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Hellbound is a South Korean dark fantasy horror thriller series directed by Yeon Sang-ho from a screenplay by Choi Gyu-seok. Based on the webtoon of the same name by Sang-ho, the Netflix series is set in a world where unearthly creatures appear and condemn people to hell. Soon after their appearance, religious groups begin forming on the ideology of divine justice. Hellbound stars Yoo Ah-in, Kim Hyun-joo, Park Jeong-min, Won Jin-ah, and Yang Ik-june. So, if you loved the dark fantasy elements, intensely thrilling story, and compelling characters in Hellbound here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Sweet Home (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

Sweet Home is a South Korean apocalyptic action horror series written by Hong So-ri, Kim Hyung-min, and Park So-jung. Based on the Naver webtoon of the same name by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan,...

If you were waiting for John Woo‘s latest action thriller film The Killer, featuring his signature action style and a thrilling story. Then the wait is finally over as the Nathalie Emmanuel and Omar Sy-led film is finally available to stream on Peacock. Based on Woo’s 1989 film of the same name, the Peacock film is co-written by Brian Helgeland, Josh Campbell, and Matt Stuecken and it follows the story of a deadly assassin as she refuses to kill a young blind woman and in turn her employer puts out a hit on her, forcing her to kill the people coming after her while being hunted by a relentless cop. So, if you loved the high-octane action, thrilling story, and interesting characters in The Killer here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Killer (Buy DVD on Amazon) Credit – Magnum Presentation

The Killer is a...

Monkey Man is one of the most imaginative action films to come out sometimes and it comes from a first-time director who also stars in the lead role Dev Patel. Described as “Indian John Wick,” the action-thriller film follows the story of a young underground fighter who goes on a rampage against the city’s elite to avenge the injustices done by them to his mother and village. Monkey Man also stars Sobhita Dhulipala, Sikandar Kher, Adithi Kalkunte, Makarand Deshpande, Sharlto Copley, Brahim Achabbakhe, Ashwini Kalshekar, Pitobash Tripathy, and Vipin Sharma. So, if you loved the action and heartfelt story told in Monkey Man by the first passionate first-time director Dev Patel, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

John Wick Credit – Lionsgate Movies

Monkey Man is being described as “Indian John Wick,” so this film had to be on this list. Directed by Chad Stahelski, John...

The charismatic leading duo of Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won are finally here with their much-awaited romantic comedy-drama series Queen of Tears. Written by Park Ji-eun, the Tvn series follows the story of a high-profile married couple on the brink of divorce. While, for some time the love between them has faded, a piece of shocking news begins to bring them closer. Queen of Tears also stars Park Sung-hoon, Kwak Dong-yeon, and Lee Joo-bin. So, if you enjoyed the comedy and romance in Queen of Tears, here are some similar shows you should check out next.

Go Back Couple (Viki & Prime Video Add-On) Credit – KBS2

Go Back Couple (also known as Couple on the Backtrack or Confession Couple) is a Korean comedy-drama series written by Kwon Hye-joo. Based on a Naver webtoon titled Do It One More Time by Hong Seung-pyo and Kim Hye-yeon, the series follows the story of...

There was no escaping K-content in Cannes this year, with South Korea delivering well-received Canneseries competition title “Bargain,” MIPTV’s showcase of new formats, all hoping to dethrone “The Masked Singer,” Kortop Media’s “Midnight Horror: Different Nights,” “Pale Moon,” sold by KT Studiogenie and, finally, Cj Enm’s “Island.”

Co-created by Bae Jong and Jang Jeong Do, the show – produced by Studio Dragon and Ylab – is based on a popular comic book, first published in 1997. It has since been turned into webtoons, web novels and dramas, always combining the fantastical with the ordinary.

“We designed a unique fantasy world [to accommodate] drama based on mystical folktales of Jeju Island,” explains Jang Jeong Do, also serving as the show’s executive producer.

Noting that while its setting is famous for beautiful tourist spots – with one of the show’s first scenes depicting a wedding photoshoot gone horribly wrong – it’s also “a land with a painful,...

