Alienoid: Return to the Future (5 Stars)

So much about this film is perfect. I can't criticise it in any way. It's a Korean sci-fi time travel epic, told in two parts. It's a direct continuation from "Alienoid". According to what I've read, both parts were filmed back to back. They would have been released as a single film if the studios hadn't thought that four hours is too long. Maybe we need "Alienoid: The Whole Bloody Affair".

An alien race, which is obviously too humane to carry out a death sentence, imprisons dangerous criminals on Earth. They're locked inside human hosts, where they'll live until the host dies. The human has no idea that he's carrying an alien in his body, and the alien is unable to escape. The story is complicated when an alien attacks the Earth in 1380 and manages to travel to the present day (2022), where he intends to release all the prisoners.

The story is a lot more complicated, but I'll leave it there. It all hinges on the premise that the alien race is unwilling to sentence violent criminals to death. That would make everything much easier.

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My Daughter is a Zombie (4 Stars)

This is the seventh film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

Unfortunately, I missed the first day of the festival. My grandson Oliver was participating in his first football tournament. It was a tough choice, but I decided that family takes priority over films.

The film is about the aftermath of a zombie virus in Korea. All the zombies have been killed, so life can return to normal. Almost all the zombies. Soo-a is a zombie, probably the last zombie in Korea, and she's being protected by her father. He's convinces that he can train her to return to normal, without any medication.

The film's title makes the film sound like a comedy. There are a few humorous situations, but overall it's a serious film. It's emotional to see a father's love for his daughter under the most difficult of situations.

Noise (4 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

The film takes place in a large South Korean apartment building. Two sisters, Ju-Hee and Ju-Yung, share an apartment on the sixth floor. They don't get on well together. Ju-Yung has been away for a few days. It's not said where she was. With a friend? With a lover? It doesn't matter. What matters is that Ju-Yung receives a phone call to tell her that her sister hasn't been seen for four days, so she returns to look for her.

Ju-Yung is almost deaf and can only hear with the help of a hearing age, so she doesn't notice at first that there are loud noises in the apartment. The neighbour from the apartment below repeatedly visits and threatens to kill her if she doesn't stop making noise. But the noise is coming from the seventh floor. Loud banging.

The film has an unsettling atmosphere. It reminds me of "Dark Water". Is it a person making the noise? Or a ghost? Or several ghosts? The mystery slowly unravels.

A criticism I have is that the plot isn't as simple as "Dark Water". There are too many unnecessary complications. But I still want to watch it again.

A Girl With Closed Eyes (3 Eyes)

This is the fourth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

My friend called the previous film exhausting. I found "A Girl With Closed Eyes" more exhausting, though for different reasons. It's a mystery that's finally explained, but it takes a long time to get there. It's well written, but the viewer needs to invest a lot of concentration. Every time I thought I understood what was happening, there was another twist, and I had to start puzzling again.

Min-Ju, a woman in her early thirties, breaks into the home of a successful author and shoots him dead. When the police arrive she's still standing over him with her rifle. A clear cut case? She tells the police that she'll only talk to a policewoman from another town, also called Min-Ju. When the policewoman Min-Ju arrives she recognises the murderess as a childhood friend called Li-Seon, who legally changed her name many years ago. Li-Seon doesn't deny the murder, but she says it was revenge for the author kidnapping and abusing her 20 years ago.

But things don't add up. Despite the confession, Min-Ju is convinced that Li-Seon is innocent.

Alienoid (5 Stars)

This is a South Korean time travel science fiction film. The premise is that a distant alien race brings its criminals to Earth. They're a highly civilised race that has abolished the death penalty, so they trap the aliens in human hosts. The humans are unaware that they're carrying aliens in their bodies. When the human dies of old age or any other reason, the alien also dies. It's all so civilised. Some aliens are able to escape from their human host, but Earth's atmosphere is poisonous to them, so they return to their host within a few minutes.

The alien prisoners arrive in waves. A large number of aliens were deposited into human hosts in 1380 AD. In 2012 AD a pair of robots, Guard and Thunder, are waiting for the next delivery. They find out that a powerful alien in 1380 has managed to take control of his host, so they go back in time to capture it. That might sound confusing, but they give a simple explanation. "Time doesn't run in a straight line. Everything happens at the same time". I'm sure Doctor Who would have something to say about that.

