| Seoul-Stockholm Korean Film Festival (Source) |
2008/09/11 |
Following the success of its previous edition, the Seoul-Stockholm Korean Film Festival will showcase recent artistic and commercial hits from South Korea. Running September 17 – 21 at the Zita theater in Stockholm, the event will screen 8 Korean features, up from 5 shown in 2007.4 Korean directors will attend the event as special guests.
This year's selection includes two features presented at the Berlin Film Festival: HONG Sang-soo's "Night and Day" which screened in the 2008 competition section, and LEE Yoon-ki's "Ad-lib Night", shown in the 2007 Young Forum section. Also in the program are fest favorites, JEON Soo-il's "With a Girl of Black Soil" which screened at Venice 2007, and Thessaloniki Int'l Film Festival's top-prize winner "Family Ties" ("The Birth of a Family") by KIM Tae-yong.
Another indie gem making the festival rounds, "Milky Way Liberation Front" by YOON Seong-ho, will screen with the director invited to Stockholm for a guest Q & A session. Two popular featu... |More
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| Gore-Drenched 'The Guard Post' Is Mostly Confusion |
2008/08/03 |
 Kyu Hyun Kim (qhyunkim)
Kong Soo-chang's follow-up to "R-Point" is a disappointment
There are hundreds of guide posts (GPs) along the length of the North-South Korean border. South and North Korean troops stationed at them are at a constant state of alert, with heavy artillery pointed at one another. These installations, a cross between a military depot and an underground bunker, are almost self-contained worlds.
One of them, GP 506, has stopped sending messages to headquarters. An experienced MP investigator Sergeant Noh (Cheon Ho-jin, "A Dirty Carnival") and a cynical medical officer (Lee Jeong-heon, "Humming", "Silmido") are sent to find out what happened. They find the troops literally drawn and quartered: the video evidence indicates... |More
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| Seol 'Returns' as Kang Cheol-jung (Source) |
2008/06/19 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
This year has so far marked the return of many screen heroes, such as Indiana Jones and Rambo - and the antihero Kang Cheol-jung. In "Public Enemy Returns", Seol Kyeong-gu ("Public Enemy", 2002; "Another Public Enemy" - "Public Enemy 2" 2005) brazenly exhibits his sixth sense for acting as the diehard detective. Cheol-jung does not let his boss - or the audience - down in this funny, street-smart sequel, which also raises some critical social issues.
With disheveled hair, an unwashed windbreaker and a scar here and there, Cheol-jung is always diving headfirst into crime scenes. After 15 years of close calls with death, he's seen and done it all. The most notorious criminals sheepishly surrender to this thug of a man, who recklessly beats men twice his size, referees duels between schoolboys and openly accepts small bribes.
And of course, when a situation calls for good cop, bad cop tactics, we can guess the role Cheol-jung takes. But it's hard n... |More
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| Movie industry struggling with slowdown (Source) |
2008/04/10 |
"The Chaser" (Chugyeokja), a Korean thriller directed by Na Hong-jin, has turned out to be a surprising hit in the slump-laden local film industry in the first quarter. Released on Feb. 14, it is still showing strong performances at the box office, outsmarting other Korean and foreign competitors.
If the current trend continues, the ticket sales of the thriller is now expected to reach the 5-million landmark soon, possibly emerging as the most successful Korean film in the first half of 2008.
The trailblazing success of "The Chaser" at the box office reflects the dearth of successful Korean flicks. Even foreign films are not faring so well, with Hollywood blockbusters mysteriously absent in the box office slots.
The problem with the film lineup in April has been compounded by the current downturn hitting local productions and distributors hard.
Discouraged by the poor showings of major Korean films last year, production houses are delaying the release dates of some of the m... |More
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| Mystery, massacre mark this movie (Source) |
2008/04/09 |
Get yourself ready for a two-hour thriller that takes place among the guard posts on the southern side of the demilitarized zone.
Director Kong Soo-chang is back with his second feature "The Guard Post".
Kong's film — released last Thursday — focuses on a mysterious massacre that occurs in the DMZ one rainy day. Twenty armed soldiers at a guard post have been mysteriously killed. One is left alive, but unconscious.
The Defense Ministry dispatches an investigation team. Sergeant Major Noh Seong-gyu (Cheon Ho-jin) is given 24 hours to find the body of Yu Jeong-woo (Jo Hyeon-jae), who was in command of the guard post.
Kong's previous feature, "R-Point", also takes place in a military setting. It's about a Korean unit dispatched to the Vietnam War that receives a strange radio transmission from a group of soldiers previously thought missing in action.
"I served in the army under Korea's military regime", Kong said. "During that time, the government was in total control".
Kong was a... |More
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