The Twins (2004) - 역전의 명수 (Yeok-jeon-eui Myeong-soo)

2007/12/02 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

Actor Kim Kang-woo won the Best Actor award for his role in "The Railroad" (Gyeonguiseon) at the 25th Torino Film Festival in Italy, Saturday.

"The Railroad", directed by Park Heung-shik, also won a special award given by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).

Kim's agency Namoo Actors quoted the 29-year old actor as saying: "I'm very glad to have received this big award, but what I cannot forget is the response from the audience". He was referring to the screening of "The Railroad, which was attended by 500 people at the film festival last week.

"As I saw the audience squeeze into the seats, laughing and crying along with the movie, I realized that movie allows people to communicate regardless of borders", Kim said.

"The Railroad" is about two lost souls (played by Kim and actress Son Tae-yeong), who find themselves stranded at the last railroad stop before the Demilitarized Zone on a snowy night. As they spend t...

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

2007/05/03 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

"My Wife Produced It" –

Good scenarios were few and far between for director Park Heung-shik after his latest movie, "The Twins", failed to attract audiences and received lukewarm reviews from the critics. He wrote a scenario himself, determined to "make a story he wants to tell". Film editor Park Kok-ji, his wife, reviewed it first and gave him the OK.

She said, "I have been lucky to be at the center for so long. I have spent my life in the movie business, but what is most important is my family. I participated in this movie not to make money, but to make my husband happy".

Director Park does not reveal how much the movie cost, afraid that it would be labeled a "low-budget movie". Thanks to his wife, however, A-level staff from Chungmu-ro joined them to make the movie. She said, "I made a threat, saying, 'My husband wants to work with the best team in Korea, but we don't have a lot of money. What can you do?'"

There were shots of a railway and subway car in the movie, whos...

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

2007/03/22 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

It's bloody and brutal, and harrowingly so. Japanese-born Korean director Choi Yang-il (Yoichi Sai) brings the Korean audience a hardboiled vengeance film with a slightly different flavor.

When you think of blood-splattered retaliation, Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy or Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series may come to mind. But imagine such a film stripped of fancy cinematographic techniques and devoid of stylishly choreographed action sequences. Every gesture and grimace is meticulously planned, according to the director. But Choi keeps the camera at a certain distance to portray the no-cut skirmishes. The product is heightened realism, and you believe in the brutal violence and the raw human instinct for survival.

Tae-su (Ji Jin-hee) is a notorious hit man called Soo, who waits 19 years to finally reunite with his long-lost twin brother Tae-jin _ only to watch him get shot in front of his very eyes. Revenge becomes Soo's sole reason for b...

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

2007/03/19 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Ethnic Korean-Japanese filmmaker Choi Yang-il (Yoichi Sai) does not pull any punches when he describes raw human instinct. A case in point is "Blood and Bones" starring Takeshi Kitano. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel "Chi to Hone" by Korean-Japanese author Yang Seok-il, the award-winning film epitomizes what "relentlessly grim and brutal" violence really means.

"Blood and Bones" follows a straightforward formula (Decade X: Kitano beats people up. Decade Y: Kitano is still beating people up). Choi's latest film "Soo" - and his formal debut work for the Korean cinema industry - opts for a simpler formula: Tae-su (Ji Jin-hee) wipes out his enemies.

"Soo" has all the trappings of a Korean film. Ji Jin-hee plays the central character, or characters, given that he plays twin brothers Tae-su and Tae-jin, and the film is set firmly in Korea. The language is Korean, and there is no sign of a Japanese connection whatsoever. All of this is true when the surface of the film is consi...

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?

2005/09/29 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

by Seung-Jae Lee

The director of "Happy End", Jeong Ji-woo, has released "Sarangni" - "Close to You", his second work in six years.

After "Happy End", a vulgar yet desperate love story, Jeong has now cooked up a romance with a unique flavor.

First up, the ingredients (the plot). They are incredibly intricate and brimming with creativity.

The age of the heroine is one thing. Thirty. Not young but not old, either. It's an age that can be satisfied with reality (a cohabitating male), that may linger on a young girl's first love, or that could mean trouble with a juvenile student. Coincidentally, Kim Jung-eun, who plays the role of Cho In-yeong, hit 30 just this year.

The names Jung uses add to the plot. The name of the heroine's first boyfriend, Lee Seok, is the name of her student, her forbidden love. The student's crush, Cho In-yeong, is also the heroine's name. The heroine believes the student "looks like my first boyfriend", but the first love she meets again at a reun...

To participate to HanCinema, you must sign up or log in. Sign up, Why ?