Lots of reviews this week with The Front Line being released in the US. Four movies also came out this week in Korea though as of yet only review has surfaced, expect more to come.
The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
Around the same time that South Korea emerged as a global
economic force in the early 1990s as it went about the process of shaking off
the gloom from decades of authoritarian oppression, the film industry began to
see a lot of changes. Large corporations
began to fund some projects and film production rapidly modernized. The quality and budgets of films rose. Another aspect of the industry that
began to take shape was the star system.
Given the low market share of Korean films at that point, there weren’t
many household names in the local film industry since the larger public would
not have been aware of the films much less the stars. As the 1990s progressed however, a few names became known to
local film viewers. Park Joon-hoon
and Han Suk-kyu were some of the first major Korean stars. To this day they are still popular
draws at the box office but then again the rebirth of the industry didn’t
happen that long ago.
In the late 1990s, when the domestic film market exploded,
the star system blew up along with it.
Very quickly, talent and management agencies began to hoard and
commodify promising talent, employing strategies pioneered by the Hollywood
star system and its domineering power brokers in the talent management
sector. Soon the hallyu phenomenon
added to this escalation of the importance of above the line talent and it was
at this point that things began to spiral out of control. Budgets for Korean films were quite low
but agents had driven up the prices of top talent so production costs for the
industry began to soar. Filmmakers
were not happy with the direction that the industry was taking but the grip
that these agencies held over the entertainment industry proved very strong.
Around the peak of the Korean film industry’s dominance of
the box office in the middle of the last decade there began to be a change in
star power. Up until then
recognizable actors had proven big draws for audiences but there appeal was
starting to diminish. As the
industry saw a dramatic fall in 2007 there was a shift in how projects were
designed. Budgets were too high
and had to be slashed, and since top actors weren’t backing up their hefty fees
with solid return on investment there weren’t deemed as essential as once was
the case.
At the present time even more consternation has been
expressed over the bankability of big stars. Last year there were a number of big flops, some, like Sector 7 and My Way, were huge blockbusters that generated little interest but
there were a number of mid-level productions, more modest in their ambition,
which were mainly relying on the recognizability of their main stars. One of these was Hindsight, starring Song Kang-ho, another was Countdown, which featured the promising pairing of Jeong Jae-yeong
and Jeon Do-yeon.
Jeong Jae-yeong is the king of deadpan, I dare you to watch Going By the Book (2007), in which he
expresses not a single emotion, without falling off your seat laughing. Over the years he has amassed an
impressive array of credits, which have included many recalcitrant gangsters
and stoic antiheroes. In time he
has developed into one of Korea’s most dependable leading men and of late has
moved audiences to laughter and tears with award-winning roles in Castaway on the Moon (2009) and Moss (2010).
Jeon Do-yeon may very well be the most versatile actress in
Korea. Starting off in TV, she got
her start in movies with the successful romance films The Contact (1997) and A
Promise (1998) before moving onto different roles such as a gangster’s girlfriend
in Ryoo Seung-wan’s No Blood No Tears
(2002) and a diffident mother in Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine (2007) for which she won Best Actress at Cannes.
In Countdown, Jeong
plays Gun-ho, an efficient and stoic debt collector who discovers that he has
liver cancer. Five years ago his
son died and his organs were donated to a number of people whom Gun-ho now
approaches in the hopes of getting a liver transplant. One of these beneficiaries is Ha-yeon,
a con artist who is currently in jail. She is about to be released and agrees to the operation on
the condition that he finds someone for her, the man responsible for her
incarceration.
The film boasts a terrific opening but it doesn’t take long
for the melodrama signals to turn on.
The death of Jeong’s character’s son, who was afflicted with Down
Syndrome, weighs heavily on him.
So much so that the memory of the loss has been suppressed by some sort
of ‘han’-induced amnesia. It
should also be mentioned that his parents are disabled. All this comes within the first 10
minutes.
