Min Byeong-hoon (민병훈)

[MOVIE REVIEW] 'In Between Days' and 'Let's Not Cry!' show visual audacity

Source | 2007/08/27 | Permalink |

"In Between Days" and "Let's Not Cry!" share striking similarities: Korean directors, exotic (at least in the eyes of Korean audiences) locations, and refined experimental spirits which earned the filmmakers awards at international film festivals.

"In Between Days", a debut feature by Kim So-yong, a Korean American multimedia artist, delves into the life of a Korean immigrant who has to deal with not only the strangeness of adapting to a new culture but also a sense of loneliness that deepens along with her faltering relationship with a boy she has a crush on.

This Sundance and Berlin prize-winner, to be released nationwide on Sept. 6, literally zooms in on Aimie (Jiseon Kim), a teenage girl who recently arrived in a North American city. But she finds it hard to find a comfortable place. She's already bored with her school, thanks largely to her poor English, and even the small apartment where she lives with her divorced mother looks dreary as the depressing winter cityscape the ...| More

PPP Announces 2007 Film Projects

Source | 2007/08/20 | Permalink |

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), a project-support market that has been pivotal in the completion of award-winning films from major Asian directors. Now under the umbrella of the Asian Film Market, PPP will take place October 8th –11th, alongside the 12th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), running October 4th to 12th.

Launched in 1998, PPP has sought to discover and support Asian independent films with the most promise. Since then, it has played an important role in introducing directors such as, AOYAMA Shinji, Jafar PANAHI, TSAI Ming-liang, KIM Ki-duk, HONG Sang-soo, Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, and ZHANG Lu.

In 2007 more than 200 submissions were received from which 35 project finalists representing 18 countries were selected. Among them are new projects by renowned directors Fruit CHAN (Public Toilet), Bahman GHOBADI (Turtles Can Fly) and WANG Xiaoshuai (Beijing Bicycle). Prominent producers Peter FUDAKOWSKI and Terence CHANG w...| More

Pruning the Grapevine in Competition at Karlovy Vary

Source | 2007/06/22 | Permalink |

Korean film "Pruning the Grapevine" (2006), by MIN Byeong-hoon, will screen in the Official Selection – Competition section of the 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The event which is held each year in the picturesque valley also known as Karlsbad, in the western province of Bohemia, Czech Republic, opens on June 29th for a nine-day run. A total of six Korean features will screen in various sections of the festival.

Grapevine director MIN is known to Karlovy Vary programmers, after his first film, "The Flight of the Bee" (1998, co-directed by Jamshed Usmonov) and his second, "Let's Not Cry", were screened at previous editions of the festival with the latter winning both a FIPRESCI award and a main jury Special Mention in 2002. Grapevine lead SEO Jang-won is also a familiar face at Karlovy Vary after his screen debut "The Unforgiven" was shown at last year's event.

"Pruning the Grapevine" was the recipient of KOFIC's Art Film Production Support program in 2005 a...| More

Face Your Fears and You Will Be Saved

Source | 2007/02/22 | Permalink |

"Pruning the Grapevine" by director Min Byeong-hoon is a movie of a theological student who is swaying between love for God and secular love. Su-hyeon (played by Seo Jang-won) leaves his girlfriend Su-ah (played by Lee Min-jeong) and focuses on the theological school. But he is shaken upon receiving a wedding card from Su-ah. He tries to quit school, but the head of the school advises him to go to a monastery. There, he meets sister Helena (played by Lee Min-jeong) who looks exactly like Su-ah.

The movie focuses on fear and its heaviness. Characters deny and run away from their fears. The more they run, they face bigger fears. The movie implies that we can find peace and be saved when facing our greatest fears. Characters all face fears: Su-hyeon's girlfriend dies, the head of the school meets a girl who is about to die from a disease, and sister Helena meets Su-hyeon, who resembles her dead boyfriend.

Similar situations were also portrayed in Min's last movie. "The Flight of the...| More

KOFIC awards marketing support for arthouse/digital films

Source | 2006/11/29 | Permalink |

The Korean Film Council has announced the recipients of the second phase of its 2006 Marketing Support for Arthouse and Digital Films fund. The fund provides financial support to arthouse works or digital features to promote diversity on the nation's screens and to help such films compete in a marketplace with increasingly stringent commercial demands.

In the case of arthouse films, 50 million won (~$54,000) will be provided to pay for advertising and other kinds of marketing costs, including the cost of striking prints for release. In Korea's competitive distribution environment, low-budget works face a particularly difficult struggle in getting noticed by viewers, and so this fund is intended to provide assistance in this area. A total of 11 features were submitted for consideration

In the case of feature-length digital films, 25 million won (~$27,000) will be provided towards the rental of a DLP digital projector, so that such works can be screened in their original format. In...| More