Hypnotized (2004) - 얼굴없는 미녀

Actresses Gain Presence Onscreen

2007/10/02 | Source | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

While the female persona Korean entertainment remains largely reminiscent of Hollywood during the 1950~60s, a few in recently released or upcoming films are beginning to reflect, with some realism, Korean women today.

Women onscreen tend to be either innocent asexual Audrey Hepburns (think Lee Young-ae, Choi Ji-woo, Song Hye-kyo) or smoldering Marylin Monroes oozing with sex appeal (Kim Hye-soo, Uhm Jung-hwa). Then there exists a third, very minor group of eccentrics like Katherine Hepburn that fit into neither category, like actresses Kang Hye-jeong, Bae Doona and Kong Hyo-jin.

In other words, it is rather difficult to meet truly realistic female characters in movies. A most disappointing example is director Kwak Gyeong-taek's latest offering "A Love". In this terribly old-fashioned story about a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, the heroine is but a mere caricature embodying romantic fantasies: the unforgettable first love, frail damsel in distress ...| More

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'D-War' is losing box office battle

2007/09/28 | Source | Permalink |

HOLLYWOOD ― When Kim Ki-duk's "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring", acclaimed as a beautiful Buddhist pastoral film, screened in American theaters in 2004, it came and went as quietly as the secluded lake where it was shot. It was a typical arthouse release ― about the norm for Korean films here.
"D-War" has been the polar opposite. The poster for this Korean action flick was plastered on what seemed like every other bus stop the weekend of its release. The film's imugi serpent towered over Hollywood on a building-sized billboard. And marketers for the film, in smart "D-War" windbreakers with banners tucked under their arms, brought clips from it to fan conventions all over California.
Now it's finally here.
To see it I took a walk down Hollywood Boulevard past the tourists taking photos of silent movie star Mary Pickford's concrete handprint and through the famous doors flanked by stereotypical Chinese warriors bearing spears. Where better to see "D-War" than at...| More

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Kim Hye-soo Once Doubted Her Talents, But No More

2007/02/02 | Source | Permalink |

"I couldn't help but doubt my talent", declares Kim Hye-soo, but despite this modest, self-effacing remark, the actress looks more confident and speaks with more self-assurance than ever before.

In the lustful comedy movie "A Good Day to Have an Affair", set for release on Feb. 8, Kim plays a 30-something wife who has affair with a university student 10 years her junior. Her character is cheerful and comic and Kim delivers the role effortlessly and without exaggerated clowning. It's quite a shift from her past performances. What's the secret behind the sudden change? Has she been hiding her true talents throughout the 21 years of her career?

People started to talk about the "rediscovery" of Kim Hye-soo after her success in "The War of Flower" in 2006. But the real turning point for Kim was 2000 when she returned to the silver screen after a slump. "Before that, I was satisfied with being stimulated by the creative energy unleashed by other talented people, like my colleagues and ...| More

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Kim Hye-soo's sex appeal beams in comedy film

2007/01/22 | Source | Permalink |

Strangely, Kim Hye-soo's beautiful face and curvaceous figure have not delivered box-office success for the actress. Her bold - and revealing - role in "Hypnotized" did not impress moviegoers in 2004. Nor did a tour de force performance in 2005's horror flick "The Red Shoes".

However, a much-awaited turning point came in 2006 when Kim played a voluptuous character in director Choi Dong-hoon's "Tazza: The High Rollers" ("The War of Flower"), a highly successful gambling flick. Both critics and mainstream viewers praised Kim's dauntless yet sensual portrayal of a gambling hostess, and her silver screen value soared.

As if her sexy image-making on the silver screen was not enough, Kim is doing it all again with a similarly sensuous role in "A Day for an Affair", a black comedy depicting two homemakers embroiled in extramarital affairs. Jang Moon-il, who made the lighthearted comedy "The Happy Funeral Director" in 2000, directs the film.

In "A Day for an Affair", to be released on...| More

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Horror debut drowns in stale images

2006/10/24 | Source | 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

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