Park Hee-soon (박희순)

Cha, Ha To Bring Tears, Laughter

2008/01/29 | Source | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

As Spring draws near, star actors Cha Tae-hyeon and Ha Ji-won will warm up the season with director's Kim Jeong-kwon's ("Ditto", "A Man Who Went to Mars") latest movie "BA:BO", a heart drenching drama slated for release Feb. 28.

"Fool" is a film adaptation of the explosively popular online cartoon "Babo" (which means "fool" or "oaf" in Korean) by Kang Full. It had millions of Netizens in tears, and the director, also a big fan, describes the movie version as being faithful to the original.

"I cried my eyes out when I read the cartoon", Cha told reporters during a promotional event at a Seoul hotel Monday. "After I was cast for the movie, I thought long and hard about how I would act out the role", said the face of romantic comedies like "My Sassy Girl" and "My Crazy First Love".

Cha takes his goofy guy-next-door image to play the town's jester, Seung-ryong. Once a bright young boy, he suffers a fatal accident, and at age 27 he has the intelli...| More

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'Hansel and Gretel' Loses Focus

2007/12/27 | Source | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

Up and coming director Lim Pil-seong's latest work "Hansel and Gretel" is a sinister tale, which gets its inspiration from those classic children's stories with a dark twist. Here it is adults rather than children who become lost in the woods.

But the movie itself loses orientation and trails off course. There are no redeeming factors ― no breadcrumbs ― to this "brutal fairytale", which stops short of being an allegorical oxymoron.

Eun-su (Cheon Jeong-myeong), while arguing over the phone with his girlfriend, has a car accident in the middle of nowhere. Deep in the heart of a forest, he finds sanctuary in a beautiful house, where a charming family of five greets him.

Here, rooms are filled with a myriad of colorful toys, and sumptuous three-tier cakes and other cavity-causing sweets are served for breakfast. But that's one thing to imagine and another to actually live through, especially when you cannot get away from it ― eve...| More

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"Seven Days" Offers Gripping Suspense

2007/11/08 | Source | Permalink |

Kim Yoon-jin plays a mother and lawyer who must safely get her abducted child back in "Seven Days".

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

"Seven Days" just may be what audiences have all been waiting for: a great homegrown crime thriller. With a good serving of believable characters, a scoop of a wholesome drama, and even a sprinkle of good humor, director/scripter Won Sin-yeon whips together all the right ingredients to offer an edge of the seat experience.

The main plotline is fairly simple. Ji-yeon (Kim Yoon-jin) is a hotshot lawyer who wins case after case. One day her daughter is kidnapped, and the abductor gives her seven days to win an impossible case -- to set free a man whose death sentence is practically set -- or else she will never see the child again.

The abductor orchestrates the perfect crime. He watches her every move and forces her to comply by outwitting the police. Ji-yeon has no time to break down because she must run around in a frenzy to get this case togethe...| More

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Kim Yoon-jin Returns as Distraught Mother

2007/10/30 | Source | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

Actress Kim Yoon-jin's latest battle onscreen is not surviving the aftermath of a plane crash but negotiating the safe return of her kidnapped daughter. The star of "Lost" returns to Korean cinema for the first time in two years through "Seven Days" as a hotshot lawyer who must pay a dear price for her child's life.

Director Won Sin-yeon ("A Bloody Aria", 2004) offers an emotionally charged, action-packed thriller where Kim stars as a mysterious attorney whose life takes a frightening turn when a man abducts her daughter. The kidnapper offers a deal: to clear all charges of first-degree murder against a suspect in just seven days or else the child's life is at stake. This is mission impossible, even for someone who has never lost a case.

"I hadn't received such a well-constructed screenplay in a long time", Kim said about seeing the script for the first time. "It was hard for me as an actress in Korea to come across such a complicated female char...| More

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The worst response is none at all

2007/03/06 | Source | Permalink |

Online comments become publicity engines

Comedian Park Hee-soon was hurt when he saw gossip on the Internet about his love life. It was a typical celebrity love scandal with juicy details of who-is-going-out-with-whom. But what upset him the most was the fact that no readers had responded anywhere on the site.
"It was my first love scandal since making a debut on television", the comedian said while on the set of a cable television talk show. "I was shocked that nobody left a single reply to the article".
"That meant nobody cared about me", he said, fixing his black horn-rims in place. "Oh lordy, that really hurt".
In a society where sarcastic smart-aleck responses from Internet-savvy youngsters overflow from the pull-down menus attached to every online article, no response is the only thing that raises celebrities' eyebrows.
There is even Internet jargon to describe a pull-down menu empty of readers' responses. "Mupeul", literally meaning "No reply", is the dreaded word, and it...| More

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