2023.10.26 Now Playing

New films "Brave Citizen," "The Boy and the Heron," "Open the Door" and "Killers of the Flower Moon" are showing in theaters this week.

A scene from ″Brave Citizen″ [MIND MARK]

Brave Citizen (15)

Drama, action / 112 mins. / Korean / Oct. 25

A former pro boxer-turned-teacher witnesses horrendous violence and bullying taking place at her school and decides to take the matter into her own hands.

Actor Shin Hye-sun plays So Si-min, the boxer-turned-teacher, who seeks justice against Soo-gang, the school bully played by Lee Jun-young. Si-min carries out her vigilante activities with a cat mask on to hide her identity. Soo-gang is backed by his powerful parents and their friends and seems to have no remorse or regret at all regarding his bullying of his fellow classmates. Si-min’s and Soo-gang’s fighting and the action scenes are gripping in “Brave Citizen.”

“Brave Citizen” is an adaption from a webtoon of the same name, from author Kim Jung-hyun, published on Naver Webtoon. The film is directed by Park Jin-pyo.

A scene from ″The Boy and the Heron″ [DAEWON MEDIA]

The Boy and the Heron (All) Animation / 124 mins. / Japanese / Oct. 25

During the Pacific War in 1943, 11-year-old Mahito Maki’s mother is killed in a fire. Mahito must grapple with his grief as he struggles to adjust to life without his mother and form a relationship with his new stepmother, his mother’s younger sister.

Mahito lives at an old estate provided by his father, at which he is pestered by a heron living on the estate. Mahito soon finds out the true identity of the heron and also discovers a book that his late mother had left for him titled “How Do You Live?” with a handwritten note inside. Mahito then ventures into an alternate world.

From the Japanese auteur and animation master Hayao Miyazaki, “The Boy and the Heron” references the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino, which is also the book that appears in the film, but has an entirely different story from Yoshino’s book. “The Boy and the Heron” is Miyazaki’s first film in 10 years, after he announced his retirement in 2013 with the animation “The Wind Rises.”

A scene from ″Open the Door″ [CONTENTS PANDA]

Open the Door (15) Mystery, thriller / 71 mins. / Korean / Oct. 25

Gunshot fires pierce the air in the early morning hours one day at a laundromat in New Jersey. Someone was shot and murdered, but the culprit was not caught and the incident fades from people's minds as time goes by.

Seven years later, two men reminiscing about the good old days over a drink recall the murder case, and a series of unexpected and harrowing events occur around the Korean community in New Jersey. A series of flashbacks reveal what exactly happened those seven years ago, and the characters start suspecting each other of being involved in the case. The film is divided into five chapters.

The film was headed by director Jang Hang-jun, who recently finished the film “Rebound” (2023) and is known for works such as “Ghost House” (2004), “A Hard Day” (2014) and “Forgotten” (2017), and stars Seo Young-joo, Kim Ju-jin and Kang Ae-sim. It premiered at the 27th Busan International Film Festival last year.

A scene from ″Killers of the Flower Moon″ [APPLE TV+]

Killers of the Flower Moon (19) Crime, drama / 206 mins. / English / Oct. 19

A con man and his gullible nephew go deep into the heart of the Osage Native American tribe in Osage County, Oklahoma, with the goal of getting their hands on some of the oil money that belongs to the Osage Native Americans.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, a man who returns from World War I to his rancher uncle William King Hale. After robbing the Native American Osage people with his brother Byron, Ernest gets involved in his uncle’s scheme to take an Osage woman’s oil ownership. But Ernest soon falls in love with the woman, Mollie, and things get complicated.

Robert De Niro plays Hale, Ernest’s uncle. “Killers of the Flower Moon” is director Martin Scorsese’s 26th feature film. Both DiCaprio and De Niro have had long histories of working together with Scorsese.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]