| 'Bronze Medalist' Has Charms of Sports Drama (Source) |
2009/06/25 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Pushing limits, celebrating team spirit and savoring that delicious victory _ or honorable loss _ the classic sports drama is programmed to grip viewers with an adrenaline rush. "Bronze Medalist", featuring weightlifting teenage girls, offers everything you expect from such a film, but also more.
South Korea is a country obsessed with first prizes, and Olympic silver and bronze medalists often hang their heads in shame for "letting down" fans. Last year's "Forever the Moment" spotlighted the women's handball team's memorable silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and "Bronze" is about another relatively unpopular sport, weightlifting, which was virtually ignored until the 2008 Beijing Olympics catapulted Jang Mi-ran to superstardom with a gold medal and three world records.
"Bronze" is not a biography on Jang, but it could well have been. It is based on the true story behind the 81st National Sports Festival in 2000, when four of five girls from t... |More
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| English subtitled cinema screenings of "Private Eye" (Source) |
2009/04/16 |
Director PARK Dae-min's debut feature film "Private Eye" stars Korea's top character actors HWANG Jeong-min ("You Are My Sunshine") and RYOO Deok-hwan ("Like a Virgin"). Besides solid acting performances the film is praised for its intelligent and entertaining story by critics.
Cinus Myeongdong (northern Seoul) and Cinus Gangnam (southern Seoul) – in cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government – will offer screenings of "Private Eye" with English subtitles. The detective film premieres on 2 April.
A medical student (RYOO) tempts a reluctant private detective (HWANG) into a murder case of a dead body he stumbled upon. The two polar opposites complement each other in order to solve the volatile case involving powerful politicians.
Cinus is currently showing two Korean films with English subtitles. One is the melodrama "More than Blue" starring KWON Sang-woo and LEE Bo-yeong; the other is record breaking surprise hit documentary "Old Partner" about the bond between an old... |More
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| Korean Filmmakers Slashing Production Costs (Source) |
2009/03/27 |
The recently premiered Korean thriller "Missing" has gained publicity for its star cast including veteran actor Moon Seong-geun.
A surprise to many, the producers of the film only spent 1.8 billion won, or 1.3 million US dollars, on the entire production, including promotional expenses.
And this latest drama called "More Than Blue", starring leading actor Kwon Sang-woo, cost just under 2-million dollars.
That is far less than last year's average per-movie production cost of 3.5 million dollars.
Movie makers this year have learned their lesson from 2008 when declining box office sales resulted in only 15 out of more than 100 Korean-made films breaking even.
[Interview : ] "Producers, actors and all the crews on the sets are sacrificing their salaries to cut as much as 30 percent from the total production cost".
A noticeable change is that plots and acting have been featured more prominently than expensive visual effects.
While some praise the industry for shifting its focus f... |More
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| "Dragonball" Premiere Tops Korean Box Office (Source) |
2009/03/15 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
"Dragonball: Evolution", the Hollywood adaptation of the internationally loved comic, topped the South Korean box office during its opening weekend after its world premiere here March 12, according to 20th Century Fox Korea.
Real-time tallies of nationwide ticket reservations by the Korean Film Council showed Sunday that the action flick held an iron grip on the number one spot over "More Than Blue" - despite the tendency of romantic films to dominate on White Day weekends.
The Stephen Chow production, directed by James Wong, catered particularly to young males in their teens and 20s, who, like millions of fans worldwide, grew up consuming the comic and/or cartoons. But the film's classic teen romance-meets-martial arts superhero theme appeals to "children" of all ages, which naturally includes adults. Also inviting is its weighty cast of fresh newcomers and veteran stars, including Hong Kong action hero Chow Yun-fat, former K-pop star Joon Park... |More
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| 'More Than Blue' Is Poetic, Luminous (Source) |
2009/03/05 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Romanic poet Won Tae-yeon makes his directorial debut with a classic romance, "More Than Blue". Though featuring typical elements of the South Korean melodrama, "Blue" does not attempt to squeeze out tears from viewers. Rather, the director crafts a film that is poetically sparse, and also witty and hilarious as much as it is heartbreaking.
Hallyu star Kwon Sang-woo, the heartbreaker from the tearjerker TV soap "Stairway to Heaven", plays the tragic male protagonist "K", yet another faithful one-woman man involved in a pitiful love triangle. To top it all off, he has cancer. With the little time he has left to live, he plays Cupid to marry off the woman he loves, "Cream" (Lee Bo-yeong), to an eligible bachelor, Ju-hwan (Lee Beom-soo), so he can rest in peace.
"Blue" however feels more classic than cliched and the undying fidelity of the love-struck characters nostalgically evokes old romances. The talented actors also bring freshness to their pa... |More
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