Showing posts with label sector 7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sector 7. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2011

Weekly Review Round-up (12/10-12/16, 2011)

30 new reviews this week including a great write-up on Hong Sang-soo's latest from The New Yorker and a series of reviews on Kim Ki-duk's from the Rainy Day Movies blog where Connor McMorran is hosting a fantastic Kim Ki-duk Week.


CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES


Spellbound


RECENT RELEASES


(Shu-Izmz, December 11, 2011)

(Variety, December 14, 2011)

(Beyond Hollywood, December 12, 2011)

(Pinoy Movie Blog, December 16, 2011)

I Saw the Devil

(The Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 11, 2011)

Poetry

(Twitch, December 13, 2011)

(The New Yorker, December 15, 2011)

(City on Fire, December 10, 2011)

(Inti_Scenes, December 14, 2011)

(Init_Scenes, December 16, 2011)

(Wildgrounds, December 13, 2011)


PAST FILMS


(Rainy Day Movies, December 14, 2011)

Bad Guy, 2001
(Rainy Day Movies, December 13, 2011)

Beat, 1997
(Modern Korean Cinema, December 9, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 9, 2011)

(The Non-Review, December 9, 2011)

Green Fish, 1997
(Modern Korean Cinema, December 11, 2011)

No. 3, 1997
(Modern Korean Cinema, December 10, 2011)

(Rainy Day Movies, December 15, 2011)

(Rainy Day Movies, December 16, 2011)

(Rainy Day Movies, December 15, 2011)

The Isle, 2000
(Rainy Day Movies, December 12, 2011)


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.

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Weekly Review Round-up (11/19-11/25, 2011)

A wealth of reviews for current and past films this week from many sources including multiple write-ups on A Better Tomorrow, The Front Line, and The Yellow Sea.


CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

(The Korea Times, November 24, 2011)


RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(Ali Quail, November 22, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, November 22, 2011)

(hancinema.net, November 19, 2011)

(hancinema.net, November 19, 2011)

(Hangul Celluloid, November 22, 2011)

(Film Business Asia, November 20, 2011)

(rainydaymovies, November 24, 2011)

(VCinema Show, November 3, 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 24, 2011)

(Far East Films, November 13, 2011)

The Front Line

(Korean Class Massive, November 19, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(New Korean Cinema, November 23, 2011)

(Film Business Asia, November 23, 2011)


PAST FILMS

3-Iron, 2004
(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 22, 2011)

Arahan, 2004
(Mouth London, November 23, 2011)

Assassins, 1969
(London Korean Links, November 20, 2011)

A Sister's Garden, 1959
(koreanfilm.org, November 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 17, 2011)

Crossing, 2008
(asianmovieweb.com, November 21, 2011)

(Mouth London, November 23, 2011)

Day Off, 1968
(London Korean Links, November 20, 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 23, 2011)

(Mouth London, November 21, 2011)

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 20, 2011)


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.

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Weekly Review Round-up (11/05-11/11, 2011)

A massive haul this week with 50 reviews of a wide range of films, with a number for the popular War of the Arrows.  Many came as a result of the London Korean Film Festival but I also found a lot of new sources, including Hanguk Yeonghwa who, covering the LKFF, delivered no less than 6 writeups.

Enjoy!


CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES

(The Korea Times, November 10, 2011)

(Film Journal, November 4, 2011)

(hancinema.net, November 6, 2011)


RECENT RELEASES

A Better Tomorrow

(heyuguys.co.uk, November 7, 2011)

(Movie Habit, November 10, 2011)

Bleak Night

(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 10, 2011)

(hancinema.net, November 5, 2011)

(Film Fracture, November 8, 2011)

(Movie Habit, November 8, 2011)

(Joong Ang Daily, November 4, 2011)

(London Korea Links, November 6, 2011)

(iCov, November 11, 2011)

Night Fishing

(Init_Scenes, November 8, 2011)

Sector 7

Sunny

The Day He Arrives

The Front Line

(Asian Movie Pulse, November 4, 2011)

The Journals of Musan

(Film 4, November 10, 2011)

(Init_Scenes, November 6, 2011)

War of the Arrows


PAST FILMS

Chunhyang, 2000
(bltnotjustasandwich.com, November 6, 2011)

D-Wars, 2007
(Bullet Reviews, November 7, 2011)

(Seen in Jeonju, November 9, 2011)

Going By the Book, 2007

(Spinetingler Mag, November 10, 2011)

(Otherwhere, November 8, 2011)

Taegukgi, 2004
(Hanguk Yeonghwa, November 1, 2011)

The Chaser, 2008
(Korean Class Massive, November 8, 2011)

(North Korean Films, November 6, 2011)


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.

