| 'Seven Days': Fast and Furious (Source) |
2008/10/01 |
A slick, Hollywood-style thriller will satisfy Kim Yoon-jin fans
Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)
A hotshot defense lawyer Yu Ji-yeon (Kim Yoon-jin, TV's "Lost") learns to her horror that someone has kidnapped her daughter. Instead of a ransom, the kidnapper demands that Ji-yeon defend a vicious rapist-murderer to an acquittal at an upcoming trial. She has only seven days to locate her daughter, or, conversely, prove that the prosecuted murderer is innocent.
The only help around is her thuggish cop friend (Park Hee-soon, "Boss X File", "Antarctic Journal"), while a corrupt prosecuting attorney (Jeong Dong-hwan) and the victim's headstrong mother (Kim Mi-sook, "Marathon") stand in her way.
"Seven Days" turned out to be the biggest box office draw in the fourth quarter of 2007 in Korea, enthusiastically embraced by the moviegoers, even though critical reaction was more ambivalent. The film's MTV-on-speed editing style and narrative rhythm received some criticism, but I don't feel like... |More
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| Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter 'Black House' (Source) |
2008/06/12 |
A robust, grisly horror film boosted by excellent performances
Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)
A meek but kind insurance salesman Jeon Jun-O (Hwang Jeong-Min, "Happiness") is handpicked by a creepy metalworker, Park Choong-Bae (Kang Shin-Il, "Silmido"), for renewal of the policies on the his family. Visiting Park's spectacularly decrepit adobe, Jun-O ends up discovering the body of Park's young son, apparently a suicide.
Meeting Choong-Bae's wife Yi-Hwa (Yoo Seon, "The Wig" - "Scary Hair"), a pale beauty who has seemingly exhausted her capacity for grief, Jun-O begins to suspect that the boy's death was in fact a murder, and that she is next in line.
What Jun-O does not understand is that his small act of kindness (and breach of professional ethics) over a phone consultation has already ensnared him in a web of deceit, mutilation and murder, spun by a psychopath who makes Norman Bates in "Psycho" look like SpongeBob SquarePants.
A Japan-Korea coproduction, "Black House" is base... |More
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| Complex thrillers lead the pack in annual film awards (Source) |
2008/06/11 |
The biggest event in the Korean film industry is back.
On June 27, the 45th Daejong Film Awards will take place at COEX, southern Seoul. This year one of the Korean films under the spotlight is "The Chaser", a film about a serial murderer.
The film drew audiences of more than 5 million, and as of April it is the most successful Korean film of 2008, according to the Korean Film Council.
"Forever the Moment" trailed behind "The Chaser" with over 4 million viewers.
"The Chaser" currently is nominated in 11 categories, hoping to win the hearts of film critics as well.
This year thrillers are garnering the most interest in Chungmuro, Korea's Hollywood.
Currently the top three films on the most nominated lists are from this genre.
"Seven Days", a thriller about a child who gets kidnapped, is second in the number of nominations.
The film is nominated in all 10 categories. "Shadows in the Palace", a thriller that takes place within the palace of the Joseon Dynasty, is n... |More
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| "Seven Days" to be remade in Hollywood (Source) |
2007/11/15 |
Korean distributor Prime Entertainment has sold remake rights to the new suspense thriller Seven Days to Hollywood company Summit Entertainment.
The film, directed by WON Sin-yeon ("The Wig" ("Scary Hair"), "A Bloody Aria"), is about a successful defense attorney (played by well-known actress KIM Yoon-jin) whose daughter is kidnapped. In place of a ransom, the kidnappers demand that she prove the innocence of a man convicted of murdering a college student.
The film was released in Korea on November 14.
The remake, which is scheduled to start shooting in 2008, will be executive produced by Lee Seo-yeol and Sin Sang-han of Prime Entertainment, together with Vincent Maraval and Agnes Mentre of French sales company Wild Bunch. Worldwide rights to the remake excluding North America and Asia will also be handled by Wild Bunch.
Summit Entertainment's President of Production Erik Feig said, "'Seven Days' begins with one of the strongest premises we have seen and keeps you on th... |More
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| The dark side of the script (Source) |
2007/11/14 |
Director Won Sin-yeon, 38, is back with the thriller "Seven Days". The story is about coldhearted female lawyer and mother Ji-yeon (played by "Lost" star Kim Yoon-jin) who is trying to get a murderer on death row acquited within seven days in order to rescue her abducted daughter.
Won took over the project after another writer-director backed out. He immediately saw the potential of the script and got the movie into production. But filming proved to be a challenge.
"I was short on production costs", Won said. "We had to take a lot of shortcuts".
A stuntman and martial arts director for almost 10 years, Won used more artistic means to compensate for the lack of expensive action sequences that the film demanded.
This meant finding different ways to encapsulate the action. In the original scripts, one chase scene required 100 cars in 12 lanes of traffic. That wasn't feasible, so the camera units just shot live street scenes and used that footage instead.
"There are no strict rules... |More
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