The Mayor (2017)

Director: Park In-je
Notable Cast: Choi Min-sik, Kwak Do-won, Sim Eun-kyeong, Ra Mi-ran, Moon So-ri

Choi Min-sik is an actor whom I can always follow no matter the choices he makes as whether the film he is in is good or not and he always delivers. In The Mayor, Choi not only lives up to his wonderful reputation, but he gives one of the finest performances of his career yet.

The Mayor is a political thriller loaded with twists and turns at every corner. Choi Min-sik plays Byun Jong-go, the mayor of Seoul, who is running for a third term, and if elected he will be the first in the history of South Korea to do so. In his opposition is Yang Jin-joo, played effectively by Ra Mi-ran, a rough contender in the race to the top in what folds out in a total war.

Wailing, The (2016)

Director: Na Hong-jin

Notable Cast: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Jun Kunimura, Chun Woo-hee, Jo Han-chul, Jang So-yeon

At this point, I feel like Na Hong-jin is just fuckin’ with us. There is no way that a director takes his first three feature length films and drops three instant classics. Not just cult classics, but true cinematic classics that rise above their assigned genres and edgy non-mainstream elements. His latest film, the horror thriller The Wailing, is just one more film to add to his already impressive cinematic streak of glory. While The Chaser and The Yellow Sea both redefined the thriller into modern effective tales of woe and shock, The Wailing defines what a modern horror film should look like while retaining the same effective style and writing that made his previous two outings so bold and real. This film will knock the wind out of you. It’s a film that defines the best of what horror has to offer by building a real world with characters you care for…and then utterly destroying it all in front of you. The Wailing is the kind of outsider cinema that every film maker should want to make - thoughtful, shocking, thrilling, and ultimately devastating.