In a small village hospital on the outskirts of Mongolia, a hostage situation unfolds. The perpetrator holds the village’s only doctor, along with nurses, a cook, and patients, demanding an enormous ransom. As the local police, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis, struggle to handle the situation, a veteran detective named Davaa arrives from the city. Despite his efforts to navigate the harsh conditions,—lacking proper resources or support—he finds himself increasingly helpless as more hostages are killed. Set against the desolate landscape of inner Mongolia, the hostage situation unfolds skillfully within the conventions of the thriller genre. However, as time goes on, Davaa’s growing sense of helplessness and despair diverges from typical crime drama conventions, exposing the incompetence and corruption of the police leadership and politicians. Director Batsukh Baatar, who began his career as a cinematographer, captivates viewers with his striking visuals. (PARK Sun Young)

Marianne is a single independent woman who does not believe marriage is the answer to her happily-ever-after. Her co-worker Tor is an easy-going gay man who prefers casual encounters on a dating app over serious commitment. They refuse to conform to social norms and choose to explore unconventional options, while navigating the ups and downs in a quest for that intangible thing called love.
Love, the second installment of Dag Johan Haugerud’s ambitious trilogy, is unexpectedly romantic and endearingly heartfelt. Summertime in the city of Oslo turns out to be the perfect setting for discussions of sexual freedom and reflections on intimate relationships. Do not worry if you missed Sex or may not have a chance to catch up on Dreams, as each feature can be seen as a stand-alone film. (Karen PARK)

Kai, a 27-year-old who recently got a job at an advertising company, dyes his hair blue and sets out to start anew. But following him, as they have since the day he was born, are aliens carrying cameras and lights. Just as they begin to complain about the monotony of Kai’s life, a woman named Xiaole, who shares her home with Kai, appears. Will the aliens get what they want and see Kai find happiness with Xiaole? Land of Broken Hearts, the second feature film by Wen Shipei, who was invited to Cannes with his debut film Are You Lonesome Tonight? (2021), offers small comfort to those questioning a life dictated by a script and dreaming of their own ‘Buenos Aires’. The film suggests that when life gets too hard, you should take off your shoes and feel the energy of the land that comforts broken hearts. (CHOI Eun)

A group of middle school girls on the verge of graduation roam their neighborhood at night. As they move from one friend’s house to another, and eventually to the empty home of a stranger, their one-night adventure turns into a precarious act of rebellion. The film captures the fleeting sensations of youth that feel like a dream—or a nightmare. (KANG Sowon)

Hollywood celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle refuses to be replaced in the twilight of her stardom. She takes fate in her own hands and creates Sue, a better, younger, and more beautiful version of herself. The problem is that Sue doesn’t want to follow the rules that “two are one” and ultimately this twisted, satirical allegory erupts into a bloodfest extravaganza. There are things that you’ve got to try for yourself. So thinks our heroine Elisabeth, who desperately tries to revive her fading youth and beauty. And the audience, who venture to experience this outrageous body horror, will likely cry out “This is sick!” (pun intended) at the extremes it will push. Coralie Fargeat chooses style over substance (again, pun intended) and there is little subtlety in getting the message delivered. This is an unforgettable feminist movie backed by strong performances, especially Demi Moore who gives a career defining performance.

Ernest Hemingway’s influential short story The Killers (1927), has been adapted to film by Robert Siodmak and Andrei Tarkovsky, while Edward Hopper’s painting Nighthawks (1942) is also said to have been inspired by the story. The Killers, an omnibus film comprised of four-shorts, takes motifs from these two classics and borrows some of their imagery as mise-en-scène. The 4 directors unfold the noir world of death and waiting with different senses and sensibilities. Kim Jong-kwan’s Metamorphosis, which depicts the awakening and manifestation of power following bloodsucking; Roh Deok’s Contractors, a pyramid of contract killings and subcontracted labor; Chang Hang-jun’s Everyone is Waiting for the Man, which tracks down a ghostly figure called a mysterious killer; and Lee Myung-Se’s Silent Cinema, an allegory of his longtime dream of cinema and the world. Notably, Actor Shim Eun-kyung appears in all four films, each time in a completely different role, adding to the delight. It’s an unconventional collection of emotional, psychological, and action-oriented films. (JEONG Jihye)