The human host (a woman) dies, but she asks the robots to take care of her young daughter. Thunder takes the girl back to 2012, against the wishes of Guard. Over the next 10 years the girl, Yi-An, lives with Guard, who's disguised himself as a man. He claims to be her human father, but she overhears him talking with Thunder, who's disguised himself as the family car.

Then the next batch of alien prisoners arrives, and chaos breaks out.

There are lots more twists and turns in the plot. I don't want to say too much, except to say that this is a brilliant film. It's the equal of anything that's been made in Hollywood. Aliens, sorcery, martial arts. The film has it all.

"Alienoid" is the first film in a two-part story. I already watched the second part out of order. I intend to watch it again soon.

Success Rate:  - 1.8

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Project Silence (4½ Stars)

This is the tenth film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

It's a mixture between a disaster movie and a monster horror film, once it gets started. The first 20 minutes are boring political discussions, but when the action finally starts it's an excellent film.

Dogs have been bred to be vicious killers. They're being transported towards Seoul. There's thick fog, and there are car pile ups on both sides of a bridge. The vehicle carrying the dogs also crashes, and the dogs break out. They kill anyone who leaves his car. There's a rescue attempt, but the helicopter crashes into the bridge, and the bridge begins to fall apart.

Finally a good film today! I've only deducted half a star because of the boring beginning.

Super Wings: Maximum Speed (4 Stars)

Twice a month (usually the second and fourth Sunday of the month) my local cinema has a Cinemini event. It's a film specially picked for children from three to five years old. The lights in the cinema aren't completely turned off, they're just dimmed, so that young children aren't scared. Apart from suitable trailers, there are no adverts before the film. That's cool! Usually the films are shorter than usual, about an hour long, but today the film lasted 89 minutes.

Today was an important day for me. It was the first cinema visit of my granddaughter Evelyn, who was born in May 2021. It was a family visit for us. We were accompanied by her parents, my daughter and my son-in-law.

The film is a spin-off of a Korean television series about a group of intelligent airplanes. From the film alone I couldn't understand what the purpose of the planes is. The film concentrates on Jet (at the front in the picture), the world's fastest airplane. He does a job delivering parcels, but I'm not sure if that's his only job. It's a good job for him, because, as I said, he's the fastest.

Jet makes friends with a young YouTuber called Fay (or Pei in the original Korean) when he delivers her a parcel. This brings him into conflict with a villain called Billy Willy. Billy wants to stop people using YouTube, because he thinks they should play with toys, like in the old days. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Unfortunately he also captures all the most successful YouTubers and shoots them to the Moon, where they can no longer work online.

Billy also wants to stop people visiting tourist attractions, so he covers them with goo. The Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the pyramids and other famous tourist attractions are covered with sticky stuff. Yuck! That should be enough to make people stay at home and play with toys.

Jet to the rescue! First he acts by himself, then his fellow planes arrive to help.

Evelyn enjoyed the film, but it was too long for her. After an hour she was running around. In retrospect, the usual one hour limit would have been better.

She didn't understand the story. When I asked her about the film she could remember the planes and a few other things, but not what they were doing. She's too young. But she said she wants to go again. I want to make a film fan out of her.

Concrete Utopia (4½ Stars)

This is the 14th film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

This was Korea's entry for the best foreign language film at the 2024 Oscars. It takes place in Seoul in an area where there are a lot of residential skyscrapers, 15 or more floors high. There's a massive earthquake, and all the buildings are destroyed, except for one. The people from the neighbouring buildings flood to it, seeking shelter, and the question is whether they should be accepted or turned away. Soon they're divided into two groups: the residents and the cockroaches.

The film's message is plainly clear. What should we do with refugees? Let them in or turn them away? And how is our decision influenced when we don't have much ourselves? There was an incident in my home town a few years ago. There was a supermarket called Cap which employed mentally handicapped people. Only the manager was "normal". I often shopped there. The staff were friendly. They were disabled, but I liked them. Then the town was ordered to build a home for asylum seekers. Cap had received financial support from the council because the employees weren't able to work as efficiently as normal employees. The council wrote to Cap and told them that the social budget was exhausted by the refugee home, so they couldn't pay money to Cap for the next two years. Cap was closed, and the mentally handicapped people lost their jobs. It never re-opened.

I found that disgusting. The weakest people in our society, the ones who needed the most help, were the ones who had to pay for the refugees. It was wrong to stop funding Cap.

