Ask any Korean producer to name the two scariest words they might hear during any summer, and the large majority would tell you it’s all about balls. And… bows. No, not the ones you do out of respect, but those Koreans use to slaughter competition at any archery event of the Summer Olympic games, or the balls prancing around whenever twenty two people get together and play the football, World Cup style. Think of May 31 to June 30 2002, for instance. A total of seven Korean films were released during that month, one of which – Kang Hyeon-Il’s delirious 마고 (Mago)—was about everything but balls, since it had a few hundred dames prancing around buck naked to bestow the merits of existentialist environmentalism upon us. The only real winner of the rather insipid bunch, Kim Dong-Won’s dorky and nostalgic 해적, 디스코왕 되다 (Bet on My Disco), was one of those cases where you have very little else to see if you can’t stand sports, so might as well watch a decent comedy while you’re there. Outside Athens, August 2004 was a bit stronger, if anything because of Gong Su-Chan’s 알포인트 (R-Point) and quirky genre-bending escapades like 시실리 2km (To Catch a Virgin Ghost), not to mention 쓰리, 몬스터 (Three… Extremes)‘s interesting clash of styles. June 2006 without football? The real cream of the crop was Yoo Ha’s 비열한 거리 (A Dirty Carnival), with only the childish delirium of 아치와 씨팍 (Aachi & Ssipak) doing something interesting a bit left of mainstream. So, how about August 2008?

Continue Reading "[K-FILM PREVIEWS] 고고 70s (Go Go 70s), 모던보이 (Modern Boy), 비몽 (Dream)"...

The Korean DVD cosmos has been a tad slow this summer, what with the Olympics and the fact that, well, the market is dead. Still, this Fall season seems to promise not too badly, if the beginning is of any indication. In the coming weeks we’ll be dealing with a pretty decent array of titles, mixing mainstream with arthouse and even some possible surprises.

First we start with the biggest name, Kwak Kyung-Taek (and Ahn Kwon-Tae)‘s 눈에는눈 이에는이 (Eye for an Eye), quite a solid actioner with a top notch performance by the great Han Suk-Gyu. Not a great film nor anything which will stand the test of time, but overall an accomplished genre picture, and particularly recommended to fans of the leads. You can read our review here. Much better and a treat for the eyes is Choi Ik-Hwan’s interesting 그녀는 예뻤다 (Life is Cool), Korea’s first ever film to use the same rotoscoping artifices Richard Linklater adopted in is Waking Life. As we noted in our review, the peculiar thing here is that we’re getting the live-action footage with the DVD, boom mike operators and blue screens included (with, apparently, the possibility to change angle, although I don’t know if they’ll let us choose via remote or just offer different, separate versions).

A rather unexpected but pleasant surprise is the release of Zhang Lu’s 경계 (Desert Dream). Zhang is a third-generation Korean-Chinese director, and is rapidly making a name for himself as quite the solid auteur, after his excellent 망종 (Grain in Ear). DVD is a rather barebones affair with a mere letterbox transfer, but hey. I’ll take that over nothing. You can click the link below to preorder.

Continue Reading "눈에는눈 이에는이 (Eye for an Eye) and 그녀는 예뻤다 (Life is Cool) DVDs Out for Preor"...

It’s hard to start when there’s nothing on that canvas. It’s hard for a writer, no matter if it’s a pro we’re dealing with or not, imagine for a painter. Hell, imagine, for instance, what it would be for a broadcaster. What SBS did in 1991 was exactly that. Competition by then had sort of become a moot issue, since with only two stations worth mentioning (MBC and KBS), and each enjoying various periods of boom and famine, it was only a matter of who would end up enjoying near total domination, it wasn’t a real conflict. But when the third choice arrived, things started to change. SBS bought (literally) the best writers, PDs and actors from the two other major stations, breaking decade-long exclusive contracts. They attracted the biggest stars, simply throwing money at the wall. They slowly but surely got several local broadcasters under their wings, such as Busan’s KNN, Daegu’s TBC, Daejeon’s TJB and Gwangju’s KBC, airing what was then known as just 서울방송 (Seoul Broadcasting System) in some of the biggest markets outside the capital. Signal was still poor in many areas, and along with aggressive “appropriation” techniques, the political slant of the channel was always obvious, with Taeyoung Group holding 30% of the shares at the start. Not exactly the most artistic of starts for Korea’s first private channel, but it worked.

