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Motion 101 announces first production; 'The Fist' by Park Kwang-hyun

by Andrew Mack, October 8, 2007 8:22 PM

Park Kwang-hyeon, the director of Welcome To Dongmakgol, is slated to direct the first production for Showbox affiliate Motion 101. Tentatively titled The Fist the film will be set in the futuristic 'Blue City', with the usual smattering of robots and flying cars, where slums are set to be demolished to make room for an extensive "F4 Battle" arena. A high school fighter who competes in the Battles finds himself conflicted after making friends with the inhabitants of the slums. Production is set to start in March.

"Park Kwang-hyun is a director who can make this sort of film work, with humor and moving drama,"says Former Showbox COO Taesung Jeong. He says the film could be the biggest sci-fi genre film in Korea. "You can expect a new style of sci-fi action and drama. We have concept designers, computer graphics and leading game designers working on the martial arts direction, and the fight scenes are going to be tracked out in animated sequences in pre-production."The production also has on board automobile designers from leading car manufacturer Hyundai/Kia, and art and costume designers from The Host.

Motion 101 plans to release between 3 and 5 films per year. Other projects include a Japanese manga adaptation produced in Japanese; part of Korea's attempts to do co-productions with other Asian countries. There is also a comedy in the works which refers to real-life stories about recent diploma-forging scandals in Korea; it is about a mother who has to go back to school and earn her diploma before her son's in-laws find out she was a drop-out. "We're also looking into English-language co-productions with the US, and all in all we'll be busy in Pusan during the Market," says Jeong.