Kim Young-chan (김영찬)

2007/11/29 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

When you have a classic storyline and an amazing cast of top-notch actors, what can possibly go wrong? While a movie can go terribly off beam, fine acting can sometimes keep a film from drowning completely.

"Eleventh Mom", is a conventional tearjerker. Director Kim Jin-seong ("Surprise", 2002) spices up the family genre a bit by throwing in some novel ingredients that work surprisingly well in the beginning. But the rest of the film goes sour ― rather than sweetly heart-wrenching ― and forcibly squeezes out tears.

Jae-su leads a cruel life for an 11-year-old. His father (Ryoo Seung-yong) is an abusive, gambling and jobless wreck of a guy, so the little boy has learned to survive on his own, cooking or carefully spending his food stamps and running a string of part-time jobs.

One day, his father shows up with a woman (Kim Hye-soo). Apparently used to the comings and goings of such transient mother figures ― this one being the...

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2007/11/20 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

A woman with bad health and a broken bank account lived just to pity herself, until she met a young boy who had it worse than she did.

The woman is the 11th mother for the boy, whose stepmothers had come and gone after the death of his real mother. "Eleventh Mom", to be released on November 29, is a film about the bonding between a stepmother and stepson, each of whom insists they are more pathetic. The mother is played by actress Kim Hye-soo.

During the filming of "The War of Flower", Kim accidentally came across a script that was originally meant for another actress. Kim Jin-seong, director of the movie "Eleventh Mom", was brainstorming for a low-budget film under 500 million won at that time, but didn't have a specific production plan. Kim then politely suggested herself as the female lead even while thinking, "Production won't be easy". As luck would have it, she was given the part. Ryoo Seung-yong and Hwang Jeong-min joined the cast, and Kim Young-chan, who played Kim Jeong-...

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2005/02/22 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Han Eun-jung
Staff Reporter

These days, it's not a fire fighter, a teacher, a doctor or even the nation's president that kids want to be when they grow up. Instead, according to a recent survey, 2 out of 3 children want to go into show business, as either an actor or a singer.

Of the some 5,000 children aged 12 and younger who logged on to cable cartoon network Tooniverse's Web site, 67 percent replied that they would like to see themselves on television one day.

This may explain the increasing interest that children themselves are showing in getting themselves exposed to the business, earlier and earlier on.

MTM Communications, which for almost two decades has been South Korea's largest acting school and talent agency, has witnessed changes in the attitudes of children looking to make it big in the entertainment industry.

"In the past, you'd see children coming through the doors with their mothers leading the way", MTM director Lee Ju-deok said. "But now, let's jus...

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