H (Movie - 2002)

Half Success, Half Failure in Korean 'My Fair Lady'

Source | 2008/08/29 | Permalink |

By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

It took about 52 years for musical "My Fair Lady", which premiered in Broadway in 1956, to make its way to the overheated local musical scene eager for proven foreign licensed works.

Why did it take so long to put such a reputed classic on stage in local theaters?

It might be because of the language difference. Unlike other musicals, "My Fair Lady" is difficult to capture its original style and intentions if translated into Korean as the story puts much emphasis on the process of speech lessons and the improvement of English pronunciation.

Despite the worries, the Korean version of "My Fair Lady" managed to pass the hardest test in the scenes of Eliza taking speech lessons from Higgins.

The musical used English phrases without Korean translation in the speech tutoring scene endlessly repeating phrases like "In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen" to demonstrate that "h"s must be aspirated.

But it translated...| More

'Ennio Morricone of Korea' spotlighted with his best album

Source | 2007/04/09 | Permalink |

Can you imagine the film "Cinema Paradiso" without Ennio Morricone's score masterfully capturing the gentle-natured, nostalgic feel of the film? Music's influence on moviegoers' attitude toward a film is far greater than one might think, yet few attribute a film's success to it in Korea.

This could be why there are few composers dedicated fully to original film scores in the country, but at least the film industry has one outstanding film music composer worthy of being proud of: Jo Seong-woo, president of M&F (Music & Film) Creation.

"A talented composer can't necessarily be a good film composer because it takes a deep insight into filmmaking", Jo said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

This Thursday, a CD collection of his film scores containing a total of 32 pieces of music highlighting 23 different films will come out. The album titled "Jo Seong-woo: Best of Cinema Music" is, according to Jo, the very essence of his music persona as well as a memoir of the time when bot...| More

Seven Korean Films to Air on American Cable

Source | 2006/03/09 | Permalink |

Seven Korean films, including "Old Boy" and "Samaria", will be shown on the Sundance Movie Channel, an American cable TV network.
Kim Jee-suk, programmer of the Pusan International Film Festival, recently stated, "SunDance Movie Channel, a leading movie cable channel in the United States, has bought the exclusive US televising rights to a total of eight Asian films from their distributor Tartan".

Kim added, "No schedule for airing the Korean films has been settled yet. However a tentative decision has been made to air the films during prime time every Sunday".
The seven Korean movies to be broadcast on the Sun Dance channel will be Park Chan-wook's thrillers "Old Boy" (2003) and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" (2005); Kim Ki-duk's "Samaria" (2004); Kim Ji-woon's "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003); Lee Jong-hyuk's "H" (2002); "Memento Mori" (1999), jointly directed by Kim Tae-yong and Min Gyoo-dong; and Ahn Byeong-ki's "Phone" (2002).

Park Chan-wook's thriller "Sympathy for Lady Venge...| More

Seven Korean Films to Be Shown on American TV

Source | 2006/03/03 | Permalink |

Seven Korean films, including "Old Boy" and "Samaria", will be shown on an American cable TV network.

Kim Ji-suk, a programmer of the Pusan International Film Festival, said on Mar. 3, "Sundance, an influential movie channel in the United States, has recently bought the televising rights to a total of eight Asian films, including seven Korean movies, from the distribution agency Tartan. No televising schedule has been fixed yet. But a decision has been tentatively made to air them during prime time on Sundays".

The Korean movies that will be shown on the Sundance network will be "Old Boy" (2003) and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" (2005) directed by Park Chan-wook; "Samaria" (2004) directed by Kim Ki-duk; "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003) directed by Kim Ji-woon: "H" (2002) directed by Lee Jong-hyeok; "Memento Mori" (1999) directed jointly by Kim Tae-yong and Min Gyoo-dong; and "Phone" (2002) directed by Ahn Byeong-ki. The only other foreign film besides the Korean movies is "A Snake ...| More

Like Father, Like Son

Source | 2005/10/18 | Permalink |

By Han Eun-jung
Staff Reporter

Like physical ability, talent is apparently something that runs in the family, too. This passing on of the gift for acting or singing can be seen this fall in the rush of second-generation male stars dominating both big and small screens.

Kim Moo-saeng (died in February at the age of 62) and Kim Joo-hyeok (33)

When Kim Joo-hyeok played the role of a stuffy assistant teacher on "KAIST" in 1999, he easily could have passed as an extra picked up on the set. Not only was his delivery of lines awkward, his overall performance was just plain bad, critics said. But experience gained on the job eventually led him to landing his first major role as a detective in the 2002 thriller "Say Yes", which he starred alongside Choo Sang-mi and Park Joong-hoon. It wasn't long before critics were writing that he was a chip off the old block, as it was no secret that he was the son of actor Kim Moo-saeng, who passed on last spring. The younger Kim has gone on to tak...| More