Sadly, Jeong’s deadpan demeanor in Countdown comes off as glum and a little sleepy while Jeon
admirably throws herself into a role that is underwritten and scarcely worthy
of her talent. It’s rather
unfortunate that this is the case, especially since the film started out so
well. The problem with the film is
that despite all its promise it is critically lacking in originality. The set pieces are for the most part
banal or rehashed car chases and standoffs. The photography is competent but the editing sometimes
leaves much to be desired.
The film is not as witty as it attempts to be and as a
result it is far too dry and glum to ever be funny. The local overcast weather is a also detriment in this film
which by all rights should be colorful and exuberant, they should have played
with lighting, locations and wardrobe more to counteract this. It’s a sad state of affairs when the
most interesting location is a Lotte department store.
Another issue is that the weight of inevitability looms over
the narrative as we are just waiting for the backstory, the seeds of which have
already been planted in the opening minutes, to kick in and hijack the
narrative. It’s a long time coming
and though it is predictably melancholy and cloying, thankfully it works rather
well. This is due in large part to
Jeong, who is afforded the opportunity to add more depth to his character and
performance in these final stages.
At the end of the day, Countdown
is a mediocre film with a humdrum narrative which happens to feature two big
stars. It’s like a song that
thinks it’s cool and savvy, replete with self-assured lo-fi beats and
interspersed instrumental bursts, but is really just elevator music. I am a big fan of both Jeong Jae-yeong
and Jeon Do-yeon but now I will need to count down until they both return in
better films.
Lots of great features this week and a few more 2011 wrap-ups. Also some casting news for Bong Joon-ho's hotly anticipated Snow Piercer, I certainly the Tilda Swinton piece materializes! Some great trailers and more also featured featured this week.
KOREAN CINEMA NEWS
Korean Cinema 2011: the View from Here
How do you introduce new Korean films to an American audience? US-based author and curator of film at the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler Galleries in Washington, DC, Tom VICK shares his views on recent trends he has noticed programming their Korean film festival. Korea’s film industry produces a deluge of commercial and independent releases. But recent years have brought a proliferation of young, talented filmmakers with only a film or two under their belts. (Korean Cinema Today, January 5, 2012)
Director of My Sassy Girl to Take on a More Serious Movie
Korean director Kwak Jae-yong is perhaps best known for his romantic-comedy My Sassy Girl (2001), but he’s decided to try his hand at a more somber story and will take on a film about the so-called “comfort women” of World War II. The movie, to be called Flower Shoes, will be set from 1930 to 1945 and will detail the experiences of the Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese during that time period. (Joong Ang Daily, January 12, 2012)
New Stills for Ha Ji-won/Bae Doo-na Pic Korea
The first publicity stills have emerged for the upcoming film Korea (aka As One) which pairs Ha Ji-won and Bae Doo-na. Based on the true story of the victory of the South and North Korean teams at the Chiba International Table Tennis Championships in 1991, Ha Ji-won represents Hyeon Jeong-hwa and Bae Doona represents Lee Boon-hee from the North. (hancinema.net, January 12, 2012)
Cinema of Embodied Unpleasures
Rowena Santos Aquino takes an in depth look at the body of work of Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk in an engaging three part discussion called 'Spotlight on Contemporary Korean Cinema: Kim Ki-duk' over at Next Projection.
