May 18 (Movie - 2007)

Box Office Score Peaks After 2-Year Low

Source | 2009/09/08 | 0 comments | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

The South Korean box office saw an all-time high in August, drawing over 20 million moviegoers for the first time in two years, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) announced Monday.

Some 21.4 million tickets were sold, which purely in terms of numbers would account for about 43.2 percent of South Korea's 49.5-million population.

This is the third time that over 20 million tickets were sold in a single month. In January 2006 "My Boss, My Teacher" among others attracted 20.39 million audience members and, in August 2007, "D-War" and "May 18" were the main catalysts in bringing in 21.56 million moviegoers. Despite ranking second two years ago in terms of number of viewers, August pulled in the highest gross profit ― 153.9 billion won compared to 136.7 billion won in 2007.

Korean summer blockbusters "Haeundae" and "Take Off" attracted a total of 12.93 million moviegoers (60.4 percent of the box office sales). The two alternated between first an...| More

Pretty boy Lee shows off his introspective side

Source | 2009/07/09 | 0 comments | Permalink |

'King & Clown' star talks about his rise to celebrity, and fall back to earth

There are certain things you might expect when meeting a star actor: crazy good looks, fabulous lifestyle and, perhaps, a bit of attitude.

Such was this reporter's expectation before an exclusive interview with Korean actor Lee Joon-ki on a recent afternoon. Lee, once a young and struggling actor from the port city of Busan, was catapulted to stardom with his impressive portrayal of an androgynous clown in the 2005 hit film "The King and the Clown".

Today, Lee is ranked as one of Korea's biggest box office draws. The few films he has made have attracted almost 20 million people, according to the latest figures.

This puts the 27-year-old actor on par with some of Korea's most successful veterans, like Song Kang-ho, Seol Kyeong-gu and Ahn Seong-gi.

Yes. The looks were there, although many would agree that Lee's androgynous features aren't what you would call typical, bordering somewhere between m...| More

HONG Sang-soo casts MOON So-ri

Source | 2009/06/12 | 0 comments | Permalink |

2002 Venice Film Festival's Best actress winner MOON So-ri will challenge herself this time with a leading role in director HONG Sang-soo's next project. Details about HONG's film are sparse. The celebrated indie director is known for improvisation, writing and rewriting while filming.
 
KIM Sang-kyeong has been cast in the male leading role. It will be KIM's third film with HONG after "On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate" in 2002, and "Tale of Cinema" in 2005. KIM also worked with directors like BONG Joon-ho ("Memories of Murder") and KIM Ji-hoon ("May 18").
 
HONG's latest feature film "Like You Know it All" was invited by Festival de Cannes. HONG's films are conveted by film festivals around the world. He garnered acclaim from his first films "The Day a Pig Fell into a Well" and "The Power of Kangwon Province" on.
 
MOON So-ri is well known for her acting skills which attracted LIM Soon-rye ("Forever the Moment") and KIM Tae-yong ("Family Ties" - "The Birth of a Fa...| More

Critics judge "Secret Sunshine" as 2007's best film

Source | 2008/09/11 | 0 comments | Permalink |

LEE Chang-dong's "Secret Sunshine" is voted the best film of 2007 by a select group of Korean culture and society critics. KIM Ji-hoon's "May 18" came in second and LEE Myeong-se's "M" completes an illustrious top three of in total twelve selected Korean films.

"Secret Sunshine" continued to cement LEE's name among the great auteur cineastes. The film accumulated numerous awards, culminating in JEON Do-yeon's best actress crown at Festival de Cannes.

"May 18" is exemplary how cinema can represent popular memory and assist in creating alternative histories. The popular film chronicles the Gwangju uprising from the point-of-view of the Gwangju citizens who were branded criminals and vandals by the military government and leading conservative newspapers.

"M" is an impressive technical achievement of great aesthetic beauty, containing a layered story which plays on memories, love, and reality.

The participants of the annual questionnaire consist of distinguished people from th...| More

Movie Audience Falls in August

Source | 2008/09/04 | 0 comments | Permalink |

A lack of summer blockbusters has apparently driven down the number of moviegoers for the month of August, traditionally a month registering strong box office figures. Korea's multiplex movie theater chain CJ CGV announced Thursday that less than 17 million people nationwide went to see a movie in August. The figure has risen 1.2% since July, but has fallen nearly 20% year-on-year.

CGV blamed the drop on the slim picking of good summer blockbusters. Last year the theaters were booming with such spectacular films as "D-war" and "May 18". These two movies alone drew more than 13 million, while no domestic film matching the audience drawing power was released this summer.

The biggest ticket power this summer was "Mummy 3", which vied for the top honor with "The Dark Knight". The film about a husband-and-wife adventurer team and a resurrected Chinese emperor barely edged out Dark Crusader in the nationwide survey. However, the latest installment of the Batman series beat out the Chin...| More