The eighth edition of the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) 2010 has selected two Korean projects among 25 Asian projects for its upcoming edition, March 22 – 24. Award-winning auteur
Lee Yoon-ki and commercially successful director JEON Yeon-soo will present their latest projects to potential investors.
LEE's project is titled "Dear Comrade", a Korea-Japan-Vietnam co-production. It tells the story of a decades-long love between a Vietnamese man and a North Korean woman who...
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Avatar has been knocked off its seven week perch at the top of the box office by spy thriller
"Secret Reunion". The
Song Kang-ho starring blockbuster pulled in 741,552 admissions in its first 3 days after opening. Secret Reunion is helmed by up and comer
Jang Hoon who joins the ranks of other Korean promising-young-directors such as
Na Hong-jin w...
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"The Murderer" director Na Hong-jin
Korean film "The Murderer" has signed on major Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox as one of its co-investors, according to the film's distributor Showbox Mediaplex Co. on Tuesday.
Showbox announced in a press release that the Na Hong-jin helmed pic -- which already has Korean entertainment agency Wellmade Star M as its main investor -- will receive additional funding from Fox, making "The Murderer" the first Korean movie to receive direct investment from the Hollywood studio.
The new business partnership, Showbox explained, will further expand into diverse business opportunities. Fox -- which is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation -- will reportedly take part in producing sequels and remakes of the film. In case of a Hollywood remake, Na will be contractually guaranteed to direct the film with original Korean producer Popcorn Films on board as well....More
Film insiders excited over new works by three star directors
Hits came from all quarters in Korean cinema last year, with big blockbusters
"Take Off" and
"Haeundae", auteur films
"Thirst" and
"Mother - 2009" and indie sleepers
"Old Partner" and
"Breathless" all filling seats.
Disaster flick
"Haeundae" was the first locally made film to top 10 million tickets sold in three years. Industry-wide box office returns hit a record high of 1.08 trillion won ($964 million), about half from Korean-made films.
The state-funded Korean Film Council forecast in a recent report that the local movie market will continue its incremental growth over the next five years, and 2010 is expected to be another bonanza for the local film studios. But the most hotly anticipated movies inside the industry aren't quite as diverse as 2009's top sellers - on the contrary, they're all in a single genre: thriller.
Korea's thriller renaissance, kicked off by
"The Chaser" in 2008 and continued by "
Secret - 2009" at the end of last year, continues with
"No Mercy", the first big, locally made release of 2010.
According to a recent survey by the JoongAng Ilbo of 20 film experts including producers, investors and critics, the three most highly anticipated films scheduled to be released this year were all thrillers.
"The Housemaid - 2010", a remake of a local classic, came in first, followed by
"The Murderer" (working title), which will reunite
"The Chaser" director
Na Hong-jin with his two leads from that film. In third was
"Moss" (working title) by veteran director
Kang Woo-seok.
"The Housemaid - 2010", a remak...
MoreBy Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
The past year represented hope and revitalization for Korean cinema. While problems such as piracy linger on, the forecast for 2010 cinema appears promising with diverse projects in the making.
Cineastes are finding inspiration from the past and are bringing remakes of Korean classics as well as unique period movies. Big action flicks are gearing up for the 60th anniversary of the Korean War (1950-53) while much-anticipated sequels will cater to fans. Furthermore, a couple of Hollywood projects will head here for shoots.
2009 in Review
Both commercial blockbusters and unique indie films pulled the industry out of a three-year slump and cineastes made their mark near and far.
Kim Choung-ryoul's documentary
"Old Partner" rewrote box-office history for the genre, while
Yang Ik-joon's
"Breathless" made waves by sweeping almost two dozen prizes at international festivals.
Park Chan-ok's low-budget drama
"Paju" was well-received among critics and moviegoers and the micro-budget road movie "
Daytime Drinking" gained popularity near and far.
The positivity peaked in the summer. The success of the sports movie
"Take Off" fed directly into the big-time box office scores set by the tsunami blockbuster
"Haeundae", which drew over 10 million audience members in Korea for the first time in three years since
"The Host" in 2006.
Stars shined strongly through the big screen. Korean actors debuted in foreign works, most notably
Lee Byeong-Heon in "G.I. Joe" and
Rain in "
Ninja Assassin", while
Kim Myeong-min made headlines for shedding 20 kilograms for his role in "
Closer to Heaven".
Celebrity directors also made long-awaited returns.
Park Chan-wook revisited the Cannes Festival with his vampire flick
"Thirst" while
Bong Joon-ho made a splash with the thriller
"Mother - 2009".
On the flip side, illegal online distributions of
"Haeundae", before its release in Chinese theaters, and of
"Thirst", before DVD sales opened in the United States, led to big financial blows and signaled the red light on piracy. The country's top stars, including
Jang Dong-gun and
Kim Tae-hee, stepped up as representatives for the anti-piracy campaign: "Good Downloader".
Meanwhile, imported 3D movies tapped into the local theater market. While the number of theaters catering to the genre remains relatively small, there seems to be growing reception for 3D films. Animations such as "Monster vs. Aliens" and "Up" drew family audiences while "Avatar", new in theaters, has drawn over 1 million audiences in the shortest timeframe among 2009 films.
2010 Forecast
Back to Classics
During Korean cinema's Golden Age of the 1960s, well over 100 films rolled out per year (more than 200 from 1968 to 1969), and cineastes are finding inspiration in films from that time. Classics never go out of style, and next year...
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