Cinderella (Movie - 2006)

What's on Cultural Horizon in 2009?

Source | 2008/12/30 | 0 comments | Permalink |

By Han Sang-hee
Staff Reporter

The year 2009 is now finally around the corner, and it is about time to prepare for the New Year. The past year was an interesting one, and readers can now preview what is planned in 2009.

Dramas

Historical Dramas on the Rise: The three major networks are planning to air three distinctive historical dramas next year, MBC with "Queen Seon-deok", KBS with "The Iron Empress" and SBS with "Princess Ja Myung Go".

The three dramas will touch on the lives of powerful women during the period in which the programs are set: the Goryeo Kingdom (918-1392), the Silla Kingdom (668-935) and the Goguryeo Kingdom (37 B.C.-A.D.668), respectively.

Starring Ko Hyeon-jeong and Lee Yo-won, "Queen Seon-deok" will carry the story of the first queen to rule during Goryeo, while "The Iron Empress" will bring back the courageous grand daughter of King Taejo (47-165), played by Chae Si-ra, and her lifelong struggle to protect the country her ancestors built. "Prince...| More

Big Bang's Third Mini Album Sweeps K-POP Charts

Source | 2008/08/26 | 0 comments | Permalink |

The group Big Bang is taking the K-pop industry by storm. The title track of Big Bang's third mini album "Day by Day" has now topped the "Melon K-pop Chart" for two straight weeks.

The latest album sold 100,000 copies in just two weeks. Other tracks in the album are also climbing the charts. "Heaven" took the fifth spot, "Oh My Friend" the 11th spot, "Sweet Person" took 12th and "Lady" took 17th.

Lee Hyo-lee's "U-Go-Girl" is following close behind in the second spot, Davich's "Love and War" in the third spot and Seo In-young's "Cinderella" in the fourth spot.

Nineties K-pop icons Seo Taiji, Cool and Uhm Jung-hwa also nabbed top spots on the K-pop charts.
...| More

11th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan)

Source | 2007/06/22 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Korea's second-largest film event, the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) is also Asia's top genre film fest. This year running July 12th to the 21st, the fantasy fueled fest will screen 215 films, opening with Korean director Hwang Kyoo-deok's supernatural romance "For Eternal Hearts" and closing with hit Indonesian thriller, Kala by Joko Anwar.

The festival's chief competition section Puchon Choice will present 10 features from Asia, Europe and the USA, including Korean independent film "Resurrection of the Butterfly" by KIM Min-sook. The 60-film World cinema section will screen films from around the globe including premiers of Korean films "Beautiful Sunday", Aseurai and Code of a Duel, the later two being DV works. Previous local releases "Texture of Skin" and "Cinderella" will also screen here, while Jang Jin's drama "A Day with My Son" and animated feature "Robot Taekwon V" (1976) will play in the Family section.

Each year PiFan also unearths treas...| More

[DVD Review] "Ghost" ("Dead Friend") aka 'Ryung'

Source | 2007/06/18 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Soggy horror film more appropriate for TV drama fans

Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)

Ji-won (Kim Ha-neul) is a college student stricken by selective amnesia due to a near-drowning experience. The missing memory seems to suggest that she was a close friend with another girl (Nam Sang-mi), but the details remain fuzzy. Meanwhile, her friends, members of a high school clique, are beginning to turn up as dead bodies.

Made in 2004, "Ghost" ("Dead Friend") represents the nadir of contemporary Korean horror cinema, ravaged by the strains of a PSC (Pointless Sadako Clone) virus and put together in such a slapdash manner that it might serve as an object lesson in how not to make a generic horror film. (Even the title is super-generic.)

The fact that director Kim Tae-kyeong's screenplay is an irritating hodgepodge of plot elements (and scare tactics) stolen wholesale from Nakata Hideo's "Dark Waters" and the most awfully disingenuous and hackneyed setups cribbed from TV dramas is certainly a...| More

Horror debut drowns in stale images

Source | 2006/10/24 | 0 comments | Permalink |

For many ambitious film directors in Korea, the genre of modern horror flicks has become something of an Aladdin's lamp, which they think of as a magical turning point in their cinematic careers able to certify their aesthetic taste with a single granted wish.
In fact the directors of "K-horrors" usually have a few things in common. Often they have never directed horror films before; somewhere in the special features section of their DVDs their commentary implies that horror was never their favorite genre; and their films make grand and sweeping statements about human psychological concerns such as jealousy, resentment and homoeroticism.
In the case of Bong Man-dae's "Cinderella", it's clear he pushed too hard to try to rehabilitate his reputation from that of a best-selling director of soft-porn adult videos to the only slightly more respectable genre of B-grade cult horror films.
It was a worth a try, I guess.
The film, though is flooded with tasteless lines and once again recycl...| More