Oh Jeong-hae (오정해)

2008/05/07 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Traditional Korean music singer cum actress Oh Jeong-hae is one of the true artists of today. Her refined appearance and heartrending voice embody traditional Korean beauty.

Debuting through the old fashioned Miss Chunhyang pageant and best known for her appearance in the film 'Seopyeonje', she is foremost associated with a tidy image after donning hanbok (Korean attire). But casual Western clothes also suit her well. Any fan of Korean film will remember her in Seopyeonje, a sensational hit of the time, in which she painstakingly acted out her singing role.

Over the years, she has done many different things -- appearing in dramas, films, hosting a radio show and teaching at university -- in places all over the country, including Seoul and the Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces.

Singer turned Actress Pursues Diverse Activities

Oh was afraid that her distinguished singing talent would limit her acting career, which is why she delved into different activities. For instance, she ...

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

2007/12/02 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Im Kwon-taek, a Cannes-winning Korean movie director, received France's elite Legion of Honor for promoting Korean films in France, news reports were quoted as saying by Associated Press.

French Ambassador Philippe Thiebaud presented Im with a "knight" medal of the Legion of Honor at his embassy in Seoul on Friday, the newspaper Dong-a Ilbo and other Korean media reported with pictures of the envoy pinning the medal on the director.

Embassy officials could not be reached for comment Saturday. Im, 71, is one of Korea's best known directors and has received a number of prizes at home and abroad, including a best director award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for "Chihwaseon", a beautifully filmed look at the life of a 19th-century Korean painter.

His latest and 100th production, "Beyond the Years", recently earned Oh Jeong-hae the best actress honor at the Three Continents Film Festival in France's Nantes. Napoleon Bonaparte established the Legion of Honor in 1802 as the highes...

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

2007/11/28 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Actress and traditional music singer Oh Jeong-hae has received best actress honors at a French film festival for her role in "Beyond the Years".

The film's production company says it received the news from the Festival of Three Continents, which was held in Nantes and ended Tuesday.

Previous Korean best actress awardees at Nantes include Kang Soo-yeon in 1988 for "The Surrogate Woman", Shim Hye-jin in 1990 for "Black Republic" and Choi Myung-gil in '94 for "La Vie en Rose".

Oh played a blind traditional music singer in director Im Kwon-taek's one hundredth film, "Beyond the Years".

Reported by KBS WORLD Radio ...

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

2007/07/27 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Two Korean films have been invited to screen at the 64th Venice International Film Festival.

"Beyond the Years", the 100th film by veteran director IM Kwon-taek, will be presented in a special out of competition section titled "Venice Masters". Other well-known auteurs joining IM in this section include Woody ALLEN, Takeshi KITANO, Claude CHABROL and Manoel DE OLIVEIRA. "Beyond the Years", starring JO Jae-hyeon and OH Jeong-hae, continues the story of a pansori singer and her brother first set out in IM's 1993 classic "Seopyeonje".

Meanwhile, JEON Soo-il's Korean-French co-production "With the Girl of Black Soil" will screen in Horizons, a smaller competitive section running parallel to the main competition. Set in Gangwon Province and centered around the life of a nine-year old girl, the film will mark the second time that director JEON travels to Venice, following his film "The Bird That Stops in the Air" in 1999.

Significantly, "With a Girl of Black Soil" features we...

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

2007/05/28 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

However, she was not alone in making the foundation on which the Korean film industry stands at the moment.

Since Kang Soo-yeon became the first Korean actress to win a major international award in 1987 with "The Surrogate Mother", the local movie industry has gone through dramatic improvement over the past 20 years.

Kang, then 21, was chosen best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role as "Sibaji", a Korean word for surrogate mother, in the movie produced by Korea's master film director Im Kwon-Taek.

In 1989, Kang reaffirmed her global fame as she won best actress at the Moscow Film Festival for her role in Im's Buddhist movie, "Aje Aje Bara Aje", which translates into "Come, come, come upward".

At the heart of the global acclaim poured on Korean movies for the past two decades were a dozen of other actresses, armed with passion for acting and superb performance.

Im's another movie, "Sopyonje", garnered much international acclaim in 1993, giving the best actres...

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