Kwon Hae-hyo (권해효)

Top Cineastes to Grace Art Film Fest

Source | 2009/01/20 | 0 comments | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

That special time of the year has come around, when South Korea's top filmmakers and actors turn into film festival programmers. The 4th Cinematheque Friends Film Festival will take place Jan. 29-March 1 in Seoul, and director Park Chan-wook and some 20 other cineastes will meet with the audience to show and discuss 26 movies they have personally selected.

"I don't think there is a film festival like the Cinematheque Friends Film Festival anywhere else in the world", Park told reporters last week in Seoul. "Where else can you see all the representative cineastes ― directors, critics and stars ― gather in one place to introduce, watch and discuss old movies with fans?"

"Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" (1927) by F.W. Murnau will open the festival. Actors Kwon Hae-hyo and Ye Ji-won will host the opening event at Cinematheque Seoul Art Cinema in Jongno.

The country's singular "cinema library" will transform into "The Cinematheque of Ha...| More

[TALK OF THE TOWN] Legal wrangling follows in the wake of Choi Jin-sil's suicide

Source | 2008/11/11 | 0 comments | Permalink |

More than a month has passed since the death of actress Choi Jin-sil but tongues are still wagging.

Former pro baseball player Cho Sung-min, whom Choi married in 2002 and divorced in 2004, has been demanding that his parental and property rights be reinstated. Cho gave up custodial rights for his kids after he got divorced.

Some activists, mostly female, are mad. Actresses Son Sook and Kim Boo-seon, TV host and single mom Heo Soo-kyung plus actor Kwon Hae-hyo and Lee Jung-hee of the Democratic Labor Party held a press conference yesterday at the Press Center, opposing the current parental rights law. The present law states that when a parent gives up his or her parental rights after a divorce, he or she can regain those rights should the other parent die.

Meanwhile, there's a rumor circulating online that Cho has married the actress Woo Yeon-hee. Woo has rejected this claim and asked the police to investigate who spread the Internet rumor....| More

MBC's New Sitcom: "Kokkiri"

Source | 2008/01/16 | 0 comments | Permalink |

By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter

MBC will air a new sitcom named "Kokkiri" from Jan. 21.

While the title of the sitcom, "Kokkiri" means elephant in Korean, however, this is not a sitcom about elephants. Breaking down the word "Ko" means nose in Korean and "kkiri" means together, and the show depicts the lives of a group of characters in the sitcom having nicknames ending with "ko".

Kwon Hae-hyo plays Guk Yeong-su (Psy"ko"), a high school Korean language teacher. He is on bad terms with Ju Bok-man (Gae"ko"), played by Lee Byeong-joon, a high school student in his 40s and the landlord.

Ju's two sons and Guk's three daughters also live in Ju's house, and everyone becomes involved in various incidents and relationships, including romance.

Comedian-turned-actor Kim Kuk-jin will play a jobless tenant living in Ju's attic. His roommate, Ju's younger brother, played by Moon Se-yun, is a man of misfortune.

Joo Hyeon and Kim Chang-sook, parents of the Ju brothers, will depict th...| More

'Last Present'

Source | 2006/04/17 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Viewers may find this a 'three-hankie' film

Kyu Hyun Kim (internews)

"Last Present" (2001) is a tragic romance so manipulative that you can almost hear its cogwheels and pulleys clicking and whirring like a well-oiled machine. Lee Jeong-jae ("Les Insurges", "The Last Witness") plays a two-bit gagman (as a stand-up comic is known in Korea, although what the gagmen do in this film is closer to vaudeville act, more Laurel and Hardy than Robin Williams) Yong-gi, whose marriage to Jeong-yeon (Lee Young-ae of "JSA - Joint Security Area" and "One Fine Spring Day") is falling apart. A leaf is turned when he accidentally finds out that Jeong-yeon is dying from an unspecified incurable disease.

Yong-gi, initially devastated, makes a resolution to win the TV gag contest at all costs, all the while hiding the fact that he is privy to his wife's secret. Intertwined with this sappy disease-of-the-month narrative are dollops of sepia-toned flashbacks concerning Jeong-yeon's object of chi...| More

[YEAR-END REVIEW]Shocks, embarrassments, disappointments

Source | 2005/12/26 | 0 comments | Permalink |

This is the fifth part of a series of articles reviewing Korea's culture scene this year. - Ed.

By culture staff

Suicide of top actress

One of the most negative events that hit the country's movie industry this year was the death of Lee Eun-joo, a top actress known for her supporting role in the 2004 Korean blockbuster film "Taegukgi".

Her suicide sent shock waves through the film industry and a number of people including her friends, fans and other actors expressed deep sadness.

But a bigger problem came shortly after the local news media spotlighted her last role. She starred in "The Scarlet Letter", a provocative thriller, in 2004, and rumors swirled that she suffered from stresses involving the explicit scenes of the film.

In the movie, Lee plays Ka-hee, a secret lover for a ranking detective who seems to have everything he desires. But the story moves toward a tragic end at a precipitous pace, with the cop's complicated relationships touching off unforeseen event...| More