Orgies, extreme violence, and rampant profanity, this is my type of…comic book? The Boys, written by Garth Ennis, illustrated by Darick Robertson, and published by Dynamite Entertainment is not your typical issue of Spiderman and is far from your Saturday morning episode of Super Friends. And that’s probably why it’s able to gain and maintain the short attention spans of juvenile adults like yours truly.

I was never an X-Men or a Superman fan; I first jumped into comics with the lure of big guns and boobs splattered across the shiny and crisp pages of Image Comics.   →

Image of Kim Chi Museum, licensed under Creative Commons

Hmmm…..I don’t like their kimchi; it’s way too strong, and excuse me, but could I get some more lettuce for my beef? It seems only a few years ago when Asian food for most Americans consisted strictly of General Tso’s and California rolls, with the more recent addition of Pad Thai and spring rolls on the side, but there’s a new player on the street. When Scott and Legler reference it on Sportscenter and Sheen asks MJ if he wants to get some Korean BBQ on a primetime commercial, you know the secret is out. →

The comedy film, Going by the Book, theatrically released in 2007, is a genuinely fresh breath uncharacteristic of the recent sleuth of mediocre remakes and sequels.  The film begins with the incoming police chief of a small provincial town stopped at a four way intersection in the middle of nowhere (imagine the zzyzx exit sans the desert). →

Park Chan Wook of Old Boy and the Vengeance trilogy fame (read prior entries, if you are drawing a blank) has just released the first poster (below, which has been restricted from wide release in Korea because of its arguable sexual innuendo ) and the first teaser (above) for his next film, Thirst, or its Korean language title, Bbak-jee or Bat (Note the neat bat poses in the poster).

→

I like reading books, but often times it can be tough to find the right books to read. Sure, you can easily peruse the display at your local Barnes and Nobles or open the paper for the best sellers lists, but sometimes the “paper version” of  “popcorn flicks” that usually populate those displays and lists  just don’t cut it. →

If you are familiar with Korean cinema, you have undoubtedly heard of Korea’s version of Tarantino, Park Chan Wook (he has written every movie he directed.) With its extreme, but beautifully executed violence, his masterpiece, Old Boy essentially placed an asterisk next to South Korea in the international film community.

→

Many of you more adventurous cinephiles might have had some brushes with Korean cinema. Especially, with the advent of the internet coupled with the seemingly current zeitgeist to experience and claim knowledge of more obscure or unknown entries, of course, only in my humble opinion, some of you might have had the pleasure to discover Park Chan Wook’s Old Boy or even the recent The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (the most current work of the director of today’s film of choice).  A Bittersweet Life by Kim Ji Woon →