Lee Woo-cheol (이우철)

Seong Hyeon-ah Wins Best Actress at Malaga Festival

Source | 2007/11/22 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Korean actress Seong Hyeon-ah has been presented with a Best Actress award from the 10th Malaga International Fantastic Film Festival in Spain, which ran from November 8-15. She was awarded for her role in the horror film "Cello".

The honor marks the first festival award received by Seong, who has previously appeared in such films as "Woman is the Future" of Man by HONG Sang-soo and "Time" by KIM Ki-duk.

"Cello", directed by LEE Woo-cheol, was released in Korea in August 2005, and centers around a professional cellist whose daughter begins to act in strange ways.

Meanwhile Seong, who is currently playing a key role in the popular TV drama "Yi San", is preparing to get married in early December.

Darcy Paquet(KOFIC)...| More

'Cello' Horror Best Tuned Out

Source | 2006/09/10 | 0 comments | Permalink |

[DVD Review] Listless spook show is a typical post-'Ring' Asian horror flick

Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)

"Cello" is a typical example of the lugubriously underwhelming horror films flooding Korean theaters every summer season. The first decade of 21st century has seen an out-and-out flourishing of Korean horror films, once a vilified and ignored genre. A few among them, like "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "Memento Mori", beautiful, mysterious and emotionally engaging, have attained the status of minor classics. Others, including "Into the Mirror", "The Uninvited", "R-Point" and "Voice" ("Voice Letter") have experimented with a mixture of genres, refinement in techniques and style, or infusion of art-house sensibilities, winning praise among critics and support among more patient viewers. And then there are the rest: the hopelessly cliched and listlessly non-frightening, which still constitute, unfortunately, the numerical majority.

There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Si...| More

Korean Films at Shanghai Int. Film Festival

Source | 2006/06/16 | 0 comments | Permalink |

A record 11 Korean features will be shown in the official selection of this years 9th Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) to take place June 17th to the 25th. Among them PARK Jin-pyo's 2005 film You Are My Sunshine will run in the official competition section for the Jin Jue Award. Another Korean film, Jo Chang-ho's The Peter Pan Formula has been selected as a candidate for the Asian New Talent Award.

Two Korean directors KWAK Gyeong-Taek ("Friend", "Typhoon") and BONG Joon-ho ("The Host", "Memories of Murder") have been invited to sit on the Jin Jue Award jury which will this year be presided over by French director Luc Besson. Other directors on the jury include Stanly Kwan and Gabriella Salvatores.

9 Korean films will be showing in SIFF's Panorama section with its slogan, 'a great party for films around the world'. Included are KIM Ki-duk's "The Bow", MIN Gyoo-dong's "All for Love" ("My Lovely Week"), PARK Chan-wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, LEE Woo-cheol's "Cello...| More

Off-Key 'Cello' a Far Cry From Classic Horror

Source | 2005/08/18 | 0 comments | Permalink |

By Philip Dorsey Iglauer

Cars are nearly as dangerous as musical instruments in "Cello," billed as this summer's last silver screen scream.

Where usually character development or plot is used to thrill or spook, the summer's horror flick finale tries to invoke screams through deafening bursts of horror movie music by Lee Han-na. Though the some scenes caused a jolt, or were at times shocking, genuine horror movie shrieks never came.

In the not-so-scary "Cello," evil seems to lack a will to kill, because aside from a tenuous revenge motive, the murdering musical instrument is pretty much without a purpose. Yes, it is true. In the horror movies it shouldn't really matter, but this one took too many liberties with the genre.

"Cello" is the unintentional third in this Summer's shock-horror trinity of possessed inanimate objects _ "Red Shoes" and "Wig" "Scary Hair" being the other two _ only this one was a bit disappointing.

"Right after watching the film, now that I think ab...| More