5 South Korean Movies To Watch If You Loved Squid Game + Is Streaming at Home Still Supporting Film? + Movie Review: The Starling (Netflix)

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's Movie podcast, your go to source for all things movies, and I'm your host Movie Mike. Today, I'm giving you five South Korean movies you need to watch. If you're like me and Binge watched with Game on Netflix. I also got into a heated Twitter debate about streaming and the way you support film nowadays, so I'll get into that argument that happened. Have a spoiler free movie review from a new Netflix movie, and some trailers to talk about in the trailer park. I think a lot of you have still been enjoying that segment, so we're keeping it going for another week. Appreciate you for being subscribed to listening to the podcast every single week. With that any further ado, let's get started. In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast. A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking au MTV with glasses from the Nashville Podcast Networking Movie Movie Podcast. So you're like me and you Binge watched Squid Game on Netflix. You may be thinking to yourself, what other things from South Korea could I watch. And there have been some movies before Squid Game came out that I really loved, but I think it was kind of watching Squid Game and being reminded about those that I realized, like, they make some amazing content and oftentimes as Americans, we're a little bit turned off by subtitles, and I think it was a movie I'll get you later on this list that really kind of opened my eyes to the fact that once you get past that, there's just so many movies out there that you can really enjoy and you're really missing out in some great stories. I think Austro winning director Bond june Ho really said it best. He said, once you overcome the one inch barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films. And I really can't agree more with that statement. So I wanted to share with you five movies I watch if you're looking for more great South Korean art and films. So at number five is a movie called Trained to Boss On From And if you're in this bombie movies, I know, just a whole month long of Halloween and scary movies, but I feel like it's always the right time for a zombie movie. They're kind of their own thing, not as popular as they once were in like the late two thousands tens. But a good zombie movie, when done right, has a couple of things going for it. It has the action, it has the horror, but it also has the crazy death scenes and the emotional connection to the characters. And this movie from has all of those things and a little bit more. It's about this man along with the strange daughter, and they're on this train basically just trying to fight out some crazy zombies along with all the other passengers. And what makes this movie different than an American zombie movie is the action. I would say in this one, the sense of urgency they created in the film of giving it a pacing to makes you feel a little bit anxious. And then I just feel like this movie holds nothing back as far as the story goes. It really goes all in and became one of my favorite zombie movies of all time. And the other good thing about this type of movie with this action is kind of violence. This kind of storyline, even if you don't fully follow along to the subtitles, you basically get what's going on just by the action. So at number five is trained to boost on from at number four. Is a movie from seventeen called A Taxi Driver, and this one is based on a true story, and I think I just love the overall shift in what this movie was at the beginning to what it became at the end. Again, I won't say any spoilers about this one, but I really didn't know what expect when I watched this movie. It starts out a story about a taxi driver working in Soul, barely making it. He's trying to raise his daughter as a single father, and he gets this job kind of by accident, kind of by him forcing his way into this about where he is taking this German reporter to a city called wang Jew and he is there from Germany trying to cover this nineteen eight uprising that is happening but not being reported on. So it kind of goes from this story of just a guy trying to make ends me trying to raise his daughter, really finding any way he can make money, kind of trying waste he can save money, a guy who's a little bit just in his own world because he's an all out really survival mode and then gets this opportunity to make a bunch of money, but then realizes that something is going on that is larger than him. And just how this movie scales from being this small little story about this guy to this really big thing that ends up affecting the entire world. And I've never really seen that kind of dynamic shift in a movie before. And it's through the storytelling and the way this movie is shot and the director's vision to make this movie come to life. That was really refreshing for me. And there's moments in this movie that you feel sad, There's moments in this movie where you feel really happy. There's even moments in this movie where you feel scared. There's such a range of emotion from this and I think it's also just through the acting. And this is a movie where you will have to follow along with the subtitles to understand what is happening. But what I find, and I'll explain kind of with all these movies, is you