Choi Yang-il (최양일)

Actor Ji Jin-hee to Promote Film 'Soo' in Japan

2008/03/24 | Source | Permalink |

Actor Ji Jin-hee, who recently stared in the action film 'Soo' (directed by Choi Yang-il and produced by Triz Club), will visit Japan in the coming days.

'Soo' is Korean-Japanese director Choi Yang-il's first Korean film. He was noted for 'Blood and Bones', which won numerous awards in Japan.

The film features star actors such as Ji Jin-hee, Kang Seong-yeon and Moon Seong-geun. The film is currently being screened at the 'Hallyu Cinema Festival 2008 Spring' in Tokyo, to be held until the end of May.

Ji will attend the 'Ji Jin-hee Special Talk Event 2008' in Tokyo on April 5 to promote the film, and greet Japanese audiences on April 6 during the special screening of the film....| More

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Week's Movie Premieres

2007/03/23 | Source | Permalink |

Thanks for staying with us.
The weekend is just around the corner, so let's check on what's new at the movies.
There's a hardboiled action movie from Korea, a couple of Hollywood productions and a European film with Dustin Hoffman.
Here's Son Heekyung.
The Korean action drama "Soo" has actor Ji Jin-hee playing twins - one a cop and the other an assassin.
The twin who works as a police officer is murdered, soon after the two have their first reunion in 19 years.
To avenge his brother, the hit man disguises himself as his deceased policeman twin to track down the gang who killed him.

RECORDED: "I realized the greatness of our director while filming. It was an honor for me to play the main character. "Soo" is a film that could've only been made by director Choi Yang-il "

Next up is a romantic comedy from Hollywood starring top star Jennifer Aniston and her former real-life boyfriend Vince Vaughn.
"The Break-Up" is about a couple in Chicago who've been together for two years.
...| More

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'Soo': Revenge, Redemption

2007/03/22 | Source | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

It's bloody and brutal, and harrowingly so. Japanese-born Korean director Choi Yang-il (Yoichi Sai) brings the Korean audience a hardboiled vengeance film with a slightly different flavor.

When you think of blood-splattered retaliation, Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy or Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series may come to mind. But imagine such a film stripped of fancy cinematographic techniques and devoid of stylishly choreographed action sequences. Every gesture and grimace is meticulously planned, according to the director. But Choi keeps the camera at a certain distance to portray the no-cut skirmishes. The product is heightened realism, and you believe in the brutal violence and the raw human instinct for survival.

Tae-su (Ji Jin-hee) is a notorious hit man called Soo, who waits 19 years to finally reunite with his long-lost twin brother Tae-jin _ only to watch him get shot in front of his very eyes. Revenge becomes Soo's sole reason for b...| More

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[MOVIE REVIEW] Director Choi Yang-il's 'Soo' pulls no punches

2007/03/19 | Source | Permalink |

Ethnic Korean-Japanese filmmaker Choi Yang-il (Yoichi Sai) does not pull any punches when he describes raw human instinct. A case in point is "Blood and Bones" starring Takeshi Kitano. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel "Chi to Hone" by Korean-Japanese author Yang Seok-il, the award-winning film epitomizes what "relentlessly grim and brutal" violence really means.

"Blood and Bones" follows a straightforward formula (Decade X: Kitano beats people up. Decade Y: Kitano is still beating people up). Choi's latest film "Soo" - and his formal debut work for the Korean cinema industry - opts for a simpler formula: Tae-su (Ji Jin-hee) wipes out his enemies.

"Soo" has all the trappings of a Korean film. Ji Jin-hee plays the central character, or characters, given that he plays twin brothers Tae-su and Tae-jin, and the film is set firmly in Korea. The language is Korean, and there is no sign of a Japanese connection whatsoever. All of this is true when the surface of the film is consi...| More

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Soo: Hard-hitting film by CHOI Yang-il (SAI Yoichi)

2007/03/13 | Source | Permalink |

Korean-Japanese director CHOI Yang-il, known in Japan as SAI Yoichi, is in town with his first film made entirely in Korea with a Korean cast. "Soo", is a hard-boiled revenge-thriller about a man, Tae-su, who witnesses the killing of his identical twin brother Tae-jin. Recovering from the trauma, he sets out to cold-bloodedly avenge his brother's murder in a grisly, exacting fashion.

Actor JI Jin-Hee ("Bewitching Attraction", 2006) in his first action picture, takes up the challenge of playing both roles as the twin brothers. Also starring are KANG Seong-yeon ("The King and the Clown", 2005) MOON Seong-geun ("Princess Aurora", 2005, "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors" 2000), LEE KI-young ("Marathon", 2005) and OH Man-seok ("A Cruel Attendance", 2006).

Veteran director CHOI is internationally known for the films he has made in Japan, including 2004's "Blood and Bones", based on a Korean epic novel, and starring KITANO Takeshi. After it's premiere at the Pusan Internation...| More

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