Heo Jin-ho (허진호)

The city of Florence in Italy is currently playing host to 30 Korean films. The eighth edition of the Florence Korean Film Festival takes place this year from March 12-20. The festival, supported by various local groups, KOFIC and the Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism, shows mostly European and Italian premieres of new Korean films. This year the festival is comprised of a K-Horror section, the competitive Orizzonti Coreani section, the Independent Korea section (also competitive) and a retrospective on director Heo Jin-ho.

Given the notable status of the horror genre in Korea, the festival is screening seven horror films, to be presented by famed Italian director Dario Argento. The section includes Kim Seong-ho's "Into The Mirror" (2003), ...More

Actor Jeong Woo-seong [Taurus Films]

Korean actor Jeong Woo-seong's international debut film "Reign of Assassins" has been confirmed to open in Korea, according to the film's distributor Sungwon I Communications on Wednesday.

Sungwon announced in a press release that the action flick, which stars the Korean actor and Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Memoirs of a Geisha", will be released in Korea in August....More

Performance Industry Meets the World

Among the various factors that constitute human life, culture has the greatest capacity to nurture connections and exchange. One culture quickly absorbs the advantages of another culture and develops to integrate naturally into a large wave.

The same applies to the performance industry.

While it is difficult to compare live performances with other genres as they are played out directly in front of an audience, they often borrow from the sources, forms and contents of different genres. In 2010 the performance industry will meet and interact with other genres.

Reinterpreting works from different genres

Recently, the Muk Company announced that the film "JSA - Joint Security Area" will be produced as a musical.

"JSA - Joint Security Area" is an example of one-source, multi-use in the publication, film and musical fields. Based on the 1996 novel DMZ written by Park Sang-yeon, the 2000 film "JSA - Joint Security Area" was directed by Director Park Chan-wook. It was a big hit with its star cast including Lee Byeong-Heon, ...More

Movie poster of "Season of Good Rain" [Pancinema]

Korean film "Season of Good Rain", starring Korean actor Jeong Woo-seong and Chinese actress Gao Yuanyuan, has been selected as the closing film for a Korean film festival to be held in Los Angeles next month.

"Season of Good Rain", by famed directed Heo Jin-ho, will close the four-day long Korean Film Festival in Los Angeles (KOFFLA) on March 7. The fest is set to open with Korean film "Le Grand Chef - Kimchi War" starring Kim Jeong-eun and Jin Goo....More

From left, actors Kim Chang-wan, Lee Yeong-ha and Oh Kwang-rok [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]

Press conference for the play "A Nap"

The meeting of a film director and a theatrical play. The press conference for the play "A Nap" -- the second project of the "Director comes to the stage" series -- was held February 9 at Seoul's Baekam Art Hall. Based on the short story of the same title by Park Min-gyu, "A Nap" is a theatrical play directed by filmmaker Heo Jin-ho, who is known for his unique lyricism seen in films such as "Christmas in August" and "One Fine Spring Day". The play depicts a romance between two characters in the twilight years of their life -- the shy boy Young-jin and the girl Yi-sun who was everybody's sweetheart -- and goes back and forth in time, from the past to the present. The play has drawn much attention not only because it is directed by filmmaker Heo Jin-ho but also because of its cast; veteran actors Lee Yeong-ha, Kim Chang-wan and Oh Kwang-rok will play the lead role of Hahn Young-jin while Super Junior member Kim Ki-beom has been cast to portray the boy version of Young-jin....More