Advertisement
Advertisement
Pierce Conran
Pierce Conran
Journalist, producer and consultant Pierce Conran has been based in Seoul since 2012, where he served as the Korea Executive for LA-based production company and sales agent XYZ Films and as a long-time editor of the Korean Film Council’s English website KoBiz until 2021. Born in Ireland and raised in Switzerland, he received an MA in Film from Trinity College Dublin and is currently the Korean drama critic for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, as well as a programming adviser for the Fribourg International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest in the United States.

Jeon Yeo-been and Namkoong Min are considering roles in Our Movie, Go Min-si is reviewing an offer for Taste of You and Jang Dong-yoon may appear in a Korean remake of a French series.

New Disney+ K-drama Red Swan, a Korean take on The Bodyguard starring Rain and Kim Ha-neul, is so far a colourful mix of global locations, dynamic set pieces and glossy melodrama.

videocam

Lee Do-hyun returns in Netflix K-drama Sweet Home season 3, Kim So-hyun and Chae Jong-hyeop share the screen in romance Serendipity’s Embrace, and Jang Na-ra plays a feared lawyer in Good Partner.

videocam

Sul Kyung-gu, Kim hee-ae and Im Se-mi star in Netflix’s new political Korean drama The Whirlwind, but bland scripting that sorely lacks fun and charisma overwhelms its better elements.

videocam
Advertisement

Chun Woo-hee and Song Joong-ki are considering roles in the Korean drama My Youth, while Jin Ki-joo has signed on to Undercover High School, and Kim Da-mi is in talks to lead A Hundred Memories.

Even viewers who know their South Korean history may struggle with Uncle Samsik’s mix of actual and fictional events, depicted using newsreel footage and scenes shot to appear as if they are newsreels.

videocam

Lee Min-ki stars as a police traffic crime investigator whose role in a fatal road accident was not all it seems. We are drip-fed information about it until the truth emerges, at which point the plot takes a turn.

videocam

Lee Jung-eun and Jung Eun-ji play the same character in this fantasy comedy that sees a woman grappling with a condition that has her magically flitting between her twenties and middle age.

videocam

South Korean actor Lee Je-hoon, best known for his role in K-drama Taxi Driver, endeared himself to viewers with his fearless approach to acting and his willingness to challenge himself in a variety of roles.

Pyo Ye-jin and Lee Jun-young star in this update of the Cinderella tale. The K-drama is brash and uneven, and the story surprisingly difficult to follow.

videocam

Do Da-hee (Chun Woo-hee) was saved from a fire in the past by a mystery man who died, who can only have been Bok Gwi-ju (Jang Ki-yong). We learn how he travelled back in time to save her – and there’s a twist.

videocam

Hierarchy appears to offer social commentary and a story about the breakdown of the social order at an elite high school, but delivers neither. Worse still, it is downright dull.

videocam

Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho dominate the top 10 films ranked by the Korean Film Archive, with two entries each. Also there are Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry, and influential 1960 movie The Housemaid.

videocam

Expectations are high for the webtoon adaptation Dear X, and Netflix’s popular Bloodhounds series is set to return for season two. We are all ears for the latest K-drama casting talk.

Actors Song Kang-ho and Byun Yo-han show their acting prowess as the events leading up to a failed coup d’état continue to unfold in Disney+’s Uncle Samsik.

videocam

Song Seung-heon’s gang of con artists returns to fight more injustices in The Player 2: Master of Swindlers, which offers plenty of banter and brawls – but will it be enough to keep viewers tuning in?

videocam

Yoon Chan-young pulls double duty as a middle-aged gangster stuck in the body of a student in High School Return of a Gangster – it is a diverting watch, but something seems to be missing.

videocam

Hierarchy on Netflix stars Lee Chae-min and Roh Jeong-eui as students at an elite high school, The Whirlwind on Netflix is a political thriller starring Sol Kyung-gu and Kim Hee-ae, and tvN has The Player 2.

videocam

The Bok family once had superpowers, but have lost their gifts. When Do Da-hee (Chun Woo-hee) enters their orbit they are restored. Well written, well acted and well made, how will this Netflix show end?

videocam

A psychologist teams up with her nagging mother-in-law to find out why her family is being threatened by an unknown blackmailer in Bitter Sweet Hell – which, so far, is heavy on style without much happening.

videocam

Netflix’s Frankly Speaking, a K-drama starring Go Kyung-pyo and Kang Han-na, has the ingredients needed for a good romantic comedy but is lacking in humour and chemistry between its lead characters.

videocam

Son Suk-ku could be joining Han Ji-min, Lee Jung-eun and Kim Hye-ja in K-drama More Beautiful Than Heaven, while Jung Kyung-ho is set to lead a legal comedy and Byun Yo-han is in the frame for Reborn.

Disney+ K-drama, a prequel to the popular Chief Inspector series of the 1970s and 80s, stars Lee Je-hoon as Detective Park Yeong-han and Seo Eun-soo as his sweetheart Lee Hye-ju.

videocam

Song Kang-ho plays the titular character in Uncle Samsik, a political fixer with a shady past to overcome who tries to get close to Byun Yo-han’s idealistic civil servant.

videocam

Korean actress Chun Woo-hee, currently on screens in Netflix’s The Atypical Family and The 8 Show, has been appearing in films and on TV in Korea for two decades. We look back over her acting career.

Eight strangers, each living on a separate floor in a giant room, play a violent game, whose rules are unclear, to earn prize money in The 8 Show, a stylish Korean drama series that is compulsive viewing.

videocam

Disney+ K-drama Crash stars Kwak Sun-young as Min So-hee, the head of Traffic Crime Investigation, and Lee Min-ki as insurance investigator Cha Yeon-ho, as they track down a serial killer.

videocam

The one gimmick in a show packed with K-drama clichés – having the male lead dress, talk and act as if he is from the historical Joseon era in Korea – doesn’t come off. As a result, Dare to Love Me falls flat.

videocam

South Korea’s 1979 coup d’état is brought to the big screen in 12.12: The Day. The film’s director, producer, and lead actor Jung Woo-sung talk about dramatising an event whose details were secret for decades.

videocam

Jung Ryeo-won and Wi Ha-joon star as an instructor and her former star pupil at one of the after-school private academies ubiquitous in South Korea in this tvN series on Viu directed by Ahn Pan-seok.

videocam