Double Feature: The Housemaid (1960) and The Housemaid (2010)

I was introduced to Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid late last year at the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival with a screening of the World Cinema Foundation’s restored print. I’m not sure exactly what I expected from the film’s reputation – apparently a “consensus pick as one of the top three Korean films of all time.”…

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013)

Last Saturday I made a mid-morning visit to GOMA’s Cinémathèque for a couple documentaries by Hong-Joon Kim on the subject of Korean cinema. It was hardly an accessible double feature: as a fellow critic commented, it was “too niche for its audience of five people,” presenting interesting but opaque oral histories. I expected the same…