Actors Lee Je-hoon, left, and Goh Soo in a scene from the Korean War (1950-53) film "The Front Line"

By Lee  Hyo-won

It's another Korean War (1950-53) film, made on a hefty budget - at least for local standards - and featuring an A-list cast.

The viewer, already having seen such action-packed, homespun tearjerkers celebrating humanist values as "Taegukgi" and "71-Into the Fire" or any one of those Hollywood World War II blockbusters, can easily doubt whether Jang Hoon's upcoming "The Front Line" could bring something new...More

By KOFIC

Korea's box office in the first half of 2011 has dipped 2.3%. From January to June, theaters took in 68.3 million admissions and KW536.4bn (US$507.2m), down from the 69.76 million admissions and KW549.3bn (US$519.4m) in the same period of time in 2010.

Last year, 3D films with higher ticket prices led by "Avatar" brought about an increase in box office gross despite a decrease in admissions. This year's 3D tentpoles such as "Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" did well at the box office but were not enough to make up for decreasing admissions...More

by KOFIC

One of the world's leading genre film festivals, the 44th Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia has made an early selection announcement which includes Korean director Na Hong-jin's action thriller "The Yellow Sea".

The Sitges festival previously screened Na's debut feature The Chaser in 2008. The serial killer thriller was a much-lauded film that made Na's second feature, "The Yellow Sea "(a.k.a. The Murderer), one of the most highly anticipated films of 2010...More

By Park Sung-hee

Jang Hoon, who directed the hit inter-Korean drama "Secret Reunion", has returned with another film involving the two Koreas.

"The Front Line" takes viewers back to the Korean War (1950-53), which is largely known as the Forgotten War, and looks into parts of the conflict that have slipped into oblivion. Jang teamed up with a seasoned scriptwriter Park Sang-yeon for the 10 billion-won project.

"Even Koreans remember only about six months of the Korean War", scriptwriter Park told reporters Tuesday in Seoul. "But the actual conflict went on for another 30 months. We wanted to tell the forgotten parts of the Forgotten War"...More

Hwang Jeong-min stars as an investigative journalist in the conspiracy drama "Moby Dick". / Courtesy of Showbox/Mediaplex

By Lee  Hyo-won

Marked by intrigue and wit, "Moby Dick" paves the way for conspiracy dramas, a genre not yet fully explored in Korean cinema.

Painstakingly realistic depictions of thoroughly domestic matters provide for Hollywood-esque entertainment that invites vested interest, particularly as top actors give their finest performances - but at the same time this deprives the film of that cathartic oomph audiences might expect...More