are watching a movie with subtitles, it does kind of make you focus into more of what the story is and exactly what's going on. Because what I think I find is I hyper focus in on the dialogue. I'm paying attention to every single thing coming out of every person's mouth when watching a movie like this and subtitles, and it almost makes you enjoy it a little bit more. It feels like you're reading but also seeing it. And while you're not getting the actual like inflections of all the emotions, through that, through the visual storytelling, and then through you're reading it, you're able to really create a bigger picture in your mind. Is why I think that we should not let this barrier kind of keep us from watching these movies, and why I encourage you to check out at least some of these movies, and why I encourage you to check these out. And while the whole reason I'm doing this entire episode is to give you these recommendations of movies I just find proven to be good even if you don't speak the language. At number three is a movie called Minari, which came out last East Year. I actually reviewed loose when it came out because I was really excited about it, one because it's in four Film, which is a movie studio I'm just a big fan of. But two I felt that it kind of represented my story on a couple levels. It's a story about a family who moved to the United States from Korea and they moved to a small farm in Arkansas and are living in a really small trailer out on just a piece of land in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas. And it deals with a couple of things I experienced in my childhood. One being broke to having parents that don't speak English. Three living in a trailer which I did up until I was probably fifteen years old. And then four is assimilating to American culture. It's a hard thing to do while you come from another country and you want to be proud of that. You want to bring over your values. You still want to hold the things that make you, but you also want to fit in. You want to be a part of American culture and know about things going on in the United States. So it's a struggle of wanting to belong but also wanting to keep your identity and the things that really make you you in this whole new place, and it can be scary, especially when you don't speak the language. So this movie is really about the search of the American dream for this Korean family. I think if you're like me and lived in a trailer park, you will relate to some parts of this story of how hard it is to keep an entire family in such a tight space. And again it also deals with those struggles of assimilating into American culture, how it is for non English speaking people living in this country. And this movie takes place during the eighties, so it was a lot different than than it is now. And really at the core of this movie, it's a movie about family and how important it is to stay together through the hard times do things as a family, and raising your kids and getting everybody to a point to where everybody is happy. So it is a drama, but there's also some comedy in there. Acting is really great. I love the grandmother in this movie, and I think one of my favorite things was when she won the Oscar for her performance in this movie. She kind of called out Brad Pitt of meeting him for the first time because he is an executive producer on this movie, and she was like, Hi, Brad Pitt, it's nice to finally meet you. I think that was one of my favorite moments. But that is a Minari from at number three. At number two is the one I watched the most recently. It's a movie called Oak Ja came out in seventeen on Netflix, and that is Okay j A. It is the name of this super pig in the movie, and out of all these movies, I think it's the one I was expecting to like the least. And I actually remember seeing this on Netflix before, kind of scrolling by and thinking that that movie is not for me because I hadn't seen many South Korean movies and I was like, I'm not going to enjoy that. But this movie is actually part English and part Korean, and I wasn't expecting to love it because it's a sci fi adventure. Really, it's about this fictional super pig name Oakja, and it's the story about this young girl who raises this super pig. Because there's a whole global thing going on. It's basically this company who was trying to find an alternative way to make food in order to feed the entire world. So they send out these creatures, these basically what they call them are super pigs, and they send him out all over the world to live with all these different families, to raise them and to grow them. And then after ten years time goes by, they'll have this big unveiling of all of them and it'll be launching this whole new product of this new meat. So it's this girl who has been the caretaker of Okja, living at her home in the mountains and South Korea for ten years, and here come the Americans to her home to take away her best friend basically and bring him to the United States. And it's her mission in the movie to save him. So it really just turns into a big adventure film. You also have a great cast with Jake Jillenhall playing the face of this corporation kind of like a zany Zookeeper TV personality. But then you also have a little bit more serious actors like Paul Dano who's going to be in the new Batman movie as the Riddler. He plays the head of this animal rights activist group who is