Film Picks: Mist, Kill and Twisters
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Yoon Jeong-hee (left) and Shin Seong-il in Mist (1967).
PHOTO: KOREAN FILM ARCHIVE
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Mist (NC16)
79 minutes
The late South Korean film-maker Kim Soo-yong (1929 to 2023) had a career that ran from the 1950s to 2000.
In that time, he created works that have become cherished as examples of South Korean cinema’s golden age from 1955 to 1972.
Mist (1967) is adapted from the 1964 novel A Journey To Mujin by author Kim Seung-ok.
The film tells the story of Yun Gi-jun (Shin Seong-il), a troubled married man who flees Seoul for his home town of Mujin to see his mother’s grave. He meets music teacher Ha In-suk (Yoon Jeong-hee) and they begin a relationship.
According to the Asian Film Archive (AFA), Mist is a modernist classic that inspired director Park Chan-wook’s romantic mystery Decision To Leave (2022).
Mist features “atmospheric cinematography, steeped in melancholy, and standout performances from its two leading actors”, says the AFA.
The black-and-white film is screened as part of Reciprocal 2024: Asian Film Archive x Korean Film Archive, a collaborative film programme that in 2024 puts a spotlight on the theme of voyages through cinematic storytelling.
Where: Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore, 1 Canning Rise asianfilmarchive.org/event-calendar/mist-1967
MRT: City Hall/Bras Basah
When: July 20, 5pm
Admission: $10 (general), $9 (concession)
Info:
Kill (M18)
105 minutes, now showing
4 stars
In Kill, Lakshya (centre) plays a special forces soldier who finds himself trapped in a train with bandits.
PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION
In a movie landscape filled with pretenders, two factors make this savage work of martial arts action stand out.
The first is the quality of the fights – they are brutal, realistic and shot with clarity.
Then there are the villains. This Hindi-language work, directed and co-written by Indian film veteran Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, features the most hateable baddies in recent film memory.
Special forces soldier Amrit (Lakshya) boards a train, hoping to interrupt the upcoming arranged marriage of his beloved, Tulika (Tanya Maniktala). She and her family are passengers, on their way to arrange the wedding he is trying to prevent.
On the same train are more than 30 bandits disguised as travellers. When they reveal themselves, Amrit and his buddy, fellow soldier Viresh (Abhishek Chauhan), are the only ones standing between the bandits and mass robbery, or worse.
This is the one-versus-many plot of Die Hard (1988), if it met the hand-to-hand combat style of Nobody (2021) and both films were set in a single location.
Twisters (PG13)
123 minutes, now showing
4 stars
(From left) Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), Javi (Anthony Ramos) and Tyler (Glen Powell) in Twisters, directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
PHOTO: WBEI
It takes talent to make this much corniness palatable. Director Lee Isaac Chung not only manages to pull it off, but also makes the ride fun, though he stops short of making any of it memorable or worthy of a rewatch.
He steps up to this big-budget project after the success of Minari (2020). The Oscar-nominated drama was his semi-autobiographical take on his boyhood as the child of immigrants who moved from South Korea to rural America.
Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a meteorologist who survived a deadly tornado that claimed the lives of her colleagues. The incident has soured storm-chasing for her, but her old friend and fellow survivor Javi (Anthony Ramos) lures her into taking one more job by assuring her that her work will save lives.
On the tornado-blighted plains of Oklahoma, she meets Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a social media influencer who chases fame with as much energy as he chases storms.
This take on the 1996 original is a faithful do-over of the main story elements, but what it lacks in originality, it makes up for in heart.