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Thursday, November 10, 2011

Sector 7 (7-gwang-goo) 2011

Straight off the bat I can say that the most anticipated Korean blockbuster of 2011, aside from Christmas’ war epic My Way from Jang Je-gyu, is easily the worst film I’ve seen all year, no matter how you look at it.  It’s very easy to see what went wrong, one bad decision was made after another, with barely any right ones in between.  What is not so easy to understand is how things went wrong.  Though I would not label Sector 7’s filmmakers as the cream of the crop, they normally seem to know what they’re doing and consistently deliver solid, if overly sentimental fare.  They are endowed with a keen ability to whet Korea’s insatiable appetite for melodrama.

Oil rig bonding
Curiously, there is little to no melodrama in Sector 7.  It hints at it a few times but seems to abandon it in favor of concocting a copycat medley of rehashed Hollywood plot devices and production techniques.  It is truly a triumph of expectation over delivery as I cannot imagine any producer seeing a cut of this expensive bomb and proclaiming “We have a hit on our hands!”  The film’s pre-release exposure was enormous, everyone (at least in Korea and on the internet) knew about it being the first Korean 3D IMAX film, numerous posters and trailers were available, and the entertainment rags were all talking up Ha Ji-won’s arduous workout regimen.  When the day came, it opened very strong before the poisonous word of mouth pulled it right back out of theaters within weeks.

Clearly it was the intent of Yoon Je-kyoon (producer/writer) and Kim Ji-hoon (director) to copy every similar film that had met with a lot of success in the hope that their synthetic product would also be a big hit.  Ha Ji-won is basically an Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver’s iconic character in the Alien franchsie) stand-in, the oil rig is from Armageddon (1998), a major character’s death and resurrection is lifted from the first Lord of the Rings, the genesis of the monster is not dissimilar to Korea’s own The Host (2006), and the list goes on.

Ha Ji-won, tough as nails... apparently
In fact, the film is a veritable cornucopia of metanarratives.  Curiously, aside from lifting all of its plot elements, characters, set-pieces, and effects from other movies, it also has a link to the popular K-Drama Secret Garden (2010) which ends with Ha Ji-won’s stuntwoman character being given the script of Sector 7.  Clever synergy?  I suppose so.  Even stranger is that her characters in both the show and the film are identical.  Women that are physically strong but emotionally weak and incapable of making decisions.  Stranger still is that her tragically deceased father is incarnated by Jeong In-gi in both.  Everything about Sector 7 is constructed, even the sets aren’t real as most of it was shot on green screen.  As a result it barely feels like a film and the chief cause of this is just how badly it is made. 

Unlike Yoon’s previous blockbuster, the tsunami-themed Haeundae (2009), Sector 7 spares little time for scene-setting and character development. A brief underwater intro features a pair of oil drillers setting in place a pipe.  A couple of little glowing creatures swim around them, suddenly they attack and one of the men falls to his death.  Fast forward to the present where we are directly introduced to the hardy (but strangely Spartan) crew of an oil rig.  They are battling with a malfunctioning pipe and being doused in brute petroleum, no doubt reinforcing the intrinsic bond between them.  Cha Hae-joon (Ha Ji-won) is pretty but tough as nails and shows grit alongside the men.  A couple of scenes explore the relationships between the rig’s crewmen (and woman), which is to say that nothing happens.  One of those glowing creatures is found and then Anh Suh-kee (Hae-joon’s mentor) comes aboard to aid the exploration of the new underwater oil fields.  Of course he knows more than he lets on and blah blah blah blah blah…

The first of many oil rig bike scenes
What is it that can make a film go oh so wrong?  B-movies, as I’ve explored in my I Am a Dad review, benefit from lowered expectations.  Conversely, when you suffocate the nation’s media outlets for a month, touting your bigger-than-anything-you’ve-ever-seen-before-it blockbuster, you suffer from heightened expectations.  When you go down the latter route but produce a film on par (or below, as is the case) with the former course, you’re left with a big problem that is pretty much irreparable.  You’ve promised something spectacular and eventful but have completely failed to deliver.  Worse than a bad filmmaker, this makes you a liar.

