too, full of plot points dished out with brevity and wit. Do pay attention.

Along the way, the movie also deals with some rather profound questions about why the state might choose to use and toss away so blithely, if nastily, a model citizen such as our hero. The reason given here will make you think and then wince.

The arc of the friendship that anchors the movie goes back to a rock band -- named Golden Slumber -- made up of our hero and his friends from a decade past. How and why these friends come back into his life help propel the film and give it some extra surprise and oomph. "Trust no one," one of his old friends tells him near the film's beginning, and while may be words worth honoring, he finds that he must finally trust someone. But who?

One of the major questions/caveats of these conspiracy thrillers always hinges on how one human being can go up against the powers-that-be with any hope of success. That problem is addressed here via an older character (Kim Eui-sung, above), who initially helps our hero out of revenge and avarice but is eventually won over -- as we've been, too -- by the young man's extraordinary decency and commitment.

The movie is evidently a remake of sorts of the 2010 Japanese film of the same name. I have not seen the Japanese version, but if it's any better or more entertaining than this one, that's quite an accomplishment.

From CJ Entertainment, in Korean with English subtitles and running a relatively short (for South Korean films) 108 minutes, the movie -- after opening theatrically earlier this year in a limited engagement -- hits home video via Amazon, iTunes and Google Play tomorrow, June 5 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Netflix streaming tip: OKJA is yet another amazing blockbuster from Bong Joon-ho

Is there anyone else in the movie world making such intelligent, suprising and entertaining blockbusters as that South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho? I don't think so. He is indeed the new Spielberg but also something quite "more." After his Snowpiercer (from 2014), he has now gifted us with OKJA, the new sci-fi/fantasy/(sort-of)monster movie that features as its leading character a stalwart adolescent girl up against a corporate world that controls us all these days. Really: I can't think of another moviemaker (Mr. Bong is shown below) who could begin a film as though it were a child-and-her-adorable-giant-animal movie and then, by its end, give us one of the most memorable, moving, surprising and disturbing scenes to ever grace the screen (and I mean any kind of screen, not simply the "theatrical" variety).

That scene, by the way, may make the movie a more difficult experience for kids -- even though they'll love and appreciate most of the film.

And yet, because Bong is such a smart and gifted filmmaker (Mother, Memories of Murder, The Host), he is able to simultaneously give us the "happy ending" that those kids (and, come on, us adults, too) so want, while forcing his audience to view the larger picture -- in a manner so stunning and wrenching that it will seem like nothing you've encountered previously.

For thie alone, Okja deserves, and will undoubtedly receive, its placement on many of the year's "best" lists. (In fact, Variety has already picked it as one of the top movies of the year at our current halfway point.)

The film's story -- no spoilers here -- is all about a girl and her pet pig. That the pig is one of many genetically modified porkers and has grown to "monster" size has been no problem, since the girl, her grandfather and their pig live way the hell out in the countryside where they see (and are seen by) nobody else.

In the supporting cast are the likes of Paul Dano (above) and Jake Gyllenhaal (below), but the movie belongs to the Korean actress Ahn Seo-hyun, as the girl, Mija, and to the special effects department that created Okja and her giant breed. She and they are wonders indeed.

The drama arrives when the corporate entity (personified by the gifted and funny Tilda Swinton) that owns the pig takes it away from the girl to become the mascot for a new line of "pork products." Will our heroine allow this to happen? Not on your strip of breakfast bacon. So our filmmaker orchestrates everything from top-notch chase scenes to a pig-in-the-china-shop spree in a Seoul mall, from a marketing parade in Manhattan to a scary scene in one of those experimental laboratories.

But Bong is simply smarter than almost all the other would-be-blockbuster moviemakers. He always sees both sides of the situation, and so continuallly surprises and unsettles us. He understands that the power of money and greed can work both ways, that corporations can make themselves rich while feeding the planet, and that animal activists who want to harm neither animals nor humans will occasionally do both. He also understands the impulse not to kill other life forms we come to care for, and this, finally, is what sets up the film's biggest conflict.

So, sure, children will find more on their plate than movies like this usually provide. But give them the chance to view and handle it, and I suspect they'll remember this film for a long, long time. Stick with it, and you will, too. Opening a only a few theaters (in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center), the film will find its biggest international audience via Netflix streaming, where it is now playing.

