Lee Hwan-gyeong (이환경)

Actor Lee Seong-jae cast as title role of drama "Shirasoni"

2008/01/16 | Source | Permalink |

Actor Lee Seong-jae will play the role of the legendary fighter Shirasoni (Lee Sung Soon).

According to his agency on the 16th, "Lee Seong-jae has signed on to star in the 52-episode series 'Shirasoni' with Ibon Entertainment".

This series will be written by Lee Hwan-gyeong who also wrote "The Age of Heroes", and directed by PD Jang Hyeong Il who worked on "Rustic Period", "Jang Gil San", and others. On location filming in China is also being discussed.

Shirasoni is a legendary fighter that was active on the Korean peninsula and in China during the Japanese colonial period. He also was involved in politics after Korea's independence supporting Shin Ik Hee, Cho Byung Ohk, and others, and passed away in 1983.

Lee Seong-jae starred in the movie "Daisy" amongst many others, and starred in the drama series "Stranger than Paradise" in 2006....| More

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

Tale of a girl and her horse tastes stale

2006/12/20 | Source | Permalink |

Let's get the bad news out of the way first.
Lee Hwan-gyeong's "Lump Sugar", a story of a brave female jockey and her horse named "Thunder", leaves a stale aftertaste by encouraging conflicts between classic dualities of good and evil, whether it's a bad guy versus a brave girl or a loyal Korean horse (it even runs out to the racetrack from an operating table, despite being sick) versus an American horse with the cheesy name of "King Flesh".
Also, like a horse race, the film leads its audience to anticipate who will win the day. Perhaps the idea of "race" refers to more than just a horse race in this film, which was funded by the Korea Racing Association.
It's also a race for Si-eun (Im Soo-jeong) against the idiotic male riders and sponsors of her riding school, who constantly jeer at her gender.
The film is also the heroine's race against the depravity and corruption prevalent at the racetrack. It's also the fierce race of the Korean horse against the American steed.
Yet in "Lum...| More

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

‘Sugar’ Is Sweet but Not Delicious

2006/08/10 | Source | Permalink |

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

After all the domestic movies featuring gangster jokes, pretty couples' romances and violent and rebellious teenagers' school lives, you may be craving for a healthier diet of more diversified films.

If all these reproductions of the same old stories in similar genres have decreased your appetite for Korean films, at first glance, the new movie "Lump Sugar" (Kaksoltang) may seem to be what you have been longing for.

"Lump Sugar" is the first domestic film that features a dynamic horse race, and its main theme _ a friendship between a female jockey and her horse _ seems to promise a touching story.

But the film cannot fully satisfy your appetite due to its predictable story, without any strong dramatic hooks, which will remind you of some mainstream Hollywood films driven by similar themes.

Directed by Lee Hwan-gyeong and starring actress Im Soo-jeong, the film revolves around Si-eun (played by Lim), who dreams of becoming a famous jockey.
...| More

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

'Lump of Sugar' Goes Down Well

2006/07/25 | Source | Permalink |

By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter

Coming domestic movie "Lump Sugar" (Kaksoltang) is the first film to feature a dynamic horse race, and its main actress says during the shooting she learned that humans and animals can develop a deep friendship, an event that took place in the film's story.

"Of course, it was so hard to act with a horse in the film", Im Soo-jeong said Monday during a news conference followed by the preview screening of "Lump Sugar" at Yongsan CGV multiplex theaters in Seoul. "But as we shot more and more together, the cranky and inattentive horse started to look into my eyes just like my mother when I hugged her or cried. I think I and the horse shared each other's feelings".

Directed by Lee Hwan-gyeong, the film revolves around Si-eun (played by Im) who dreams of becoming a jockey.

She loves a horse named Changgun, but it dies while giving birth. As she lives with a single father, she feels sympathy for the foal and she takes a good care of her, naming her C...| More

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

Goguryeo's popularity? Blame it on the Chinese

2006/07/12 | Source | Permalink |

With the World Cup over, Kang Yeo-jin is back in front of the television, absorbed in her regular nighttime dramas.
"I was frustrated that all three broadcasting networks were showing the same soccer games at the same time", said the 18-year-old, who goes to high school in Gueui-dong, eastern Seoul.
Kang might not be happy for long, however. Instead of the weepy, dad-in-the-hospital dramas she loves to watch, television broadcasters are serving up generous helpings of historical swashbucklers.
Korea's networks, it seems, have a prime-time crush on Goguryeo, the militant kingdom that existed on the northern expanse of the Korean peninsula from 37 B.C. to 668 A.D. Three major broadcasting networks ― MBC, KBS and SBS ― have either already started or are planning to air dramas about the kingdom this year, with each story set in a different time in that era.
"Goguryeo was the most beautiful era of our time", said the producers of MBC's "Jumong", one of the Goguryeo-based dra...| More

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?