Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageResurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002)
Director: Jang Sun-Woo
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Jang's splendid folly uses the form and digital effects of a mainstream blockbuster to explore two besetting questions: (1) Can you live in a tropical paradise on someone else's money? (2) Can the ego be transcended by chasing the yellow butterfly of Taoism? Ju (Kim Hyun-Sung, admirably ordinary) delivers Chinese food for the Great Wall Restaurant and dreams of becoming a champion gamer. He enters the virtual reality game of the title (the object is to save Hans Christian Andersen's forlorn heroine from assorted predators so that she can safely freeze to death), but very quickly loses his identity and his ammo. And the Match Girl (now selling cheap lighters) suddenly starts taking her defence into her own hands. Despite fabulous casting (famous Chinese transsexual Jin Xing as the lesbian game player Lara) and spectacular stunts, it doesn't really work as a genre movie - which is no doubt why it lost money on Korean release. But as a Jang Sun-Woo auteur piece it's up there with Hwa-om-kyung: a philosophical fun-ride with thrills, spills and a serenely materialistic happy ending.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Jang Sun-Woo
Producer: Kim Seung-Bom, Yoo In-Taek, Lee Kang-Bok, Huh Chang-Kyung
Cast: Yim Eun-Kyung, Kim Hyun-Sung, Kim Jin-Pyo, Jin Xing, Myung Kay-Nam, Pierre Rissient full cast
Genre(s): Fantasy
Duration: 124 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now