Horror is, without question, still the backbone of cinema, even as cinema struggles in these uncertain times. This year saw a number of wins for the genre; original movies like Smile, Barbarian, and X and its prequel Pearl achieved both critical acclaim and box office success, and franchises like Scream, Predator and Hellraiser were all reignited with praised returns.

Like last year, there were a lot of horror movies to watch in 2022. This resulted in movies slipping through the cracks as the year continued, and bigger releases held the spotlight.

These ten hidden gems might have been overlooked at the time, but it’s never too late to discover them.

An Ideal Host

“An Ideal Host”

After circulating at multiple film festivals for a good two years, the Australian horror-comedy An Ideal Host quietly surfaced on streaming platforms this year. Robert Woods and Tyler Jacob Jones‘ offbeat collaboration amassed a...

Prime Video has recently begun dipping its toe into the world of K-dramas as it climbs towards the crowning achievement of being the biggest streaming platform in the US, but Island is about to be its flashiest Korean release yet thanks to its stacked cast and high budget. Premiering its first 2 episodes on December 30, Island has been a long-awaited project for fans of the fantasy thriller genre. The series is based on an infamous manhwa and its webtoon sequel, which follow three powerful individuals who come together to protect Jeju (and the world) from evil forces threatening to break through.

Island was first announced in late 2020 before firming up its cast, and it finally began filming in the autumn of last year with acclaimed actor Kim Nam-gil starring as Pan—sometimes romanized as Van—an immortal and amoral monster hunter who is not quite human himself. Whether by accident or fate,...

Exclusive: Japanese director Hikari is to helm Netflix’s dramedy Beef.

Hikari, whose debut feature 37 Seconds premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, received the Panorama Audience Award and was subsequently picked up by Netflix, will helm the pilot episode of the Steven Yeun and Ali Wong-fronted series as well as multiple episodes across the series.

The news comes after Deadline revealed the cast of the Lee Sung Jin-created series, which features 10 half-hour episodes.

Yeun and Wong play two people who let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and slowly consume their every thought and action.

David Choe, Patti Yasutake, Young Mazino and Joseph Lee have been added as series regulars with Mario Bello and Ashley Park set as recurring guest stars alongside Justin H. Min, Andrew Santino, Rekstizzy, Mia Serafino and Remy Holt.

Paper Towns director Jake Schreier, who is an exec producer on the series,...

The Villainess is an upcoming action thriller. From Well Go USA Entertainment, this Korean film involves a female assassin, trained since childhood. Several years into her killing career, Sook-hee (Ok-bin Kim) now wants freedom and will stop at nothing to get it. The Villainess will be available, through several formats, this November. The title, from director Byung-gil Jung, also stars: Jun Sung and Ha-kyun Shin. A preview of the film's home entertainment launch is hosted here. The official trailer was released earlier this year (Aug. '17), for The Villainess. It shows Sook-hee partially via first person camera shooting. Similar to Hardcore Henry's (2015) shooting style, Sook-hee battles several foes on motorcycle or in the air. It looks like there is no end to this killing spree. The Villainess will be available on three formats this November. On November 21st, this action title will show on DVD, Video-on-demand and a Blu-ray/DVD combo.

Stars: Ok-bin Kim, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Jun Sung Bang | Written and Directed by Byung-gil Jung

It’s been a while since a foreign language movie came out that truly blew me away, probably The Raid being the last one and we all know how much I gush over that movie. The Villainess brings us all the things I loved about The Raid and some intricate clever plot points that echo Infernal Affairs sprinkled with some Nikita… Add all this together and you get a damn good movie, that is in serious danger of being in my Top 5 movies of 2017!

The awesome folks at Arrow Video have brought us a shiny awesome Blu Ray and DVD release of this instant classic and its out today. Spoilers (I normally save this bit till the end): I absolutely recommend this movie to any fan of Korean Cinema, action fight sequences, stunning choreography,...

