| Film Review - "Good Morning President" PIFF's Opening Film (Source) |
2009/11/12 |
By Lee Komeda
Staff Writer
"Good Morning President", the most recent film by writer and director Jang Jin ("Guns and Talks", "Righteous Ties") may have been a safe choice as the opening film for the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF) held last month: humorous and unthreatening. Tickets to the screening of the film at the largest international film festival in Asia were sold out within two minutes of their availability, possibly aided by the hallyu (Korean wave) powers of Jang Dong-gun.
The film skips stones across the domestic and foreign politics of Korea, without fully taking a plunge into the murky waters of ties between the two Koreas or the ethical dilemmas that politicians face during their tenure. Instead, we are left with a few great comedic moments in the movie that leave you feeling like you just witnessed a hybrid between Love Actually and a Korean sitcom.
The movie is vaguely divided into vignettes of three fictional Presidents. The first of these anecdotes ... |More
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| Going by the Book Joins Jang Jin, Jeong Jae-yeong and Ra Hee-chan (Source) |
2007/09/30 |
"Going by the Book" (Bareuge Salja) is the feature film directorial debut of RA Hee-chan. The comedy's protagonist – a righteous and punctual policeman – is played by Jeong Jae-yeong. JANG Jin is responsible for the scenario.
Jeong's character follows rules to the extremes and it causes his downfall from detective to traffic agent. When he is given the role of a bank robber in a bank robbery simulation, he again fails to grasp the situation and goes too far, causing such mayhem that the media rush to the scene to cover the 'bank robbery'.
Ra was the assistant director of JANG Jin during the film "Murder, Take One" ("The Big Scene"). JANG Jin is known for his particular style for adding comedy elements. JANG wrote and directed films like "Someone Special" and this year's "A Day with My Son". He also wrote the script for "Welcome to Dongmakgol".
Jeong is a regular collaborator with JANG; including "Someone Special", "Welcome to Dongmakgol", "Guns and Talks" and "Righteous Ties"... |More
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| [DVD review] Jang Jin's world stumbles in A Day with My Son (Source) |
2007/08/20 |
In a bid to describe the world of film director Jang Jin film critics have coined a new phrase -- "Jang Jin-ish". This seems an appropriate choice, given that Jang's signature style includes comic twists, sharp puns and stagy presentation. Jang's films do not sell millions of tickets but he has nurtured a faithful fan base that appreciates his "Jang Jin-ish" style.
In recent years, the director has pursued a variety of genres from romances such as "Someone Special" (2004) and "Righteous Ties" (2006).
His latest work, "A Day with My Son" is a venture into human drama.
The premise of A Day with My Son is rather too simple for a Jang Jin film: A man serving life in prison gets the chance to meet his son after 15 years -- for one day. Many Jang fans wondered how he would make this into a 103-minute film and now English-speaking viewers can find out as a subtitled-DVD was recently released.
First, Jang introduces the protagonist, Kang-sik, a 39-year-old who was sentenced to life for rob... |More
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| 14 Korean Films go to Italy's Far East Fest (Source) |
2007/04/17 |
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
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| JANG Jin explores Father and Son relations (Source) |
2007/04/11 |
Inventive director JANG Jin portrays this time the relationship between an estranged father and son in his new film "A Day with My Son" (Adeul). The father is played by CHA Seung-won and the son is a role for RYOO Deok-hwan.
The drama will open May 3rd. A Day with My Son is a project by production company KnJ Entertainment and is distributed by Cinema Service.
JANG Jin has been influential as a scenario writer and director, and among his films are "Guns and Talks" (Killeodeului Sooda, 2001), "Someone Special" (Aneun Yeoja, 2004), "Righteous Ties" (Georookhan Gyebo, 2006) and he wrote the screenplay for "Welcome to Dongmakgol" (2005).
CHA has been successful as a comedy actor, but in recent years he has also built a reputation for dramatic roles, most notably with his performances in "Blood Rain" (Hyeorui Noo, 2005) and "Murder, Take One" ("The Big Scene" - Baksoochil Ttae Tteonara, 2005) another collaboration with JANG Jin.
RYOO is a promising young actor who impressed w... |More
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