I'd better stop ranting. Back to the film. It's very good, though uneven in parts. There are subplots which I found unnecessary. Nevertheless, I intend to watch it again.

Cobweb (5 Stars)

This is the eleventh film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

"Cobweb" is a film within a film. The director Kim Ki-yeo, called Director Kim by all, has just completed a film called "Cobweb". It's a wrap. But the day after its completion he has ideas about improving the film by changing the ending. His films have all been called lightweight trash by critics, but his new ideas will make it a masterpiece.

So he tries to refilm the final scenes. But his studio refuses. The actors have already gone on to film other projects. What can he do to continue with his film?

I admit that I found the opening scenes boring. "What's this all about?" But as it continued I was more and more drawn in by the zany humour. I was soon sitting in awe, waiting to see what would happen next. I was also trying to figure out what "Cobweb" (the inner film) was about, but it just confused me. In the original ending a woman killed her husband. In the revised ending another woman killed him. The scattered footage just gave clues that are intended to puzzle the audience.

This is the best film in the festival so far. I can't wait to see it again.

Alienoid: Return to the Future (5 Stars)

This is the third film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

Can Koreans make science fiction films? I had my doubts, but "Alienoid 2", as I prefer to call it, has won me over.

The first Alienoid film was shown at the Fantasy Film Festival in 2022, but I missed it because it was the last film of the day. I can't leave the cinema after midnight, because I'll miss the last bus. My friends all praised the film, but I gave it no further thought until today. As far as I can tell, it's a two-part story with the second film beginning where the first ended. There are frequent flashbacks to the first film.

It's a time travel film. Aliens from the future (2022) have been trapped in the late 14th century. The aliens have been trapped in human bodies and are unable to unleash their full power. There are sword fights between the heroes and the aliens, although there's the added problem that aliens are lying dormant in some of the heroes. In the year 2022 the aliens are attempting to destroy the Earth, and they can only be stopped by a mystic blade hidden in the 14th century.

I admit that the story is difficult to understand, since the film leaps between the two eras. Amusingly, travel between the two eras is only possible in a black car that drives fast through a portal. Where have I seen that before?

I need to see the first film as soon as possible. I've already ordered it from Amazon.

The Moon (3 Stars)

This is the 14th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

South Korea has sent three astronauts on a mission to the dark side of the Moon, hoping to become the second country to succeed in landing men on the Moon. Their spacecraft sustains minor damage from solar wind. While they're repairing the craft there are renewed blasts of solar wind, and two of the astronauts die.

The remaining astronaut, Hwang Sun-woo, is ordered to return home, but he's so close to the Moon that he insists on completing the mission by himself. However, while he's exploring his lunar vehicle is wrecked by a meteor shower.

There's a lot of action and several subplots on Earth, but the film didn't excite me. Obviously I was in the minority, because there was loud applause when the film ended. There's no official release date in America or any European countries, but if you manage to see it, please leave a comment telling me what you think.

The Roundup: No way out (4 Stars)

This is the eighth film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

It's the third film in the Korean Crime City series, starring Don Lee as the hard hitting Detective Ma. He's an ex-boxer who's joined the police force, and his crime-fighting style is to hit first and ask questions later. Most of the fight scenes made me laugh. Don reminds me of Bud Spencer, which I say as a great compliment.

The story is about the appearance of a new drug on the streets of Korea. It was originally imported from Japan, but now it's being manufactured cheaper in Korea, so the Japanese yakuza wants to buy large quantities from the secret Korean factories.

Detective Ma wants to break up the drug production, but he's hindered by a corrupt Korean policeman who's making money from the deals.

The plot goes to and fro, sometimes difficult to follow, although everything is clear at the end. The film is really just an excuse for a series of exaggerated fight scenes. Whenever Ma hits a criminal, he flies across the room. But I love it. I need to buy the first two parts.

Project Wolf Hunting (5 Stars)

This is the fourth film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

I can't write too much about this film, because it's a genre buster. For the first half of the film you think it's one type of film, and then it turns into something else.

The film is about the extradition of violent criminals from the Philippines to South Korea. A large number of Korean criminals who had been hiding in the Philippines are transported by ship back to South Korea to stand trial. But they free themselves and a battle with the police guards ensues.