More than anything else, and there’s a lot, two things bothered me the most about Sector 7.  One is the incomprehensibly bad rear-projection technique used in the bike sequences, of which there are four… on an oil rig.  The quality is what you would expect from the 30s or 40s not 2011, worse still is watching Ha Ji-won madly rev the bike and swoop down to her left and right sides, she actually looks like a little 6-year-old boy pretending to ride in a Grand Prix. Yoon, who also produced this summer’s Quick, seems to have a bike fetish.

Sacrifice: LOTR style
The second, and perhaps more upsetting point, is the film’s latent mysoginy.  Hae-joon embodies both male and female traits, the problem is that the male traits are the hero ones, and the female traits are all ugly stereotypes.  Additionally, for a film that attempts to make Ha Ji-won a consummate action star by pitting her as a conquering heroine against a vicious antagonist, the heroics are mostly reserved for the men.  Throughout the film, they are repeatedly sacrificing themselves, one of the characters does so twice! Another does so to save his friend, in what I’m assuming is supposed to be an emotional scene (no such luck).  After he does so, his friend remains rooted to the spot, whimpering, not trying to escape and is then quickly impaled.  In more able hands this might have been a clever send-up but no such attempt is made here, which begs the question, what was the point?

If you decide to get on board Sector 7, here’s what you can expect: wild lapses in logic, rampant misogyny, numerous laughably atrocious rear-projection motorcycle sequences, complete disregard for the natural laws of physiques, risible dialogue and matching delivery, an ugly monster that is never hidden from view, and perpetual references to superior films that it could never hope to match.  Your choice…


Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

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.

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Friday, November 4, 2011

Weekly Review Round-up (10/29-11/04, 2011)

A few reviews for Silenced (aka The Crucible/Dogani) this week as it opened in select locations in the US.  A variety of other pieces, including some on Sector 7 and The Yellow Sea.  I imagine that next week we will be seeing a lot of write-ups coming in from the London Korean Film Festival, which opened last night.


CURRENT KOREAN RELEASES


RECENT RELEASES
(Film Business Asia, October 28, 2011)

Hero
(Modern Korean Cinema, November 1, 2011)

(unseen films, October 30, 2011)

Poongsan
(Modern Korean Cinema, November 3, 2011)

(hancinema.net, October 29, 2011)

Stateless Things
(Anikor, November 1, 2011)

Sunny
(japancinema.net, November 3, 2011)

(hancinema, October 29, 2011)

The Yellow Sea
(The Student, October 29, 2011)
(Varsity, November 2, 2011)

War of the Arrows
(Every Film in 2011, November 2, 2011)


PAST FILMS

(Init_Scenes, November 1, 2011)

Family Ties, 2006
(Otherwhere, November 2, 2011)

Take Care of My Cat, 2001
(Otherwhere, October 28, 2011)

(Hangul Celluloid, October 30, 2011)


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.

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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Korean Cinema News (09/29-10/05, 2011)

Big news week for Korean cinema, a good portion of it for the incoming Busan Film Fest and the controversy surrounding new film The Crucible. A number of trailers this week as well as a brief new section to showcase new posters.


KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Extreme-Short Film Festival Opens in Seoul
Last Thursday, the 3rd Seoul International Extreme-Short Image and Film Festival opened in Guro, Seoul. 387 short of about three minutes are being featured at this year's edition. 144 films are competing across the six categories . The festival openers were A Pale Purple Bird directed by actor Oh Kwang-rok, The Diner directed by Korean singer Horan, and Curse direct by Korean comedian Park Seong-gwang. (KBS.co.kr, September 29, 2011)

Always, which is opening the 16th edition of the Busan International Film Festival, sold out online in a staggering seven seconds. This marks an improvement over the already impressive 18 seconds achieved by Hawthorne Tree Forever, last year's opener. (enewsworld.net, September 27, 2011)
It's been a tough year for the folks running the Busan Intl. Film Festival. Following the retirement of former director Kim Dong-ho it has been a difficult year for those running the Busan International Film Festival. Some critics from within the domestic film industry and the international community wonder whether the fest can continue without Kim's leadership. However, the 16th edition of Asia's largest film festival is gearing up for change, with a new name and new headquarters. (Variety, October 3, 2011)

