Low Life (Movie - 2004)

PIFF Names Recipient of 2008 Korean Cinema Award

Source | 2008/08/22 | Permalink |

The 13th Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) will present Richard Peñawith its 2008 Korean Cinema Award. The award has been handed out annually since the first PIFF, recognizing individuals who have made notable efforts in introducing Korean films to the global film industry.

Peña has been the program director of the Film Society of the New York Lincoln Center since 1988, bringing a wide range of Korean films to American audiences. In 2004, he organized the largest Korean film screening event to take place in the USA, a showcase titled "The Newest Tiger: 60 Years of South Korean Cinema".

The event presented 40 films from the 1940's to the present, including YUN Yong-gyu's "A Hometown in Heart" (1949) and IM Kwon-taek's "Low Life" (2004). This year Peña also held the first retrospective in the US of director KIM Ki-young, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death. The event screened 12 of the director's remarkable features including his masterpiece "The Hous...| More

Off beat Sin Ha-gyoon Plays "The Devil's Game"

Source | 2007/12/12 | Permalink |

Sin Ha-gyoon – one of Korea's more daring and impressive actors – will next star in the thriller "The Devil's Game" alongside veteran actor BYEON Hee-bong. SIN's character – a poor artist – will be lured into a dark game involving a large sum of money and the exchange of bodies, made possible through technology. The film opens in January 2008.

YOON In-ho ("When I Turned Nine") directs and the cast also features LEE Hye-yeong ("Low Life") and Eun-seong ("Dasepo Naughty Girls" - "Dasepo Girl"). BYEON played the grandfather of the girl who was taken by the monster in The Hos.

SIN played eye-catching supporting roles in popular films like PARK Chan-wook's "JSA - Joint Security Area", and "Welcome to Dongmakgol". In addition, he has been outstanding in leading roles in critical acclaimed alternative films, portraying off beat characters, including "No Mercy for the Rude" and "Save the Green Planet".

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

KIM Ah-joong, RYOO Seung-beom and JO Seung-woo in Music Film

Source | 2007/09/13 | Permalink |

Director CHOI Ho assembled an all-star cast consisting of KIM Ah-joong, RYOO Seung-beom and JO Seung-woo for his next film "Gogo 70". The music film will be centered around a band and the first gogo club in Korea in the seventies.

Director CHOI and RYOO join forces again after their collaboration on last year's crime film "Bloody Tie". RYOO also featured in his brother RYOO Seung-wan's acclaimed boxing drama "Crying Fist" and popular martial arts comedy "Arahan".

KIM rose to fame last year through another music film, "200 Pounds Beauty". KIM Yong-hwa's music comedy instantly turned her into a pan-Asian star. She portrayed an overweight singer who chooses drastic cosmetic surgery.

JO starred in the blockbusters "Tazza: The High Rollers" ("The War of Flower") and "MARATHON". He also played in IM Kwon-taek's "Chunhyang" and "Low Life".

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

'Eternal' Dreams Up Youthful Passions

Source | 2007/08/16 | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

They say first loves never die, and "For Eternal Hearts" immortalizes onscreen the allure and power of youthful passions. Dreams and remembrances delightfully converge in this haunting love story that transcends the borders of life and death, and leaps over the passage of time.

Su-yeong (Jeong Jin-yeong) is a quiet, middle-aged professor of German literature at a local university. At the request of his students, he reminiscently recounts his first love that stole his heart during his college days. As a young man Su-yeong was shy, naive and studious (Jeong Kyeong-ho). But his life is forever changed when he meets the wild and eccentric "Pippi" (Kim Min-seon).

He is crushed, however, when Pippi commits suicide in the name of love. But Pippi magically reappears before him and life starts to take a bizarre turn. It is believed here that when a person dies, the soul wanders around for 49 days before making the final passage to the other world. If it f...| More

The War Of Flower CHOI Dong-hoon's 2nd film

Source | 2006/09/21 | Permalink |

Director CHOI Dong-hoon's new film in time for the Chuseok holiday in Korea - "The War Of Flower" stars JO Seung-woo as a young man drawn in the world of the Korean card game hwatu (flower cards). He 'borrows' his sister's moneyto be able to participate in the games, only to lose it all.

He then sets out to become a hwatu master and to win back the money, encountering ruthless criminals involved in gambling through hwatu and a seductive - and equally ruthless - woman on his way. BAEK Yoon-sik plays a hwatu master teaching him the tricks and KIM Hye-soo is the powerful and seductive woman in the world of hwatu and gambling.

"The War Of Flower" is based on HEO Yeong-man's popular manwha (Korean manga/comic book) of the same title as the Korean title of the film, Tajja. HEO's work is a popular source for film and television drama content. Beat was adapted into a feature film in 1997 and HEO's Freeloader is in development to be turned into a film and a television drama.

CHOI Dong-...| More