Is this a good film or a bad film? It depends on what you're looking for. I spoke to two people after the film. One said it was the best film of the festival so far. The other said that the story is stupid. They're both right. The film has violence for the sake of violence, with one person dying after another. In a typical last-man-standing film you can guess at the beginning who'll survive; it's the person who's given the most character development. That's not what happens in "Project Wolf Hunting". Every time a character is highlighted and we grow to like him, he's killed in the next scene. But I can appreciate the film as a gorefest.

The gore is extreme. It's not for the faint of heart. Be warned.

Carter (3 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #15

It's Thursday again already? Almost. While I was at home I only watched Netflix on Thursday, if at all, but Netflix is all I have while I'm on holiday. So it's Thursday every day of the week.

"Carter" starts off with a man waking up with amnesia. He doesn't even know his name. He's surrounded  by CIA agents, and a voice in his earpiece is giving him instructions. An explosion from boobytrapped phone kills the agents. Then he enters another building, where he's attacked by more than a hundred people, too many for me to count. But he fights and defeats all of them. He might have forgotten who he is, but he hasn't forgotten how to fight.

Is this Jason Bourne all over again? The secret agent with amnesia story has been overdone. I groaned when the film started.

We're slowly filled in on the background. The man's name is Carter Lee. A virus has developed in Korea, both sides of the North-South border, which makes the people who contract it die within a week. Before they die they lose their intelligence and become very aggressive, attacking (and infecting) others at random. It's similar to a zombie apocalypse, except the infected don't look ugly. Dr. Jung, a North Korean scientist, has cured his daughter, Ha-Na. Her body now contains the only antidote. Ha-Na has been kidnapped by the CIA, and Carter has been assigned to free her and return her to North Korea. His amnesia has been artificially induced to help him go undetected.

I have mixed feelings about the film. I greatly enjoyed the action sequences, but I wish there had been a better plot. There's a lot of fighting, with fists and guns, throughout the film. The closest comparison is the John Wick films, except John Wick doesn't have amnesia. I felt disappointed whenever the fighting stopped. No attempt is made to develop the characters. We're told who they are, but they're wooden figures and we have no feeling for them.

The film ends on a cliff-hanger, suggesting a sequel. I shan't watch it.

The Beast (3 Stars)

This is the first film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

Two policemen are on the hunt for a serial killer. Rather than working together, they're working against one another, because they've been told that the detective who solves the case will be promoted.

One of the policemen uses unethical means to solve the case. For instance, a woman gives him a tip off about the identity of the serial killer, but in return he has to cover up a murder that he's seen her commit, including hiding the body.

The film has various subplots, but in my opinion too many subplots. It's difficult to follow what's happening, especially in the first half hour of the film. The plot is too confusing.

Parasite (5 Stars)

Today I went to see the excellent comedy film "Parasite" for a second time, this time in Schwäbisch Hall. I visited the Lichtspielhaus, which is one of the oldest cinemas in Germany. It opened in 1913, which makes it almost as old as the Electric Cinema in Birmingham, which opened four years earlier in 1909.

However, the Lichtspielhaus has an atmosphere which surpasses anything offered by The Electric. This is the room in which we watched the film. There are only 30 seats, but there are tables in front of every seat. Before the film began, an elegantly dressed lady came in and took orders, bringing drinks and snacks to the tables. Despite this amazing service, the ticket price was only 7.50 Euros, which is cheaper than most German cinema tickets at the weekend.

The only problem was that the temperature was -3 C, and the streets were covered with a thin layer of ice after the day's rain. It was so slippery that I had to hold on to the wall when I crossed the bridge over the River Kocher. I was glad to reach the bus without falling and breaking my leg.

Parasite (5 Stars)

I've been seeing trailers for this film in the cinema for the last two months, and I admit that the film didn't appeal to me. It just didn't look interesting. The only reason I went to see it today is because there were no other interesting films being shown. Okay, maybe the weekly sneak preview would have been an alternative, but that's a risk I don't often take. But as you can see from my five star rating, I was blown away. The film was nothing like what I expected.

The film is a tragicomedy, starting with comedy but developing into a tragedy as it continues. A four-person family lives in poverty in a basement apartment in a South Korean city. Father, mother, son, daughter. I shan't name them in this review because I always have problems remembering Korean names. The son calls himself Kevin, and the daughter Jessica, but they're fake names that they adopt to perform a con trick.

