South Korean movies are making a strong showing at the Cannes Film Festival, riding on a wave of enthusiasm for series like Squid Game and movies like Parasite, and catering to a taste for sophisticated intrigue and polished action.
“It feels like a golden age for South Korean productions,” said Lee Jung-jae, the superstar actor in Netflix’s Squid Game, whose debut as a director, Hunt, has screened out of competition at Cannes.
“And that’s just the beginning,” he told AFP.
The Hollywood Reporter called Hunt, which tells the story of two South Korean secret agents who compete with each other to unmask a North Korean mole, a “twisty espionage thriller,” while The Wrap noted an abundance of “double agents, buried secrets and lots of broken arms”.
In the running for the coveted Palme d’Or, meanwhile, is Decision to Leave by director Park Chan-wook, who told AFP his country’s turbulent postwar history had shaped the collective personality of South Koreans, and made for interesting film production.
“We went through extreme situations and that has changed our character,” he said. “That goes for both the film-going public and filmmakers. We don’t have a tranquil or zen character, we’re temperamental and that’s reflected in our films and series.”