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon – The Historical Background
Kim Han-min’s Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon historical action flick is set to get the London Korean Film Festival 2011 underway in a few weeks. Director Kim, whose previous features are Paradise Murdered (2006) and Handphone (2009), sought to attempt something more historical with his third film, and chose this interesting period in the early 17th century. Philip Gowan explains the background to the film. (London Korea Links, September 29 2011)

DMZ Docs 2011 Closes With Tiniest Place Top WinnerThe 3rd DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs 2011) closed with a screening of The Tiniest Place. Directed by Tatiana Huezo, the international competition top award winner. The Mexican film was the recipient of the White Goose Award which comes with KW15 million and the honor of screening as the festival’s Closing Film. The documentary film festival, which ran for seven days, took place around Paju City, led by co-festival directors Cho Jae-hyun and Yoo Ji-tae. (kobiz, September 30, 2011)

Sector 7 and Five Other Korean Films to Screen at Tokyo
Six Korean films have been invited to the upcoming 24th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF)  including the sci-fi film Sector 7 as a Special Screening. The other Korean films include Kong Quee-hyun’s mystery U.F.O. and Na Hong-jin’s thriller The Yellow Sea, which will both feature in the Winds of Asia section. The 3D underwater creature feature Sector 7 is due for release in Japan on Nov. 12, 2011. (kobiz, September 30, 2011)

The 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)’s Asian Cinema Fund (ACF) will join the World Documentary Exchange (WDE), a documentary network between Europe, the Americas, and henceforth Asia. The expanded network aims to create more opportunities for documentaries around the world. (kobiz, September 30, 2011)

Stateless Things and The Day He Arrives Continue Fest Rounds
Kim Kyung-mook’s Stateless Things has been invited to the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), which runs in Canada until Oct. 14. Kim’s independent film is in the Dragons and Tigers competition. Stateless Things has also been invited to the upcoming 55th BFI London Film Festival’s World Cinema section, along with Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives. The London Film Festival will run Oct. 12 – 27 this year. (kobiz, September 29, 2011)
The Busan Cinema Center, which features a huge roof shaped in a wavelike pattern, opened Thursday in Busan. It is propped up by a single pillar built to resemble a pair of ice-cream cones. The center will be the main venue of the annual Busan International Film Festival, previously known as the Pusan International Film Festival. With the completion of the center, the southern port city wants to be recognized not only as a regional cinematic hub but also as the home of key architectural landmarks. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 30, 2011)
A movie currently running in cinemas is sparking a growing call for the revision of laws governing sexual crimes against the disabled and minors. The Crucible, a film based on the true story about school staff sexually assaulting hearing impaired students, is adding mounting pressure on policymakers and politicians to change the laws on sexual assaults on children and welfare foundations. (The Korea Times, September 29, 2011)

Song Stars as Grieving Documentary Maker
After starring as the famous Joseon gisaeng - female entertainer - Hwang Jin-i and the mysterious daughter of a Korean shaman, Song Hye-kyo is returning to the big screen as a documentary filmmaker mourning the death of her fiance. "When I pick movies, I don't really think about whether the film I'm going to shoot is going to be a commercial one or an art house one," Song told reporters at a press conference promoting the film, A Reason to Live, on Monday. (asiaone.com, September 27, 2011)
Fans of Oldboy star Choi Min-sik have had to face rather a lot of downtime for the actor in recent days, Choi first withdrawing from the film industry entirely to protest proposed changes to the screen quota system in 2006 and then working only sparingly since his return. Kim Ji-Woon's 2010 effort I Saw The Devil was just Choi's second lead role since 2005 effort Crying Fist and his only work since that effort was to contribute his voice to an animated feature. But Choi will be back in 2012 in the lead role of Yun Jong-bin's The War Against Crime (aka Nameless Gangster) in which he will play opposite Ha Jung-woo as a government official in Busan during a very public and hard fought war against organized crime in the early 1990s. (Twitch, October 3, 2011)

Pan-Asian Youth Film School Opens in Busan
A film academy inviting young aspiring filmmakers from across Asia began last week ahead of the opening Thursday of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). The Asian Film Academy (AFA) opened for the seventh time Thursday as part of the country’s largest cinema event. This year’s installment has invited 24 men and women from 17 countries to take part in workshops, master classes, mentoring sessions and other educational initiatives. (The Korea Times, October 3, 2011)

