166 - New Group Review + Fantastic Film Festival Highlights

Two Asian Blokes Podcast returns with Korean cinema hype, Fantastic Film Festival highlights, and one of the strangest J-horror comedies we’ve seen in a while.We kick things off by talking about several upcoming South Korean films that already have us cautiously optimistic. There’s Hope from Na Hong-jin, best known for The Wailing, The Brigands of Rattlecreek from Park Chan-wook of Oldboy fame, and Colony from Yeon Sang-ho, director of Train to Busan. In other words, South Korean genre cinema continues to refuse to slow down.After that, we dive into this year’s Fantastic Film Festival, where we caught retrospective screenings of Ichi the Killer and Love Exposure, alongside newer releases like The Girl Who Stole Time, a visually stunning 2025 Chinese animated film, and About a Place in the Kinki Region, a Japanese found footage horror movie that quietly gets under your skin.Then we get to the main review of the episode: New Group, a satirical Japanese horror-comedy directed by rising filmmaker Yuta Shimotsu. The film follows introverted high schooler Ai and rebellious transfer student Yu as they navigate a deeply bizarre social phenomenon where classmates and community members transform into mindless followers obsessed with forming grotesque human pyramids.Subtlety is not on the menu here. New Group wears its themes directly on its sleeve, swings hard at conformity and social pressure, and somehow becomes more effective because of it. It’s strange, funny, uncomfortable, and exactly the kind of movie we love talking about on this podcast.🔔 SUBSCRIBE to Two Asian Blokeshttps://www.youtube.com/@twoasianblokes?sub_confirmation=1⏱️ Timestamps:00:00 Introduction05:42 Upcoming South Korean Films We’re Excited For12:50 Fantastic Film Festival Retrospectives – Ichi the Killer & Love Exposure20:57 The Girl Who Stole Time (2025) – Spoiler-Free Review28:32 About a Place in the Kinki Region – Spoiler-Free Review41:20 New Group – Spoiler-Free Review55:51 New Group Spoiler Discussion💬 What upcoming Korean or Japanese films are you most excited for? And would you survive the social nightmare of New Group?📩 Email us: [email protected]👥 Join the Friends of Two Asian Blokes Facebook group🎧 Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts📱 Follow us on Instagram & TikTok: @twoasianblokes#NewGroup #JapaneseHorror #JHorror #FantasticFilmFestival #ParkChanWook #NaHongJin #YeonSangHo #MovieReview #AsianCinema #TwoAsianBlokes