2018.8.31 Now Playing
Drama/ 120/ Korean/ Aug. 29
Jang Tae-jun (Park Hae-il) is a highly respected and popular economics professor at a university, but he hopes to become a politician to achieve his goal of creating microloan programs for economically struggling self-employed workers. By chance, he finds himself in the media spotlight, paving the way for him to jump into politics and giving him the opportunity to become a ruling party candidate with a seat in the parliament.
His wife Oh Su-yeon (Soo Ae) is a curator at a big art gallery operated by a conglomerate. She is an ambitious woman, who has built a reputation in the industry, and one day hopes to become the director of the gallery. This is suggested by her insistence to continue living in the posh Gangnam area, where she says the high rent motivates her to push herself harder. Her job as a curator involves helping out the conglomerate’s owner family create slush funds through mysterious art deals that often involves politicians.
The movie looks into a well-off middle-class couple’s desperate attempt to enter the upper class.
Searching (12)
Thriller/ 101/ English/ Aug. 29
David Kim (John Cho) is the single father of 16-year-old daughter Margot (Michelle La). One night, her daughter does not return and she does not come back in the following morning.
Worried about his daughter’s safety, David follows Margot’s online footprints on her laptop, and realizes that he knew very little about his daughter.
After the lead detective on the case fails to find a single lead for Margot’s whereabouts, David becomes suspicious of the people around him, and decides to take things on his own hands.
The film, directed by rookie filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, tells the story via computer screens and smartphones, and also periodically shows TV news clips shown on a computer screen.
This classic thriller involving a frustrated father in search of his missing daughter, is also an entertaining popcorn movie from a major Hollywood studio, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Witness (15)
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 and are looking 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.
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.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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