Not to be confused with the excellent range of Korean films on offer at the 51st BFI London Film Festival in late October, this is the second London Korean Film Festival to be organised by the Korean Cultural Centre and the Korean Culture and Content Agency (KOCCA). Last year they sprung it on us at … [Read More]
Category: General film news (page 14)
Book review: Kim Young-jin on Lee Chang-dong
(Seoul Selection, 2007) I can imagine that there was a certain amount of discussion about the timing of this book. After a break of some years — enforced by his stint as Roh Moo-hyun’s first Minister for Culture and Tourism — the well-regarded director Lee Chang-dong was active again. His new film, with two of … [Read More]
Classic K-film in Berlin
Madame Freedom (above), plus Shin Sang-ok’s “The Guest & My Mother” and “The Flower in Hell” among others, will be showing at the Asian Women’s Film Festival. The Asian Women’s Film Festival is taking place in Berlin from 19-23 September 2007 within the framework of the Asien-Pazifik Wochen which are held every two years in … [Read More]
The Grand Culture Project
At the SOAS / AKS conference on 26 June, the talk by Kim Hyeon, Associate Professor of Cultural Informatics at the Academy of Korean Studies, had the title “the Korean Wave, Cultural Content and Cultural Informatics”. “What on earth is Cultural Informatics?” I hear you ask. You would not be alone. But read on. The … [Read More]
Upcoming books on Korean film
Just as the Korean film scene seems to be losing some of its buzz, books about it are coming thick and fast. 2004 saw the Wallflower Press book (though it seems only last year that it came out); 2005 saw the Julian Stringer / Shin Chi-yun book; and last year came the book on Kim … [Read More]
Jeon Do-yeon wins at Cannes
Congratulations to Jeon Do-yeon on winning best actress at Cannes. She was an early front-runner in the competition, and just for once those early hopes of success were justified. For the first third of its nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time, “Secret Sunshine” feels like a slightly somber fish-out-of-water comedy (reports AO Scott at the New York … [Read More]
Oldboy in top 20 foreign films of all time
The Guardian has conducted a readers’ poll of the top foreign movies of all time. Some of the usual suspects are there. Unusually, Seven Samurai doesn’t come top, that particular accolade belonging to Cinema Paradiso. Amelie is second, Seven Samurai third and City of God, one of the few films I’ve come close to walking … [Read More]
Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine gets early thumbs-up
Probably the most eagerly awaited Korean film of 2007, at least by me, is Lee Chang-dong’s fourth: Secret Sunshine, or Milyang (밀양). I’ve admired his first three for the issues they tackle and the superb acting: Lee has had access to some top stars for his films – Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri for Oasis … [Read More]
Jumong a bright spot in media industry gloom
The Chosun recently reported a gloomy picture of the earnings of the Korean film industry. As Jon Pais speculated over at Twitch in November last year, Even if production costs stabilized, as the number of films increases, decreased profitability is inevitable. But production costs are soaring and don’t show any signs of slowing down. In … [Read More]
Im Kwon-taek reaches 100
With the nationwide release of Beyond the Years (천년학, aka Thousand Year Crane) in Korea today, Im Kwon-taek reaches an amazing milestone: his 100th film. And it’s supposedly his first love story, according to the Chosun – though it has to be said that devoted lovers have appeared in his earlier work – for example … [Read More]
Times critic not impressed by Ha Ji-won
The Duelist was released in cinemas on Friday. In a way, I wish I’d gone to see it in preference to Kim So-yong’s In Between Days as I was in the mood for something a bit unchallenging. I’ve yet to find anyone to say it’s a great film, but lots of people enjoy the visuals. … [Read More]
Park’s gong
So what exactly is the Alfred Bauer prize? We know that Park Chan-wook was awarded it at the recent Berlin Film Festival for I’m a Cyborg, because there’s this picture on the BBC website to prove it. Yet you read the various blogs and news websites and you get the impression that the prize is … [Read More]
Oh Soojung Blogathon
To coincide with another retrospective of the complete oeuvre of Hong Sang-soo, Hell on Frisco Bay has announced a Blog-a-thon on the subject of A Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors on March 21 this year. I gather that what this means is that anyone who runs a blog and who is interested can write … [Read More]
ARCO Madrid: final programme details
Here are the final details for everything that’s going on in Madrid this month. Korean events at ARCO Korean galleries at ARCO Complete ARCO social programme, including non-Korean stuff, but this is a day-by-day calendar, giving useful data such as timings of all the Korean films. Note that poet Ko Un will be making an … [Read More]
Darcy’s predictions for 2007
It’s getting to be the case that the more interesting stuff over on Darcy’s site is in his What’s New page rather than his forums. Here are his predictions for 2007: Park Jin-pyo’s VOICE OF A MURDERER is going to be a major critical and popular hit (at least 6 million tickets) There will be … [Read More]
ARCO 2007: a Huge Korean festival in Madrid this February
Just received from the organisers of ARCO 2007 in Madrid. Film, music, dance, literature and of course contemporary art. To call it a feast undersells it. And that’s not all: this is just the stuff they know about already. There’s some other stuff they haven’t finalised. I haven’t taken all this in yet, but I … [Read More]