Kim Seo-hyeong (김서형)

Villains Rule the TV Scene

Source | 2009/03/11 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Female characters on TV dramas are increasingly growing vicious these days, like those in the dramas "Boys Over Flowers", "Cruel Temptation" and "Again, My Love" While the main characters typically grab the spotlight at the beginning, it's the vicious characters who steal the spotlight as time goes by. The popularity of "nice" characters has been on decline recently, giving way to malicious villains. Vicious yet charming characters first appeared on Korean TV dramas about a decade ago. They first drew viewers' attention through the SBS TV drama "Trap Of Youth", which dealt with the subject of revenge. Its viewer ratings soared to 35.7 percent (according to AGB Nielson), attesting to its enormous popularity. In the drama, the innocent-looking main character, played by Shim Eun-ha, avenged herself upon the man who she was in love with but who had betrayed her.

Many other TV dramas picked up on the trend, including "Women's World" and "Miss Mermaid". Since then, the popularity of vicio...| More

'Forbidden Floor' [DVD Review] Convincing characters married to standard J-horror shticks

Source | 2007/12/10 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)

The second installment in the You Il-han and Ahn Byeong-ki team-up horror series concerns a young working mother Min-young (Kim Seo-hyeong, the victimized teacher in "Voice Letter"), who moves into an "office-tel" room (a studio flat that doubles as a workplace) with a kindergarten-age daughter (Kim Yoo-jeong). Of course, the office-tel turns out to be spooked by the spirit of another young mother, whose attacks are responsible for a series of mysterious deaths. Soon it is uncovered that the building originally had another floor (the "fourth floor", which, like the thirteenth floor in the West, is considered bad luck and usually absent in Korean buildings). When the vengeful spirit seeks to possess Min-young's daughter, she decides to uncover the sordid past of the office-tel building.

Written and directed by Kwon Il-soon, who received notice due to his short "Hide and Seek" (2001) that, not coincidentally, explores a young child's feelings of loss of her ...| More

Early Summer Horror Titles

Source | 2007/04/23 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Like Koreans enjoy specific dishes and activities in particular seasons, young Koreans have the tradition of being chilled down during the hot summer season by horror films; which compete with the spectacular blockbusters lined-up by Hollywood each summer. Early horror titles include "Black House" (Geomeun Jib) and "Evil Twin" (Jeonseolui Gohyang).

"Black House" brings together director SIN Tae-ra ("Brainwave", 2005) and the actors HWANG Jeong-min ("You Are My Sunshine", 2005), KANG Shin-il ("Silmido", 2003), Yoo Seon ("The Wig" ("Sacry Hair"), 2005) and Kim Seo-hyeong ("The City of Violence", 2006). The CJ Entertainment project is a co-production with the Japanese production company Kadokawa Pictures. The film is based on a book by the popular Japanese horror novelist Yûsuke Kishi, who specializes in the particular Japanese style of psychological horror. The book has been adapted into a Japanese film before. Filming wrapped-up in early April and will open in cinemas in June.

E...| More

[Box Office] Forbidden Floor - 4 Horror Tales (Korea 2006)

Source | 2006/07/22 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Horror. Directed by Kwon Il-soon. Minyoung (Kim Seo-hyeong) moves into a new apartment complex which doesn't have a fourth floor with her 6-year-old daughter Ju-hee (Kim Yoo-jeong). Min-young notices something strange about the apartment - her neighbors complain about a noise and die for no apparent reason. Strange things happen to her neighbors and eventually to her daughter - Ju-hee becomes sick and starts acting strange. Min-young thinks there's definitely something wrong with the apartment and starts to look into the secret behind all the strange happenings....| More

Director Gives New Voice to Popular Horror Film Series

Source | 2005/07/13 | 0 comments | Permalink |

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

As the nation's only horror film series, "Yogo Kwedam", which literally translates into "High School Ghost Story", has brought a chill to the summer seasons for teens and adults alike.

The series began with "Whispering Corridors" in 1998, which sparked the rush of local teen horror films, and followed it up with two other commercially successful scream fests.

Equan Choe (Choi Ik-hwan) is the director for the fourth installment of the series, "Voice Letter" (Yogo Kwedam: Moksori), due out Friday. He admits the most difficult part was how to make his work different from previous movies without losing basic elements of the original.

"Of course, I found it really hard to make a film for the series as I had to be able to put my own characteristics and my own style within the limitations of the traditions of the original", Choe told The Korea Times on Monday. "So this film also revolves around students at a girl's high school in the genre of a horr...| More