HanCinema - Rotten Tomatoes

HanCinema

HanCinema is not a Tomatometer-approved publication. Reviews from this publication only count toward the Tomatometer when written by the following Tomatometer-approved critic(s): Panos Kotzathanasis, William Schwartz
Rating
Title/Year
Author
1
6.5/10
Three Sisters (2021)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Three Sisters" communicates its messages about the consequences of trauma convincingly, while not many faults can be found neither in direction and acting, nor to the production values.
Posted Jan 18, 2022
2
7/10
Seire (2021)

Panos Kotzathanasis

The overall minimalism with the occasional splashes of visually impressive moments appears to be a well-fitted approach for the "new generation" of horror films, along with the combination of a number of art-house elements, as the richness in context
Posted Dec 30, 2021
3
6.5/10
Climbing (2020)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Climbing" is another testament to the fact that Korean animation has great prospects, particularly if the filmmakers dealing with the genre manage to work a bit more on the technical aspect of their movies.
Posted Dec 30, 2021
4
The Medium (2021)

William Schwartz

Genuinely intriguing presentation is mostly ruined when the story moves on to more boilerplate exorcist stuff.
Posted Dec 26, 2021
5
Vivo (2021)

William Schwartz

Vivo is clearly aiming for the same pseudo-educational cultural experience that has become Lin-Manuel Miranda's calling card. Yet, in many ways, it's actually an even more antiquated view of Cuban culture than the stereotypes it's aiming to replace.
Posted Oct 2, 2021
6
One Second (2020)

William Schwartz

Movie night is a huge community event in One Second because it's the only chance for the people to access the outside world. They convene not out of love for film, but community.
Posted Oct 1, 2021
7
Gawi (Nightmare) (Horror Game Movie) (2000)

William Schwartz

You can also see flashes of tragic resignation in Ha Ji-won's performance that were much more effectively utilized in her later melodramatic career.
Posted Oct 1, 2021
8
6.5/10
Ten Months (2020)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Ten Months" is a very interesting and entertaining indie film that could also be perceived as a caution tale regarding youths deciding to have children, particularly when they have not thought it through beforehand.
Posted Sep 23, 2021
9
6/10
Snowball (2020)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Snowball" has its merits, with parts of the script, the acting, and a number of comments being well communicated. As a whole however, it does not make that much sense, with the sole "excuse" here being that it is Lee Woo-jeong's feature debut.
Posted Sep 23, 2021
10
Escape from Mogadishu (2021)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Escape from Mogadishu" is a great action movie that also works very well on a contextual level, due to the plethora of sociopolitcal elements included.
Posted Aug 12, 2021
11
Phone (Pon) (2002)

William Schwartz

Phone is at best a historical curiousity...it's not a movie that's much worth watching in any case.
Posted Aug 4, 2021
12
Mi-seu-teo Go (Mr. Go) (2013)

William Schwartz

Mr. Go is a delightfully whimsical movie, noteworthy mainly for its surprisingly sincere depiction of a generally absurd situation.
Posted Aug 4, 2021
13
Dragon Wars (2007)

William Schwartz

D-War is a complete waste of time that shouldn't be watched by anyone, for any reason.
Posted Aug 4, 2021
14
The 8th Night (2021)

William Schwartz

The 8th Night is not a particularly weird movie, although there's definite menace in the atmosphere.
Posted Jul 30, 2021
15
Inside the Red Brick Wall (2020)

William Schwartz

Pre-familiarity with the subject matter is clearly assumed with the editing, to the point that the documentaries are nearly useless to viewers hoping to be educated.
Posted Jun 25, 2021
16
Plan B (2021)

William Schwartz

While Sunny and Lupe may have their typical teen girl insecurities, they're for the most part cheerful relatable characters who use modern buzz words they don't totally understand to try and make sense of a world to which they're still trying to adapt.
Posted Jun 25, 2021
17
Killed My Wife (Anaereul Jukyessda) (2019)

