Spider Forest (Movie - 2004)

SONG Il-gon portrays Koreans in swinging Cuba

Source | 2009/11/13 | 0 comments | Permalink |

International film festival favorite SONG Il-gon returns with another small scale film. This time he tries his hand at documentary making. "Dance of Tiime" features Koreans whose parents left for Cuba in the Joseon era.

They always dreamed of returning to Korean soil, but none of them ever fulfilled that desire. SONG interviews the Korean-Cubans whose Cuban side is partly reflected in their passion for Latin dances. The documentary will be released on 3 December.

SONG is far from a commercial director and his projects struggle to get financed. He is widely recognised for his artistic and experimental qualities. His latest film "The Magicians" dates from 2005. He also directed "Spider Forest", "Feathers in the Wind" and "Flower Island".

Yi Ch'ang-ho (KOFIC)...| More

"Treeless Mountain" in Competition at FILMeX

Source | 2008/11/26 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Busan-born Korean-American director KIM So-yong's second feature "Treeless Mountain" will compete in this year's prestigious Tokyo FILMeX International Film Festival alongside 9 other carefully selected films. The 9th edition of FILMeX runs Nov. 22 – 30 and offers a cash award of 1,000,000 yen to the grand prize winner.

South Korean director SONG Il-gon was invited to join the jury this year and will sit alongside Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-Fai (Election); Teruyo Nogami, of Kurosawa Production Co.; French film critic Isabelle Regnier; and Leon Cakoff, a Brazilian film critic and director. SONG has directed several film festival favorites including "Flower Island" (2001), "Spider Forest" (2004), and "Feathers in the Wind" (2005).

KIM's "Treeless Mountain" was selected in the 2005 Pusan Promotion Plan, had its world premiere at the 2008 Toronto IFF, and screened recently in Pusan. It is KIM's first film to be shot entirely in Korea with a Korean cast. It tells the story of...| More

KIM Ki-duk's "Dream" to compete in San Sebastian

Source | 2008/06/26 | 0 comments | Permalink |

"Dream" (Korean title: "Bimong"), the fifteenth film by director KIM Ki-duk, has been selected to compete at the 56th San Sebastian International Film Festival, to be held from September 18-27.

The film, which stars Japanese heartthrob Joe ODAGIRI and Korean actress LEE Na-young, centers around a man who experiences a startlingly realistic dream about a car accident, and later discovers that the accident occurred in real life.

KIM's previous films have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno, Karlovy Vary and Moscow, but this will be the first time for him to compete at the prestigious Spanish festival. Other Korean films that have competed at San Sebastian in recent years include BONG Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder" (2003), SONG Il-gon's "Spider Forest" (2004), HEO Jin-ho's "April Snow" (2005), LIM Sang-soo's "The Old Garden", and KIM Mi-jeong's "Shadows in the Palace" (2007).

In 2003, KIM's Spring, "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring" screened out of competiti...| More

'Beautiful Sunday' at the Park Inferno

2008/06/19 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Park Yong-woo gives it all in a convoluted thriller

Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)

Well, here is another Korean movie that you suspect that the title (the Korean-language moniker, too, is the English phrase "Beautiful Sunday") was meant to be heavily ironic, given that it involves a police detective who gradually sinks into the cesspool of corruption and moral confusion in order to pay medical bills for his comatose wife, and an uber-creep who rapes a woman and then marries her later, hiding his true identity. "Beautiful Sunday", indeed.

Detective Kang (Park Yong-woo, "My Scary Girl", "Blood Rain") is making deals with scumbag drug lords, marked for death by his arch-enemy Sang-tae (Kim Dong-ha), falling asleep at a stakeout, and otherwise unraveling at the seams. His colleagues openly question his motives, and the sympathetic department chief can do only so much for him. In a separate stand of...| More

MOON Seong-geun Cast in SONG Il-gon Horror

Source | 2008/02/26 | 0 comments | Permalink |

Acclaimed actor MOON Seong-geun will take the lead role in "Sahwa" (meaning 'Royal Massacre') a horror from Cannes winning director SONG Il-gon. MOON has been a notable figure in the Korean film industry since the 1990's, when he starred in films by top new wave directors, PARK Kwang-soo ("Black Republic"), JANG Sun-woo ("Road to the Racetrack"), and in LEE Chang-dong's debut film "Green Fish".

MOON also provided memorable performances in such films as HONG Sang-soo's "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors" and PARK Chan-ok's "Jealousy is My Middle Name". He came late to his acting career, having first spent time as a business man in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the 90's he was deeply involved in supporting the Korean film industry and served as Vice-chairman of the Korean Film Council in 1999.

In SONG's fifth feature, a Chosun dynasty-set tale of bloody power games between rival families, MOON will play the central role of a king beset by curses and vengeful murders. Supporti...| More