How a New Cinema Center Could Change the Busan Film Festival
Organizers hope the $15 million Busan Cinema Center, designed by Coop Himmelblau, will dazzle festgoers arriving for one of Asia's most important film events. Destination architecture is hitting the film festival world with the opening of the Busan Cinema Center. Designed by influential contemporary architects Coop Himmelblau of Austria, the building will serve as the home of Asia's largest cinema event, the Busan International Film Festival, which opens Oct. 6 in South Korea's second-largest city after Seoul. (The Hollywood Reporter, Ocotber 1, 2011)

Korean Film Archive Showcases 'Radio Days'
Throughout October, the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) is holding a free VOD retrospective on films from the golden era of the 60s that were originally based on popular radio programs called “Radio Days”. The program will feature 10 films. In Korea, the 1950s and 60s were the heyday of not just films but of radio, too, and a lot of radio programs that were popular hits were then adapted into films and plays. The classic films A Romantic Papa, directed by Shin Sang-ok in 1960, and The Sea Knows (a.k.a. Hyunhaetan Knows), directed by Kim Kee-duk in 1961, were both based on radio serial shows. (kobiz, October 4, 2011)

Busan International Film Festival to Amuse Movie Fans With 307 Films
Busan is set to thrill movie lovers from around the world when the 16th Busan International Film Festival gets underway on October 6 for nine days. Over 300 films from 70 countries, as well as a plethora of famous movie stars from both Korea and overseas, will be featured at the festival this year. A number of films have already sold out their screenings in record times. (korea.net, October 5, 2011)

In the aftermath of the box-office hit Dogani (aka The Crucible/Silenced), depicting the true tale of sexual abuse in a school for hearing-impaired students, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education determined Monday that it would force the Inhwa School to shut down. Gwangju officials convened an emergency meeting to discuss measures against the school for disabled students and will require all 22 students to be transferred to another establishment soon. (Joong Ang Daily, October 5, 2011)

Actress Kang Soo-yeon has been chosen as one of the judges of this year’s Asiana International Short Film Festival. Along with the actress, four other prominent film industry names, including Japanese director Isshin Inudo, chief director of the festival Seigo Tono, director of Guanajuato International Film Festival Sara Hoch and director Kim Tae-yong, have been selected as judges this year, according to the festival organizers. (Joong Ang Daily, October 5, 2011)
The 2nd Gwacheon International SF Festival in Korea opens today (Sept. 30) with the Japanese animation Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society 3D directed by Kenji Kamiyama. The festival will run until Oct 16 at the Gwacheon National Science Museum. It aims to encourage creativity and imagination in children by combining "scientific imagination and filmic imagination". (kobiz, September 29, 2011)

Korean High-Schooler Wins Int'l Animation Award 
A Korean high school senior has won a prize at the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Kim Bo-won of Korea Animation High School in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province was given the 2011 Adobe Prize for Best High School Animation for her work titled I'm Sorry, beating about 2,000 entries from around the world. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 30, 2011)

Another Film Shows Sexual Abuse of the Disabled in N. Jeolla Area
With the hit Korean movie The Crucible fueling public outrage against sexual abuse of the disabled, another film about sexual violence against the disabled in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, is drawing keen attention. The Crucible, a 125-minute commercial feature, includes descriptions of sexual assault in Gwangju, but Sum, an 89-minute independent film, describes the pain and love of the heroine and the rape victims. Park Ji-won, a 30-year-old disabled woman, played the heroine in Sum and more than 20 other people with disabilities also performed as supporting cast. (The Dong-a Ilbo, October 1, 2011)

Korean Animation Waddles Into China
The first Korean animated film to play at Chinese theaters opened at 3,000 screens yesterday and is about the adventures of a hen who escapes a chicken farm to realize her dream of hatching her own egg. Leafie, A Hen Into The Wild is based on the hit teenage novel of the same name and has a running time of 93 minutes. The 3-billion-won ($2.5-million) film is currently showing nationwide in China with dubbing in mandarin. It earlier became the first Korean animation to draw 1 million viewers domestically, experts said, where it posted box-office receipts in excess of 2.2 million after it was released in July on 350 screens. (Joong Ang Daily, October 1, 2011)

