Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted May 10 Moderator Share Posted May 10 I recently got through watching director Lee Jae-won's debut, 'Thunderbird', which also doubles as his feature graduation project from the Korea Academy of Film Arts. Taking place across 1 night, the plot sees 2 brothers and the younger ones girlfriend looking to retrieve a repossessed car that has 50 million won sitting in the trunk that only they know about. Naturally, things don't go as plan! Full review treatment over at COF - https://cityonfire.com/thunderbird-2022-review-lee-jae-won/ 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted May 10 Member Share Posted May 10 @One Armed Boxer Is the korean DVD the only way to watch this with english subtitles? Couldn't find any other release Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member PandaPawPaw Posted May 10 Member Share Posted May 10 Lack of puppets in this one..................... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted May 10 Member Share Posted May 10 1 hour ago, PandaPawPaw said: Lack of puppets in this one..................... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted May 11 Member Share Posted May 11 This actually caught my eye when it came out over a year ago but unfortunately no English subs. Someone posted a bounty requesting English subs but it still hasn't been fulfilled & that was a year ago. So unfortunately this one might go under the radar unless some kind soul syncs the retail DVD subs to the webrip. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted May 11 Author Moderator Share Posted May 11 13 hours ago, laagi said: @One Armed Boxer Is the korean DVD the only way to watch this with english subtitles? Couldn't find any other release Yes, I know it's not the ideal format in 2024, however as a fan of Korean cinema I find some of the best stuff they're producing in recent years come from these Korea Academy of Film Arts feature graduation projects. So the fact that one's been given a legitimate release on physical media with English subtitles is enough for me to support them with my cash, and hopefully we'll get more in future. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted May 11 Member Share Posted May 11 4 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said: Yes, I know it's not the ideal format in 2024, however as a fan of Korean cinema I find some of the best stuff they're producing in recent years come from these Korea Academy of Film Arts feature graduation projects. So the fact that one's been given a legitimate release on physical media with English subtitles is enough for me to support them with my cash, and hopefully we'll get more in future. That statement is fair enough and I tend to agree with it... BUT I'm just baffled that in this day and age they'd still go for physical!? A digital release not only would give us a potential better quality but also could feature an abundance of subtitles hence making it more accessible to a wider range of people. Just my two cents. Also to charge $30 for a damn DVD is pretty insane! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted June 3 Member Share Posted June 3 I finally got around to watching this and I wholeheartedly agree with @One Armed Boxer's review over at CoF. It's a very self assured debut from director Lee Jae-won. I won't regurgitate the same points that were already spelled out in the review but it just struck me as one of the most realistic films centering on desperation of individuals living on the fringes of Korean society but also the way it depicted the relationship between siblings. The acting was uniformly very good but I like to bring up the acting of Choi Eunha who played Insook, Seo Hyun Woo's co-worker. Even though it was a relatively minor role, she really brought an air of ambivalence to her character. i was made uncomfortable at times by her motives for pursuing Seo Hyun-woo -- did she really have romantic feelings for him or was it merely platonic in that she sees in him a bit of her troubled past as her backstory is only hinted at (a single mother divorcee, having worked overseas and having been a nurse). I got the impression that her child whose pictures littered her apartment wall was deceased and she's still an emotional wreck underneath her calm exterior. @One Armed Boxer did you also sense this or am I way off base here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted June 3 Author Moderator Share Posted June 3 Glad you enjoyed this one as much as I did @Yihetuan! 7 hours ago, Yihetuan said: I got the impression that her child whose pictures littered her apartment wall was deceased and she's still an emotional wreck underneath her calm exterior. @One Armed Boxer did you also sense this or am I way off base here? I had a slightly different take on this one, and thought it may have been being implied that she also had debt issues which is what drew her to Hyun-woo as a kind of kindred down on their luck spirit, and that she likely had to leave her child overseas or that they lived with their father as a result. However the ambiguity works both ways, which is part I think of why I enjoyed it so much, great to watch a movie where everything doesn't need to be spoon fed for a change in this world of dumbed down streaming content! Spoiler I also loved the twist that it turned out to be Hyun-woo who'd called the debt collectors onto his brother in the first place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted June 4 Member Share Posted June 4 (edited) 15 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said: Glad you enjoyed this one as much as I did @Yihetuan! I had a slightly different take on this one, and thought it may have been being implied that she also had debt issues which is what drew her to Hyun-woo as a kind of kindred down on their luck spirit, and that she likely had to leave her child overseas or that they lived with their father as a result. However the ambiguity works both ways, which is part I think of why I enjoyed it so much, great to watch a movie where everything doesn't need to be spoon fed for a change in this world of dumbed down streaming content! Hide contents I also loved the twist that it turned out to be Hyun-woo who'd called the debt collectors onto his brother in the first place! ah that actually makes more sense. Like you said, Insook did seem to take a particular interest in Hyun-woo after she noticed all the telltale signs of a gambler in heavy debt. She was the most sympathetic character in the entire film and I really felt bad the way she was treated. But then I felt perhaps Hyun-woo had feelings for Tae Min's girlfriend or just perhaps wondering why he would have to settle for an older divorcee with a kid like Insook when he should be having a free spirited gal like Mi-young. Especially when he asked her point blank what the hell did she see in his loser brother? While I was watching this I kept thinking why the hell is Hong Sang-soo getting every film he makes a blu ray release on a Western label and this film just gets a domestic DVD release? If Hong Sang-soo made interesting films like this one, I might actually start watching his movies again but nope, the same repetitive tired crapola he's been making for decades now. Edited June 4 by Yihetuan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted June 4 Member Share Posted June 4 On 5/11/2024 at 3:03 AM, Yihetuan said: This actually caught my eye when it came out over a year ago but unfortunately no English subs. Someone posted a bounty requesting English subs but it still hasn't been fulfilled & that was a year ago. So unfortunately this one might go under the radar unless some kind soul syncs the retail DVD subs to the webrip. Since you watched it now... did you buy the DVD or someone full-filled the request? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted June 4 Member Share Posted June 4 32 minutes ago, laagi said: Since you watched it now... did you buy the DVD or someone full-filled the request? yep @One Armed Boxer convinced me to shell out for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted June 4 Member Share Posted June 4 8 hours ago, Yihetuan said: yep @One Armed Boxer convinced me to shell out for it. Any chance you could rip the subs? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venom10463 Posted June 4 Member Share Posted June 4 6 minutes ago, laagi said: Any chance you could rip the subs? Thanks. I rented it on prime video for 1.99. My favorite source didn't have subtitles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted June 4 Member Share Posted June 4 (edited) 4 hours ago, laagi said: Any chance you could rip the subs? Thanks. Sent you a PM. Edited June 4 by Yihetuan sent a PM instead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted June 6 Member Share Posted June 6 (edited) @One Armed Boxer, do you recall several months ago I asked you track down the title of a Korean film for me? I said it had a pregnant woman with car trouble in a desolate area where she meets these weirdos including one mentally disabled guy who keeps offered her a Bacchus. I think I found it. It's called End of Animal. Have you seen it or ever reviewed it? https://asianwiki.com/End_of_Animal https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20101343 Edited June 6 by Yihetuan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted June 6 Author Moderator Share Posted June 6 34 minutes ago, Yihetuan said: @One Armed Boxer, do you recall several months ago I asked you track down the title of a Korean film for me? I said it had a pregnant woman with car trouble in a desolate area where she meets these weirdos including one mentally disabled guy who keeps offered her a Bacchus. I think I found it. It's called End of Animal. Have you seen it or ever reviewed it? I do, and I have! Now I wonder why it never came to mind when you mentioned it! Never gave this one the full review treatment, although it did end up on my Top 15 Watched Movies of 2015 list - https://cityonfire.com/our-top-15-watched-movies-of-2015/ Interestingly, like 'Thunderbird', it's another project that we have KAFA to thank for! Despite it becoming a ticket for director and writer Jo Sung-hee to move onto bigger budgets and more mainstream pictures, I still think it's the best out of his 4 movies, and his last effort with 2021's 'Space Sweepers' is one I'd rather forget existed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted June 7 Member Share Posted June 7 @One Armed Boxer, sounds like my type of "indie" film from that synopsis -- will make a point to watch it soon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member laagi Posted July 1 Member Share Posted July 1 (edited) After all the praise and with a little help of @Yihetuan I too sat down and gave this a watch. Unfortunately while I do think it's pretty good I'm not nearly as thrilled as my two co-watchers here. Thunderbird does take a good long while to actually get going which isn't necessarily a bad thing at least this way we get to know the characters before evidentially shit starts hitting the fan. However it does drag more often than not IMHO. Performances throughout the board are good, nothing to complain here. My main issue I have is that most of our main cast are simply put just shitty people which kind of deserve what they've gotten themselves into. It doesn't help that as cherry on top we find out later on that one of the debt collectors (Jun-Mo) has been the victim of High School bullying by one of our protagonists as well. Which honestly led to some pretty bizarre moments... I mean that knife demonstration was as sad as it was funny. 'Thunderbird' does gain some traction again towards the end but even here it feels a bit of wasted potential because if anything it's a light fart hitting the fan more than anything else. I could've easily done with the violence dialed up to 11 here but I guess this is more about social (family) drama than anything else. As mentioned earlier there's some pretty surreal moments here which had me question if I'm treated to a dark comedy rather than a serious drama. If I had to sum it up "Money will make people do terrible things". Which again isn't really breaking news. As it stands I personally wouldn't be in a hurry to seek this one out (again). Edited July 1 by laagi 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Yihetuan Posted July 1 Member Share Posted July 1 21 minutes ago, laagi said: After all the praise and with a little help of @Yihetuan I too sat down and gave this a watch. Unfortunately while I do think it's pretty good I'm not nearly as thrilled as my two co-watchers here. Thunderbird does take a good long while to actually get going which isn't necessarily a bad thing at least this way we get to know the characters before evidentially shit starts hitting the fan. However it does drag more often than not IMHO. Performances throughout the board are good, nothing to complain here. My main issue I have is that most of our main cast are simply put just shitty people which kind of deserve what they've gotten themselves into. It doesn't help that as cherry on top we find out later on that one of the debt collectors (Jun-Mo) has been the victim of High School bullying by one of our protagonists as well. Which honestly led to some pretty bizarre moments... I mean that knife demonstration was as sad as it was funny. 'Thunderbird' does gain some traction again towards the end but even here it feels a bit of wasted potential because if anything it's a light fart hitting the fan more than anything else. I could've easily done with the violence dialed up to 11 here but I guess this is more about social (family) drama than anything else. As mentioned earlier there's some pretty surreal moments here which had me question if I'm treated to a dark comedy rather than a serious drama. If I had to sum it up "Money will make people do terrible things". Which again isn't really breaking news. As it stands I personally wouldn't be in a hurry to seek this one out (again). I think you might enjoy Don't Go Too Far much more. Give that one a go if you have some time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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