Hong Sang-soo's Korean Rohmer-esque RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN opens in theaters

I've not seen nearly all of the 21 films of Hong Sang-soo but of those I have (including The Day He Arrives, Like You Know It All, Oki's Movie, Night and Day, Woman Is the Future of Man, Woman on the Beach and his latest RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN among them), certain themes and characteristics emerge. Hong often tells stories with a Korean art film director as a leading character. (Why not? He certainly knows those ropes.) If not a director, he'll give us an artist, or sometimes both. Furthermore, this director (along with most other characters in the film) drinks a lot and womanizes whenever possible. Travel is often present --from one city to another or one country to another -- as is the sense of the past nurturing and/or hobbling the present, as well as a keen interest in responsibility and the acceptance or rejection of same.

All of this has conspired over time to make me think of Eric Rohmer when I confront the films of Mr. Hong (shown at left). And I do mean this as a compliment. Both men's film are art-house to a fault, dialog heavy and often deal in similar themes. (Hong's movies are generally lengthier than Rohmer's, so be patient.)  His latest two-hour frolic splits itself almost exactly in two, with the first hour showing us his alter ego engaging in the usual come-on to attractive women (though he does try to resist, boy, is it difficult!), drinking, flirting, babbling and generally embarrassing himself rather badly. All this is, as usual, great fun to see this pretentious little twat unmasked and undone. But it is with the second half that Hong burnishes his movie to a gleaming shine.

In both parts our "hero" busies himself with a much younger art student, visiting her workshop and seeing her creations, meeting her friends, and then, the following day, giving his talk at a local screening of one of his films. Yet the first and second sections could hardly be more different and we need to view the former in order to properly appreciate the latter.

That first section is so much like many of the other of Hong's movies that it almost seems as if the filmmaker has finally grown fed up with this typical behavior and wants to show us might occur if his characters, particularly the art-film director, were more honest. What a difference this makes.

Sure we can still imbibe and grow drunk, but even here, the results differ when we're less self-involved and more other-centered. The change of behavior even stretches into the scene at the movie theater and the relationship with the film festival curator and his assistant.

To fully appreciate Hong and Rohmer, you must be also appreciate the ability of dialog to create character, and care about and understand character enough to let it control a film. Event is minimal, and yet, because of the depth of character, event, even a small one, in a sense becomes all.

Mr Hong finds humor, sadness and surprise -- even perchance growth -- in his characters, and this makes his forays into travel, drink, sex and art so enticing and so much fun. At least I find them so. I hope you will, too.

Meanwhile, Right Now, Wrong Then -- from Grasshopper Film and running opens tomorrow, Friday, June 24, in New York at the new Metrograph and at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and in Los Angeles on June 25, at the Acropolis Cinema. In the weeks following, it will hit another six cities. Click here then scroll way down and click on Where to Watch to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

It's THE long-term relationship documentary: Jin Moyoung's Korean family tale -- MY LOVE, DON'T CROSS THAT RIVER

You could ask for more -- more detail, more exploration, more history and maybe more regret -- but never mind. The new South Korean documentary MY LOVE, DON'T CROSS THAT RIVER -- during the making of which first-time documentarian Jin Moyoung spent 15 months filming a pair of nearly century-old forever-sweethearts as they make their way toward death -- gives you plenty to view and consider. Sure, this film is an inevitable downer but it is also an incredibly beautiful ode to "togetherness."

Mr. Jin (the filmmaker is shown at left) has the ability to keep himself and his camera remarkably unobtrusive, at once turning us viewers into flies-on-the-wall and his happy couple into near-perfect examples of as close as we living might get to something approaching "eternal" love. Granted, Korean culture is a good deal different from ours here in America (my god, where are their guns?!), but it would take, I think, an awfully hard-hearted viewer to be able to withstand watching this old couple and their extended family, including a couple of treasured pets, without feeling enormous empathy.

Jin's film begins with the sight (above) and sound of what looks suspiciously like grief, and it ends with this same sight and sound. In between, however, there is so much amusement to be found, as well as a stunning amount of beauty in the colors, landscape and wildlife, that most of the film seems much more joyous than dark.

This very aging couple exults in charming "fights" involving everything from leaves to snow to water, and the simply gorgeous color and texture of their clothes -- where do they get these and how in hell do they keep them so clean?! -- are, I suppose, part of the most-likely dying tradition of Korean country life.

We see the couple's children and grand children, and watch as an argument breaks out among the younger set, while the senior couple simply sits and watches. Later, the man's son tells his dying dad, "I'm sorry I couldn't be a better son. From now on, I will!"

We see the untimely death of one pet, while the other grows pregnant and gives birth. We maybe wonder from time to time where this pair's anger has gone (she seems to reserve most of hers for a local reverend's dog), and as our old man worsens, we also ask if Korea perhaps offers no kind of hospice care.

We do see specifics of the man's distress and illness, but death, when it comes, is handled with a fine and artful touch. We learn how important a belief in an afterlife is to these two, and what the burning of clothes signifies for the dying. The filmmaker even includes a lovely flashback (not too far back, mind you, as he only spent a little over one year filming) that takes us briefly to happier, more colorful times.

