The nation's oldest film awards ceremony, the Grand Bell Awards, gave its top prize to low-key hybrid-family-drama "Family Ties" ("
The Birth of a Family") , directed by
Kim Tae-yong. The film, which has toured a number of international film festivals winning the top prize at the International Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, also picked up a Grand Bell Best Screenplay award. The win was a happy surprise after many expected last summer's
blockbuster The Host to take top honors.
"The Host" did however snatch up a Best Director award for
Bong Joon-ho and Best Editing for ...
Moreby Mun-Myung Huh
This movie ("
South of the Border") being the first by director
Ahn Pan-seok, who previously worked as PD and directed TV dramas such as "
Roses and Bean Sprouts", uses humane paradoxical aesthetics to make modern people, who float in buoyant freedom and greed, ponder on the things they take for granted by portraying special people who have deserted their nation and family in order to survive. At a glance, the plot seems a bit flat. Pyongyang Mansoo Art Team horn player Sun-ho (played by
Cha Seung-won) and War Memorial guide Yeon-hwa (played by
Jo I-jin) are in love with each other. The two lovebirds are exc...
MoreThe only seeming virtue of war seems to be that it enriches the soil of narrative experiences, which explains why there are so many Korean hits dealing with either the Korean War or its aftermaths. Out of the top 10 all-time most successful Korean films in terms of box office earnings, half of them are such films including "
Taegukgi" (2004) and "
Welcome to Dongmakgol" (2005).
Another promising contender for the list is still yet to come this spring, a film titled "
South of the Border", which is about a North Korean defector Seon-ho (
Cha Seung-won) who cannot forget his dearest lover Yeon-hwa (
Jo I-jin) left behind in the North. But he marries a South Korean woman, Kyung-ju, (
Shim Hye-jin) upon hearing the news that Yeon-hwa married in North Korea, which later turned out t...
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