Crying Fist (Movie - 2004)

The 8th Mise-en-Scene Short Film Festival Opens this Week

Source | 2009/06/26 | Permalink |

This year's Mise-en-scene Short Film festival will showcase a total of 120 films. The film festival whose focus is genre short films will feature films genres normally associated with feature length films.  These genres include horror, fantasy, love and even action.  It features 57 films in the official section and the invitation section for foreign films focuses on varied stories surrounding the topic of death.
 
Behind the scenes is a wealth of talent and Korean film alumi. The committee chair this year is director BONG Joon-ho ("Mother - 2009", "The Host") and head of jury is director KIM Dae-seung ("Bungee Jumping of their Own", "Blood Rain").  On the committee is directors PARK Chan-wook (The Revenge Trilogy, "Thirst"), RYOO Seung-wan ("The City of Violence", "Crying Fist"), KIM Ji-woon ("A Tale of Two Sisters", "The Good, The Bad, The Weird"), LEE Jae-yong ("Dasepo Girl", "Untold Scandal") and many other well known directors.
 
The Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival opens Wedn...| More

RYOO Seung-wan's Next Project, "I Enforce"

Source | 2009/03/03 | Permalink |

Korean action king, director RYOO Seung-wan has a new project in development, a US $3 million thriller titled "I Enforce". To be featured in the upcoming Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) (March 23-25), the director's seventh film will combines elements from his two previous festival hits: the human drama of "Crying Fist" (2005) and the high-octane action of "The City of Violence" (2006).

The revenge thriller tells the story of Sae-hwang, a stunt-double who wakes up in the hospital one day only to be told that his beloved sister Saeri was raped and died in a drug-overdose. When the police investigation leads nowhere, Sae-hwang takes matters into his own hands, uncovering a trail of corruption that leads to Interpol, Russian gangs, and corrupt Korean officers involved in a syndicate of forced prostitution and drug trafficking.

RYOO wrote the script which is to be produced by KANG Hyeo-jeong and KIM Kyung-mi at RYOO's own production company Filmmaker R&K, Co. Ltd. ...| More

HAF Selects 4 Korean Project

Source | 2009/01/09 | Permalink |

The Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) has chosen 4 South Korean projects, including the latest by director NA Hong-jin ("The Chaser"), for its high-profile project market, taking place March 23 – 25, 2009 alongside the Hong Kong International Film Festival (March 22 – April 13).

NA will present his new project, titled "The Murderer", the tale of a man who is forced to become a murderer through physical necessity. The director's debut film "The Chaser" was an unexpected hit at the Korean box office, becoming the second-highest grossing film of 2008.

Korea's top action director RYOO Seung-wan will bring "The Enforcer", his seventh feature project to HAF. The director is known for such popular hits as "Arahan" (2004), "Crying Fist" (2005) and "The City of Violence" (2006).

Also invited were LIM Pil-seong with a project called "The Flower of Evil" and LEE Jeong-beom with "A Secret Boy". LIM debuted with 2005 feature "Antarctic Journa"l followed by fairy-tale horror ...| More

Lyon Asian Film Fest Awards Korean Films

Source | 2008/11/19 | Permalink |

The 14th Lyon Asian Film Festival ended its 5-day run November 9, closing with the French premiere of Korean film "The Chaser" by NA Hong-jin. Korean films won the majority of the 20 awards handed out at the closing ceremony.

KIM Dong-hyun's "Hello, Stranger" won third place in the Grand Prize category, and second place in both the Youth Prize and the New Asian Cinema Prize category. "Tropical" by LEE Sang-woo won third place also in the latter category.

In the Best Feature Animation section, "If You Were Me - Anima Vision 2" took third place prize. Prizes for short films went to animated short Stop by PARK Jae-wook, winning first prize, and "Sweat", a short by "The Chaser" director NA Hong-jin, which took second prize.

The festival also screened a retrospective on Korean actor CHOI Min-sik, showcasing five features from throughout the respected thespians film career. "Our Twisted Hero" (1992), "Failan" (2001), "Chihwaseon" ("Strokes of Fire", 2002), "Old Boy" (2003) an...| More

CHOI Min-sik retrospective at Lyon fest

Source | 2008/10/24 | Permalink |

The 14th Lyon Asian Film Festival will dedicate a retrospective to Korea's leading actor CHOI Min-sik. The French film festival holds the special program on 4 November. "Old Boy", "Strokes of Fire", "Failan", "Crying Fist", and "Our Twisted Hero" are selected from CHOI's filmography. CHOI is to attend the festival to meet fans and press.

CHOI is to return to cinemas next year with the indie film "Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells". In JEON Soo-il's film, CHOI is the only Korean actor working with locally cast actors in Tibet. CHOI plays a factory owner who travels to Tibet with the remains of an immigrant worker who died in an accident to return him to his family.

CHOI has been absent from the big screen for three years. He was last seen in PARK Chan-wook's "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" in 2005. Since then he has been in the news while protesting against the screen quota cut as part of the Free Trade Agreement with the US.

Yi Ch'ang-ho (KOFIC)...| More