Continue Reading "[FIRST LOOK] 바람의 화원 (Painter of the Wind)"...

It’s pretty nice hearing expensive films like 놈놈놈 (The Good, The Bad, and The Weird)—17 Billion won for production only—manage to break even while maintaining quality, but the future for Chungmuro and its horrible 2008 might actually be on the horizon: low budget films with acclaimed stars.

We talked a little about Jang Hoon’s quite promising 영화는 영화다 (Rough Cut) starring So Ji-Seop and Kang Ji-Hwan, and this is perhaps the best recent example. Critics liked it a lot (think like a “Kim Ki-Duk meets Ryu Seung-Wan” vibe and you’re just about there), and despite not enjoying the ridiculously wide release of the aforementioned kimchi western, it did open over 450 screens, and already sold 1 million tickets. Now that would be nothing particularly special, if not for the fact the film cost a mere 650 million won (the two stars invested their fee back into the film). This, in layman’s terms, means in a mere fortnight the film made 10 times its initial budget, passing its break even point in the process—which obviously includes the very expensive marketing fee, usually around 1.5-2 billion per film, but considering the 700,000 tickets needed, probably closer to 1 billion here.

Think that’s over? No way. Lee Yoon-Gi’s upcoming 멋진 하루 (My Dear Enemy) has Jeon Do-Yeon and Ha Jung-Woo, but merely cost 2 billion; the next film by Kim Ki-Duk with Lee Na-Young and Odagiri Jo, 비몽 (Sad Dream), not surprisingly cost 500 million won; the maligned thriller 트럭 (The Truck) with Yoo Hae-Jin was under the 2 billion, and the (based on trailers, and perhaps the fact Park Chan-Wook helped writing it) insane 미쓰 홍당무 (Crush and Blush) just one billion. Won’t be good news for those looking for bombastic blockbusters and their inflated budgets, but it might just be the future for Korean cinema.

[Daum] [NewsEn]

So, we had zazous in France, swingjugend in Germany, and a little more on the rock side, the Go Go clubs of 고고 70s (Go Go 70s). Now you can add Стиляги (Stilyagi) to the list.

Oversized shoes? Check. Insanely colorful ties? Check. 50s Cartoon-like hair, without a single hint of mustaches or beards? Check. Grown ass (Russian) men calling each other Dick or Bob despite Momma still sticking to Dimitri? Ohh yes. The stilyagi (roughly “style hunters”) craze was one of the biggest cultural movements hitting early 1950s Russia. It was, as it’s generally the case with anti-establishment counter-cultures, a way for young Russians to fight Stalinism in their own way, just like Jo Seung-Woo and Co. fight the Park junta with rock and roll in Choi Ho’s upcoming film. Despite Stalin’s continued tentative to rid the USSR of any hint of American culture (“filthy, decadent capitalism” and so on), these youngsters would get together, embrace American sacred cows like jazz or swing, and stamp it on the face of the oppressive establishment, with extreme vulgarity and over the top shenanigans to make their point even stronger.

I don’t know if Valeri Todorovsky’s upcoming ode to this interesting cultural movement will add all the elements of subversion and political irreverence the stilyaga showed back then, but a look at the teaser, and it feels like a good old batch of fun. Starring Oleg Yankovsky, Eugenia Hirivskaya and Leonid Yarmolnik, Stilyagi will be released this Christmas. Teaser is below the break. Thanks to Vladimir for pointing this out to us.

Continue Reading "Russian Hipsters go Wild in Стиляги (Stilyagi)"...

Boy, not the kind of news one would like to write about.

