Shim's Family (2007) - 좋지 아니한가 (Joh-ji A-ni-han-ga)

2008/03/18 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

The internationally acclaimed Korean film "Secret Sunshine" (Miryang) grabbed the spotlight at the second annual Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong, picking up three top awards including Best Film.

"Secret Sunshine", which is about a young widow moving to her late husband's hometown, beat other Asian films such as the controversial thriller "Lust, Caution", Hong Kong's "The Sun Also Rises" and Japan's "I Just Didn't Do It".

Actress Jeon Do-yeon won Best Actress, adding another award to her collection, which includes several Korean acting awards and the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival last May. She won over Korean actress Kim Yun-jin and Chinese actress Tang Wei.

"I don't usually need time to recover from most of the roles I portray. But this time, because my character was so damaged, it took some time to recover from it", Jeon was quoted by the Associated Press, after winning the award.

The film's director Lee Chang-dong...

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2008/02/06 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

The long Lunar New Year's holiday starts today, which spells good news for cinemas.
Holidays such as Lunar New Year and Chuseok, Korea's Thanksgiving, see a surge in ticket sales.
Megabox, one of Korea's largest movie theater chains, said the box office usually rises 10 percent during holidays.
Four Korean, one martial arts and one Hollywood film that opened last week will screen during the holidays this week.
Jeong Yoon-cheol's "A Man who was Superman" is one of the Korean choices. Jeong directed "Marathon" (2005) and "Shim's Family" (2007).
In Jeong's drama, Song Soo-jung (Jeon Ji-hyeon) is a documentary filmmaker, but life is not turning out well.
While she languishes in despair, a superman (Hwang Jeong-min) appears and helps her to take care of undone business.
If you fancy a thriller, check out Yoon In-ho's "The Devil's Game", starring Sin Ha-gyoon and Byeon Hee-bong.
One day Min Hee-do (Sin), a poor street artist, gets a strange phone call inviting him to a mysterious...

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2007/12/26 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

There had been true 'Woman's power' in Korean cinema this year. The 'Cannes Lady', Jeon Do-yeon, who is sweeping through all year-end film awards, is the 2007's queens of the Queen without any further questions. From "200 pounds beauty"'s ' Cinderella ' Kim Ah-joong; 'Shadows in the Palace"'s heroin Park Jin-hee and the returned world star Kim Yoon-jin in "Seven days"; Kim Hye-soo, who never stops being one character in films such as "The War of Flower", "A Good Day to Have an Affair", "Shim's Family" and "Eleventh Mom"; Kim Tae-hee in "Venus and Mars", who tries to take off her angelic image built from various commercial films; to the newbie Han Ye-seul with her debut film, "Miss Gold Digger". Countless beautiful female actors made their own characteristic appeals and produced good results in both local and international arena.

On upcoming New Year, the top male actors are returning to screen, already heating up the atmosphere. First of all, the two most popular Hallyu stars, Song...

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2007/11/20 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

A woman with bad health and a broken bank account lived just to pity herself, until she met a young boy who had it worse than she did.

The woman is the 11th mother for the boy, whose stepmothers had come and gone after the death of his real mother. "Eleventh Mom", to be released on November 29, is a film about the bonding between a stepmother and stepson, each of whom insists they are more pathetic. The mother is played by actress Kim Hye-soo.

During the filming of "The War of Flower", Kim accidentally came across a script that was originally meant for another actress. Kim Jin-seong, director of the movie "Eleventh Mom", was brainstorming for a low-budget film under 500 million won at that time, but didn't have a specific production plan. Kim then politely suggested herself as the female lead even while thinking, "Production won't be easy". As luck would have it, she was given the part. Ryoo Seung-yong and Hwang Jeong-min joined the cast, and Kim Young-chan, who played Kim Jeong-...

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2007/10/01 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Everything goes well when you have a happy family, according to an old Korean saying. A happy family, however, can be quite a challenging goal, especially because you can't choose your parents and children.
Korean society has long seen the clash between longtime Confucian traditions and the evolution of new ways of thinking. That has given new material to Korean filmmakers. One recent notable current of the Korean film scene is a nouveau approach that breaks away from the traditional definition of a family, from "Family Ties" ("The Birth of a Family", 2006) directed by Kim Tae-yong to "Shim's Family", earlier this year by Jeong Yoon-cheol.
The latest in the queue, released recently as a DVD, is "Lee Dae-geun, Lee Daek-eun", directed by Shim Gwang-jin. The Korean title is a pun on the lead actor's name, Lee Dae-geun, which also sounds in Korean like "This family is ..". Its English title is "Mr. Lee vs. Mr. Lee" ("Long Day's Journey into Night").
The lead role features Lee, an aging ...

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