Good News is the new film from Byun Sung-hyun, director of The Merciless and Kill Boksoon, and opens with the caption: “Inspired by true events, but all characters and events portrayed are fictional,” before asking “What is the truth then?”
The event in question is the March 1970 hijacking of Japan Airlines flight 351 by members of the Red Army Faction of the Japan Communist League. What unfolds is a riotously entertaining black comedy about the nature of truth, the power of propaganda and the delicate intricacies of international cooperation.

Featuring an all-star cast that includes Sol Kyung-gu, Hong Kyung, Ryoo Seung-bum and Takayuki Yamada, Good News, which just premiered at the 30th Busan International Film Festival, stays closer to how the events actually played out than its opening statement might suggest.

Read my South China Morning Post review