trying to stop this corporation's evil plan. And I think the thing I love the most about the movie is the visual aspect for them to be able to create this big, gigantic pig slash elephant slash hippo like thing creature and make it look realistic to the point to where the humans in the movie interacting with them, putting their hand on them, like I honestly could believe while watching this movie that this thing is a real creature that existed somewhere. So a plus special effects. I also like the way it kind of blends English and Korean together in a movie. And it's from director Bong June Ho, who is probably now my favorite South Korean director. Great storytelling, great visual effects. So at number two, I'm going with oak Cha again. You can watch that on Netflix and it came out and you just spell that, okay j a. And then at number one, I'm putting the movie that really introduced me into South Korean filmmaking from is Parasite, which is one of my favorite movies of the last five years despite any genre, like one of my favorite movies of all time, if I'm being honest, came out in which I think is hands down one of the greatest years in all of film. And it's also from director Bong June Ho, So he holds both the number two and the number one spot on this list. And I remember my feeling of going into watching this movie. I went to watch it at a small theater here in Nashville called the Bell Court, which is the only theater in town that had this movie at the time because it was a smaller independent movie, and I loved the Bell Court here because they do that. There are a small independent theater that takes pride on showing international films. And I guess I felt a little apprehensive going into watching a movie like this in theaters. I think the first movie with subtitles I've ever seen in theaters, and I didn't know how I was going to react to not knowing the language they were speaking, and if I was going to be able to understand the story, which was my main concern. But within twenty minutes of watching Parasite, there was no problem whatsoever. I didn't even second guess that I was reading something I was watching the movie. It just kind of comes second nature to you of being able to watch what's going on in the screen but also read along with the movie. And I just loved the story in this movie. It's about this unemployed family and they try to basically con this family into hiring them all on to their staff, this very rich family. And despite the movie poster, despite the name Parasite, it's not a scary movie at all. There's just a lot of suspense, a lot of drama, with a little touch of comedy, and what I found the most surprising is that all of that translates through the subtitles. Like I found myself laughing in this movie, I found myself being anxious in this movie. I found myself having all those emotions just by reading the subtitles. And I credit that again to the director and his vision in this movie. And I also love that this movie tackles concepts bigger than what you see on screen. There's a whole concept of greed, class discrimination, the relationship between the wealthy and the lower class. I love the way the house was personified in this movie, which was a unique thing in a movie that I felt like the house itself that the family lived in, was a character in its own Stylistically, this movie looked unlike anything I had seen that came out that year, and I think that's why that ended up winning for Best Picture. It was a novel story, It was novel in the way it was shot, and it became the first non English language film to win for Best Picture. Only have good things to say about parasites, So that's why I put them at number one on this list. So I encourage you if you haven't seen that one to watch Parasite first and then work your way back through all of this list. I'm yet to see a bad movie from South Korea, so hopefully you'll enjoy these two. Let me know which one you checked out, Send me a tweet or send me an email. Movie Mike d at gmail dot com. I love a good movie debate. I just got in one on Twitter with a listener named Paul. Shout out to Paul. If you're listening to this now, and to think about debates online is sometimes you can see them like heated and like you're both going after each other. But as long as you never really go with each other personally or make just accusations, I'm fine with a good debate, especially when it comes to movies, because it's all opinion based. If you're listening right now, I have listened for any amount of time to this podcast, you probably don't agree with all my reviews. Everything I say about movies, you're not supposed to. These are merely my opinions. But the debate I just got into with Paul was he kind of called me out for last week watching Dune on HBO and Max as opposed to going to the movie theater and I kind of commented replied back jokingly that I'm trying to get the most out of my HBO Max subscription, and that just kind of turned into this back and forth of what it means to support cinema right now. And if you listen to this podcast for any amount of time, you know I am the biggest advocate of going to the theaters. Every time I talk about movies and when they come out and when I'm excited about them, I always say that I favor the movie going experience. I love going to see it on the big screen, experiencing the big sound, just everything that goes into seeing a movie in theaters is what I really love. But over the last year and a half, I've also realized that supporting movies and supporting film has greatly changed. And just because you don't buy a ticket, I don't think that means that you're not supporting movies. I kind of look at it now the way music has adapted to streaming. