| Ji Jin-hee feels bad for making Ha Jeong-woo murderer again (Source) |
2010/02/04 |

Actors Lee Jong-hyuk (left) and Ji Jin-hee of "Parallel Life" [Lee Jin-hyuk/10Asia]
If your life was exactly the same as someone else's from the past, what would you do? Is it a blessing or a curse -- without having to ride a time machine back in time -- to be able to know what your future holds for you by looking at someone else's life? The film "Parallel Life" begins with an anecdote about U.S. presidents Lincoln and Kennedy. Like the two presidents who lived very similar lives but existed 100 years apart, character Kim Seok-hyun (played by Ji Jin-hee) -- who is the youngest person to be appointed chief prosecuting attorney -- becomes increasingly aware that he is caugh... |More
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| Moon So-ri returns to her salad days (Source) |
2008/09/25 |
Moon So-ri, an award-winning Korean actress, was a single when she joined the cast for "Sa-kwa", a movie about relationships, marriage and reunion.
While the release date for the film, directed by Kang Yi-kwon, was put back again and again, Moon got married and her perspective about the movie also changed.
Because of the long delay, Moon expressed her special feelings about the film when she joined the press screening of "Sa-kwa" in Seoul on Wednesday.
"It's overwhelming", Moon said. "There are so many good memories and stories about this movie, but I felt a sense of helplessness when the release got delayed".
Moon said the much-awaited movie would bring back the younger image she had in her debut film "Peppermint Candy" (2000). "The image in 'Sa-kwa' is different from how I am today, and I felt as if I was watching myself from the days when I was in 'Peppermint Candy'. I was certainly not sophisticated back then", Moon said.
"Sa-kwa", whose Korean title can be interpret... |More
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| Soo: Hard-hitting film by CHOI Yang-il (SAI Yoichi) (Source) |
2007/03/13 |
Korean-Japanese director CHOI Yang-il, known in Japan as SAI Yoichi, is in town with his first film made entirely in Korea with a Korean cast. "Soo", is a hard-boiled revenge-thriller about a man, Tae-su, who witnesses the killing of his identical twin brother Tae-jin. Recovering from the trauma, he sets out to cold-bloodedly avenge his brother's murder in a grisly, exacting fashion.
Actor JI Jin-Hee ("Bewitching Attraction", 2006) in his first action picture, takes up the challenge of playing both roles as the twin brothers. Also starring are KANG Seong-yeon ("The King and the Clown", 2005) MOON Seong-geun ("Princess Aurora", 2005, "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors" 2000), LEE KI-young ("Marathon", 2005) and OH Man-seok ("A Cruel Attendance", 2006).
Veteran director CHOI is internationally known for the films he has made in Japan, including 2004's "Blood and Bones", based on a Korean epic novel, and starring KITANO Takeshi. After it's premiere at the Pusan Internation... |More
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| How to Spot the Real Crowd-Pleaser Movies (Source) |
2007/02/06 |
Lee Joon-ik's "Radio Star" has earned average ratings of 9.22 out of 10 in a poll of 7,749 Netizens by the portal site Naver late last month, easily topping the popularity chart among those who watched the film. According to the Korean Film Council, "Radio Star" drew 150,684 viewers on the first weekend of its release on Sept. 28, but that was just around 10 percent of the total number of viewers, which surged exponentially over the weeks: a textbook example of word of mouth making a movie's success.
By contrast, "Bewitching Attraction" released on March 16 last year and starring Ji Jin-hee and Moon So-ri drew a total of 588,467 viewers, but 60 percent or 280,141 of them saw it on the first weekend. Most people who went to see the movie were misled by a provocative poster that has been slammed as close to false advertising. Some 2,438 Netizens gave the movie a dismal average rating of 3.05, placing it 673rd out of 676. Before release, the average rating had been 6.54.
To gauge th... |More
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| Korean film industry has lost some sparkle (Source) |
2006/12/29 |
The Korean film industry seemed to be in full bloom in 2006 with hits such as "The Host" and "The Royal Jester (formerly "The King and the Clown")" attracting more than 10 million customers at the box office.
A total of 108 domestic films, including this week's "My Wife is a Gangster 3", have opened in theaters nationwide. The number has skyrocketed since 2005's 83 films and is the biggest number of films made since 1990. And in 2007 over 60 percent of the films shown here were Korean made.
Even with these record-breaking numbers, the reality in Chungmuro (the area where Korean film production companies have been concentrated, to such an extent that the word is now synonymous with the phrase "Korean film industry") is very different. Although there have been more movies, they have made less profit than in previous years. In short ― the industry is not making enough money.
Return on Investment is minus 30 percent
Based on theater profits alone, the return on investment thi... |More
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