William Schwartz

Unique in its sheer mundanity, reading like a part of a hobo's obituary.
Posted Jun 25, 2021
18
Seobok: Project Clone (2021)

William Schwartz

The grim, impersonal nature of the stakes in SEOBOK make for a powerful representation of suicidal impulses.
Posted May 3, 2021
19
Troubleshooter (2012)

William Schwartz

Troubleshooter only manages to be a good movie rather than a great one. As an overall product the film is forgettable even if the individual parts can sometimes border on genius.
Posted May 3, 2021
20
Night in Paradise (2020)

William Schwartz

Night in Paradise is overly long, poorly edited, and lacks bite. Even strong action scenes can't compensate for the trite melodrama.
Posted May 3, 2021
21
Introduction (2021)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"INTRODUCTION" continues the legacy of Hong Sang-soo, in his usual style everyone seems to enjoy, particularly when the duration is measured.
Posted Apr 11, 2021
22
Urideului ilgeuleojin yeongung (Our Twisted Hero) (1992)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Our Twisted Hero" is an excellent adaptation, and an overall quite convincing effort of combining school drama with political allegory.
Posted Apr 11, 2021
23
Another Public Enemy (2005)

William Schwartz

The only halfway interesting scenes are where Prosecutor Kang is depressed enough from his failure to make progress at boring meetings that he stumbles around drunkenly for a little bit.
Posted Mar 24, 2021
24
Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)

William Schwartz

Therein lies the fundamental absurdity that defines the film. The characters in Welcome to Dongmakgol all want to do evil, yet often have to be talked into it.
Posted Mar 24, 2021
25
The Battle of Jangsari (2019)

William Schwartz

The production team pulls no punches when it comes to the terrifying nonsense of war
Posted Mar 24, 2021
26
1987: When the Day Comes (2017)

William Schwartz

Throughout 1987: When the Day Comes we mostly see Investigator Park through the eyes of his victims- as a crazed psychopath who cannot be stopped and cannot be negotiated with...a fitting metaphor for the South Korean dictatorship as a whole.
Posted Feb 18, 2021
27
A Werewolf Boy (2012)

William Schwartz

In excellent subversive faction, it's the feral boy that really connects with the viewer on screen.
Posted Feb 18, 2021
28
Space Sweepers (2021)

William Schwartz

I was caught off guard by the sheer quantity of badly paced infodumping...there is yet more exposition and backstory well into the second half, every single time dragging the narrative to a crawl.
Posted Feb 18, 2021
29
A Special Lady (Mi-ok) (2017)

William Schwartz

There's a shocking failure to communicate that drives almost all of the conflict in A Special Lady to the point that I was rooting for Sang-hoon in spite of his clearly being presented as a jerk.
Posted Jan 11, 2021
30
A Dog's Courage (2020)

William Schwartz

What starts out as a story of survival turns into an odyssey, at the clear expense of a well defined moral message.
Posted Jan 11, 2021
31
The Call (Kol) (2020)

William Schwartz

The Call is a movie that thrives on its effective use of mysterious atmosphere. Director Lee Chung-hyun makes that much clear from the earliest scenes, which contrast a modern-day social drama with a past day freak show.
Posted Jan 11, 2021
32
Five Marines (1961)

Panos Kotzathanasis

Strange war film, since it is, by no means, anti-war, but also does not go very far in its paeans for the army, particularly through the intense melodramatic aspect that highlights the fact that even heroes die.
Posted Jan 5, 2021
33
The Woman Who Ran (2021)

Panos Kotzathanasis

Hong Sang-soo directs a movie that, once more, focuses on the details of everyday life, even including the mundanity that is associated with the lives of the "unremarkable"
Posted Dec 20, 2020
34
Me and Me (2020)

Panos Kotzathanasis

Although Jung Jin-young did not seem particularly interested in communicating with his audience, "Me and Me" emerges as a captivating movie, particularly for those who are willing to leave their logic behind.
Posted Dec 15, 2020
35
BLACKPINK: Light Up the Sky (2020)