Part I - Filmmaker (Next Projection, January 11, 2012)
Part II - Mentor (Next Projection, January 12, 2012)
Part III - Subject: Arirang (Next Projection, January 13, 2012)
Chris Evans in Negotiations to Star in Bong Joon-ho's Snow Piercer
Bong Joon-ho, one of South Korea's top directors, has not made one bad film so far in his career. In fact, at least two of his feature films, namely Memories of Murder (2003) and The Host (2006), are in my opinion masterpieces of modern cinema. His last film was the 2009 critical hit Mother. (Twitch, January 14, 2012)
Multiculturalism a New Theme in Korean Movies
More and more Korean movies, including Pacemaker by director Kim Dal-joong that opens next Thursday, are taking on the theme of multiculturalism that is changing the face of Korean society. In 2010, one out of every 10 marriages involved a foreign spouse, while the number of children from multicultural families has grown seven-fold from 25,000 in 2006 to 160,000 in 2010. And this trend is being portrayed more frequently on the silver screen. (The Chosun Ilbo, January 13, 2012)
The History of Korean Cinema .... on screen
The fact of the matter is, outside of Korea, Korean cinema is still a very 'new' thing. Generally most people may have seen your Oldboy's and My Sassy Girl's but outside of that the earliest film that those in the West will have likely seen would probably be JSA (2000) or Shiri (1999). This puts Korean cinema in an interesting position of only being around 14 years old (15 using the Korean birthday system!). For a national cinema so young, it really has come along leaps and bounds, but the more interesting thing is what was it like before this point. (Tully's Recall, January 14, 2012)
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! Korean Sports Movies
Anyone who has seen the millions of Koreans flocking to the streets and plazas to cheer on the National Team during World Cup season would probably be aware how much Koreans love sports. Korea is a highly competitive society where focus, diligent attitude, eagerness for hard work, and teamwork is highly valued; all elements that can be found in sports. Add pursuit of honor to that mix and you’ve got a perfect combination for grabbing people’s attention. (The Korea Blog, January 11, 2012)
Hong Nguyen takes a look at the two versions of The Housemaid. The original from 1960 by Kim Ki-young and the remake which cam 50 years later at the hands of Im Sang-soo. (London Korea Links, January 16, 2012)
Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry Set for Release in Japan
Korean auteur director Lee Chang-dong’s film Poetry is set for release in Japan on Feb. 11, 2012. The Cannes Best Screenplay Award-winning film will be distributed by KinoEye Japan and Siglo, which released the film’s Japanese poster and trailer today. The film’s Japanese title translates to “Poetry: Agnes’ Song”. (KoBiz, January 16, 2012)
CJ CGV Opens Two More Vietnam Multiplexes
Leading South Korean exhibitor CJ CGV has opened two more multiplexes in Vietnam, bringing their total to nine cinemas with 69 screens in the country. The two multiplexes are in the center of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi with two 3D screens each. The Ho Chi Minh City cinema has eight screens while the Hanoi cinema has seven. (KoBiz, January 16, 2012)
Romance Joe to Compete at Rotterdam Tiger Awards
This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has announced the complete line-up for its Tiger Awards Competition. The 15-film selection includes Korean director Lee Kwang-kuk’s Romance Joe, which will make its international premiere. Park Hong-min’s A Fish was announced earlier on as the competition’s first 3D film ever. (KoBiz, January 12, 2012)
Tilda Swinton to Join Snow Piercer
Tilda Swinton is in talks to join post-apocalyptic thriller Snow Piercer. The feature is based on the French comic Le Transperceneige created by Jean-Marc Rochette and is South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s first foray into English language film. Snow Piercer’s plot follows a group that is traveling by train together in a future ice age. (film-news.co.uk, January 18, 2012)
New Thai Film Fest Set to Open with Always
The first edition of Thailand's Hua Hin Film Fest is set to bow Jan. 26 with the screening of South Korean pic Always, followed by the unspooling of 50 movies over four days. (Chicago Tribune, January 17, 2012)
The director of Treeless Mountain is back with her third feature, an American independent produciton starring Paul Dano as a young rock musician whose divorce from his wife (Jena Malone) triggers a desire to bond with the 6-year-old daughter he's never really known. (The Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2012)
INTERVIEWS
Interview With Director Kim Kyung-mook
One of the Korean independent film community’s most remarkable young directors, Kim Kyung-mook made his feature debut with the unconventional Faceless Things (2005). He broadened his sights with A Cheonggyecheon Dog (2008) and has most recently been doing the film festival rounds with his third feature Stateless Things. The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival’s Orrizonti competition and is set to screen in the upcoming Rotterdam film festival’s Spectrum section. The film is about people who have no place to stay. How did Kim come to take such an interest in these people? He met with Korean Cinema Today to tell us. (KoBiz, January 16, 2012)
Park Hee-gon was in his last year of high school in May 1987 when he, like thousands of other South Koreans, watched a baseball game that became legendary. The game between the Lotte Giants and Haitai Tigers was a pitchers’ duel that lasted for 15 innings before officials called it a draw. The pitchers – Lotte’s Choi Dong-won and Haitai’s Sun Dong-yeol – had squared off before but both were near the end of their careers and fans knew it would be the last time they faced each other. (The Wall Street Journal, January 17, 2012)
Although the number crunchers in Hollywood estimate that US theatrical admissions sank to their lowest level since 1995, things were not so gloomy in Korea. With an estimated 160 million tickets sold (more precise figures will become available at a later date), it appears that Korea has approached or broken the modern-day record for admissions. (Korean Cinema Today, January 14, 2012)
Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
For the fifth weekend in a row a major Hollywood release has trumped local fare at the Korean box office. A new champion, of the animated variety, rose to the top this week. Overall business was up from 1.47 to 1.75 million admissions year on year while once again the market share for Korean films tumbled to 24%, from last year's 43%.
Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots had a big weekend with 590,740 tickets sold. That's a lot more than Megamind which took the top spot at the same time last year.
MI4 added another 362,326 tickets to its enormous haul as it dropped less than a third and is now inches from the 7 million mark an could still threaten another milestone, making it the biggest film released in 2011.
Love On-Air (aka Wonderful Radio) had an encouraging small drop (20%) in its sophomore frame which, given poor reviews, I wasn't expecting. The future looks a little rosier for the midlevel film but after such a mediocre opening this is closer to damage control than success. Still, if it continues like this it could end up well north of the one million mark.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opened with 185,758 which is not a particularly encouraging figure for a film tat was expected to play strongly in international territories, maybe word of mouth will bolster its run further down the line. Perhaps Sherlock Holmes sequel Game of Shadows dropped about a third as it crossed the 2 million mark with its 154,399 weekend, a good showing for a sequel that has underperformed elsewhere.
Perfect Game stayed more or less flat this weekend with 154,399, which is impressive. It will come close to the two million mark but is unlikely to cross it. Animated film The Outback, featuring a number of K-pop star on vocal duties, opened soft 70,297. Truth be told I hadn't even heard of the film before this weekend, I'm not sue who else did.
Hong Kong period epic White Vengeance began its run with 55,498 while mega-blockbuster and equally large box office bomb My Way slowed to 45,009 in its probable final top 10 finish. Friends: Naki on Monster IslandJapanese anime roudned out the top 10 with 36,930.
Next Week: Lunar day weekend is nearly upon us and it's about time as the tired current local fare is in desperate need of replacement. Opening next week are Pacemaker, Dancing Queen, Neverending Story, and Unbowed. Pacemaker looks to come out on top but let's hope it can nudge out foreign competition for a much needed local win.
The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Sunday evening or Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
Having more or less caught up with all of the this past
summer’s major Korean releases, the first thing that comes to mind is that if I
ever see a motorbike in a Korean film again, it will be far, far too soon. The two main culprits in my eyes are Sector 7 and Quick, and the thing that they share in common is Yoon Je-kyoon, the producer who was also the director behind such hits as My Boss, My Hero (2001), Sex Is Zero (2002), Miracle on 1st Street (2007), and Haeundae (2009). Not too long ago I decided
to savage Sector 7 in my review as I
felt it was a disaster that needed to be called out for the contempt it showed
its audience, thinking moviegoers would be content with novel 3D effects at the
expense of a solid story and engaging characters. Thankfully spectators rejected the film as it suffered one
of the most calamitous post-opening weekend drops in Korean film history.
