Korea's Movie "Old Boy" Top Film for 2005

Director Park Chan-wook's "Old Boy", an avant-garde film that won the Grand Prix at Cannes, was selected as the first of the "Top Ten Films of 2005" by the alternative magazine "The Onion" and the newspaper the "The Austin-American Statesman". "Old Boy was given second place ranking by "The Oregonian" and the "San Francisco Bay Guardian", according to documentation released by Tartan, the U.S. distributor of the film.

In addition, "Old Boy" was ranked 10th among the Rolling Stone's "Top 50 DVDs of 2005" and was also included in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 5 DVD of 2005" list.

Four Korean Films, including "The Bow", "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", "Welcome to Dongmakgol", and "Annyong, Sayonara" were featured at the 17th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival held from January 5-16 2006 in California. The director of "Old Boy" and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", Park Chan-wook was named the Best Foreign Director of the Year.

"The Bow", Kim Ki-duk's twelfth film and the first featured at the Cannes Festival, was hosted in the World Cinema Now section of the Festival. The film features the torments of love and jealousy experienced by an elderly man who is madly in love with a young woman.

"Sympathy for Lady Vengeance", Park Chan-wook's thriller film that received three awards at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival was featured at that festival in the Supercharged Cinema section.

"Welcome to Dongmakgol", directed by Park Kwang-hyeon, is a film based on an actual event in which troops from the North, South and USA all stand together in a remote village over the winter during the Korean War. The film was featured in the Awards Buzz: Best Foreign Language Film section.

"Annyong, Sayonara", a Korean-Japanese documentary film on the issue of Japan's Yasukuni Shrine, was presented as a Non-Fiction Feature.
Founded in 1990 by then Mayor Sonny Bono, the Palm Springs International Film Festival is known as one of the largest film festivals in North America. The Festival has an attractive film sales and distribution record and is seen by American distributors as one of the best Academy Award campaign marketing tools. The Festival also features cultural events, filmmaker tributes, industry seminars and an annual black-tie gala award presentation.

By Jaeyon Nam