William Schwartz

BLACKPINK changes languages from English to Korean to Thai seemingly at random. But as I saw more of these discussions, I could detect a more consistent rhythm in the way they discourse, synchronizing their thoughts to one another.
Posted Nov 20, 2020
36
Fukuoka (2019)

William Schwartz

Zhang Lu's characters persist in the dreamlike world that can only really be described as existing in a foreign country.
Posted Nov 20, 2020
37
The Swordsman (2020)

William Schwartz

Writer/director Choi Jae-hoon has crafted a surprisingly ruminative and moody action flick about power and politics.
Posted Nov 20, 2020
38
An Old Lady (2019)

William Schwartz

More than being about sexual assault and elder abuse as hot button issues, An Old Lady is a character study.
Posted Oct 30, 2020
39
Between The Seasons (2018)

William Schwartz

Between the Seasons is a superb exposition of existential crisis as its characters ask themselves who they are, and what they want, and never really coming up with a satisfying answer.
Posted Oct 30, 2020
40
Deliver Us From Evil (Daman Akeseo Goohasoseo) (2020)

William Schwartz

Crisp and beautiful as the movie's visuals are, writer/director Hong Won-chan never loses sight of the fact that every scene of this movie represents a tragic, senseless loss of human life.
Posted Oct 30, 2020
41
Jesters: The Game Changers (2019)

Panos Kotzathanasis

From the naivety and extreme lack of courage the protagonists occasionally show, to the mocking of the tactics of the court, the way gossip works and the beliefs of the common people of the era all provide moments of intense humor
Posted Oct 25, 2020
42
Beauty Water (2020)

Panos Kotzathanasis

The concept of beauty and how has come to dominate the modern world and particularly the contemporary Korean society is a very serious issue, and "Beauty Water" presents one of the most realistic depictions of its consequences
Posted Oct 25, 2020
43
Steel Rain (2017)

William Schwartz

While consistently excellent in individual sections, the ambiguous genre mix of Steel Rain does a lot to dilute the impact.
Posted Oct 1, 2020
44
Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon (Nobody's Daughter Hae-Won) (2013)

William Schwartz

Excellent self-critical stuff, the kind of movie a person could use to remind themselves that breaking up with an ex-lover was probably the smartest possible move.
Posted Oct 1, 2020
45
#Alive (2020)

William Schwartz

#ALIVE plays its setting too safe, and while the end product is certainly watchable, it's ultimately nothing special.
Posted Sep 30, 2020
46
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"Peninsula" is a film that aims to entertain and to sell tickets, and in that regard, it is easy to say that it succeeds to the fullest. In terms of context, though, not so much.
Posted Sep 27, 2020
47
The Wrath (2019)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"The Wrath" seems to include all the clichés and the faults of the category, but through its production values and the overall atmosphere, emerges as a true crowd-pleaser, a film that will satisfy all fans of horror movies.
Posted Aug 11, 2020
48
The Dude in Me (2019)

Panos Kotzathanasis

"The Dude in Me" is a very entertaining mainstream film that manages to retain its audience's interest for the whole of its duration through its rather interesting combination of genres.
Posted Aug 11, 2020
49
Swallowtail Butterfly (Suwaroteiru) (1996)

Panos Kotzathanasis

Swallowtail Butterfly is a beautiful film that suffers much from its extended duration and the fact that Iwai tried to include many more elements than he actually could.
Posted Jul 26, 2020
50
Yeogyosu-ui eunmilhan maeryeok (Bewitching Attraction) (2006)

Panos Kotzathanasis

Moon So-ri's sexy to the point of sultry presence, with her high heels, tight and occasionally see-through outfits, long nails, glasses/no glasses and occasional nudity becomes the focal point of both the cinematography and the narrative.
Posted Jul 26, 2020