32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards

A little over two hours ago the proceedings for the 32nd 'Blue Dragon Awards' show wrapped up at the KBS Hall in Seoul.  Along with the 'Daejong (or Grand Bell) Film Awards', the 48th Edition of which was held last month, this is one of South Korea's most prestigious Film Awards ceremonies.  Unlike 'Daejong', the 'Blue Dragon Awards' has been privately funded since it was launched in 1963 by The Chosun Ilbo, a national newspaper.  It was discontinued in the 1970s but then revived by the Sports Chosun in 1990 and has occurred on a yearly basis since.

When I covered the 'Daejong' awards last month my analysis was somewhat impaired by the fact that I hadn't seen many of the main contenders.  Thankfully, in the time since, I have managed to catch up.  Out of the films that scored three or more nominations, I have only War of the Arrows and Silenced left to see, both of which I am looking forward to.

There was not a great deal of difference between the nominations for both events.  The Front Line led both with the same amount (12).  Silenced was the main difference as it scored 7 nominations, it received none at Daejong as it it was not eligible, having been released too late.  The Yellow Sea wound up with half the nominations it garnered at last month's event (5 vs. 9), and Hindsight was almost completely shut out (1 vs. 5).  Besides that, the main change was a slightly less even distribution outside of the top six or seven contenders.

This year, the most nominated films were (wins in parentheses):

The Front Line - 12 (2)

War of the Arrows - 8 (5)

Sunny - 8 (0)

Silenced - 7 (1)

The Unjust - 6 (3)

The Yellow Sea - 5 (1)

Blind - 4 (1)

Petty Romance - 4 (0)

Bleak Night - 3 (2)

Detective K - 2 (0)

Hello Ghost - 2 (0)

Late Autumn - 2 (0)

The Journals of Musan - 2 (0)

As I mentioned in last month's analysis, this year's roster of films duking it out for the major awards has been poorer than usual.  It has by no means been a bad year for Korean cinema as there have been numerous strong mid-level entries but, without a great many offerings from marquee names like Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Jee-woon, Im Sang-soo, or Lee Chang-dong, there have been relatively few breakout films that have made big impressions on critics.  In terms of audiences though 2011 looks to be the best year since the peak of 2006.  Both Sunny and War of the Arrows played long in theaters and attracted over 7 million admissions, well over what was expected of them.  Similarly, the controversial Silenced and the enjoyable but unambitious Detective K both nearly broke the 5 million admissions mark.  Punch, which came out too late to be considered for either of this year's awards looks set to cruise past that mark and may reach further milestones as it shows no signs of abating just yet at the Korean box office.

Jang Hoon's The Front Line came in as a heavy favorite, with 12 nominations and having already bagged the top prizes at the Daejong Awards and the Critics' Film Awards, as well being selected to represent Korea at the Oscars.  In the end it lost out in all of the major categories and only picked up two technical awards, for Best Art Design, which it wasn't even nominated for at 'Daejong', and for Best Cinematography, which it also won last month.  Personally I don't think it deserved that last award as I belive many films featured stronger cinematography this year, including some that weren't even nominated such as Late Blossom and Moby Dick.

The surprise big winner tonight, to my delight, was Ryoo Seung-wan's excellent The Unjust which deservedly took the awards for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.  In the Best Film category it routed some stiff competition from the heavily favored The Front Line and from the immensely popular Sunny, which, despite being loved by critics and audiences alike, has failed to score many accolades (save for Best Director at the 'Daejong Awards') this awards season, and War of the Arrows.  

Ryoo Seung-wan's Best Director win was equally impressive.  While the nominees were identical to the Best Film category, which is quite common, the last time a film has won both awards at a major awards show was Na Hong-jin's The Chaser back in 2008 at Daejong.

Park Hoon-jun walked away with the Best Screenplay prize after the tacky (but enjoyable) Blind had bizarrely picked it up last month.  However, it must be said that in a recent interview with Paul Quinn over at Hangul Celluloid, Ryoo Seung-wan did mention that "I changed the script entirely according to my own style but, in truth, I never actually saw the version that Hoon-jung wrote, and I still haven’t seen it. It had been through the hands of many other writers who had been adapting it and it was only at that point that I saw the script."  Park also wrote last year's popular I Saw the Devil. 

Park Hae-il won Best Actor for War of the Arrows, as he did last month, against heavy competition from Kim Yun-seok (The Yellow Sea) and Ko Soo (The Front Line) but I think many great performance were shut out of this category like Lee Soo-jae in Late Blossom (who was nominated at 'Daejong') or Hwang Jeong-min in both The Unjust and Moby Dick.

