Doll Master (Movie - 2004)

"Once upon a Time" shines bright

Source | 2008/01/25 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Director JEONG Yong-ki tried his hand again at comedy and selected a winning leading duo in PARK Yong-woo and LEE Bo-yeong, aptly complemented by a number of supporting roles. The film is situated during the final days of the Japanese colonization of Korea.

"Once upon a Time" is a well balanced heist comedy; including fast and dynamic action and fight scenes, glitter and glamour, and plenty of jokes. The humorous scenario is well handled by the director and the actors' fun during filming is apparent for anybody to see.

PARK transforms from the shy guy who never had a girlfriend in his breakthrough film "My Scary Girl" into a confident player. His eyes are set on the beautiful singer played by LEE, however, she is also pursued by a Korean officer in Japanese service.

PARK, LEE and Korean officers of the Japanese army become entangled in a struggle for a phenomenal diamond; while freedom fighters and pro-Japanese Koreans clash during the dying days of the Japanese occupation....| More

Lim Eun-kyeong Cast as Lead Actress for Chinese TV Drama

Source | 2005/12/15 | 0 comments | Permalink |

TV actress Lim Eun-kyeong will debut in a Chinese TV drama. Elite Planning, Lim's entertainment agency, disclosed on Dec. 14 that "Lim Eun-kyeong has been cast as the lead actress for a new romantic drama involving insurance fraud produced by 'Huaxin Yingshi' (華新影視), a Chinese TV drama production agency".

This drama features a story about the romance between a man and a woman who are working for an insurance company. In the drama, they are embroiled in an insurance fraud case together and argue with each other at every opportunity. It will be aired throughout China early next year.

Lim will leave for China on Dec. 23 to film the drama. She will stay in Hangzhou, China for three months starting from late December.

A Korean drama entitled "Bodyguard" and a Korean movie entitled "Doll Master", both starring Lim, have hit Chinese-speaking markets such as Taiwan before. But this is the first time Lim is making a full-fledged debut in China.

...| More

'Two Sisters' scares Western critics

Source | 2004/12/09 | 0 comments | Permalink |

American and British metropolitan critics and cult film fans gave the instant Korean horror classic "A Tale of Two Sisters" two big thumbs up as it was released to global audiences last weekend.
Comparing it to Hitchcock films and "The Shining" are the best compliments any filmmaker can hope for, and this movie also got a boost from recent breakthrough Asian horror films "The Ring" and "The Grudge".

The Western media defines Asian horror as ambiguous and psychologically challenging, praise over countless straight-forward teenage slasher flicks manufactured in Hollywood.

"A fractured nightmare in a damaged brain, this hauntingly neurotic film delivers the kind of psychological horror that American cinema forgot about decades ago", wrote BBC reviewer Jamie Russell,

Written and directed by Kim Ji-woon, the film is about two sisters living with a detached father and wicked stepmother in the countryside.

Ghosts terrifying the girls complicate the family already on the v...| More

Remake Copyright of "Doll Master" Sold to U.S.

Source | 2004/11/11 | 0 comments | Permalink |

The remake copyright of the horror movie "The Doll Master" has been sold to the U.S. company Miramax. Cineclick Asia, which is in charge of the movie's overseas marketing, signed a $1.3 million contract with Miramax at the American Film Market, which was held in the U.S. recently, for selling the distribution rights and remake copyrights of "Doll Master" in the United States. Dimention, Miramax's production division, will take over the movie's remake production. This contract was concluded as a purchase contract - not as an option contract -- whereby the total amount of copyright fees was paid right upon signing the contract. So far, "A Tale of Two Sisters" was the only Korean movie whose remake copyright was sold through a purchase contract. The amount of sales from the copyright of "Two Sisters" has reached $1.1 million in Japan with the total contract amount surpassing $1.5 million. With the conclusion of the purchase contract for "Doll Master", the total amount of overseas sales ...| More

Parody gone wrong in 'Match Girl'

Source | 2004/10/08 | 0 comments | Permalink |

They say that the secret of producing a commercially, not to mention artistically, successful parody film is to use the sillier aspects of your target genre as a source of creative inspiration to write a screenplay chock-o-block full of in-jokes, references and send-ups of the cliches.
Fortunately for us, auteur Jang Sun-woo ("Lies") was attending film school on the day they lectured on how to produce a movie that parodies the self-importance of a big-budgeted blockbuster such as "The Matrix". The only problem is that he must have fallen asleep after the first five minutes, because "Resurrection of the Little Match Girl" (2002) is an absolute debacle, so thoroughly bad that it makes for fascinating viewing.

Opening with a hilarious grainy sequence, which feels like a homage to Lars Von Trier's ("Dogville") silent film-making technique, we are informed that "This film is based on a poem", before being treated to a re-enactment of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Match Girl"...| More