As the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon approach, LKL is finally spurred to write up some archive notes of interviews and Q&A’s with the director of their Opening Ceremony… “Why are you torturing me?” was Im Kwon-taek’s heartfelt cry when attending a screening of one of his films from the 1960s at a 70-film retrospective … [Read More]
Tag: Movie Q&As (page 2)
I can’t believe he asked her that
The context was this. It was the Q&A after the 4 April screening at BAFTA of Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha, attended by the lead actress Moon So-ri, the first featured actor of the KCC’s Year of the Four Actors. Tony Rayns was talking to Moon So-ri about how she got her first screen role. Moon started … [Read More]
London Korean Film Festival round-up and Ryu Seung-wan’s The Unjust
The 2011 London Korean Film Festival gave the London audience a chance to assess, and in my case reassess, the work of Ryu Seung-wan. Ryu has had several of his films released in the UK on DVD, but he is not as well-known to the viewing public as the likes of Park Chan-wook and Bong … [Read More]
‘War of the Arrows’ – Causing Death and Saving Lives
The opening gala of the London Korean Film Festival was a more rambunctious affair than I remember even last year’s being, due in no small part to the sudden and unexpected entrance of SHINee (I was lucky enough to be two rows behind them, but many who had specially booked seats I gather were incandescent … [Read More]
LKFF Festival Bites: Film Students are Softies
We’d just seen Jang Jin’s contribution to the Human Rights Watch short film collection If You Were Me 2: Someone Grateful (고마운 사람). In it, a student demonstrator is befriended by his police interrogator in the KCIA’s underground torture chambers in the 1980s. It’s a provocative short, because instead of railing against police brutality and … [Read More]
Mysterious Creature: Jang Jin at the London Korean Film Festival
Director Jang Jin is sometimes referred to as “The Future of Korean Cinema” but also as a “Mysterious Creature”. Nyomi Anderson tells us more. This year’s London Korean Film Festival featured a retrospective of the films of writer-director Jang Jin. Jang began his career in theatre before making his first film was The Happenings, which … [Read More]
An Afternoon and Evening with Hong Sang-soo at the National Film Theatre.
Colette Balmain, editor of the upcoming Directory of World Cinema: Korea, encounters Hong Sang-soo at the screening of Hahaha on Friday 3rd September 2010, which opened the month-long retrospective of his work at the South Bank. Before the screening of HaHaHa, which was followed by a Q&A with Tony Rayns, at the NFT, I had … [Read More]
Mother reveals Bong’s perversity
LKL reports from the screening of Mother at the Bong Joon-ho retrospective at the British Film Institute on 14 November, with Q&A chaired by Tony Rayns. In a world obsessed with celebrity, youth and beauty, only a director of the stature of Bong Joon-ho could have got away with it. The big name star, Won … [Read More]
Breathless: can there be any escape from the cycle of violence?
Breathless (똥파리) is Yang Ik-june’s debut feature, in which he is also lead actor, and the film has deservedly won numerous awards. As the film opens, a man is beating up his girlfriend in the street. To the rescue comes Sang-hoon, played by Yang, who subdues the offender only to turn to the woman and … [Read More]
Park Chan-wook: uncut (almost)
Saharial provides a warts and all direct transcript of the Park Chan-wook Q&A at the Curzon Soho preview of Thirst. At least, up until the point when an officious usherette told her to switch her recorder off… The Q&A was only a half hour long, a real shame, and the staff at the Curzon were … [Read More]
Cute kisses and extreme marriages – different perspectives on Park Chan-wook
After Monday’s focus on Thirst, Tuesday’s Mr Vengeance screening, together with a generous hour of Q&A with Director Park, offered the opportunity to focus on his earlier work. In fact, the first question at the Q&A asked about Park’s very first films (pre JSA). Did Park have any tips or lessons learned for a rookie … [Read More]
Lead us not into temptation – Q&A with Director Park at UK “Thirst” premiere
Appropriately enough, Director Park cast a sombre red shadow on the screen as he walked onto the stage to answer questions following the London premiere of Thirst. The film delivered all the blood you have come to expect from a Park Chan-wook movie, this time with some justification, given the vampire theme. But as always … [Read More]
Kim Ji-woon in London: bigger, faster
Friday night’s screening of The Good the Bad and the Weird (좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈, hereafter Nom Nom Nom) was followed by a screen talk with director Kim Ji-woon and actor Lee Byung-hun, chaired by Tony Rayns. Lee Byung-hun was late for the chat, either tied up with promotional activities for his upcoming … [Read More]
Lee Byung-hun on being the bad guy
Lee Byung-hun, in town for the launch of the London Korean Film Festival, took advantage of his trip to have some interviews and engage in other promotional activities. He impressed the crowds at the opening screening of The Good the Bad and the Weird, and again the next day at the post film discussion, with … [Read More]
Im Sang Soo: Uncut
As part of the Tiger Asian film festival Im Sang Soo, director of socio-political films ‘The President’s Last Bang’, ‘A Good Lawyer’s Wife’ and ‘The Old Garden’, held a Q&A session on 30th May 2008 at the Korean Cultural Centre in London. There was a small but select feel to the gathering that took place … [Read More]
Im Sang Soo faces London grilling
Korean film director Im Sang Soo is participating in two Q&A sessions this week: Friday at the KCC and Saturday at the ICA, the latter in conjunction with the screening of The President’s Last Bang. It has been said that Im Sang Soo is practically the only director now making films that take a long … [Read More]