South Korean cinema

Mubi.com was one of my great gains from lockdown. It started unbelievably, with an offer of THREE MONTHS FREE membership as a trial, but since that expired I’ve been more than happy to spend £6.00 a month - which has probably involved my watching a dozen films in that time. they’re a real mixture, not all brilliant, but there’s so much you can sample that you’d otherwise miss.

Over the last fortnight, for instance , I’ve watched Winter’s Night, Moving On, Heart and The First Lap. All South Korean, each by a different director, and all made in the last five years. No, they’re not as gobsmacking as Parasite, but very films are. They are, though, serious, intelligent presentations of normal people, treated sensitively in a warm and realistic fashion - a real pleasure to watch. And there’s a massive bonus in linking them up, seeing them as a strand, which is the kind of thing Mubi does all the time. Yes, I know the real aficionados would say that you have to see it on a screen, but these would never reach our local multiplex, and I’m very happy to watch them here.