2018.8.24 Now Playing
Action, comedy / 117 / English / Aug. 22
Audrey (Mila Kunis) and Morgan (Kate McKinnon) are best friends living in Los Angeles. On her 30th birthday, Audrey is sad because her boyfriend Drew (Justin Theroux) just dumped her via text message and even Morgan can’t seem to cheer her up.
As if that’s not bad enough, Audrey gets called in to be questioned and soon finds out that Drew was actually a CIA agent instead of a radio host. What’s even worse is that he shows up to her apartment and informs her that the people who were after him are also after her. While warning her not to trust anyone, they are suddenly attacked by a team of killers who have been trailing him.
Despite the initial hesitation, Audrey joins Drew in helping him with his international mission, and Morgan volunteers to join along. The two go to Europe and get busy running away from assassins. Although they don’t know who to trust, they need to finish the assignment to save people’s lives.
Romance / 110 / Korean / Aug. 22
Directed by Lee Seok-geun, this romantic comedy film is a classic boy-meets-girl drama. It depicts the 10-year love story of two people from their teenage years to adulthood.
In the summer of 2005, Wu-yeon (Kim Young-kwang), a high school senior, falls in love at first sight with transfer student Seung-hee (Park Bo-young) while he is getting punished by his teacher. Believing that Seung-hee is the one, Wu-yeon constantly follows her around.
Just as they announce that they are officially dating, Seung-hee suddenly transfers to a different school, leaving Wu-yeon devastated. A year later, Wu-yeon works part time frying chicken and finds out that Seung-hee has enrolled at Hankuk University.
Determined to meet her again, Wu-yeon decides to study hard and manages to enroll in the same university as Seung-hee. On the first day of school, Wu-yeon lingers around campus, hoping to bump into Seung-hee.
The two meet in front of a tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes) shop in front of the university. Unlike Wu-yeon, who is happy to meet her, Seung-hee seems to be nonchalant towards him as she has a boyfriend (Song Jae-lim), who is a good looking and athletic senior.
Mile 22 (15)
Action / 95 / English / Aug. 23
In director Peter Berg’s fourth film with actor Mark Wahlberg, Wahlberg plays an operative named James who works for an elite, secret CIA unit with the code name Overwatch. His team includes Alice (Lauren Cohan), Sam (Ronda Rousey) and Dougie (Carlo Alban). The story unfolds as nine pounds of lethal cesium isotope, which could be weaponized to kill thousands of people, goes missing. Alice’s informant Li Noor, a slippery Indonesian police officer (Iko Uwais), has the code to a disc with the locations. But he refuses to share it unless he is granted asylum to the United States from Indonesia, where many people want him killed. To acquire the code from Noor, U.S. embassy spy boss Johnny (Terry Kinney) orders Overwatch to find and recover the lethal substances. To do that, the team has to transport Noor 22 miles to an airfield where an American military plane awaits to fly him safely. But on their way, the crew is met with killers determined to take them down.
Drama, Documentary / 120 / English / Aug. 23
Kevin Macdonald’s documentary, “Whitney,” looks into the personal life of the late singer Whitney Houston, a once-in-a-generation talent who broke more music industry records than any other female singer in history. The movie includes rare footage of the singer and tells the story of her life from her childhood to her fame.
But instead of just glorifying her successful career, the film features one-on-one interviews of her friends, family and colleagues to talk about the late singer’s struggles. The topics include Houston’s sexuality, drug addiction, as well as the raising of her daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
Documentary / 98 / Korean, Chinese / Aug. 14
Directed by Guo Ke, this documentary looks back at the past lives of the remaining 22 comfort women living in China.
During World War II, millions of women living in Japanese occupied countries, such as Korea, China and the Philippines, were forced into being sex slaves for the Japanese imperial army. In China alone, an estimated number of 200,000 women became comfort women, and only 22 survivors were alive in 2014, when the filming began. Now all over 80 or 90 years old, only six of these elderly ladies as of August 2018 remain to speak publicly about their imprisonment.
After revealing the name and face of these victims, the documentary gives a detailed account of the sufferings that the women experienced during their imprisonment and offers a look at the current lives of these elderly women. Torn from their families, these isolated victims were constantly tormented, raped and beaten. Along with sharing their experiences in prison, they also talk about their lives after getting free.
Thriller / 111 / Korean / Aug. 15
Sang-hoon (Lee Sung-min) is an ordinary office worker who lives with his wife Su-jin (Jin Kyung) and their daughter in an apartment complex. One day, during dawn, he unexpectedly witnesses a murder from his balcony. Immediately turning the lights off, Sang-hoon picks up his phone to call the police, but he gives up, thinking that his eyes met with the murderer’s (Kwak Si-yang). As if this is true, the murderer is creepily counting the floor of the apartment building to find out where Sang-hoon lives.
The next day, the police arrive to investigate the murder case and are on the search for witnesses.
Out of fear, Sang-hoon is unable to report what he witnessed to the police, as he realizes that Tae-ho is constantly lingering around the apartment. Sang-hoon acts just like the rest of the neighbors, who pretend not to have heard the victim because they do not want the price of the apartment complex to go down.
Directed by Cho Kyu-jang, this crime thriller was inspired by the murder of Kitty Genovese, a young woman who was stabbed to death outside her New York City apartment in 1964.
The Meg (12)
Action, horror, SF, thriller/ 113/ English/ Aug. 15
Five years ago, Naval Captain Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) was on a mission with his crew to save a group of scientists in a nuclear submarine in the Marina Trench. While he was pursuing his mission, a mysterious giant creature suddenly started attacking the submarine. Unable to save two of his crew, who were stuck inside, Jonas was forced to abandon them as the rescue could result in the death of everyone.
Due to this choice, Jonas finds his career and marriage deeply scarred. In the present day, Jack Morris meets Dr. Minway Zhang (Winston Chao) at Mana One, an underwater research facility. Zhang and his daughter Suyin (Bingbing Li), who is an oceanographer, are supervising a mission to explore the deeper parts of the Marianas Trench. This mission is conducted by Lori (Jessica McNamee), Jonas’ ex-wife, Toshi (Masi Oka) and the Wall, and so far everything seems to be going well.
However, they are soon attacked by an uninvited, massive visitor, which causes the submarine to lose contact with Mana One.
Directed by Jon Turteltaub, this SF thriller is based on Steve Alten’s 1997 novel, “Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror.” It also won the Golden Fleece at the 2018 Golden Trailer Awards.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)