Korean entertainment had a pretty rough 2008 so far, with car accidents (some, thankfully, not fatal), suicides and various injuries. It does happen every year, and for such a chaotic industry always moving at the speed of light and overworking its stars every day it’s not even much of a surprise. Still, kind of shocking to hear Jang Jin-Young (34), one of the very best actresses in Korea and star of the marvelous 청연 (Blue Swallow), 소름 (Sorum) and countless more films and dramas has been diagnosed with gastric cancer. Sources close to the young actress revealed she went through a check-up last September 17 because of chronic stomach pain, but the results weren’t the gastric ulcer (at worst) they were expecting. Jang is currently undergoing treatment at an hospital in Seoul, and her agency has revealed that for the time being she might not be able to appear anywhere (can you be more obvious? Eh).

Thankfully, they also revealed that she’ll be able to recover after treatment (she’ll undergo surgery very soon), as they probably found out about the cancer in its beginning stages. Jang’s last appearance on TV was the maligned 2007 SBS drama 로비스트 (Lobbyist), whereas her last film was Kim Hae-Gon’s 연애 그 참을 수 없는 가벼움 (Between Love & Hate). Can only wish a speedy recovery to her. We want to see you soon back on the screen.

[Sports Seoul] [Joongang]

Jolly crickets. After that trailer, I could say something very sexist and a little unbecoming of my age, right? Like the trailer for Fatso, there’s nothing in here that would scream NSFW, but if you have the tendency to voice out hormone-drenched epithets whenever… oh mama. Where is this going?

Anyhow. Focus.

As if we needed any further confirmation, her wonderful performance in 스포트라이트 (Spotlight) showed once again that Son Ye-Jin is the best actress of her generation (along with, may I suggest, Gong Hyo-Jin and Cha Su-Yeon), but that doesn’t always mean quality is guaranteed. Be it the material faulting the actors - 무방비 도시 (Open City) wasn’t exactly high art, and her “I’m so sexy I’m melting the North Pole faster than SUVs” aura was a little too forced—or just a case of not playing the right character, everyone, even the very best actors—Jeon Do-Yeon in 프라하의 연인 (Lovers in Prague)?—has his or her own ups and downs. But this trailer looks pretty promising, sexiness aside. Looking at the director, Jung Yoon-Soo of 지금 사랑하는 사람과 살고 있습니까? (Changing Partners) and 예스터데이 (Yesterday), one could start worrying, but this feels like a breezy romcom with two very good actors (the other is Kim Ju-Hyeok, obviously) and a spunky atmosphere enveloping the story (a wife wanting polygamy? Wow). Film releases this October 23. You can see the two teasers below the break.

Continue Reading "Son Ye-Jin is Back with 아내가 결혼했다 (My Wife Got Married)"...

I bet talks of “we’ll take the country back after 10 years of their rule” sounded like election-day showmanship to a lot of people a mere 6-7 months ago, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious it wasn’t just empty talk. After showing former KBS president Jeong Yeon-Ju the door and cordially asking him to check it on his way out (lest it would hit him right… there), the 2MB government is continuing with their scorched-earth approach to reforms in the broadcasting sector. One of the biggest and most controversial would be that of passing from a single entity dealing with network TV advertisement (the state-funded KOBACO, founded in 1981) to a complete privatization of the sector (read: turning TV into the Chaebol’s new toy), but that’s just talk for the trade journals. What’s more interesting is that, among the reorganization proposals for this Fall Season, the idea of replacing dramas with other more “educational” programs on Monday and Tuesday night could be passed. Reasons? They want to strengthen 공익성 (the sense of public interest) as a public broadcaster, and low rated miniseries losing money don’t help a bit. Since the “people” want it, we’re getting prop… fair and balanced current events shows instead.

