Seo Jeong (서정)

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 actress trophy to leading actress Oh Jeong-hae at the Shanghai International Film Festival.

More recent...More

The Oporto International Film Festival, better known as Fantasporto, presented two awards to Korean cinema in its closing ceremony on March 3.

Bong Joon-ho's acclaimed third feature "The Host" screened in the festival's main Official Fantasy competition section and was presented with an award for Best Director. The winner of this section was Pan's Labyrinth by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro.

Meanwhile, in the 17th Director's Week section, young actor Ha Jeong-woo won Best Actor for his leading role in Kim Ki-duk's thirteenth film ...More

Song Il-gon's latest film an intricate mystery with an art house style

Kim Kyu Hyun (internews)

Kang Min (Kam Woo-seong), a TV reporter, stumbles onto a horrific scene of double murder in an isolated cabin. His colleague and newscaster, Soo Young (Jang Hyeon-seong), is one of the victims. She whispers, "Spiders ... it's so scary" before breathing her last. Kang notices a mysterious figure and gives him chase, only to be upstaged and beaten unconscious. Dazed, he walks into a highway tunnel and spies a familiar looking shadow, just before being crushed by a speeding SUV.


Production notes

An Oak Film Production. Distributed by CJ Entertainment, in association with Egg Film Productions.

Written and Directed by Song Il-gon. Music by Yoon Min-hwa. Edited by Choi Jae-geun. Production Design by Jun Hye Sung. Make-up Effects by Lee Eun Ah. Costume design by Kim Eun Sook. Cinematography by Kim Chil-joo. Executive Producer Kim Dae-hyeon.

International distribution by CJ Entertainment. 120 minutes.
Kang somehow survives a harrowing brain operation but becomes a major suspect in the double-murder case. Encouraged by his cop friend assigned to the case (Jang Hyeon-seong), Kang retraces his steps leading to his discovery of the murder victims. He cannot shake the feeling, however, that there are strange gaps in his memory ... and they have something to do with the beautiful and kind studio photographer Soo Jin (Seo Jeong) whom he interviewed for a TV program, as well as her stories about that darned forest crawling with those creepy spiders.

"Spider Forest" is the second feature film made by Song Il-gon, who, along with Moon Seung-wook ("Nabi: The Butterfly", a Tarkovskian science fiction film and a debut for the rising star Kang Hye-jeong), is notable among Korean filmmakers for having been educated in the Polish National Academy of Cinema in Lodz. Song's films eschew linear narrative and Hollywood-style characterizations in bold strokes, partaking of the dreamy, evocative stylistics of easte...More

The 10th Pusan International Film Festival will feature 10 films from the maverick Korean director

Hyo-Jae An (hyo1788)

The time has come again for another comprehensive film festival in Korea's southern port city of Busan. This year, the 10th anniversary of the Pusan International Film Festival marks the 30th anniversary of director Lee Man Hee's death by showcasing his most famous works.

Lee was renowned for making films of every possible genre, even saying himself, "I'd like to make film in every genre I could possibly make". Soon he was being hailed as a "master" of war, thriller and drama films.

He is especially remembered for the maverick side of his personality, making many political films criticizing the Korean War. Other films such as "The Marines Who Didn't Come Home" (1963) dealt...More

by Seung-Jae Lee

The new movie "Spider Forest", releasing tomorrow, is an unusual movie that drives audiences to solve a puzzle that never ends. Some of the puzzles are disfigured, some others are switched to another puzzle, some are identical to each other, and some are missing.

Director Song Il-gon (Flower Island, 2001) said at the recent preview, "This movie can be difficult. I recommend people enjoy 'Spider Forest' as if they were watching someone else's dream". But, technically, it is not a difficult movie, just one that makes audiences dizzy. With the plot being developed through time back and forth from the present to the past, the key appreciation point is the attitude of taking in all the strong visual images as real, rather than trying to find the perfect storyline by putting all the scattered information together.


Widower Gang Min (starred by ...More