Kim Ji-woon (김지운)

The 8th Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival Opens this Week

Source | 2009/06/26 | Permalink |

This year's Mise-en-scene Short Film festival will showcase a total of 120 films. The film festival whose focus is genre short films will feature films genres normally associated with feature length films.  These genres include horror, fantasy, love and even action.  It features 57 films in the official section and the invitation section for foreign films focuses on varied stories surrounding the topic of death.
 
Behind the scenes is a wealth of talent and Korean film alumi. The committee chair this year is director BONG Joon-ho ("Mother - 2009", "The Host") and head of jury is director KIM Dae-seung ("Bungee Jumping of their Own", "Blood Rain").  On the committee is directors PARK Chan-wook (The Revenge Trilogy, "Thirst"), RYOO Seung-wan ("The City of Violence", "Crying Fist"), KIM Ji-woon ("A Tale of Two Sisters", "The Good, The Bad, The Weird"), LEE Jae-yong ("Dasepo Girl", "Untold Scandal") and many other well known directors.
 
The Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival opens Wedn...| More

'The Good, The Bad, The Weird' to be Released in Japan

Source | 2009/06/11 | Permalink |

After success at home, last year's Cannes Film Festival and at festivals around the world, KIM Ji-woon's "The Good, The Bad, The Weird" is finally opening in Japan. The film, released almost a year ago in Korea July 17 2008 will open in Japan August 29. In Japan it will play on 100 screens including the high profile Toho Cinemas Chanter in Ginza and T-Joy Shinjuku Wald 9. Distribution is being handled jointly by CJ Entertainment and Japan's Show Gate, the first time a consortium has been created to handle the international release of a Korean film. Even though the film has garnered much attention worldwide its success in Japan remains to be seen given the portrayal of the Japanese army who pursue the lead characters throughout the film during the annexation of Manchuria in the 1930s. Japan is also famous for its own unique blend of avante guarde, spaghetti style, kung fu cult movies.
"The Good, The Bad, The Weird" is set during the early part of the century when Korea too was in ...| More

'Kimchi Western' film will hit theaters in Japan

Source | 2009/06/05 | Permalink |

The Korean blockbuster "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" based on a spaghetti Western and labeled a "Kimchi Western" after the nation's signature spicy dish, is expected to entertain moviegoers in Japan soon.

Come this summer, the film, directed by internationally-acclaimed director Kim Ji-woon, will be released in Japan on Aug. 29.

The movie will be screened at over 100 theaters, including popular theaters that attract the largest audiences in Japan, like T-Joy Shinjuku Wald 9 and Toho Cinemas Chanter.

Japan's Show Gate and Korea's CJ Entertainment are jointly handling the distribution, marking it the first time a Korean firm has ever formed a consortium with a foreign distributor for a local film's overseas release.

The story line of the comedy film inspired by Italian director Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" follows three Korean men and their entanglement with the Japanese army, Chinese and Russian bandits, and is filled with many exciting action scenes set ...| More

Pass the spaghetti for a rambunctious remak

Source | 2009/05/28 | Permalink |

Based on perhaps the greatest western of all time, "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", last year's Korean blockbuster now out on DVD with English subtitles, has big shoes to fill. And though none of its three main characters may have the one-of-a-kind charisma of Clint Eastwood, overall this re-setting of the Sergio Leone classic amid the wartime chaos of 1930s Manchuria is a fast, funny and exhilarating ride.

Here, the Confederate gold of the original is swapped out for a mysterious treasure depicted on a Russian map, which the Japanese army, the Korean independence fighters and a quirky group of Manchurian nomads are all pursuing.

In this new version, standing in for the Good is Park Do-won (Jeong Woo-seong), a bounty hunter hired by the Koreans to retrieve the map. The Bad is Park Chang-yi (Lee Byeong-heon), a pretty boy bandit who looks and acts a bit like a cross between Rain and Jack Sparrow, who starts out working for the map's double-crossing owner. The final piece - the "wei...| More

Park Chan-wook's Cannes Entry Thirst Continues to Rampage Local Box Office

Source | 2009/05/08 | Permalink |

The long weekend has proven to be a hit for Chan-wook's highly anticipated "Thirst". Despite mixed reviews, the Korean vampire film, hyped nearly as much as Kim Ji-woon's "The Good, The Bad, The Weird" (2008) did not defy hope becoming the biggest opening for a Korean film this year. Released on the 30th of April on 633 screens it quickly managed to knock bock buster Xmen Wolverine of its commercial perch. Over the weekend, a holiday weekend for many, the film gained 1 million admissions grossing over 6 billion won ($5.36 million)

Thirst's success puts the film in good stead, raising anticipations for its success at Cannes along with Bong Joon-ho's "Mother - 2009". Cannes opens on the 13th of May.

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