The Villainess Review The Villainess (2017) Film Review from the 16th Annual New York Asian Film Festival, a movie directed by Byung-gil Jung, and starring Ok-bin Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Seo-hyeong Kim, Jun Sung, and Eun-ji jo. The Villainess was, at its face, a tribute to Luc Besson‘s Le Femme Nikita, and the latest [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: The Villainess: You’ll Root for the Bad Girl & Like It [Nyaff 2017]...

Stars: Ok-bin Kim, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, Jun Sung Bang | Written and Directed by Byung-gil Jung

Sook-Hee is a trained assassin who was born to kill. She was just a little girl when the training started in China. And after the death of her mentor, when the chance of starting a new life was given to her, she came to South Korea as a government agent. The National Intelligence Service promised her freedom after ten years of active assignments. So begins her new double life as a theatre actress-come-hit-woman until the dark secrets from her past start to reappear. Then she gets a new mission and it changes everything.

There’s been a lot of hype for The Villainess, ever since it first screened at Cannes; and as an action-movie fan and genre fan I was all ready to buy into that hype. But I should have known better! To...

"When I receive orders, I assign them. And you kill." Well Go USA has unveiled another official trailer for the badass Korean action film The Villainess, which opens in select theaters (NY & La) this weekend. So if you think this looks good, you can see it now! We've written about this film before and featured a trailer a few months ago. Ok-bin Kim stars as Sook-hee, a trained assassin who tries to become a stage actress after giving 10 years of service as an assassin. But her dark past comes creeping back and she must take things into her own hands to finish her work and be free once and for all. The full cast includes Eun-ji Jo, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, and Jun Sung. This trailer is packed full of intense action and quotes from critics, and will leave you more than excited to see this. I'm looking forward to catching it sometime soon.

Warning: You are not prepared for what this movie delivers. I watched The Villainess about a week after I saw Atomic Blonde — which was also part of Fantasia 2017 — and the two have a lot of similarities. On the surface level alone, they’re both about awesome, extremely dangerous women who are working for a shadowy organization, and both movies contain lengthy, seemingly one-take action sequences which are the highlight of the film. In fact, The Villainess has three of those action sequences. But the similarities pretty much end there as Atomic Blonde’s Cold War espionage is more akin to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, whereas The Villainess shares a lot of DNA (including one identical scene) with La Femme Nikita. So while Luc Besson was off making a bloated, sci-fi epic, Byung-gil Jung (Confession of Murder) was reworking the flick that put him on the map in the first place.

"Let me show you what you made me into." Well Go USA has released the first official trailer for an action film from Korea titled The Villainess, which premiered out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this summer. I heard some rave reviews of this and I definitely want to check it out. Ok-bin Kim stars as Sook-hee, a trained assassin who tries to become a stage actress after giving 10 years of service as an assassin. But her dark past comes creeping back and she must take things into her own hands to finish her work and be free once and for all. The full cast includes Eun-ji Jo, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, and Jun Sung. One review from Cannes says that its "dynamically staged, blood-drenched action sequences are a highlight." Based on all the buzz and footage from this trailer, I'm very excited to see this film. Take a look.

Writer/director Byung-gil Jung sure knows how to open an action flick. Think Oldboy‘s hallway scene from the first-person perspective of Hardcore Henry spilling over through a non-descript doorway into a wide-open setting for a one-on-twenty bloodbath a la Kill Bill‘s House of Blue Leaves sequence. Only when the orchestrator of this carnage is picked up and shoved headfirst into a mirror does the camera stumble backwards to show Sook-hee’s (Ok-bin Kim) bloodied face and grimace for more. It’s the type of over-the-top, out-of-control set piece most films work towards as a finale nobody will ever forget and we receive it as soon as the lights go down. A breathtaking jump through a window augmented by police sirens in the distance later and this party has only just begun.

If it wasn’t one-take, it was shot to look like it. You become so wrapped up...

