For years, top female actresses in Korea took turns playing the historical figures Jang Hi-bin and Hwang Jin-hi in the movies.
Now, you can add Empress Myeongseong to the list.
Stars including
Kang Soo-yeon,
Choi Myeong-gil,
Chae Si-ra,
Lee Mi-yeon and
Moon Geun-yeong have recently played the role of the hwanghu, which means empress in Korean.
The latest: actress
Soo-ae, known throughout the country for her classical beauty.
Soo-ae plays Empress Myeongseong in the recently released film "
The Sword with No Name", which is based on a book by Ya Seol-lok and was directed by
Kim Yong-gyoon.
The movie depicts a desperate romance between the empress and warrior Mu-myeong (
Jo Seung-woo). The empress, a forward-thinking advocate of modernity, wields her political influence to further her ideals. But s...
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Film focuses on her possible love affair
Empress Myeongseong of the Joseon Dynasty is one of the most talked-about figures in Korean history due to her extraordinary life, which was highlighted by political ambition and tragic death.
So it's no wonder that she's been at the center of various productions such as the acclaimed musical "The Last Empress" and the 2001 hit TV series "Empress Myeongseong".
A new film to be released late next month is tackling her story again, with a twist.
The movie, called "
The Sword with No Name", examines the life of the empress through the lens of a love affair between her and a bodyguard.
"The productions depicting the life of Empress Myeongseong so far have shown the charismatic side of her, but I think there must have been a soft side to her, because she was a woman after all",
Kim Mi-hee, the producer of the film, said during a press conference Tuesday.
"In the film, we focused on the more personal aspects of the life of the empress, focusing on her relationship with her secret lover".
The movie takes some libertie...
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Sometimes saying nothing draws more attention. It's the case for actor
Jo Seung-woo, who appeared at the army training camp in Nonsan, South Chungcheong, last Monday.
Many fans were surprised that he suddenly joined the army. According to PL Entertainment, Jo wanted to avert public attention and the date of his enlistment wasn't announced in advance.
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MoreEngrossing horror flick showcases the talents of
Kim Hye-soo
Kim Kyu Hyun (internews)
A note to the readers: Woo Sung Region 3 DVD of "Red Shoes" contains two versions of the film, substantially different from one another. The non-theatrical and DVD-specific edition is identified as the "Rated for 18 or older" version, so I will refer to it as the "18+" version throughout this review.
"Red Shoes" is about a pair of dancing shoes (actually pink in the film) with a heavy-duty hex placed on them. As the film opens, a high school girl who tries them on at a subway station has her feet gobbled up by them. The poor girl is left screaming her lungs out, gazing at the stumps of her chopped-off ankles, while the pink shoes in question (in a nicely old-fashioned stop-motion shot) noisily slurps up the gushing rivulets of blood. Oh my. Not exactly Emeric Pressburger material, is it?
Production Notes
A Generation Blue Films/Cineclick Asia/Cinewise Films/Sovik Venture Capital Co-Production. Distributed by DCG+/Showbox. Directed by
Kim Yong-gyoon. Written by Ma Sang-ryeol,
Kim Yong-gyoon. Starring
Kim Hye-soo,
Kim Sung-soo, Park Yeon-ah,
Go Soo-hee,
Lee Eol, Seo Ha-rim, Son Se-kwang. International distribution by Cineclick Asia
The main plot concerns Sun Jae, a former medical doctor and bourgeois housewife with a six-year-old daughter, who accidentally finds her husband cheating with a younger woman. She moves with her daughter into a dilapidated apartment room (somewhat incongruously located in a high-rise). All is seemingly well, as she prepares to open an eye clinic with the help of her new romantic interest, a slightly oily interior decorator In Cheol (
Kim Sung-soo).
The trouble begins when she filches the cursed shoes from the subway station. Her daughter, Tae Soo (Park Yeon-ah), taking ballet lessons, begins to build an unhealthy obsession with the pink pair. As the movie progresses, we learn a disturbing back-story behind the shoes, as well as some uneasy details about Sun Jae's own life...what is her supposedly divorced husband (
Lee Eol) doing in Tae Soo's bedroom, for one?
"Red Shoes", the sophomore film directed by
Kim Yong-gyoon, who had debuted with an interestingly disturbing love story "Wanee and Junah" (2001), vacillates between two positions. On the one hand, it is a fire-in-the-belly, non-PC, take-no-prisoners scream-fest, pummeling the complacent audience with its blood-curdling yet outrageously beautiful set pieces and featuring a tour de force turn by its star, ...
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