Kevin's friend suggests that he should get a job teaching the daughter of a rich company owner English. Jessica creates a fake university certificate for him, calling him Kevin. He's not a very good teacher, and his English isn't very good either, but the girl falls in love with him. The girl's eight-year-old brother is a budding artist, or so his parents think, so Jessica creates a university certificate for herself in which she calls herself Jessica. So now two of them have weaselled their way into the family. They plant incriminating evidence to get the chauffeur and the housekeeper fired, so that their parents can replace them. Now the whole family is working in the same house, pretending not to be related to one another.

If the story had ended there I would have been satisfied. It would have been a great comedy. But then a series of things happen which make the film take a dark turn. These things make a very good film even better. I shan't give away any spoilers here. I'll just say that you should get ready for surprises in the second half of the film.

Okja (4 Stars)

"Never mistranslate. Translations are sacred".

This is a South Korean film, with some of the dialogue in English. It's distributed exclusively by Netflix, so if you weren't lucky enough to see it on the big screen during its original release, it's too late now. Some Netflix films are released on Blu-ray, but not "Okja".

The Mirando corporation has created genetically modified giant pigs in order to solve world hunger and make a profit. They know that the public is opposed to genetically modified food, so they claim that the pigs are offsprings of a rare type of pig found in the wild. To win popularity for their pigs a lengthy promotional campaign is staged. 26 piglets are sent to farmers around the world, and after 10 years the most beautiful pigs will be selected for breeding.

The film is centred around Okja, a female pig raised by an old farmer in the mountains of Korea. He doesn't have to do much, because the pig has been adopted by his granddaughter Mija. For her Okja is more than a farmyard animal, she's a pet, even a friend.

After 10 years Okja is collected to be taken back to America. This is devastating for Mija. She attempts to prevent this happening, and she has unexpected allies. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) attacks the transport convoy and attempts to steal Okja.

A lot of people don't like CGI in films, but this is an example of CGI making the film what it is. The giant pig has been perfectly crafted by the film's special effects engineers, and it looks so sweet and lovable. Okja is the real star of the film, and Okja's co-star is Ahn Seo-hyun, who was 13 when the film was made. The big names in the film, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton and Paul Dano, only appear in minor roles.

It's worth pointing out that Jake Gyllenhaal plays a very untypical role for him, as the obnoxious television host Dr. Johnny Wilcox. We can't help but hate him whenever he appears on the screen.

Success Rate:  - 23.8

Oldboy (4 Stars)

People who bought a season ticket to see every film in this year's Fantasy Film Festival received four gifts:

1. A t-shirt with the 2019 Fantasy Film Festival logo. It looks pretty cool.

2. A cloth carrier bag. It's not very practical. It's too small, and the straps are too long.

3. An energy drink, 28 Black Orange-Ginger. It tastes better than most energy drinks.

4. A special edition Blu-ray steelbook of "Oldboy". That's super-cool. I already owned the film on DVD, but I'm glad about the upgrade.

The story is an enthralling mystery. A Korean man called Oh Dae-su is locked up in solitary confinement for 15 years, though with relative luxury. Food and drink is delivered every day, and his room is periodically cleaned at night while he's asleep. In 2003 he's released without warning. He wakes up on the rooftop of a high building. He can't go back to his old life because he was framed for the murder of his wife while he was imprisoned. He saw it on the television news.

A stranger gives him a mobile phone and a wallet containing a large amount of money. Someone rings him and taunts him. He says that Oh Dae-su has five days to discover the reason for his imprisonment. If he fails, he'll be killed.

Oh Dae-su realises that he was safe in the prison, but now his life is in danger.

Overall this is an excellent film, but I think that it falls apart at the end. Oh Dae-su overreacts after his final meeting with the man who imprisoned him. Maybe it was his insanity after living alone for so long. That's the only way I can excuse it.

Success Rate:  + 3.0

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The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (4½ Stars)

This is the 23rd film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

That's two very exciting Korean thrillers in two days.

A serial killer is committing murders in a large city. I presume it's Seoul. He drives his car into the back of another car, seemingly accidentally, and when the other person gets out to examine the damage he stabs him to death.

The killer makes a mistake when he rams the car of a gang boss. He's too tough to be killed, so the would-be killer flees. The boss wants to find and kill the assailant. The police want to arrest him and put him on trial. An eccentric but dedicated detective makes a deal with the boss: they'll work together, and whoever catches him first can keep him.

The film is fast paced, even more than "The Witness". The fights and the car chases are exhilarating. It's been announced that the film will be remade in Hollywood. That's sad. Why don't they just invest in high quality dubbing and release the original version in American cinemas?