Kim Tae-sik (김태식)

Top directors assemble for short film fest's jury

2008/06/13 | Source | Permalink |

The Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival (MSFF) assigned a high profile jury consisting of Korea's leading mainstream and independent directors. PARK Jin-pyo heads a jury further comprised of: KIM Tae-yong, KIM Yong-hwa, JO Chang-ho, KIM Hyeon-seok, KIM Tae-sik, KIM Han-min, JEON Gye-soo, CHOI Dong-hoon, and NA Hong-jin.

The Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival will open its doors on June 26 at Yongsan CGV in Seoul. The festival will finish on July 2. Among the upcoming directors, the festival also screens actor YOO Ji-tae's directorial short film effort "Out of My Intention" (Nado Moreuge) in the competition section.

PARK Jin-pyo directed "You Are My Sunshine" (Neoneun Nae Woonmyeong) and "Voice of Murderer" (Geu Nom Moksori). KIM Tae-yong received acclaim for his "Family Ties" ("The Birth of a Family", Gajokui Tansaeng). KIM Yong-hwa was the man behind the box office hit "200 Pounds Beauty" (Minyeoneun Gwereoweo). CJO Chang-ho competed at several international film festivals with "Th...| More

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Art Film Showcase 2008 to screen in Japan

2008/03/06 | Source | Permalink |

For the second year in a row, four Korean arthouse films will be presented to audiences in Japan through the Art Film Showcase in Tokyo. The eight-week series of screenings is sponsored by KOFIC and the Image Forum arthouse theater in Tokyo.

The showcase is an effort to introduce Japanese viewers to a wider spectrum of Korean cinema by presenting high quality works that would otherwise not receive a theatrical release in Japan. Each selected film will screen for two weeks in relay fashion.

The Art Film Showcase 2008 will open on March 8 with a screening of JEON Soo-il's "With a Girl of Black Soil" (2007). The film originally premiered in the Horizons section of the 2007 Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Art Cinema CICAE Award and the Lina Mangiacapre Award. The film tells the story of a single father who loses his job in a coal mine.

On March 22, NOH Dong-seok's "Boys of Tomorrow" (2006) will open its run. The story of two young men who struggle to ...| More

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A Selective View on 2007

2007/12/28 | Source | Permalink |

2007 offered some fine Korean films, although journalists had a tendency to focus on the decreased numbers and percentages for Korean films; "Driving with My Wife's Lover", "Hansel and Gretel", and "M" are – arguably – among this year's outstanding films.

The three films display diversity in Korean cinema and also interesting commonalities. In varying degrees they seize upon the opportunities offered to them by science in an imaginative way in order to explore different dimensions of reality.

We no longer see the world as that privileged place created by a god(s) for humans. Earth is part of the universe and obeys its laws. Subsequently, classical physics' clockwork universe has been challenged by Einstein's relativity and the 'strange' world of quantum physics.

Without applying the incorrect and dangerous notion that everything is relative, the curvature of space and time, and quantum physics' overthrowing of what used to be logical thinking according to the common Aristot...| More

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Osaka Korean Film Week Begins Dec. 8

2007/11/30 | Source | Permalink |

The Osaka Korean Cultural Center will hold the Korean Film Week festival again this year (Dec.8-14). Korean films introduced to the Kansai region for the first time will be screened at downtown Shinsaibashi theaters.

The event also marks the center's reopening and will feature the latest film 'Happiness' by Heo Jin-ho, who directed 'April Snow' starring Bae Yong-joon and Son Ye-jin. Director Kim Tae-sik of 'Driving with My Wife's Lover' and a Korean Film Council official will attend a related forum for discussions.

The film list includes 'Barefoot Ki-bong', 'The Show Must Go On', 'Heart is..'., 'My Boss, My Teacher' and 'My Wife is a Gangster 3' as well as the omnibus special film '20 Identities'....| More

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'Driving With My Wife's Lover'

2007/11/23 | Source | Permalink |

Watermelons on the highway and other absurdities of life

Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)

A nebbish-looking stamp-maker Tae-han (Park Kwang-jeong, a well-known theater actor immortalized in Korean popular culture as "Rimbaud" in "No. 3") suspects that his wife is two-timing him with a womanizing taxicab driver Joong-seok (Jeong Bo-seok, "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors"). He hires the cabbie for a one-way trip from Seoul to Yangyang, the Eastern Seaboard resort town, where his home is located. However, Tae-han seems clueless about what to do with his nemesis: does he want a confrontation with Joong-seok at the precise moment of illicit encounter? Or does he just want revenge? Adding complications to the matter is Joong-seok's rambunctious common-law wife So-ok (Jo Eun-ji, "A Bizarre Love Triangle"), who unexpectedly arouses Tae-han's sympathy.

"Driving With My Wife's Lover" starts off as if it will be one of those light romantic comedies with some predictable (tear-jerking) twist...| More

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