Lao San is about a boy named Erguang in a rural village, whose father is absent and mother plans to go to the city for work. He has to move to his aunt’s home while he is only obsessed with finding his friend. (PARK Sungho)

Living a life tied to an old, worn-down house, Nidhi makes a phone call to her childhood self. “You are me,” she says. In the film, the protagonist moves through the house, capturing sounds with a boom mic and transmitting her words back to the past. In the place full of spirits, the interplay between past and present is expressed through sounds. Nidhi’s childhood memories are stained with the absence of her father and her mother’s depression, and now, as an adult, she finds herself sinking into the same deep depression her mother once experienced. Poetically portraying a woman’s inner world, this film presents a mother-daughter relationship tangled in love and resentment, all seeming to merge into a single character—the narrator. In the final scene, as Nidhi finally steps out of the house, the camera, which had been confined to the dark interior of the house, captures a ghostly gaze moving across an open space, layering the scene with deeper meaning. (HONG Soin)

Anchan and Deokwoo are inseparable friends, one helping the other approach girls and write love letters. Yet their feelings are drifting in different directions. This teenage romance movie delicately unfolds the narrative of “you don’t know how I really feel” with a sense of calm and tenderness. (KANG Sowon)

Eighteen-year-old Li Qi is confident and skilled in handling difficult customers at her mother’s fish shop in the local market. After refusing her mother’s suggestion to repeat a year after failing her college entrance exams, Li Qi accidentally breaks Xiaowei’s iPhone during a fight at Xiaowei’s birthday party. Thus begins her struggle to buy a new iPhone for Xiao Wei. The world is harsh and unforgiving to an 18-year-old who has not successfully transitioned from high school to college. As Li Qi stands at the boundary between adolescence and adulthood, her sense of hopelessness, anxiety, and pain is metaphorically represented by the pain of a fishbone stuck in her throat. With its intricately woven narrative and compelling conflicts between characters, the film won the New Talent Award for Best Screenplay at the Shanghai International Film Festival and Best Actress at the Xining FIRST International Film Festival. (PARK Sun Young)

Mioka Miller, with K-Number 723915, has visited Korea multiple times since 2008 in search of her family, but each attempt has ended in failure. She was found on the streets in 1974 and later adopted by an American family. But she wasn’t an orphan, nor was she abandoned—so why was she sent to the United States? The film K-Number is titled after the identification numbers assigned to children sent for adoption. It follows Mioka’s search for her birth mother with the help of ‘Banet’, a group that aids overseas Korean adoptees find their roots. The documentary takes viewers through various institutions, from Holt Children’s Services to record offices and community centers, as experts provide testimony and countless documents are examined, uncovering the harsh realities behind terms like “home shopping babies,” “state-sponsored human trafficking,” and “sweeping away disadvantaged children.” The long process of facing the truth is presented at a brisk and determined pace. Director Jo Seyoung’s camera is relentless in its pursuit of the truth, while remaining by the side of other Miokas who are still seeking answers in Korean society. (KANG Sowon)

The film begins with a striking scene: a woman, bloodied and battered, appears in a quiet village alley late at night and stares directly into the camera. The scene then shifts to Yen’s reunion with her mother, Ai-Lee, after serving eight years in prison. Ai-Lee, who runs a small grocery store and sells lottery tickets, is blunt and direct, while Yen, feeling unfamiliar with life outside of prison, remains emotionally reserved. Tensions rise when, one day, Yen’s much younger half-brother arrives, upsetting the fragile balance between Yen and Ai-Lee. Director Tom Lin Shu-Yu calmly unfolds the story of Yen and Ai-Lee from each of their perspectives in black-and-white, slowly leading to the moment where they begin to embrace each other. Intense performances by Yang Kuei-Mei and Hsia Kimi breathe life into this tense, love-hate relationship between mother and daughter. (PARK Sun Young)