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My name is Apostolos Papapostolou. I'm 26 years old and a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where I majored in Asian Studies. Besides the obvious, my interests include all kinds of movies, Chicago White Sox baseball (YES!), MST3K, Late Night with Conan, and a broad range of other random things.
My love for cinema was born when I was in middle school and happened across Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai while flipping through the channels one night. The film struck me with its exoticism, its engaging characters, and its extraordinary story. It wasn't only a great action movie to me, it also permanently captivated my imagination. I had never seen anything like it before. Not only was it in another language and made decades before I was born, it was also far more entertaining than the things I was brought with thinking were, i.e. Arnold and Sly. As the years passed and as I grew up I made it my goal to see as many Asian films as possible. Of course, when it came time to go to college, film was my natural choice for a major. After a couple of years of that, though, I realized I was leaning more towards a liberal arts type of education when I grew tired of learning about cinematic techniques and become more and more interested in the ideas of the East. So it was to Asian Studies I went and now I kind of fit somewhere in-between.
It wasn't until just a few years ago that I was first introduced to the films of South Korea and the compelling subject matters they deal with. The films coming from there today hark back to an American cinema of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, a time when movies weren't afraid to leave the formula at home and try something new. The films in Korea today are flowing with originality, individuality, and refreshing new ideas. While Hollywood studious are in a rush to create the next big remake, or another Scooby-Doo movie, talented people that you've never heard of are on the other side of the Pacific working on a new masterpiece. Don't take my word for it though. Join the club, catch a movie, and find out what you've been missing.
