Kim Seong-ho (김성호)

No Wave, just a Korean breeze in Poland

2008/04/28 | Source | Permalink |

The Korean Wave has been spreading Korean pop culture across Asia and beyond for more than a decade, although it has barely reached Poland, in the centre of Europe. It is sad to admit, but Korean culture (traditional as well as the "new wave") does not exist in Polish minds as a distinctive identity. It is often mixed in with Chinese and Japanese cultures, which are more defined in Poland yet still often confused with each other.

Still, it is trendy nowadays in Poland to go to an East Asian restaurant, buy Chinese souvenirs, own Japanese-style furniture, follow feng-shui rules, watch an Asian movie or send kids to taekwondo or karate classes.

Although Polish knowledge of Korean culture is minimal, the present article aims to show that there is a gentle Korean wind that is blowing into Poland faster than the mainstream Wave.

There is, however, still no trace of: (1) the Korean entertainment industry invading the Polish media market; (2) any Polish fans adopting the lifestyles o...| More

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Rotterdam fest to highlight various Korean films

2008/01/18 | Source | Permalink |

The 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam, scheduled to run from January 23 to February 3, will present a broad selection of Korean films in its line-up.

Although no Korean films will compete in the festival's main competition section for first and second films, the short film Waiting will participate in the festival's short film competition. The film, which was commissioned by the Jeonju International Film Festival as part of its Short! Short! Short! project, centers on a woman waiting for a train who encounters a boy who acts in strange ways. This marks the second year in the row that the film's director, KIM Jong-kwan, has had a short film competing at Rotterdam.

Three Korean features will screen in the Sturm und Drang (Cinema of the Future) section. The omnibus "Fantastic Parasuicides" centers on people who undergo surreal experiences at the moment they decide to kill themselves. "Hanging Tough" – directed by PARK Soo-yeong – is about a high school girl who wants to ...| More

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In Cinemas This Weekend

2007/11/09 | Source | Permalink |

And finally tonight let's see what's new at the movies this week.
Looks like it's a good mix of Korean and foreign productions with one for fans of Tom Cruise and Robert Redford and Taiwanese director Ang Lee.
Lee Jeewon has our preview.
We begin with an omnibus film from Korea.
Composed of three episodes, "Fantastic Parasuicides" is a movie from three directors, Park Soo-yeong, Jo Chang-ho and Kim Seong-ho that distributors say takes imagination to the extreme.
The first episode is about something that everyone might have dreamed about in school or rather the absence of it!
The second contains black humor about crime.
And the last story perhaps the quirkiest of all is about a romantic and elderly gay man who on his birthday tries to save a pretty boy.

Next is a Hollywood drama starring Oscar nominee Tom Cruise and Oscar winner Meryl Streep.
They are joined by another Oscar winner Robert Redford, who also directed the film.
The three characters in different parts of the Uni...| More

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'Fantastic Parasuicides' Invited to Sydney Film Festival

2007/11/07 | Source | Permalink |

The Korean omnibus film 'Fantastic Parasuicides' has been invited to the 2008 Sydney International Film Festival in Australia.

Producer and distributor Indiestory said it was unusual for festival organizers to invite a film prior to officially announcing the festival program.

The Fantastic Parasuicides, which was also invited to the Pusan International Film Festival's Wide Angle category, is an omnibus film which consists of three short films that come together under the common theme "suicide". The three short films include 'Three People in the Dark' directed by Park Soo-yeong, 'Fly Chicken!' directed by Jo Chang-ho and 'Happy Birthday' directed by Kim Seong-ho.

The annual Sydney International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the southern hemisphere that screens 300 films from 40 to 50 countries around the world. A number of Korean films have been invited in the past inlcuding 'Untold Scandal' and 'If You Were Me' in 2003, 'Host and Guest' in 2006 and 'Woman on th...| More

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Horror film 'Into the mirror': invitation to the 23rd Fajr International Film Festival

2005/01/25 | Source | Permalink |

As director Kim Seong-ho's horror film 'Into the mirror' is invited to the 23rd Fajr International Film Festival to be opened on Jan. 31 in Teheran, Iran, interest in Korean films in the Middel East countries is expected.

Movie 'Into the mirror' is screened in the 'Spiritual Cinema', a competition part to which a total of 13 films are invited.

Into the Mirror, supported by the New Directors in Focus program at the Pusan Film Festival in its early development stage, is an intriguing debut film by Kim Seong-ho, a former architect whose deft manipulation of the spatial and optic dimensions of the film results in its unique and memorable look and atmosphere, overlaid with a layer of modernist austerity.

Yoo Ji-tae (Old Boy, Attack the Gas Station!) plays U Young-min, a cop-turned-security chief at a department store, investigating a series of inexplicable suicides.

Young-min, unable to look into a mirror since he had mistakenly caused his partner's death, becomes convinced ...| More

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