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD. I can't remember the last time I bought a physical copy of anything. But I pay for music subscription services to listen to my favorite artists. That's supporting an artist in one way, but from my favorite artist, I go a step further and I'll buy merchandise, I'll go pay to watch them in concert, So that's a whole different level. Movies are a little bit different. But I think the benefit here is that we are able to pick now what we want to do most of the time when it comes to how we see a new movie. And just like in music, if we have an HBO Max subscription and we choose to watch a movie available there at home, we're still supporting that movie. And I often reference interview I read recently with director James Gunn, who just did Suicide Squad. Basically he says that he really doesn't care how people watch his movies. He references the movie Jobs, which is his favorite movie, and how he never got to see that movie in theaters. But from the power of it being now on streaming services, from the power of it being on TV all the time, that movies are really able to live more than just their theater run. So in turn, I think that comes back to what it really means to support film right now, and the lines have really kind of become blurred. But I think as long as you're not stealing movies, going and ripping them offline or downloading you know, bit torrent files to what movies you have them on a streaming service, you go see them in theaters? Do you wait for them to come out on blue ray? All of those things are supporting movies because at the end of the day, I think directors and actors really just want to get their work out there and appreciated. They're looking for passionate movie fans like you and I to go out through word of mouth, tell friends, and ultimately get to where they can make another movie. So at the end of the day, we're all going to have our ability to choose how we take in a movie. And when it came to Dune, I wasn't that excited to see that movie. I know it was a highly anticipated movie, and Paul, who I was commenting with on Twitter here, said that this movie really deserved to be seen in the theater of the large scale, and I even said that in my review. But I don't think that took away from me interpreting the storytelling, interpreted how I felt about that movie. I don't think the cinematography alone was going to make me enjoy that movie. Anymore, it was gonna change the way I felt about the characters and about the overall lull I just felt from that movie. So anyway, that was the debate I had with Paul, a very reasonable adult debate. At the end of it, we decided to agree to disagree, and the best part, nobody called each other any names, and it all just kind of helped a healthy discussion about movies. But I also think it comes down to doing what you want to do. Sometimes, if you have a big family, it's a lot easier to watch a movie at home and maybe pay the premium price on Disney Plus or watching on HBO Max, and sometimes you just want to get out of the house and go watch a movie in the theaters. For me, each week doing this podcast, I kind of take a week by week deciding what I want to experience in theaters, what I think warrants the big screen. For a movie like June, wasn't that excited about it, chose to watch it at home. But for a movie coming out later this week, like The Eternals, I love superhero movies. I know I'm probably going to really enjoy that movie, so I want to see it on the biggest screen possible. So there you go. Whether you watch something at home, whether you watch something in theaters, you can still support film as long as you're not selling blue rays out of the trunk of your car. I think we're all good here. It's gonna get into a movie review now, talking about a movie called The Starling, which is on Netflix. It stars Melissa McCarthy Chris O'Dowd. So we're taking a total departure from all the horror movie talk and reviews we've done in the last month and getting into something that will get you in your fields. And if you haven't seen a trailer for this movie yet, here's just a little bit of The Starling. I just damn minute to figure out what happens next. You everything everyone character for nine months, So why are you here? Jack? It's not about Katie's about tracking you. How do you restart? So your shrink but in a vet form? Yes technically. So. My wife and I watched this movie because we needed a little bit of a palate cleanser from all the crazy things and we've been watching lately, and I think that's exactly what we got out of this movie. It's a comedy slash drama It stars Milsa McCarthy and Chris O'Dowd and they are married in this movie, and it's about them dealing with the loss of their daughter, which you learned very early on in the movie that they lost their daughter, and both are dealing in very different ways of how to tackle grief and how to really kind of get back to the life they had before this tragic loss. Chris O'Dowd gets checked into a mental facility and Melissa McCarthy really kind of keeps going with her life as normal, working at a grocery