| [Century] Cool Korea: Creative Wave Rolls Across Asia (Source) |
2010/03/07 |
By Andrew Salmon
Korea Times Columnist
This is the 10th in a 60-part series featuring 60
major events in Korea's modern history from 1884 till now. The project is part of the 60th anniversary of The Korea Times, which falls on Nov.1.
For South Korea, the last three years of the millennium would produce a parade of unthinkables.
At the end of 1997, a regional economic tsunami had threatened to swamp the achievements of the previous three decades.
Unemployment arrived in Korea, but by the end of 1998, the banks appeared to have
stabilized: Was the crisis over? No. In 1999, Daewoo Group, considered "too-big-to-fail", collapsed under debts of $80 billion. A second financial crisis cut a swath through the investment trust sector.
Things looked more promising politically. Kim Dae-jung won the presidency at the end of 1997, the first opposition politician to reach the Blue House.
His brave new "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with North Korea bore its first fruit in 19... |More
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| Actress Kim Yoon-jin's Movie Picks (Source) |
2010/03/05 |
Actress Kim Yoon-jin [Chae Ki-won/10Asia]
Kim Yoon-jin spent her childhood in the United States and made her first step into the world of acting on Broadway. Hence, English was the language she acted in and also used for over 20 years to speak her mind. But 10Asia's interview with the actress revealed that her Korean was just as accurate and rich in expression. Whatever the question, she gave clear answers while appropriately adding in adjectives which would embellish her sentences. Her style of speech was just like her acting -- on point yet elaborate.
Many people associated Kim with the term 'female soldier' for a long time after she ... |More
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| [INTERVIEW] Actor Song Kang-ho - Part 2 (Source) |
2010/03/04 |
Actor Song Kang-ho [photographed by Beck Una/10Asia]
Beck: What did you find likeable and entertaining about the script for "Secret Reunion"?
Song: Ten years ago, I did the films "Shiri" and "JSA - Joint Security Area" which are both about South Korea, North Korea and men. So, "Secret Reunion" was similar to them in a way, a similar story, but the overall outline of the movie is completely different from the previous films. The film doesn't treat the South-North division as its theme but rather takes an incredibly soft, light and sophisticated approach to it. I thought that was closer to how the audience currently feels about the divi... |More
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| "Avatar" becomes biggest blockbuster in Korea (Source) |
2010/03/02 |
Korean official movie poster of "Avatar" [20th Century Fox]
James Cameron's Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" has become the most-watched film in Korean box office history, according to estimates by the official Korean Film Council over the weekend.
Statistics showed that the animated picture, which opened in theaters mid-December, had garnered over a total 13.04 million admissions by Saturday to rise above former record holder "The Host" with around 13.02 million viewers.##
"The Host", a Korean thriller pic by top director Bong Joon-ho, had taken the domestic box office by storm during its run in 2006 and won rave reviews from both local and foreign film crit... |More
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| Book Features Korean Film Renaissance (Source) |
2010/02/26 |
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
In recent years, it has become more likely for Korean cineastes to be placed under the international spotlight at major film festivals worldwide.
Over the past decade, Korean cinema has proven to be commercially viable both on local and overseas markets, enjoying a renaissance and appealing to cinephiles on the festival circuit.
"South Korean Film Renaissance: Local Hit Makers, Global Provocateurs" written by Choi Jin-hee in English probes how the Korean film industry turned an economic crisis into a cinematic renaissance through globalization based on historical reviews of the industry.
In the late 1990s, the Korean blockbuster established itself as a feasible production/marketing strategy on the domestic market, with the commercial success of such films as "Shiri" and "JSA - Joint Security Area". Since then, box office records have been constantly exceeded by subsequent movies, including "Silmido", "Taegukgi", and "The Host", which attra... |More
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