The UK's most popular film magazine, Empire, published its list of the top 500 films of all time, placing
Park Chan-wook's acclaimed thriller
"Old Boy" 64th in the rankings. For the list, Empire polled more than 150 directors, including Quentin Tarantino and Mike Leigh, as well as 50 film critics and more than 10,000 readers of the magazine.
PARK's film was the only Korean feature in the top 500. Released locally in 2003,
"Old Boy" won the 2004 Cannes Grand Prize, drawing wide acclaim and a large following for the director. It is the centerpiece in a 'vengeance trilogy' that began with "
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" in 2002 and ended with "
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" in 2005.
The number one spot on Empire's list was taken by Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.
"Old Boy" came in ahead of such classics as Woody Allen's Annie Hall (ranked 68th) and Japanese classic Tokyo Story (67th), and was just behind Sunset Boulevard (63rd) and The Graduate (62nd).
Director PARK is currently in production on his latest thriller,
"Thirst" – a tale of a priest-turned-vampire caught up in an erotic tryst with his best friend's wife. Universal Pictures (UPI) and London-based Focus Features recently came aboard the CJ Ent-driven project as investors and co-producers.
Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC)