This would mean that if the proposal is accepted, Noh Hee-Kyung’s upcoming 그들이 사는 세상 (Worlds Within), which is set to start on October 26, might end up becoming KBS’ last Mon/Tue miniseries, at least until the end of the current government’s term—they can’t move it to Wed/Thu, as 바람의 나라 (Kingdom of the Wind) will last until early next year. It’s a peculiar decision, particularly as KBS Media made a ton of money at the recent BCWW (BroadCast WorldWide), with a big jump in sales to Japan, even in the unusual form of Daily Dramas. KBS dramas in this timeslot have suffered in the ratings ever since 주몽 (Jumong)‘s dominance started in 2006, but this would be a pretty drastic decision. Yet, if you’ve been following Korean politics for a while, this might just end up being another astute way of “circumventing” the public’s attention with a big spectacle, so that they’ll end up ignoring a much bigger issue. That would be the upcoming termination of a current events show, 시사투나잇 (Sisa Tonight)—sisa means current evens—which wasn’t exactly the brown-nosing type when it comes to praising the new emperor’s clothes. By attracting controversy over the drama termination, including what’s likely to be strong protests from drama people (even those working for MBC, SBS or third-party production companies), they can go ahead and quietly cut dissenting voices in a much more “dangerous” field, and then cancel any plans of terminating dramas, “bowing down” to public fervor at the end. So now mad cows and trendy dramas have something in common.

Hey, as 孫子兵法 (The Art of War) teaches, 兵不厭詐. All wars are based upon deception.

[PD Journal] [MyDaily] [Star News]

It might be an interesting quote, coming from someone who met his demise on his very last performance – titled Le Malade Imaginaire at that – but Molière’s idea that interesting vices are much more charming than boring virtues has always found its perfect counterpart in the field of filmmaking, not just in the form of famous lines like Welles’ cuckoo clock tirade in The Third Man. Take a rather dispassionate look at all of Korea’s major directors, and you’ll find a certain “vice,” coloring their entire œuvre, for instance. Then again, those are merely personality traits existing within their own philosophy of cinema, which re-interpreted through their vision stop being shortcomings or strengths, and become just another shade of their cinematic color. Lee Myung-Se is often accused of working with almost non-existent scripts, mostly by people who ignore he’s simply using cameras and sound as his canvas to tell a story; again, one of the major sources of criticism in western mainstream media regarding Park Chan-Wook’s work boils down to the violence in his films. Go figure, his emphatically suggested violence ends up “hurting” even more than silly, extremely explicit splatterfests invading theaters, so that criticism is akin to a teenager desensitized by terabytes of digital porn falling down like the Wall in ‘89 in front of a bit of analog, organic cherry. Oh mama, there’s no rewind buttons anymore.

Continue Reading "[K-FILM REVIEWS] 눈에는 눈 이에는 이 (Eye for an Eye)"...

It’s always a sort of double-edged sword.

It’s not a sageuk, so you have a certain freedom to express what you want without having your hands tied by details like dates and events. Then again, it’s a period drama, so re-enactment becomes even more important. People always seem to associate a certain mood to historical periods, and anything delving into the colonial era is expected to ooze depression and despair. It was for that reason, even before its script started shooting on its own feet like a mad cowboy, that 경성스캔들 (Scandal in Old Seoul) was harshly criticized. How could people, like, have fun in the 30s? It was a world in black and white, populated by independence fighters and pro-Japanese collaborators alone, so the dream of a woman who wanted to become the best in the air, that gem called 청연 (Blue Swallow), wasn’t kosher. But Chungmuro is starting to get tired of this, finally.

First we had the amusing (if a bit uneven, and… long-ish) 라듸오 데이즈 (Radio Dayz), turning Imperialist oppression into a storytelling launchpad, and now we have Jung Ji-Woo’s 모던보이 (Modern Boy), which oozes just about the same atmosphere. Peculiar choice for Jung, director of 해피엔드 (Happy End) and 사랑니 (Blossom Again), but nonetheless an interesting premise, with Park Hae-Il as a secretary working at the Government General of Korea, falling for a mysterious cabaret dancer (Kim Hye-Soo) who turns out to be… well. The answer in one month. Second trailer is below the break.

Continue Reading "Period Dramas Get Younger in 모던보이 (Modern Boy)"...

