Screening together with Cashbag (2019, 25 min)

With Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977), Possession (1981) and A Ghost Story (2017) as its nearest analogues, Park Syeyoung’s experimental fungal slasher tracks a mattress, and the spores growing on it, as they pass through the hands of different owners and users, including lovers at different stages of their relationships and a terminally ill woman. As the fungus rapidly evolves and subtly apes the manners of its human hosts, it vampirically absorbs a vertebra from each to build itself into anthropomorphic form.

A melancholic, monstrous romantic horror with a very unusual take on time, this sets human dramas and dreams against a much broader, more irrational canvas of nature. Episodic and abstract, its utterly gonzo premise drifts to an ending of unexpected sadness and awe. Meanwhile Park’s (non-horror) short Cashbag, which follows a man in a series of nocturnal transactions, ends in a similar waterside location.

Anton Bitel

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In his estranged, recently deceased father’s old banger, repo man Yeong-bae (Son Ho-jun) pursues his debt-ridden friend Dong-sik (Lee Kyu-hyung) and the drug-filled Lamborghini that Dong-sik has stolen. With gangsters on his tail, Yeong-bae races down memory lane with a vehicle that is both a battered sentimental object from his happier childhood and quite possibly a living, sentient machine. This comic road/chase movie is an improbable blend of Drive My Car and Bumblebee, fuelled by nostalgia and real charm.

Anton Bitel

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Following the memorable box office titans The Thieves and Assassination, hitmaker Choi Dong-hoon returns with his biggest project to date, the giddy first installment of an ambitious two-part period drama/sci-fi action offering. The veteran director ably commands an A-list cast that includes The Handmaiden’s (2016) Kim Tae-ri, Believer (2018)’s Ryu Jun-yeol and big screen return of Kim Woo-bin.

Borrowing a page or two from classic yesteryear Hollywood sci-fi action classics like Alien, Back to the Future and Terminator, Alienoid’s breathless genre medley bounces around past and present with a colourful coterie of oddball characters and trenchant humour, with Choi’s jaunty and unmistakable directorial stamp clearly shining through.

The prongs and protagonists of this sprawling and dynamic fable coalesce into an explosive climax that will leave you hankering for more. Lucky for you, part two will be heading to a theatre near you next year.

Pierce Conran

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