And then we're back to that snow scene and the grief and tears. Yet what we've lived through in between this beginning and end is memorable, moving and mostly enthralling.

From Film Movement and running only 86 minutes, My Love Don't Cross That River opens this Friday, June 17, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and in Los Angeles the following week on June 24 and 25 at various Laemmle theaters. From there, the film will expand to many other cities in the weeks and months to come. Click here then scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, along with cities and theaters.

THE WAILING: Na Hong-jin's new everything-but-the-kitchen-sink thriller opens in theaters

What the hell has happened to that very good South Korean movie-maker, Na Hong-jin, between the time of his earlier films -- The Chaser (from 2008, a mostly first-class, if very dark and ugly thrill ride about kidnapping and murder) and The Yellow Sea (from 2010, an even darker but much quieter and more subtle exploration of the entwining of love, need and evil) -- and his latest effort, THE WAILING (Goksung)? I ask because Na's new film is the biggest embarrassment to South Korean cinema I've encountered since I first caught wind of that country's enormous moviemaking prowess around the turn of this past century. Since then, TrustMovies has watched most everything Korean he could find and had time for (including even the recent itty-bitty cable series, DramaWorld).

Even this film's title seems faintly ridiculous, as that wailing can only refer to what will most likely be the audience reaction: "When will this (spectacularly filmed) piece of shit finally end?!" Conflating -- just about as stupidly as possible -- everything from demons and ghosts to a stranger in town, serial murder, a daughter in danger, Christian parable, and so-help-me-god zombies, Mr. Na (shown at left), as both writer and director, seems suddenly taken with the toss-in-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink school of horror filmmaking. Yet there's not an original moment in the entire film.

Perhaps the supernatural thriller is not the proper genre for Na to tackle, as the result is very nearly the polar opposite to what his countryman, Bong Joon-ho, achieved with his own first-class try at a sci-fi thriller, 2014's Snowpiercer.

The biggest difference between the two films is that, in Bong's, we learn enough about almost all the characters to come to care about them; with Na's we learn so little that we can't begin to give a shit what happens to anyone (except maybe one little girl. Barely). The tale Na tells goes on for over two-and-one-half hours, and involves a small country town in which entire families are being murdered -- and by one of their own. What's going on?

The hero is played by that portly Korean "everyman" Kwak Do-won, above, right, and below, who proves as good as he's able to be as the not-terribly-bright policeman whose little daughter (below) comes under the spell of the principal bad guy. Of course, our burly cop is determined to get to the bottom of things -- which will take endless time for him (and endless patience on the part of us viewers).

The most time is spent with a local exorcist, Korean variety (below), who is soon dancing up a storm (the choreography is pretty good here!) trying to get rid of that naughty evil spirit. Toward the finale, he (and we) discover he's been barking up the wrong tree. Or maybe not. Reversals, then further reversals, do not in any way help the film's ridiculous plotting.

A big black dog (below) gets a good scene or two, and the movie is very well photographed (when have you seen a Korean film that was not?). But the South Korean penchant for length, coupled unfortunately to the obvious and repetitive, at last utterly sinks this barrage of blood, guts and heavy-duty disarray.

I can only hope that Mr. Na gets quickly back to what he's good at and leaves this kind of supernatural nonsense to those who know better how to handle it.

From Well Go USA Entertainment and running an unconscionable 156 minutes (yes!), The Wailing opens this Friday, June 3, in cities all across the country. In New York City, it is said to be playing the FSLC, the IFC Center and the AMC Empire 25; in Los Angeles, look for it at Laemmle's Monica Film Center and Playhouse 7 and at the AMC Atlantic Time Square. Here in South Florida? Nowhere at all. (Guess we don't have a large enough Korean population). Elsewhere in the USA? Absolutely. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates with cities and theaters.

Yoon-suk Choi/John Kafka's animated BACK TO THE JURASSIC proves a charming little winner

Are you tired of paying top dollar to see a new big-budget animated film in a theatre? Recent samples, often in 3D, can cost a family of five more than $100 to view. You and your kids might want, instead, to settle in on your couch and watch a new animated movie -- BACK TO THE JURASSIC -- that arrives, if I'm not mistaken, via a combo of Hollywood and South Korea, this coming Tuesday on DVD and Blu-ray.

