| Song Il-gon Documents Romantic 'Dance' of Diaspora (Source) |
2009/12/08 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Song Il-gon's mise-en-scene is admired for its poeticism and arresting imagination, and his trademark qualities prevail in his first feature documentary, "Dance of Time".
He brings a gem of a film that, though rooted in reality, gives full bloom to romanticism, reading more like a love letter to Cubans rather than a historical account of a unique branch of the Korean Diaspora.
"I've always wanted to travel to Cuba", the 38-year-old cineaste told The Korea Times over a shot of espresso, in a small cafe in downtown Seoul last week.
He had his heart set on the Caribbean country as the backdrop of a new love story. But when Cuba's national baseball team visited Korea last year, he met a local interpreter and was surprised to learn about fifth- and sixth-generation "Coreanos".
A century ago a group of Joseon (1392-1910) laborers set sail for Cuba in hopes of returning with a fortune. But they were forced to toil away on henequen farms, never ma... |More
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| SONG Il-gon portrays Koreans in swinging Cuba
(Source) |
2009/11/13 |
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
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| "Treeless Mountain" in Competition at FILMeX (Source) |
2008/11/26 |
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
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| KIM Ki-duk's "Dream" to compete in San Sebastian (Source) |
2008/06/26 |
"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
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| 'Beautiful Sunday' at the Park Inferno |
2008/06/19 |
 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 unravel... |More
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