The things you find on the Internet…

Looks like Bong Joon-Ho wasn’t just seeing black creatures while staring outside the window of his school. No, he was killing time preparing for his big splash in the limelight, drawing…. animation! SF at that. On his schoolbook, that is. Big props to the folks at Fantastique (a new genre novel-driven magazine by Choi Won-Taek and Jo Min-Joon, two of the fine folks who brought us the late, great TV drama magazine Dramatique) for shooting this, and the Djuna board for spotting it. I could go on and explain at length, but let’s just watch, and may the force be with you…

below the break, that is.

Continue Reading "Bong Joon-Ho Directs… Star Wars?!"...

Good news. Or… is it? I’ve heard good words about Kang Yi-Gwan’s 사과 (Sakwa)—which in Korean can mean “apple” and “apology”—for what seems like an eternity and two thirds, but it could just be one of those quiet little films that make a blip on the radar and then disappear. Then again, maybe not. The reason is simply the cast: Moon So-Ri. That doesn’t need any follow up; Lee Seon-Gyun. Shouldn’t need one either, but in case you’re not familiar, he’s one of the most exciting new talents in the business, recently starring in the lovely 달콤한 나의 도시 (My Sweet Seoul). His last film was 우리 동네 (Our Town), and those in the know, ahem, know him as “The Voice.” You’ll find out why soon enough.

Film, which also stars Kim Tae-Woo and Kang Rae-Yeon, fell into one of those dangerous limbos where producers don’t want to waste the good cast on a pitiful release and disappear after two weeks, so they keep waiting for the right moment. That right moment has taken over three years, but it seems we’re finally there. October 16, the same day 미쓰 홍당무 (Crush and Blush) releases, but seems like a relatively decent spot. New poster? Check. New trailer? Check… it, below the break. Seems like they’re doing it for real this time.

Continue Reading "Wow… They’re Really Releasing 사과 (Sakwa) After All"...

We already mentioned a live-action 彼岸岛 (Higanjima) was in the planning stages, for a Summer 2009 release. This adaptation of the supernatural-horror manga by クーデタークラブ (Coup d’État Club)‘s Matsumoto Koji will be written by Oishi Tetsuya of デスノート(Death Note) and directed by Kim Tae-Gyun. Perhaps a peculiar choice, only on the strength of his 화산고 (Volcano High), particularly considering the rest of his career has been all over the place. He’s directed passable comedies—박봉곤 가출 사건 (The Adventures of Mrs. Park) in 1996; proto-Hallyu romcoms—키스 할까요? (First Kiss) in 1998; pap for the trendy drama crowd—늑대의 유혹 (Romance of Their Own) in 2004 and 백만장자의 첫사랑 (A Millionaire’s First Love) in 2006; and recently even an apparently quite overwrought drama about the divide, 크로싱 (Crossing). A tad “fish out of water” for something like Higanjima, you’d think. But, then again, Volcano High is perhaps the closest to a live-action manhwa Chungmuro has ever gotten, so it also makes kind of sense.

Anyhow, the top tier casting has been finally announced. Leading the list will be Yamamoto Koji, recently seen in the masterpiece パンドラ (Pandora), and Watanabe Dai of クローズZERO (Crows ZERO). What’s interesting is that producers Courage Pictures are also involved in another Korea-Japan co-production, 보트 (Boat) starring the great Cha Su-Yeon, Ha Jung-Woo, and Tsumabuchi Satoshi. Total budget is set at 6 Billion yen (roughly 57 million US$), to be split between Korea and Japan (crew will also be mixed). The film starts shooting on October 1 until mid December, for an August double-header in Korea and Japan.

[Daum News]

He probably would admit it himself, that it hasn’t been a very positive last few years for Choi Min-Shik, one of Korea’s best actors.

