DesertTalkies Film Reviews!

  The Call [2020] Starring Park Shin-Hye, Jeon Jong-Seo, Lee El, Kim Min-Ha Direction by Lee Chung-Hyeon Language: Korean I can safely say that I have experienced thrillers, across cultures. Whilst taking a well-needed break from mock revision, I visited my friend's house. She has an obsession with all things thriller, and roped me into watching this at first confusing but ultimately fantastic thriller film. I tend to be able to understand films, but thrillers, being outside of my reign of expertise, often stump me, particularly if they have complex story plots like this one.  The movie revolves around two people: one in the past and one in the present. The character in the past is a serial killer, who communicates with the character in the present through telephone calls. It is the character in the past who has the power to change the future reality of the character in the present day. From me explaining the plotline in three lines, it is still a little difficult to grasp wha...

  Past Lives [2023]  Starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Maguro Direction by Celine Song  Languages: Korean, English Can we all agree that A24 is the best? Lady Bird, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and now this!  I am finally in the US, which means that I can actually see a variety of movies in the theatre (film in my area is very heavily censored). And of course the first one I went to see was Past Lives. I was told my one of my friends here that ‘Past Lives’ broke her - her experience of immigration to the US was plagued with ‘What Ifs’ that resurfaced after she had seen this movie. And whilst that wasn’t the case for me, the movie was pretty good.  I found that my experience of watching this movie was very similar to what I faced watching La La Land. As is often the case with these long, very artsy romance movies, the movie ends and I think the movie was decent. However, as time passes, the storyline starts to build, and you start to connect all the dots to...

  Parasite [2019] Starring: Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-sik, Park So-dam, Jung Ji-So Direction by Bong Joon-Ho Language: Korean  I think it's pretty obvious to assume that anyone who has seen this movie now has trust issues. I watched this film when it was out in the cinema, and, being under 15, I had to sneak in to actually see it. Luckily the movie attendants were none the wiser. What I saw as a result result of seeing this was a thriller I actually enjoyed (I don't tend to like them), extraordinarily high levels of violence, and a movie that I would eventually come to revere.  At the time I watched Parasite, I had started to see changes in my exposure to Korean culture through media. My playlists were full of K-pop, and my Netflix watchlist was full of K-dramas. But this was the first time that I had actually seen a Korean movie. I can definitely say that it was a whole WORLD away from the wholesome feeling that I had come to associate with Korea. What I saw was the 'seedy...