Jo I-jin (조이진)

"Family Ties" ("The Birth of a Family") Wins Top Prize at Home

2007/06/12 | Source | Permalink |

The nation's oldest film awards ceremony, the Grand Bell Awards, gave its top prize to low-key hybrid-family-drama "Family Ties" ("The Birth of a Family") , directed by KIM Tae-yong. The film, which has toured a number of international film festivals winning the top prize at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, also picked up a Grand Bell Best Screenplay award. The win was a happy surprise after many expected last summer's
blockbuster The Host to take top honors. "The Host" did however snatch up a Best Director award for BONG Joon-ho and Best Editing for KIM Sun-min.

Actress KIM Ah-Joong, whose fame is spreading like wildfire across south-east Asia, picked up the Best Actress award for her lead in the cutting-comedy "200 Pounds Beauty". The sleeper-hit also took away the Best Cinematography and Best Music awards for PARK Hyun-cheol and LEE Jae-hak respectively. Veteran star AHN Seong-gi received a Best Actor prize for his role in "Radio Star". "Tazza: Th...| More

Go South

2006/04/27 | Source | Permalink |

by Mun-Myung Huh

This movie ("South of the Border") being the first by director Ahn Pan-seok, who previously worked as PD and directed TV dramas such as "The Rose and Bean Sprout", uses humane paradoxical aesthetics to make modern people, who float in buoyant freedom and greed, ponder on the things they take for granted by portraying special people who have deserted their nation and family in order to survive. At a glance, the plot seems a bit flat. Pyongyang Mansoo Art Team horn player Sun-ho (played by Cha Seung-won) and War Memorial guide Yeon-hwa (played by Jo I-jin) are in love with each other. The two lovebirds are excited at the prospect of their upcoming marriage, but their fates are turned when Sun-ho's family is caught exchanging letters with their South Korean relatives and must flee the country.

After successfully fleeing from North Korea after a myriad of events, Sun-ho endeavors to also bring Yeon-hwa to the South, even by being cheated out of his settlement money, ...| More

[MOVIE REVIEW]Comic star's melodramatic acting in 'South of the Border'

2006/04/27 | Source | Permalink |

The only seeming virtue of war seems to be that it enriches the soil of narrative experiences, which explains why there are so many Korean hits dealing with either the Korean War or its aftermaths. Out of the top 10 all-time most successful Korean films in terms of box office earnings, half of them are such films including "Taegukgi" (2004) and "Welcome to Dongmakgol" (2005).

Another promising contender for the list is still yet to come this spring, a film titled "South of the Border", which is about a North Korean defector Seon-ho (Cha Seung-won) who cannot forget his dearest lover Yeon-hwa (Jo I-jin) left behind in the North. But he marries a South Korean woman, Kyung-ju, (Shim Hye-jin) upon hearing the news that Yeon-hwa married in North Korea, which later turned out to be untrue.

Different from most of its predecessors in the category, the film isn't focused on tension between the two Koreas, but is rather devoted to issues related to North Korean defectors in the South while...| More