This Charming Girl (Movie - 2004)

Korean Indie Film Wins at French Film Fest

Source | 2009/03/17 | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

"Breathless" by director Yang Ik-joon won both the grand prize (Le Lotus du meilleur film) and the international critic's award at the 10th Deauville Asian Film Festival in France, which came to a close, Sunday. This is another feat in the international film circuit by the South Korean indie film, which recently won the top award at the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam.

This is the second consecutive year the two coveted prizes went to a Korean movie at the esteemed event, following Jeon Soo-il's "With a Girl of Black Soil".

Numerous other local works appeared at the festival. Baek Seung-bin's "Members of the Funeral" competed in the competition section alongside "Breathless"; Na Hong-jin's hit film "The Chaser" and Kim Yoon-jin's big budget epic "The Divine Weapon" were shown in Action Asia; and Yoo Ha's controversial "A Frozen Flower" and Yoon Jong-bin's noir drama "The Moonlight of Seoul" were screened in the Panorama section.

The...| More

Berlinale Invites Seven Korean Films

Source | 2009/01/23 | Permalink |

A total of seven Korean films are selected to screen at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, running February 5 -15 in the German capital. Korean films will dominate this year's Forum section. The sidebar consists of five Korean titles: "Land of Scarecrows", "Members of the Funeral", "My Dear Enemy", and "Treeless Mountain".

Recently announced was the addition of MIN Gyoo-dong's third feature "Antique", which will screen in the Culinary Cinema section. MIN, who debuted with the critically praised horror "Memento Mori" (1999) and the 2005 hit "All for Love" ("My Lovely Week"), studied film in France. His latest feature revolves around four handsome young men and a cake-shop.

"Land of Scarecrows" is NOH Kyeong-tae's second effort after his bold experimental "The Last Dining Table" which was awarded at Pusan International Film Festival and Seoul Independent Film Festival. His early experimental short films "Father and Son", and "Reincarnation" are also multi-awarded fi...| More

Jeon, Ha's Chemistry Give Life to 'Enemy'

Source | 2008/09/18 | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

One day, two characters, lots of dialogue and hushed emotions ― only Jeon Do-yeon and Ha Jeong-woo could pull it off. South Korea's most in-demand actors get together as former lovers in the post-break up road movie "My Dear Enemy". Of course none other than director Lee Yoon-ki ("This Charming Girl") orchestrated this enchanting story about spending an abnormal day with an ex.

Jeon chose a rather mundane character to emerge from her immortalized Cannes Best Actress-winning role in "Secret Sunshine". But the actress shines through more than ever as she sustains dramatic tension for two hours with an ordinary persona, saying more in what is unsaid rather than hysterical tears. Heui-su is an irritable, uptight 30-year-old who, wearing immaculate eye makeup, never forgets to tuck away her road navigator before getting out of the car. Jobless, unmarried and broke, she tracks down her ex-boyfriend Byeong-un (Ha), who disappeared a year ago after b...| More

JEON Do-yeon Returns to Screens Sept. 25

Source | 2008/09/17 | Permalink |

In what has grown into a highly anticipated Fall feature, LEE Yoon-ki's "My Dear Enemy" will mark Cannes-winning JEON Do-yeon's return to the big screen, with a local release scheduled for September 25th. The at-one-time low-profile film has generated media buzz for its pairing of JEON and actor in the limelight HA Jeong-woo. JEON has won numerous Best Actress awards for her role in LEE Chang-dong's "Secret Sunshine" (2007).

HA caused a sensation for his tense performance in the year's first runaway hit, "The Chaser", in which he played a psychotic prostitute killer. He then returned to screens as a charming but sleazy male host in Moonlight in Seoul. In "My Dear Enemy", he plays JEON's undependable ex-boyfriend Byeong-woo. The two have acted together previously, when HA had a supporting role as JEON's bodyguard in the hit TV drama "Lovers in Prague" (2005).

In the new film, JEON plays Hee-soo, an unemployed single woman in her mid-30s, who decides to collect on an outstand...| More

Jeon Do-yeon, Ha Jeong-woo as Ex-Lovers

Source | 2008/08/27 | Permalink |

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

South Korea's most in-demand actors Jeon Do-yeon and Ha Jeong-woo generated a big media buzz appearing before the press as "former lovers". Jeon, who won the 2007 Cannes Best Actress award for "Secret Sunshine", and Ha, hero of one of this year's highest grossing films "The Chaser", teamed up in "My Dear Enemy", due in theaters Sept. 25.

Popular band Clazziquai's vocalist Horan opened the event, singing mellow tunes that appear in the fall lineup's most anticipated film. Director Lee Yoon-ki, the melodrama craftsman of critically acclaimed works like "This Charming Girl" (2006), brings what he calls an unconventional, post-breakup love story.

Jeon appears as Heui-su, an uptight, unemployed single woman in her mid-30s. Broke and desperate, she suddenly recalls that her ex-boyfriend Byeong-un, owes her 3.5 million won (about $3,500). She finds him gambling at a horseracing track and demands reimbursement. Reunited after one year, the two spend "on...| More