The Villainess Trailer Byung-gil Jung‘s The Villainess / Ak-Nyeo (2017) movie trailer stars Ok-bin Kim, Seo-hyung Kim, Ha-kyun Shin, and Jun Sung. The Villainess‘ plot synopsis: “Trained to be an assassin in Yanbian, China, from a very young age, Sook-hee has only ever known a life of killing. When South Korea’s Intelligence Agency captures her following [...]

Continue reading: The Villainess (2017) Movie Trailer: Ok-bin Kim is a Female John Wick...

As a whistling tune seeps into what seems to pay homage to Oldboy’s corridor scene, with relentless bloodshed and ragged gasps, the opening sequence comes on too strong before viewers can get their bearings. The first 10 minutes of the film are shot in first-person point-of-view, which enables viewers to stay engaged and to be active participants rather than passive sponges.

Sook-hee (played by Kim Ok-bin) regains consciousness in what looks like a psychiatric ward. She storms out of it and wanders in a maze of passages whose doors introduce a different level of reality. Level-headed, Intelligence agency chief Kwon (Kim Seo-hyung) draws, then has Sook-hee sit with a sonogram and encourages her to be a sleeper agent for a decade, in exchange for freedom and a better life, with her child.

Sook-hee’s backstory of having witnessed, as a child, the brutal killing of her father, of extracting her...

Director: Jung Byung-gil (Confession of Murder, 2012)

Distributor: Next Entertainment World

Cast: Kim Ok-bin (Thirst), Shin Ha-kyun (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), Sung Joon, Kim Seo-hyung

Plot:

Sook-hee, a trained assassin, takes revenge on the men who murdered her husband. After losing consciousness, she awakes at the National Intelligence Service. The Nis wants her to undertake confidential missions, but Sook-hee initially refuses. However, Sook-hee decides to accept her new identity as Yeon-soo in order to stay alive. Under her new identity, she meets Hyun-soo, and they dream of starting a family. However, on the day of their wedding, she is assigned a new mission that changes everything.

The Villainess, due out in June, will make its premiere at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, which takes place May 17–28.

Sources: Next Entertainment World, Cine21...

Stars: Da-wit Lee, Jun Sung, Kim Kkobbi | Written and Directed by Su-won Shin

Su-won Shin (Reinbou) writes and directs Pluto, a film about social expectation and obsession in the form of a dark thriller which twists and turns through a series of flashback sequences intermingled with our main story, a style that works brilliantly with a pace that all comes to a tense conclusion.

The image of how far a certain group of teenage high school students are willing to go to in order to guarantee themselves a place in an illustrious university is looked at through the eyes of Kim June (Da-wit Lee), a transfer student who, after receiving devastating results in his first set of exams, discovers a secret sect of students who share notebooks which contain incredibly important information that allow them to pass exams with ease. In order for him to join the group, they set...

Frozen's hit song is called "Let It Go," but this catchy tune isn't going anywhere. Between Frozen's box-office success and the deluge of frigid weather, "Let It Go" has become the anthem of the season. This perfect storm reached a new peak with the ballad's Academy Award win for Best Original Song, making writer Robert Lopez the youngest Egot ever. Related: Watch the Oscars Performance of 'Let It Go'Throughout it all, fans have fed "Let It Go" fever by churning out their own versions of Idina Menzel's (or is it Adele Dazim's?) ode to self-empowerment. Batman villains,...

Help Me!!!

I've fallen in a YouTube hole of "Let it Go" covers. And really, I have so many more important things to do and articles to write and encroaching deadlines. There are a lot of terrible off-pitch covers all over YouTube though "The Worst" of the covers is obviously Demi Lovato's. Many covers are kind of good but i'm not quite sure about them and there's even a drag version or two one with very hit and miss jokes (but the "the fears that once controlled me" bit in Dixie Lynn Cartwright's is priceless)

But these three I find impressive.

Elizabeth Saw with just the piano and played by ear... which is so cool because it's not exact but the flourishes feel right

Jun Sung Angh with just a violin

And the best vocals I've heard apart from Idina...

Sonnet Son - no mic, editing, no autotuning but...