Some films that I was really looking forward to that were solid but just missed the cut included Kim So-young's For Ellen, Chung Ji-young's National Security and Pen-ek's Headshot. I also saw a good number of excellent docos (as you can see by the top 10), some of my favs included Planet of Snail, The Reason Why I Step, Arirang and Buck. A few surprises that impressed me were Kim Ki-duk's Amen, the Canadian comedy Starbuck, the Korean indie hit Dangerously Excited, the Andy Lau starring A Simple Life and the quasi-doco The Imposter. My guilty pleasure of the year has to go to Spy Kids 4.
My favourite performances of the year have to go to Choi Min-sik in Nameless Gangster. Yoo Jun-sang in In Another Country and Ryoo Seung-ryong in All About My Wife, while I developed big crushes on Choi Yoon-yeong (As One), Kim Byul (Dangerously Excited) and Kang Soo-yeon (Hanji).
My biggest disappointment of the year has to go to The Thieves, not because of the hype but because I thought all the amazing cast were completely wasted. I also thought Yoo Ji-tae's foray into directing was an absolute disaster with the horrible Mai Ratima, a huge disappointment as I love any film about Korea-Thai relations. Maybe I just couldn't get over the fact he cast a Korean as the Thai immigrant. Other honorable mentions for being terrible films include Perfect Number, Miss Conspirator and Prometheus (may as well chuck it in too).
Read on below for mini reviews of my top 10. Agree, Disagree, comment below.