store, living at home alone and just going to visit her husband once a week, driving an hour there and back both ways, and really kind of takes a toll on her to the point to where she learns that she never really dealt with the loss of her daughter because with her husband going away, she kind of had to be the strong one and stay at home and was never really able to process those emotions. And the way the bird comes into play in this movie is why it's named the Starling, and the specific bird starts to torment her as she takes on the hobby of gardening while trying to deal with all these emotions and it ends up kind of being a metaphor for her in her marriage and dealing with the loss of her daughter, and how she ends up doing that is through an unusual form of therapy that you find out in the movie, and through that therapy she's able to tackle on her grief. You learn more about her character, what exactly happened to their daughter, and overall just kind of learn that we all kind of process things in a different way. You have two very different reactions to the same tragic event in this movie. I thought Melissa McCarthy did a great job in this role, specifically because I've kind of seen her in recent things shift from being just the comedic actress that she kind of built her brand onto now having a little bit more of a range, a little bit more I don't even want to say just a straight on, like oh, a more dramatic side, which we saw in Nine Perfect Strangers that she was in, but just having like a full on more range of like tools interacting belt to where at the same time that she can be comedic in a role like this, she can also have she can also show these high notes of vulnerability and a character dealing with something so serious here, but It doesn't feel in any way like forced, in any way like it's like, oh, it's Melissa McCarthy trying to do a more dramatic role. It just feels very natural to watch her be like this, and I think that's just kind of attributed to her being such a great actress who has been in things for years now. So I really like this kind of avenue she's created for herself right now. I think it works both in limited serious that she's done this year and in this movie, So I would like to see more things from her like this. So I also would say this is a great date night movie if you're wanting something to watch with your significant other, husband or wife, if you're looking for a good drama, I would write this one three point seven five at a five Snowballs, which will learn about why I picked Snowballs after watching this movie. And while I loved it, like I did say at the beginning of this, there's no bells and whistles on this movie. It's a very straightforward drama, so it doesn't quite get to that four star range. But I think this movie knew exactly what it was going for. It wasn't trying to be anything bigger than it was. Also love the easy accessibility for this one on Netflix. I think this will end up being a nice little hidden gem on there. I don't think it's sad enough to the point that it will make you cry. It's more on the heartwarming level of emotion. So that is the startling on Netflix. Time now for the newest segment on the podcast, movie Mike's Trailer Park. And I think we all know why I call it this, right. It is a node to the days that I lived in the trailer park back and walk Satti, Texas. So it's back to those roots. But it's also movie trailers to get a collection of them at the trailer Park. Just making sure we're all on the same page. Here, here we go, it's time to head down the movie al right. First up in the trailer Park this week is a trailer that I felt caused some controversy and confusion last week, and it is light Year, which is the story of the real quote unquote Buzz light Year in the toy Story universe. So I think where some people got confused, and I guess I get it is everybody thought that this was still the Buzz Lightyear toy from the Toy Store and movies, And what I found is the director said, what light Year is this movie that's coming out next year. In theory would be the movie that Andy from Toy Story went to go see that gave his desire to want to own the buzz light your toy that he got on his birthday and Toy Story, so it's kind of an origin story of the actual buzz Lightyear that inspired the toy. Here's just a little bit of that trailer. Recorders are on or to Infinity Damn, and that is it. So it's really just basically a teaser. But what you saw in that trailer is buzz light You're in his iconic suit. He looks more like a human, of course, because he is no longer a toy. You see a spaceship which also resembles the spaceship packaging that buzz Lightyear came in on. You see what his villain is going to be like in the movie. It kind of looks like an Emperor Zurg type space invader situation. And what I'm seeing about this movie is it to sci fi animated movie greatly kind of inspired by Star Wars, which there was always a little bit of loose Star Wars tie in, especially in Toys three two with the whole Zerg thing, and this movie is kind of being described as a love layter to sci fi. I'm excited for it. I love the fact that it's not just a solo Buzz Lightyear movie. It's going a step further and doing something I really haven't seen done before, of kind of going backwards but still in the Toy story universe. I think that's great. I like the fact that it's Chris Evans voicing this, and again, it's not the