No Mercy for the Rude (Movie - 2006)

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

Source | 2007/12/12 | 0 comments | 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

"Gift" Invited to Bangkok Film Festival

Source | 2007/07/16 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Director Lee In-ui's movie "Gift" and Lee Dang-yeob's film "J, A Photographer In A Strange Village" have been invited to compete at the 2007 Bangkok International Film Festival, which opens July 19.

In the non-competition section, invited Korean movies include "Dasepo Girl", "No Mercy for the Rude", "Time" and "The Forty-Nine-Day Meetings".

Opening the festival will be "Children of Glory" from Hungary, instead of the originally scheduled animation film "Persepolis", which was turned down by the government.

Also invited to the festival were the head of the Pusan International Film Festival executive committee Kim Dong-ho and senior programmer Kim Ji-seok. ...| More

Pruning the Grapevine in Competition at Karlovy Vary

Source | 2007/06/22 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Korean film "Pruning the Grapevine" (2006), by MIN Byeong-hoon, will screen in the Official Selection – Competition section of the 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The event which is held each year in the picturesque valley also known as Karlsbad, in the western province of Bohemia, Czech Republic, opens on June 29th for a nine-day run. A total of six Korean features will screen in various sections of the festival.

Grapevine director MIN is known to Karlovy Vary programmers, after his first film, "The Flight of the Bee" (1998, co-directed by Jamshed Usmonov) and his second, "Let's Not Cry", were screened at previous editions of the festival with the latter winning both a FIPRESCI award and a main jury Special Mention in 2002. Grapevine lead SEO Jang-won is also a familiar face at Karlovy Vary after his screen debut "The Unforgiven" was shown at last year's event.

"Pruning the Grapevine" was the recipient of KOFIC's Art Film Production Support program in 2005 a...| More

14 Korean Films go to Italy's Far East Fest

Source | 2007/04/17 | 0 comments | Permalink |

The 9th Udine Far East Film Festival boasts one of the largest showcases of Asian cinema in Europe. This year around 60 titles from across Asia were selected to screen at the event which runs April 20th to 28th in the picturesque northern Italian city. This year 14 top Korean films were invited, of which several will have their International Premiere at the festival.

Making their International festival debut are LEE Jeong-beom's gangster-themed drama "Cruel Winter Blues", JANG Jin's comedy-noir "Righteous Ties", JANG Moon-il's romantic-comedy "A Good Day for an Affair", BYEON Seung-wook's drama "Solace". Two of Korea's top-grossing hits of late 2006 will have their European Premier: CHOI Dong-hoon's high-stakes comedy-thriller "Tazza: The High Rollers" ("The War of Flower") and KIM Yong-hwa's weighty satire "200 Pounds Beauty", a look at the culture of plastic-surgery in the entertainment industry. The latter film went on to become the highest-grossing Korean comedy of all time...| More

Korean film industry has lost some sparkle

Source | 2006/12/29 | 0 comments | Permalink |

The Korean film industry seemed to be in full bloom in 2006 with hits such as "The Host" and "The Royal Jester (formerly "The King and the Clown")" attracting more than 10 million customers at the box office.

A total of 108 domestic films, including this week's "My Wife is a Gangster 3", have opened in theaters nationwide. The number has skyrocketed since 2005's 83 films and is the biggest number of films made since 1990. And in 2007 over 60 percent of the films shown here were Korean made.
Even with these record-breaking numbers, the reality in Chungmuro (the area where Korean film production companies have been concentrated, to such an extent that the word is now synonymous with the phrase "Korean film industry") is very different. Although there have been more movies, they have made less profit than in previous years. In short ― the industry is not making enough money.

Return on Investment is minus 30 percent
Based on theater profits alone, the return on investment thi...| More