Quick is not as
bad a film but it does demonstrate a similar lack of respect towards its
viewers. What I mean to say is
that it’s an overburdened everything-but-the-kitchen-sink comedy-actioneer that
is designed to appeal to everyone but could never hope to satisfy anyone. There is very little that the
filmmakers didn’t throw in to the mix in a bid to attract viewers. There’s k-pop, gangsters, biker gangs,
youth violence, washboard abs, scantily clad women, inefficient police,
romance, and of course melodrama, all that in addition to the heavy doses of
action and comedy.
Flying bikes
Gi-soo is a former bike gang leader who now works as a
speedy bike messenger. One day he
is sent to pick up Ah-rom, a major k-pop star, who turns out to be his
ex-girlfriend. She puts on his
helmet but while he was away, someone has put a bomb in it. Now he must do an unknown man’s bidding
with the police and an old rival on his tail.
Quick is primarily
an action film and it borrows its concept from the popular 90s Hollywood summer
blockbuster Speed (1994), starring Keanu
Reeves, it has more or less borrowed its name too. The action is relentless and the filmmakers cram in
pile-ups, explosions, and as much speed as they can into the narrative. I must say that the action sequences
are for the most part convincing but they are just variations on a theme and
don’t offer us anything we haven’t seen before. There’s also a tendency to blend the comedy in with the
action, these efforts, rather than add up to something better, mostly fall
flat.
Funny bikes
Comedy is a large part of Quick but I think it was either a poor choice or badly handled as
it is the cause of most of the film’s many problems. It’s not particularly funny and, as I’ve already mentioned,
it doesn’t blend well with the action, but beyond that it poses two significant
issues. Since a lot of the film is
played for laughs, there is no real urgency and the stakes feel very low, a big
no-no for an action film. Secondly,
I found the two leads to be terrible, mainly because they have no comic
timing. I know that Lee Min-ki’s
new film Spellbound as been received
very enthusiastically but here he’s just a pretty face and his performance is
hamfisted but also very unbalanced, Gi-Soo never felt like a character. Kang Ye-won’s is not someone I was very
familiar with beforehand but I do recognize her from last year’s Hello Ghost and she seems to be a Yoon
Je-kyoon stalwart, this being the fourth film of his she has starred in. Again she is a pretty face who only
seems capable of overacting and her grating performance quickly overstays its
welcome.
Sexy bikes
Quick does feel
like a missed opportunity though.
At times, with all the different factions facing off against eachother,
I felt this could have been like an anarchic Kim Sang-jin (Attack the Gas Station, 1999; Kick
the Moon, 2001) film but it’s far too consumerist and cynical to pull that
off. The film lacks a raison
d’être, it is merrily an excuse for fast vehicles and pyrotechnics but rather
than reinvent the genre or offer up an original style from its mise-en-scene,
it expects the money being thrown at the stunts and explosions to impress
rather than the way in which they are presented.
Forgive the bad pun but I think the film was made a little too quickly, elements designed to draw in viewers were thrown together, explosions
littered the marketing, numerous mid-level stars were cast in small roles but
at no point was any effort put into the story, the characters, or the style of
the film. What we’re left with
looks more like a drawn-out music video than a feature film and that is
definitely not what I go to the movies for.
Still not too much news at the beginning of the year but there a few pieces looking at the year ahead and the one just past as well as a brand new English trailer for The Front Line as it gets ready to bow in the US courtesy of Well Go Entertainment.
KOREAN CINEMA NEWS
Big-Budget Films to Open in 2012
While 2011 saw the release of some novel, genre-defying works, not many local films aside from Sunny and War of the Arrows (a.k.a. Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon) managed to draw crowds at the box office. This year, a lineup of big-budget films featuring the return of big stars await moviegoers. (The Korea Times, January 5, 2012)
Best News Stories of the Year
Twitch, in its annual best news stories feature, ranked the Spike Lee directed Oldboy reboot as one of 2011's best film news stories. The project has had a few setbacks with both Colin Firth, Clive Owen, and Mara Rooney all turning down lead roles but is still scheduled to start shooting in the next few months with star Josh Brolin in the main role. (Twitch, January 10, 2012)
Which Way, My Way?