Pres. Lee Calls for Measures to Prevent Sexual Crimes Against Disabled & Minors
President Lee Myung-bak recently got to watch the much-talked about Korean movie The Crucible which is based on a true story about school staff sexually assaulting hearing impaired students. After watching it, the President said that our society needs to be more conscious of sexual crimes against the disabled, and that he will work to better protect people with disabilities and minors from becoming victims of such crimes. (arirang.co.kr, October 4, 2011)

Film Picks for 2011 Busan Film Fest
The 16th annual Busan International Film festival, one of the world’s most prestigious, will once again kick off on the 1st Thursday of October. The sheer amount of film options can seem a bit overwhelming. Approximately 300 movies from 70 different countries with 135 world premiers will be screened in Haeundae, Centum City, and Namp-dong. Here is a "lockdown" list of picks. (The Vanguard Element, October 5, 2011)

IMAX Signs Revenue Share Deal in China With CJ CGV Holdings, Ltd
IMAX Corporation today announced that CJ CGV Holdings, LTD, a subsidiary of Korean media conglomerate CJ CGV Co. Ltd., has signed a revenue share agreement to add 15 new IMAX(R) digital theatre systems in the People's Republic of China. Under the terms of the agreement, CJ CGV Holdings, LTD is scheduled to install the first IMAX systems in 2011, with all remaining installations expected to be completed between 2013 and 2017. (Market Watch, October 4, 2011)
Spike Lee is set to direct an American version of the South Korean favorite Oldboy, withJosh Brolin looking like the guy to play the lead role. Brolin would be a man who is kidnapped one night and imprisoned for fifteen years for reasons unknown to him. Released back into society just as abruptly as he was snatched, he begins to look for the person or persons responsible for his incarceration. Along the way he meets a young chef who becomes his partner in the search. And now there’s a report that Rooney Mara, of The Social Network (2010) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011), is the choice to play that role. (/Film, September 28, 2011)


INTERVIEW

Metamorpheses Director Oh In-chun
Inchun Oh is a Korean filmmaker, director and screenwriter. Born on August 30, 1980, he studied filmmaking at Korea National University of Arts, where he wrote and directed A Moment - a collaboration between Korea National University of Arts and Beijing Film Academy, filmed entirely in Beijing. His latest short film Metamorphoses (2011) has been screened internationally at a number of film festivals. (Hangul Celluloid, October 3, 2011)


TRAILERS









POSTERS







You Pet


(Modern Korean Cinema, October 3, 2011)


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.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Korean Cinema News (08/22-08/28, 2011)

KOFFIA

KOFFIA began last Thursday and ended last night for the Sydney portion of its run. It will start up again in Melbourne on September 10. Below are plenty of reports and videos from the festival to keep you occupied in the meantime.






KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Sector 7 Fades Away
After less than a month in theaters, the much-ballyhooed 3D blockbuster Sector 7 will disappear from multiplexes with its meagre takings. (hancinema.net, August 28, 2011)

Secret Sunshine: A Cinema of Lucidity
Dennis Lim's essay from last week's Criterion Release of Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine (2007). (Criterion.com, August 2011)

Busan Film Festival and the Emergence of Asian Cinema
The increasing links between Hollywood and China have been a big source of film industry news in Asia this week, but there's been some pretty big news coming out of South Korea too, as it starts to gear up for the region's most prestigious festival. (The Independent, August 26, 2011)

Kim Tae-hee Takes on TV Role in Japan
Last Thursday, Kim Tae-hee's Agency announced that she will take the lead role in Fuji TV's new romantic comedy, tentatively titled Me and My Star's 99 Days. (The Chosun Ilbo, August 26, 20110)

Kim Jee-woon's The Last Stand Will Begin Principal Photography in October
Director Kim Ji-woon's Hollywood debut and Arnold Schwarzenegger's comeback The Last Stand is set to start shooting this October in New Mexico. (hancinema.net, August 25, 2011)

The Front Line Selected as Korean Oscar Contender
South Korea has selected The Front Line as its national contender for the foreign-language Academy Award. Directed by Jang Hoon the film is a war-is-hell treatment of the Korean War that takes as its focus a complicated skirmish for a hill in 1953. (Film Business Asia, August 24, 2011)

