Friday, June 14, 2013

New Korean Films: A Short Film Looking Up to the Big Shots (2013 Week 24)

You Are More Than Beautiful
(그녀의 연기)


The father of Cheol-soo, who lives on Jeju Island, is about to die before he seeing his son get married. To fulfill his dream, Cheol-soo calls for the help of a young woman from Seoul, Yeong-hee, who will pretend to be his fiancee. While she is brushing up on the details of their fictional story in the car, Cheol-soo receives a call informing him that his father had been found unconscious. They hurry to get to the hospital and discover the father in a coma. Yeong-hee decides to still act the lie.

Obviously, all the major players in South Korea distribution have preferred not to directly confront this week's Man of Steel. The irony is that Superman has already fallen upon his kryptonite in the shape of Secretly Greatly, which is apparently going to dominate the box office once more without a single care in the world. So in this particular context we will see the release of this short 27 minute movie signed by Kim Tae-yong, a director that I have really appreciated since Late Autumn (2010), a wonderful multinational adaptation of the lost classic by Lee Man-hee . This film was actually part of the compilation of short films Beautiful 2012, a project produced by the Hong Kong International Film Festival that invited four renowned Asian directors – in addition to Kim Tae-yong, it included Ann Hui, Tsai Ming-liang and Gu Changwei - to tell their own vision of what is beautiful. This omnibus film then traveled from festival to festival, via Taipei, Shanghai, Busan and London. The part called You Are More Than Beautiful now stands on its own (under the original title of "Her Acting") for distribution in Korea by Indiestory, which will offer the film only in their theater IndieSpace in Jongno, Seoul. Kong Hyo-jin, known for Crush & Blush (2008) and Love Fiction (2011), returns in front of the camera for Kim Tae-yong after Family Ties (2006). She is accompanied by another familiar face of Korean cinema, Park Hee-soon, who starred in Love Talk (2005) and Gabi (2012). Let’s hope that these popular actors may attract the few moviegoers left between Secretly Greatly and Man of Steel.

No trailer for this film.


New Korean Films is a weekly feature which provide an in-depth look at new local releases in Korea. For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office UpdateKorean Cinema News and the Weekly Korean Reviews, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (Korean Standard Time). Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

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