Oh Ki-hwan (오기환)

'Last Present'

2006/04/17 | Source | 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

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Films Starring Son Ye-jin Attract 10 Mil. Viewers in Korea, Japan

2005/12/28 | Source | Permalink |

Actress Son Ye-jin, also known as "Yejin Hime" in Japan, has broken a box-office record, with her films having attracted 10 million viewers in Korea and Japan.

With the three films "April Snow (2005)", "A Moment to Remember (2004)", and "The Art of Seduction (2005)" screened in the two countries, Son has attracted a total of 10 million viewers in 2005 as a new box-office queen. No actress has ever broken such a box-office record simultaneously in Korea and Japan in such a short period of time.

Her box-office breakthrough was foreshadowed in Japan on Sep. 8, when the film "April Snow" was released in the country. "April Snow" has attracted about 800,000 viewers in Korea. But the film has garnered 2.72 billion yen from box-office ticket sales in Japan, with about 2.4 million Japanese viewers estimated to have seen the movie. This was the top box-office total among all Korean films that were screened in Japan at that time.

The box-office record of "April Snow" in Japan was greatl...| More

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