Min Gyoo-dong (민규동)

5 Directors Explore Sensuality in 'Eros'

2009/07/02 | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

Amid the high tide of summer action movies, five star directors are bringing a modest omnibus project with a different sensibility.

"Five Senses of Eros", each depicting unique aspects of sensuality and sexuality, as well as featuring a host of high-profile actors, will provide moviegoers with a more colorful audiovisual experience.

Contrary to expectations, the five shorts don't deal with each of the five senses, nor are they pure erotica. Rather, participating filmmakers experiment with a distinct language and style, be it B-rate comedy or subtle melodrama, to deliver deliciously short episodes about human desire and its perceived complexities ― or basic simplicity.

Daniel H. Byun (Byeon Hyeok, "The Scarlet Letter") opens "Eros" with a stylish urban romance about the thrills of chance encounters and first dates. "His Concern" unfolds like a live journal ― or a guy's version of chick lit ― as it follows the stream of consci...| More

Korean Premieres at NY Asian Film Fest

Source | 2009/06/26 | Permalink |

This year's New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) invites seven Korean features and 10 Korean shorts to its 8th edition, running June 19 – July 5 in Manhattan. Of the seven features, four are North American premieres: RYOO Seung-wan's "Dachimawa Lee", KIM Ki-duk's "Dream", JANG Hoon's "Rough Cut", and MIN Gyoo-dong's "Antique".

The remaining three features are New York premieres and include Rotterdam Tiger winner "Breathless" by YANG Ik-joon, "Go Go 70s" by CHOI Ho and "Crush and Blush" by LEE Kyoung-mi. From the latter film, award-winning actress KONG Hyo-Jin will be a guest at NYAFF. She and actor SO Ji-Sub ("Rough Cut") will be presented with the Inaugural Rising Star Asia Awards, which will take place on the 24 of June.

In the short film category, director Lee Su-Jin is invited for the screening of his short film "Enemy's Apple". The program highlights the best Korean short films from the previous year's edition of the Mise-en-Scene's Short Film Festival in Seoul. NYAFF ...| More

Hong Ji-young Looks on the Brighter Side of Adultery

Source | 2009/05/01 | Permalink |

What is more interesting about the film "The Naked Kitchen" by Hong Ji-young than the material is the way the director deals with it. Here, an adulterous affair is portrayed not as something scandalous or tragic but with humor and optimism.

Hong sidesteps any sweeping moral standards or family values and focuses instead on the emotions of the three actors, asking fundamental questions about love.

"Kitchen" reminds many people of last year's "Antique". Both deal with forbidden love, in the case of "Antique" homosexual love, and both adopt a bright, happy and playful tone. Perhaps that is only natural, since Min Gyoo-dong, who directed "Antique" is married to Hong. And indeed, both films were invited to the Berlin International Film Festival, and exported to Japan. "Antique" is released there this week and "The Naked Kitchen" on May 30.

"I don't think you can say that new relationships or illicit affairs always start from a deficiency. A new love can come even into the life of a...| More

Pretty boys serve up a musical dramedy

Source | 2009/04/03 | Permalink |

The manga of Fumi Yoshinaga has been a guilty pleasure of mine since I worked for the company that publishes her work in the United States a few years ago. Like many female Japanese comic artists she is obsessed with pretty boys, which doesn't do much for me but her characters are complex and inhabit gentle slice-of-life stories, crafted with the humor of a skilled and sympat"hetic observer of human drama.

Yoshinaga's only real mainstream hit is "Antique Bakery", about the son of a rich family who decides to open a Western-style cake shop, which is odd because he hates cake. A series of subplots introduces an ensemble of other characters most of them also beautiful men. (The original manga, along with my favorite Yoshinaga title, "Flower of Life", is available from Seoul import stores such as http://www.whatthebook.com)

The Korean film version is simply called "Antique", and though it's moved the story to Seoul and given all the characters Korean names, it's mostly faithful to th...| More

Korean Master and 12 Features in Hong Kong

Source | 2009/03/06 | Permalink |

One of Korean cinema's early masters and one of the most important directors of the 60s and 70s, YU Hyun-mok, 84, will receive a retrospective at the 33rd Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF). The event, which opens March 22, will feature four of the director's finest films under the title 'The Realist Dao of YU Hyun-mok'.

Included are YU's first masterpiece, "The Aimless Bullet" (1961), voted by Korean critics as the best Korean film of all time; the moving and sensuous "Daughters of the Kim Pharmacy" (1963), based on a classic Korean novel; the cynical, modernist color gem "The Guests on the Last Train" (1967) and the tense, cold war microcosm, "Rainy Days" (1979).

Contemporary Korean films playing at the fest number eight this year. Indie favorite, "Daytime Drinking", was selected to compete in HKIFF's Asia Digital Competition section. The low budget debut feature by NOH Young-seok has drawn notice after winning at the Jeonju Int'l Film Fest and receiving a North...| More