The Yellow Sea Scores US Release
Fox International, the arm of the studio that deals with overseas releases, will give Na Hong-jin’s The Yellow Sea stateside releases, although no date is set as of yet. (indieWIRE, August 24, 2011)

Sunny Ends its Run at No. 11 on All Time Chart
Following a long run in theaters Sunny has finished at 11th place on the alltime Korean box office chart with 7.44 million admissions. (hancinema.net, August 24, 2011)

Busan Announces Competition Lineup
The Busan International Film Festival has announced its main competition lineup for this year's edition. Included in the Asian lineup are two Korean films, from Kim Joong-hyun and Stanley Park. (Film Business Asia, August 24, 2011)

Hindsight Premieres Music Video
Shin Se-kyeong, star of Hindsight, stars in a music video being release in anticipation of the film's imminent release. (Asian Media Wiki, August 24, 2011)

How Will Marrying the Mafia IV Fare?
Given the enormous success of its predecessors, will Marrying the Mafia IV reaps similar rewards? (hancinema.net, August 24, 2011)

An Examination of Hong Sang-soo's Body of Work
Over on Little White Lies, Yusef Sayed takes a look at the films of Hong Sang-soo. (Little White Lies, August 23, 2011)

Pathfinder to Release 5 Korean Movies on DVD in US/Canada
Five critically-acclaimed Korean films will finally find their way to the North American home video market courtesy of Pathfinder Pictures. The titles include: The King and the Clown (2005), I'm a Cyborg but That's Okay (2006), The Servant, The Recipe, and Magic. (Asian Pop Shock August 22, 2011)

Korean TV Station Tussles Start Afresh
After the political maneuvering which led to the creation of new TV stations that have yet to start operations, tensions are growing now that the first effects of these nascent entities are rippling through the industry. (The Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2011)


INTERVIEWS

Lim Woo-seung Talks About His New Film
Director Lim Woo-seung opens up about filmmaking with the release of his sophomore film Scars. (The Korea Herald, August 24, 2011)

Ryoo Seung-wan at KOFFIA Press Conference
As the Korean Film Festival in Australia opened last week, Ryoo Seung-wan discussed his films The Unjust and No Blood No Tears (2002), both screening. (Inside Film, August 24, 2011)

IFFR Sitdown with Lee Chang-dong
A wondeful and in depth interview with Lee Chang-dong, during his stop at the International Film
Festival Rotterdam. (Twitch Film, August 22, 2011)


TRAILERS



Quick (eng subs)



BOX OFFICE

Arrow Scores for a Third Straight Weekend
Arrow had another big weekend adding 706,000 for a total 4.4 million admissions to date. Both Blind and Leafie held well with 257,000 and 137,000 respectively, they will likely cross the 2 million mark shortly. (hancinema.net, August 28, 2011)


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.

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Monday, August 15, 2011

Korean Cinema News (08/08-08/14, 2011)


Modern Korean Cinema is a proud media partner of the Korean Film Festival in Australia which will get underway on August 24th in Sydney until the 29th and then move on to Melbourne where it will take unspool from the 10th to the 13th. Many excellent films will be screened including: The Man From Nowhere; Bedevilled; The Unjust; The Journals of Musan; The Show Must Go On (2007); Oki's Movie; and Secret Reunion. Some special guests will also be making an appearance including director Ryoo Seung-wan and producer Kang Hye-jung. If you in the area or can make it there be sure not to miss what is shaping up to be an exceptional celebration of Korean cinema!



The Korean Film Festival of Australia will feature films by many luminaries of the Korean film industry. Below are profiles they have put together for some of the festival favorites:


Martin Cleary of New Korean Cinema, another media partner of KOFFIA, gives us an overview of the festival and its films in a series of features.



KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

A Primer on Korean Cinema
Paul Quinn of Hangul Celluloid gives us an overview of the appeal of Korean cinema for Pelter Magazine. (Pelter Mag, August 8, 2011)

Outcry as KBS Airs First Lesbian Drama
Due to the fact that it contained content relating to same-sex couples, a new KBS drama called Daughters of Club Bilitis had viewers up in arms. (allkpop.com, August 8, 2011)

Miss Conspirator Halts Filming
Due to the poor health of director Jung Bum-Sik, as of August 12, 2011 filming for Miss Conspirator was halted. (Asian Media Wiki, August 12, 2011)

Gone With the Wind Casts Cha Tae-hyun
Gone With The Wind, a historical comedy centered around thieves who attempt to steal ice from an ice house, has cast Cha Tae-hyun and will begin filming in September. (Asian Media Wiki, August 12, 2011)

Korean Shortlist For Academy Awards Announced
Poongsan, Sunny, The Yellow Sea, The Front Line, Hanji and The Day He Arrives have been shortlisted for Korea's submission into next year's academy awards. (Hancinema, August 11, 2011)

Korea's Invasion of Alien Bikini
A profile of director Young-Doo Oh’s Invasion of Alien Bikini which will be premiering later this months. Blending the comic science fiction of Save the Green Planet (2003) with the bondage creepiness of a film like Audition (2001), Oh’s film has the potential to be another in the storied line of Korean films where weirdness defies classification. (Asian Movie Pulse, August 11, 2011)

CJ E&M Harbors Global Ambitions
CJ executives are seeking to double CJ E&M's size by 2015, with overseas markets potentially contributing 30-40% of revenue, compared with about 10% today. (Asian Media Journal, August 11, 2011)

The Man From Nowhere to Be Released by Toei in Japan
As the Japanese major Toei announced that it was returning to foreign acquisitions, it stated that The Man From Nowhere would be its first release. (Screen Daily, August 11, 2011)

Quick to Open in US & Canada
Motorcycle summer blockbuster Quick which has been doing well in general release in Korea will open in select theaters in the US and Canada later this month. (soompi.com, August 10, 20110)

Arirang and Night Fishing Screening at HKSIFF
The Hong Kong Summer International Film Festival will screen Kim Ki-duk's Arirang and Park Chan-wook's iPhone short Night Fishing. The festival runs for two weeks and got underway August 9. (CNNgo.com, August 8, 2011)

Lee Jang-ho to Head New Film Organization
Veteran filmmaker and head of the Seoul Film Commission Lee Jang-ho was elected as the first head of Film Korea, a new organisation which aims to promote Korea as a location for foreign productions as well as converge the separate sectors of film, TV drama, manhwa (manga), animation and gaming. (Screen Daily, August 12, 2011)

Ryoo Seung-beom Thanks Fans for Fantasia Award
A video response from Ryoo Seung-beom after learning that he won the best actor award at Fantasia for his role in his brother's film The Unjust. (youtube.com, August 8, 2011)

Asia Cinema Fund Backs Wide Array of Films
The Busan International Film Festival's Asia Cinema Fund has announced the diverse slate of films it has supported, which includes the Venice Film Festival-bound Cut. (Film Business Asia, August 9, 2011)

Korean Wave Hits Toronto
Cindy Zimmer offers her thoughts on the emergence of Korean culture in Toronto, having moved back there after living in Korea. (Life's An Adventure 2, August 9, 2011)

EDIF to Screen Wide Range of Documentaries
The EBS (Educational Broadcasting System) International Documentary Festival (EDIF), which celebrates non-fiction film, will get underway on August 19, screening 51 films from 29 nations on TV and in theatres. (The Korea Herald, August 10, 2011)



INTERVIEWS

Radio Interview with KOFFIA's Kieran Tully
Kieran Tully, marketing director of KOFFIA, discusses the upcoming festival on SBS radio Australia. (sbs.com.au, August 9, 2011)

Sit-down with Action Star Ha Ji-won
The star of summer blockbuster Sector 7 talks about 3D, her image as an action star and her love for melodramas and romance. (CNNgo.com, August 8, 2011)


TRAILERS






BOX OFFICE

Arrow Impresses While Sector 7 Flounders
Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon got off to a strong start with 967,000 admissions while Sector 7 saw most of audience disappear in its second weekend after it wound up with 246,000, down nearly 80% from last week. Quick and The Front Line also tapered off relatively quickly and scored 190,000 and 126,000 spectators, at this rate 3 million is the final threshold that both of these releases can hope for. Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild remained strong with 233,000 while Ghastly almost disappeared in its second week with 5,000 (a 90% drop) and may not even reach 100,000. After the huge success of Sunny, which opened in early May, there has not been another breakout hit, three recent blockbusters have been unable to break out big numbers but perhaps Arrow, which has garnered good reviews, will hold out for some big figures. (hancinema.net, August 14, 2011)


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.

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