The dramatization of a true war-time story that spans years, continents, and changing friendships and enmities, My Way is director Kang Je-kyu’s comeback after seven years. My Way deals with a true story that is practically legend. In the late 1930s, a man from Joseon ends up going to China and the Soviet Union towards Germany and finally ends up on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. (Korean Cinema Today, January 8, 2012)
Three Korean Projects Selected to HAF
Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) is set to celebrate its 10th anniversary this March with a record 32 selections, including three from South Korea. These are director Jeon Soo-il’s Another Country, Kim Baek-jun’s Monsters and Lee Hae-jun’s My Dictator. The festival chose these from more than 200 submissions from over 45 countries and regions. The final selection represents 20 different territories including Australia, China, India, Japan, and Malaysia. (KoBiz, January 6, 2012)
Crossing the Streams...
Up until this point in time the only real option for streaming a large amount of content in theUK has been through LoveFilm. Yesterday the big US company Netflix launched their service in the UK and they’ve undercut LoveFilm on the cost of their service (that’s on the standard price, LoveFilm are understandably offering promotional prices for the next few months) and, again, while the Netflix offering is limited to some degree there’s also a lot of good content on there – some of it in HD. (New Korean Cinema, January 10, 2012)
Martin Cleary takes a look at the frustrating state of the availability of Korean fils in the UK over on his new blog. (New Korean Cinema, January 6, 2012)
Rotterdam Takes Three More Korean Films
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has announced its line-up to include three more Korean films in addition to the previously announced A Fish, the Tiger Awards Competition’s first 3D film. The film by Park Hong-min will be joined by Roh Gyeong-tae’s Black Dove, Kim Kyung-mook’s Stateless Things and Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives. The latter three films will be in the festival’s Spectrum section. The section will show 72 features and documentaries from 32 countries. (KoBiz, January 10, 2012)
Foreign Koreanness Captured in the Movies
With the recent release of the first two trailers for Papa, it looks like mainstream Korean cinema will continue to wrestle with the issue of immigration and multiculturalism into the new year. As new as this theme may seem for Korean film, Papa actually follows in the footsteps of last year’s very successful Punch and 2010’s almost equally successful He's on Duty, as well as a string of independent films that addressed the same theme. (The Korea Herald, January 5, 2012)
Michael Stipe Produces Gay Korean-American Film
Former REM frontman Michael Stipe is the executive producer behind a new short film of a gay Korean man who yearns for a family, which the director used to come out to his own parents. The short, entitled Dol, will be shown at the Sundance Film Festival this year, Indie music news site Electric Banana reports. (pinknews.co.uk January 10, 2012)
My Sassy Girl to Be Made Into a Drama
On January 11 it was announced that the drama production company “Lemon Rain” would produce a TV drama version of My Sassy Girl with “Shincine Communication Co.” In order to find a charming and perfect script they are holding a script contest starting from February 1 to March 30. The original film My Sassy Girl is a classic Korean romantic comedy that jumpstarted Cha Tae Hyun andJeon Ji Hyun’s acting careers. (soompi.com, January 10, 2012)
Oldboy Production Delayed Until May; Clive Owen Passes on Villain Role
The inability to cast, plus Brolin’s press commitments to MIB 3, has forced production of Oldboy to be pushed back to May of this year. Colin Firth was the biggest name to be attached to play as the villain, but he passed on the role, which was then offered to Clive Owen. But according to a report from Jeff Snieder over at Variety, “don’t expect Clive Owen to play the villain.” (Fused Film, January 7, 2012)
INTERVIEW
Director Park Hong-min
Director Park Hong-min’s A Fish is about a professor who searches for his runaway wife. It compares this life to the afterlife, and humans on land to souls in the sea. A Fish was revealed to the world at the 16th Busan International Film Festival and has also been invited to compete at the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam’s annual Tiger Awards Competition. Director Park is now making final adjustments to the film’s sound effects and computer graphics before he heads off to Rotterdam. (Korean Cinema Today, January 5, 2012)
Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
