2014.7.11 Now Playing
Confession (19)
In a rather egotistical world, it is easy to assume that friendship isn’t as real as in times when people promised eternal kinship and declared themselves to be blood brothers.
However, in this recent Korean movie “Confession,” three men test the true meanings of friendship. Three best friends, Hyun-tae (Ji Sung), In-chul (Joo Ji-hoon) and Min-soo (Lee Kwang-soo) are involved in an accident that pushes their relationship to the limits.
It all begins when In-chul and Min-soo’s good intentions go wrong and they end up killing Hyun-tae’s mother. Hyun-tae notices something suspicious about his mother’s death, and In-chul and Min-soon are embroiled in a dilemma of whether to confess or not.
Directed by Lee Do-yoon, this movie tests how far one would go to protect friendship and what its real meaning is.
Draft Day (12)
Drama, Sport / 109 / English
The beloved U.S. sport, American football, is again coming to movie theaters near you.
Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) is the general manager of the Ohio football team, the Cleveland Browns.
Sonny has a tough decision to make when he is given the right to nominate the No. 1 player to draft in an international football league.
With a make-or-break opportunity, Sonny has to balance how to make the best deal while also holding on to his secret relationship with his girlfriend, Ali (Jennifer Garner).
A special appearance by real-life ESPN broadcasters Aaron Goldhamer and analyst Jon Gruden makes the film more exciting for NFL fans.
The Signal (12)
Three MIT students, Nic (Brenton Thwaites), Jonah (Beau Knapp) and Haley (Olivia Cooke), are on a road trip to California when they realize they are being tracked by a hacker called NOMAD. Feeling excited and yet confused about why the hacker would contact them, they follow NOMAD’s signals only to find themselves in a situation they never expected.
The film’s director, William Eubank, who studied cosmology at UCLA, makes good use of his major as he usually incorporates space and the cosmos in his films. Having previously worked as a cinematographer, Eubank is famous for his use of scenes and this movie is no exception.
As a small, low-budget independent film that started out at the Sundance Film Festival, the movie won’t have giant explosions every two minutes or so like in blockbuster films, but it is bound to captivate the audience with its tight and refreshing plot.
The Divine Move (19)
Based on the intricate game of baduk, or Go, director Jo Bum-goo admitted that his project was an ambitious one. Firstly, there’s all the lingo to tackle, and then there’s the countless characters.
But with those two things under control, the plot is simple enough.
The movie plays out around Jung Woo-sung, or Tae-suk, a former professional baduk player who was framed for his brother’s murder.
Once he does his time in prison, Tae-suk is out to get gangster Sal-su (Lee Beom-soo), who operates an illegal gambling facility and is also responsible for Tae-suk’s brother’s demise.
But to find Sal-su, Tae-suk must play a game against each of the lesser pawns that work under the gangster while learning some invaluable lessons from the blind master of baduk, Ju-nim (Ahn Sung-ki).
Bad Neighbours (19)
Comedy / 96 / English
The famous picture of Zac Efron in a fraternity shirt, showing off his perfect body, has been trending on the Internet. It’s from a scene in “Bad Neighbours”, a movie where Efron plays boisterous, party-crazy frat boy, Teddy Sanders.
When a newlywed couple played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne move into a new neighborhood, they find out they live right next to a fraternity house full of wild college boys who love to party and make noise.
After the couple reports the frat boys to the police for noise pollution, the two neighbors declare war on each other and their revenge unravels in a comical manner.
Harvard graduate Nicholas Stoller directs the film, and his humor will shine through as it has in his previous films, such as “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “The Five-Year Engagement”.
Asides from comedy, the film is bound to win girls’ hearts with eye candies like Zac Efron and heartthrob Dave Franco, James Franco’s younger brother.
Mourning Grave (15)
Horror/ 90 / Korean
Summer horror film season begins with “Mourning Grave,” directed by Oh In-chun.
In-soo (Kang Ha-neul) can see ghosts, and he’s been a loner his whole life because of it. He doesn’t make new friends, even in high school, except for a spirit (Kim So-eun) who eventually becomes his girlfriend.
Meanwhile, classmates start disappearing, and a rumor of a red-masked ghost spreads around the school. To solve the problem, In-soo embarks on a journey to find out what the relationship between these two ghosts could be.
The movie has some interesting points - it brings back the red-masked phantom, the most famous ghost of the early 2000s, and the depiction of romance between a human boy and a female ghost is entertainingly spooky, just like the well-known horror film “Let Me In.”
Nymphomaniac Vol. II (19)
Drama / 123 / English
The story by Danish film director Lars Von Trier continues with Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac who discovered sexual pleasure at age two.
The first part of the movie - “Nymphomaniac: Vol I”- saw Joe talking about her childhood and young adulthood to Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard), but part two continues with a darker side of Joe’s story and sexuality.
“Nymphomaniac” brought curiosity and controversy even before it was released, and there have been arguments about whether some scenes should be censored or not. Von Trier is best known for unique works such as “Melancholia” and “Dogville”, aimed to express women’s freedom to claim sexual desire through this film.
Grace of Monaco(12)
Nicole Kidman transforms into legendary Hollywood icon Grace Kelly (1929-82) - aka the Princess of Monaco - in the new film “Grace of Monaco.”
Directed by French director Olivier Dahan of the 2007 film “La Vie en Rose,” the film follows the life of actress-turned-princess Kelly whose married life comes under serious crisis when she tries to return to Hollywood to join an Alfred Hitchcock film. To local viewers, “Grace of Monaco” will be a comeback for Kidman a year after her recent collaboration with Korean director Park Chan-wook in “Stoker” (2013).
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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