same buzz Lightyear, so there'd be no reason for Tim Allen to voice this. He voices the toy buzz Lightyear. They needed a voice for the human buzz light Year, so that's the reason they got Chris Evans. I think visually this movie looks really great, Like I think this is probably gonna be like Pixar's best animation they've ever done. They've never really tackled sci fi like this before, and I think their animation in their style really lends itself really great to that kind of world. So I'm excited to see that. And I'm also just excited to have a movie in the Toy Store universe. That's not a Toy Story five. Like I think, like I've said on this podcast, Toy Story should have been a trilogy, part fowards, like just the epilogue of the franchise. I don't think it added anything to it. But I think if this movie is a hit and successful, I mean, they could go back and do a movie like this for what He's you know, round up that was a TV show in Toy Story two. I think it really kind of opens up a whole other world for Disney, for Pixar. I hope it's successful. I hope the fact that people are a little bit confused by the premise of it doesn't hold people back from going to see it, and you know, it doing what it should at the box office. So that's why I'm excited for that movie. It comes out on June. So next summer, got a big animated movie to look forward to. Next up in the trailer park is a new Sandra Bullock movie that looks pretty intense. It's called The Unforgivable. And here is just a little bit of that trailer. John, there's a woman in the front yard. Can I help you with something? If you're a lawyer, what would Katherine j are meeting her now, I wonder at the time she looks like but she became your life starts here now, not twenty years ago. She did her time. She killed somebody in cold blood. If that were any of your black sons who had been in the system, that would be dead. So this movie looks pretty intense, Like I said, Sandra Bullock Viola Davis, and the trailer tells a little bit about what the story is going to be about, and from what I've pulled, it's about Sandra Bullocks. She's an ex convict. She reunites with her sister twenty years after being in jail for a crime. She committed that they don't really reveal what it is in the movie, since it is a crime drama. You're kind of probably finding out as the movie goes along or what exactly happened. But at one point in the trailer she's called a cop killer. And the whole what I see is the plot of this movie. She's coming back trying to get her life back together, but also trying to reunite with her daughter and have a relationship there. She's fighting this legal battle of being able to see her what it looks like, and I think you'll find out exactly what happened, who she killed, why she killed them. But I think this is gonna be a pretty big role for Sandra bull Like just by the look of her in this movie, she looks very kind of unlike herself, looks like a very gritty role. There's a lot of like yelling and dramatic screaming in this. So it's her character named Ruth and this violent crime that I'm very curious to learn about. All she really says in the trailer is that it was an accident, and it's other people saying it wasn't an accident. You are responsible for killing somebody in cold blood. So excited to see that. One looks like a good drama. Comes out for a limited release in theaters on November and then it will premiere on Netflix on December. So the reason it comes out in theaters first is to give it that initial small theater run. So that would mean that would qualify to be nominated for an Oscar, which is probably what they're going for. Here. You get Sandra Bullock and a dramatic movie like this, You're chasing that oscar. Putting out a movie in November December for sure, So if you're looking to watch a potential Oscar nominee, I would say watch this movie when it comes out. All right, that's going to do it for this week's episode. But before I hop out of here, every single week, I give a shout out to one of you listening to the podcast and commenting online, sending me a d m an email at movie Mike d at gmail dot com, just as a thank you for listening to the podcast and just to know that I see all the comments you send in. I see all the tweets that come through, and I think it's your interaction with this podcast that has really helped it grow and really made it something unlike any other movie podcast I've seen out there, So I really appreciate that. This week, we're going over to the Facebook comments on my Facebook page, which is Facebook dot com slash Mike Destro if you want to go follow that post a bunch of movie content over there, and it's from Sherry Morris, who says I was catching up on this podcast yesterday and listening while in the car with my fourteen year old son. We arrived at our destination a few minutes early, and I asked him if you wanted to go in, and he said, no, I want to finish listening to this. It's been reference to the podcast, and she says, I asked him if he wanted me to wait for him to finish, and he said yes. So, Mike, you gained a young new listener, so appreciate that. So that's a shout out to Sherry and your son Reese. Appreciate you both listening to the podcast, and not only that, that you listened to an entire episode all the way through, so that means a lot to me. I hope you guys have a great week and until next time, I'll talk to you here on the podcast later