Directed by Yoon-suk Choi and John Kafka, this what-you-might-call B-movie animation tells the tale of a dinosaur-obsessed school kid, his younger sister and best friend, Max (above), all of whom live in a town seemingly devoted to dinosaurs and their ilk (everything, from the museum to the local diner, is dino-themed). This youthful crew ends up taking a unexpected trip via time machine back to the Jurassic period where they encounter a multitude of dinosaurs, one of which (below and voiced by Melanie Griffith) takes a maternal interest in the threesome -- due to that time machine's looking an awfully lot like the dino egg she so recently was hoping to hatch.

TrustMovies admits that he was not expecting much from this movie, when he settled back on his daughter's couch with his grandson and began to watch. But what do you know? The film proved much better than expected. Charmingly plotted and written, and featuring voices of some first-rate talent (along with some second-rate who are used quite well), Back to the Jurassic is enchanting and fun from first frame to last.

Full of energy and more wit than you might have imagined, the movie handles themes like disobedient children, over-protective parents, sibling rivalry, and of course dinosaurs of both the benign and scary varieties with aplomb and pizazz. It proves consistently entertaining for the kids (my seven-year-old grandson rated it very highly and immediately told me that he wanted to see it again), while providing an easy, pleasant watch for adults, too.

The animation is very well done: immensely colorful, alternatingly bright and dark, and always enjoyable to view. The movie will immediately grab the attention of young kids and keep them focused (at one point I asked my grandson if he had understood one of the more sophisticated moments/situations, and sure enough, he had), and I suspect you adults may be surprised at how often this movie has you smiling.

Once the kids land in the prehistoric period, their respective parents must high-tail it after them and bring the crew back home. Mom (above, left) is voiced by Jane Lynch, but thanks to the very poor and incredibly incomplete website of the film's distributor, Alchemy, plus almost no information about the film available on the imdb, I don't know who voices Max's dad. Traveling through time and back is pretty much the plot, with the protagonists (the kids, parents and good dinos) set against their antagonists (a couple of very bad dinos, voiced by brothers William and Stephen Baldwin).

Running just 86 minutes, this fleet and frisky film is worth a look if you have young kids. It hits the street this coming Tuesday, June 9, on both DVD and Blu-ray. 

From South Korea: action, violence and the game of GO in Jo Bum-gu's twisty THE DIVINE MOVE

Making its DVD/Blu-ray debut (it looks quite good in the latter format), THE DIVINE MOVE, from South Korean filmmaker Jo Bum-gu (aka Cho Beom-gu on the IMDB) turns out to be a revenge thriller incorporating everything from violent action to low-end comedy, romance and especially gaming (both meanings: game-playing and conning), with the game of GO played throughout.

Never fear: If you have not played GO (as I have not), you can still follow the movie easily, and there is much to enjoy in the visual flair with which the director, shown at left, informs his film -- along with the screenplay from Yu Sung-hyub, his first, which is full of fun, fighting and family matters, in addition to chapter headings that appear to be taken from The Art of War -- or maybe The Art of GO. Whichever, the film begins with a Go championship, soon after which, the loser, a young man with a no-good older brother who seem to be constantly getting into jams, is tricked into helping his brother cheat to win an important playoff. Unfortunately, the other player is also cheating. (In this movie, just about every game is played by four people: the two obvious players and two more hidden from view who can electronically give their legal counterparts advice.)

The outcome of all this sends out hero to prison, where he manages to learn martial arts, as well as practicing his gaming. When he finally gets out, our nerdy, puny guy has turned into a ripped and sexy action hero played by Jung Woo-sung (standing, above, whom you may remember from The Good, the Bad, the Weird).

The mostly low-level comedy is provided by a character (Kim In-kwon, center, above) who earlier crapped out on older brother and has a motor mouth most often in use.

Romance comes via a good-looking young woman (Lee Si-young, at right), in hock to the film's major bad guy (a fine and frightening Lee Beom-sum, below, left). Along the way, our hero also recruits a couple of other characters necessary to his plans -- a blind but very talented GO player, and another fellow missing a hand who nonetheless comports himself quite well in the construction and fighting modes.

At times the film resembles an Asian version of either the older or newer Ocean's 11, what with the various crew members chosen for their particular skill and smarts.

The movie even introduces a poor, abused child (below), evidently kidnapped into gaming slavery due to her great skill at GO. But this is not a social protest movie. It ticks off various situations in passing but does nothing more with each of them than what any movie devoted to action and thrills would manage.

Mr. Jo keeps that action alternating nicely with the violence, comedy, gaming and romance, and the result is a fine and frisky couple of hours featuring a number of nice set pieces -- such as the game and fight that take place in a warehouse, below, in which the temperature keeps plummeting and escape seems unlikely.

The Divine Move, from CJ Entertainment and running just under two hours, hits the streets on DVD and Blu-ray this coming Tuesday, March 17 -- for sale and/or rental.