Hwang Ki-seok (황기석)

Women aim for Olympic glory in Forever the Moment

2008/01/02 | Source | Permalink |

Director LIM Soon-rye is one of the key female directors in Korea and she returns with the sports drama "Forever the Moment" centred on the Korean women's handball team from 2004; the women took home the silver medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics after a heroic battle with women hand ball's leading nation Denmark.

LIM chose to make a character study rather than concentrating on the emotional finale at the Olympics. She even left out the other Olympic matches leading to the finale in favour of fleshing out the characters.

"Forever the Moment" distinguishes itself in this way from other sports dramas which usually try to exploit the dynamics and excitement that sports games can provide lengthily. In other ways, LIM's film contains the classic elements of a sports drama.

The film starts out with individuals who are far from Olympic contenders. MOON So-ri plays a former handball star who is now a mother and trapped in an unhappy marriage. KIM Jeong-eun is from the same generati...| More

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'Friend'

2006/03/21 | Source | Permalink |

A touching tale of four high school friends from the southern port city of Busan

Darcy Paquet (internews)

You could hear the rumbling several weeks before it was released, and then when "Friend" hit the screens, it lived up to its hype. Four high school students in 1970s Busan form an inseparable group of friends, despite their differing backgrounds. Years pass, however, and fate and violence combine to drive the four apart and test their friendship.

Director Kwak Gyeong-taek's voice trembles when talking about this, his third feature, and it's little wonder why: "Friend" is a true story based on the lives of his three childhood friends (the role of Sang Taek, the wealthier member of the group who goes to study abroad, represents the director himself). Although the tragic story seems in some ways made for the screen, very little was altered in its telling. But it's not so much the story that distinguishes this film, but rather the feeling with which it is presented.

One...| More

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