Kim Jin-won (김진원)

PiFan adventure closes with prizes

Source | 2008/08/01 | Permalink |

The 12th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) came to a close Sunday Jul. 27 after a thrilling 10-day run. This year's fest brought 1978 official guests to the city of Bucheon, a record number for PiFan, helped along by the addition of its first project market called Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF2008).

PiFan's always exciting official competition section saw 12 high quality films vying for cash prizes, with top honors this year going to a stand-out Korean film that has already shaken up local audiences and won a slew of awards. Sleeper hit The Chaser, directed by Na Hong-jin in his feature debut, captured the "Best of Puchon" prize along with two more awards, making it the night's big winner.

The festival's international jury also handed "The Chaser" a Best Actress prize for Seo Yeong-hee, who played a prostitute brutalized by a deranged serial killer. Another special jury from the European Federation of Fantastic Film Festivals (EFFFF) named The Chaser r...| More

PiFan's NAFF Annouces Project Prizes

Source | 2008/07/25 | Permalink |

The Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival held its inaugural project market, called NAFF2008 (Network of Asian Fantastic Films) amidst great interest from local and international participants. On Wednesday July 23rd, concluding a four-day run, the results of NAFF's project development market 'It Of the 19 projects in the market, an international jury of three selected four projects to US $10,000 for production support. They included two Korean projects: KIM Jin-won's horror movie 'The Devils', which won the PiFan award and JANG Hyeong-yeon's animated comedy 'My Girlfriend is a Brindled Cow', which won the NAFF award.

Other winners were Frank Lin of the USA for his '0 DB', a hip-hop sci-fi which won the Puchon Award, and China's Zhang Yong for 'Bomb Shelter', a ghostly mystery, won the XTM Extreme Project award.

5 films at 'It Project' also won post-production support to the tune of $5000 each. They were Chinese director Xie Dong's '2006 Speed Delivery' and Nathan Ad...| More

[Herald Interview] YB tour to rock Korea once again

Source | 2007/09/19 | Permalink |

Many pop stars, regardless of the genre they're in now, have memories of the head-banging good old days when rock and roll was their lives. Even pretty-faced boy band stars, who have little or no appeal to rock enthusiasts, often brag that they once played rock music when they were students, as if to suggest that they meant to be rock musicians, if only things had turned out better.

Whether or not their claims are true, it is hard to deny that rock music has never been a mainstream in the local pop music market, which has long been dominated by standard ballade and dance music, despite the cult-like status the music has achieved with a great number of would-be singers.

"Koreans seem to have an emotional allergy to rock music", deplored Yoon Do-hyeon, 35, the lead vocalist for the rock band YB, which is short for its original name, the Yoon Do-hyun Band, in an interview with The Korea Herald on Thursday. "Maybe we are too sophisticated deep inside, having too many sad stories unto...| More

YB Is Reborn as Hard Rock Band

Source | 2006/09/26 | Permalink |

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Huge popularity _ hard to believe _ may not be always a boon for stars. Even for the widely popular band YB, fame has been a mixed blessing.

YB was formerly known as Yoon Do-hyun Band, an aspiring rock group that experimented with various types of songs, including ballads. The band's popularity soared when they sang the 2002 World Cup song.

They gained commercial popularity, yet at the same time, were criticized for deviating from their rock group identity.

But 10 years later, the band that survived in the real "jungle", after trials and errors, wants to be born again as a new band of genuine hard rock. Their seventh album, titled "Why Be?" indicates the band's new name, YB.

Their decision to return to their rock roots might be reminiscent of a local film titled "Jungle Story". The film depicts the personal and professional travails of an aspiring, underground rocker and their commitment to rock music. Lead vocalist Yoon played himself i...| More

Yoon Band Rocks to National Anthem

Source | 2006/02/20 | Permalink |

The Group Will Sing National Anthem as Support Song During World Cup

By Han Eun-jung
Staff Reporter

Four years after its version of "Arirang" sent fans of the national team in the 2002 World Cup into an even bigger frenzy, the Yoon Band is set to sing another national song to a rock beat.

The Yoon Band has wrapped up recording a punchy powerful take on South Korea's national anthem which they will sing as a support song, the group's management company said Monday.

"The group believed that for a national anthem to truly be a national anthem it should be a song that the people can sing whenever and wherever, which is why we decided to sing it as a support song", Yoon said through a press relief.

"It will first be presented in a nationally televised SK Telecom commercial that hits the airwaves on Feb. 22", said Tak Hyun-min, a spokesperson for Daeum Music Live Contents Group.

Since their 1994 debut, the four-piece rock outfit fronted by vocal Yoon Do-hyeon ("Skitter D...| More