One of the most outspoken film personalities against the screen quota cut and the FTA with the US, a lot of the superficial knee-jerk reactions (on the tune of “why are millionaires driving expensive foreign cars protesting alongside farmers?”) the people showed ended up hurting his career, and when he made the mistake of starring in a couple of, let’s just say “touchy” commercial ads (how do you spell “glorified loan sharks?”), things got even worse. Choi, whose last appearances on the big screen were 2005’s 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance) and 주먹이 운다 (Crying Fist), has been avoiding the limelight, returning to his roots by recently starring in a theater play, 필로우맨 (Pillow Man). But, finally, it seems his hiatus will soon come to an end.

Choi is starring in director Jeon Su-Il’s 히말라야, 바람이 머무는 곳 (Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells), as a man who goes to Nepal to return the urn of a local man, who died in a work-related accident in Korea. With the exception of Choi, the entire cast will be made of Nepalese non-professional actors. Jeon still hasn’t made much of a name for himself either in Korea or in the festival circuit, but he’s certainly shown potential. He directed the little-known gem from 1999, 새는 폐곡선을 그린다 (The Bird who Stops in the Air) starring Seol Kyung-Gu, and both 2002’s 나는 나를 파괴할 권리가 있다 (My Right to Ravage Myself) and 2005’s 개와 늑대 사이의 시간 (Time Between Dog & Wolf)—not to be confused with the MBC drama—are pretty solid, powerful indie flicks. The PIFF jury just announced the film will be screened at this year’s festival, and although there’s no theater release date announced, it should come in late 2008/early 2009.

As for Choi, just to celebrate his return, and hope he’ll just forget the last few years, a line from his most impressive performance, Park Chan-Wook’s 올드보이 (Oldboy)—although it of course originated somewhere else:

웃어라, 온 세상이 너와 함께 웃을 것이다. 울어라, 너 혼자 울 것이다.
Laugh, and the entire world shall laugh with you.
Cry, and you shall cry alone.

[Daum News]

hhmmmm… no?

Picking apart “best movie” lists made by anyone, methinks, is as futile as trying to ask someone why he married his wife. We all have our different reasons for loving films (or the opposite), and every human being has multiple holes in his or her body, one of which is called “opinions.” What’s fun about lists, though, is that they speak about the people who made them more than a photo and identikit, a list of the cars they own and how much they pay in taxes would. What happens, then, when a sacred cow (not of film criticism, mind you) like CNN picks the best Asian films of all time? More than any indication of quality, I find it peculiar in a way that goes beyond appreciation for film. It sounds a bit like a sort of Eurovision Song contest of filmmaking, being politically correct and picking some commercial favorites from all over the place, some darlings of the arthouse crowd, and some sacred cows. If you asked me, I’d probably agree only with a couple of picks, but then again, it’d probably be the same for you.

Here’s the list (no particular order since they’re asking netizens to pick one, so I’m listing by release year):

1952. 生きる (Ikiru) - Kurosawa Akira, Japan
1957. भारत माता (Mother India) - Mehboob Khan, India
1958. 楢山節考 (The Ballad of Narayama) - Kinoshita Keisuke, Japan (They say “It won at Cannes in 1984,” so probably they meant Imamura’s remake?)
1969. 俠女 (A Touch of Zen) - King Hu, Hong Kong
1981. 만다라 (Mandara) - Im Kwon-Taek, Korea
1982. Himala - Ishmael Bernal, The Philippines
1983. Utu - Geoff Murphy, New Zealand
1984. Bao giờ cho đến tháng mười (When the Tenth Month Comes) - Dang Nhat Minh, Vietnam
1994. 活着 (To Live) - Zhang Yimou, China
1996. گبه (Gabbeh) - Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran
1998. Shall We ダンス? (Shall we Dance?) - Suo Masayuki, Japan
1999. 洗澡 (Shower) - Yang Zhang, China
2000. 花樣年華 (In The Mood For Love) - Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong
2002. Whale Rider - Niki Caro, New Zealand
2002. 無間道 (Infernal Affairs) - Andrew Lau, Hong Kong
2006. 괴물 (The Host) - Bong Joon-Ho, Korea
2006. แสงศตวรรษ (Syndromes and a Century) - Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand
2006. 三峡好人 (Still Life) - Jia Zhangke, China

So… agree, disagree?

[CNN]