Repeating her Daejong success, Kim Na-heul picked up the Best Actress prize for Blind.  Frankly I don't understand this decision at all, her performance is passable but nothing very noteworthy. Kim Hye-soo (Villain and Widow) or Yun So-jeong (Late Blossom), who sadly wasn't nominated, would have been more deserving.

The fantastic veterans Ryoo Seung-ryong (War of the Arrows) and Kim Soo-mi (Late Blossom) were awarded the supporting actor prizes for their roles.  Ryoo in particular had to fend off some strong competition from Yu Hae-jin (The Unjust) and Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea), though I was disappointed that Kim Sang-ho didn't get a nod for his fantastic turn in Moby Dick.

Bleak Night, which has been hoarding numerous awards these past few weeks, once again picked up prizes for Best New Director, for Yoon Sung-hyun, and Best New Actor, for Lee Je-hoon.  Meanwhile Moon Chae-won was awarded Best New Actress for War of the Arrows.

The blockbuster War of the Arrows won the most prizes of the night (5) including the

Audience Choice Award for Most Popular Movie and the 

Best Technical Award for its action sequences.  However its most impressive accomplishment was scoring three acting prizes, no mean feat for an action film!

Despite all of the hullaballoo and its 7 nominations, Silenced only picked up on award, for Best Music.  The Yellow Sea was similarly unsuccessful with only one win for Best Lighting.  Perhaps the biggest shock of the night was that the wonderful Sunny failed to win in any of the 8 categories it was nominated for.

The other awards went to Yanh Hyo-joo who won Best Short Film for Broken Night and Ko Soo, Gong Yoo, Choi Gang-Hee, and Kim Hye-Soo who shared the Popularity Award.

Petty Romance surprised with 4 nods though it didn't pick up any prizes and the huge critical darling The Journals of Musan was also unable to convert either of its nominations into wins at tonight's ceremony.

Just as I was about to write off this year's Korean film industry awards, the Blue Dragon's managed to surprise me by awarding a great film (The Unjust) some richly deserved accolades.  By and large however, the awards show's nominees and winners were often short-sighted, perplexing, and not very evenly distributed.  Though I must confess that I am looking forward to seeing what will be in the mix next year.

Special thanks to Asian Media Wiki, which live-tweeted the results.

32nd Blue Dragon Film Awards Winners and Nominees:

Best Film
Winner: 
The Unjust

Nominees:

The Front Line

Silenced

The Unjust

Sunny

War of the Arrows

Best Director

Winner: 

Ryoo Seung-wan (The Unjust)
Nominees:
Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Kim Han-min (War of the Arrows)

Ryoo Seung-wan (The Unjust)

Jang Hun (The Front Line)

Hwang Dong-hyuk (Silenced)

Best Actor
Winner: 

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)
Nominees:
Ko Soo (The Front Line)

Gong Yoo (Silenced)

Kim Yun-seok (The Yellow Sea)

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Yoon Kye-sang (Poongsan)

Best Actress
Winner: 

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)
Nominees:
Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Kim Hye-soo (Villain and Widow)

Jung Yu-mi (Silenced)

Choi Gang-hee (Petty Romance)

Wei Tang (Late Autumn)

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: 

Ryoo Seung-ryong (War of the Arrows)
Nominees:
Ko Chang-seok (The Front Line)

Ryoo Seung-ryong (War of the Arrows)

Yu Hae-jin (The Unjust)

Jang Gwang (Silenced)

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: 

Kim Soo-mi (Late Blossom)
Nominees:

Kim Soo-mi (Late Blossom)

Ryoo Hyoun-kyoung (Petty Romance)

Yoo Sun (GLove)

Jang Yeong-nam (Hello Ghost)

Cheon Woo-hee (Sunny)

Best New Actor

Winner: 

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)
Nominees:

Park Jung-bum (The Journals of Musan)

Seo Jun-young (Bleak Night)

Song Yoo-ha (Petty Romance)

Lee David (The Front Line)

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Best New Actress

Winner: 

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)
Nominees:

Kang So-ra (Sunny)

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Baek Jin-hee (Foxy Festival)

Shin Se-kyung (Hindsight)

You Da-in (Re-encounter)

Best New Director

Winner: 

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)
Nominees:

Kim Min-suk (Haunters)

Kim Young-tak (Hello Ghost)

Kim Jung-hoon (Petty Romance)

Park Jung-bum (The Journals of Musan)

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Best Cinematography

Winner: 

Kim Woo-hyung (The Front Line)
Nominees:

Kim Woo-hyung (The Front Line)

Kim Tae-sung (War of the Arrows)

Son Won-ho (Blind)

Lee Sung-jae (The Yellow Sea)

Jung Jung-hoon (The Unjust)

Best Lighting

Winner: 

Hwang Soon-wook (The Yellow Sea)
Nominees:

War of the Arrows

The Front Line

The Unjust

Blind

The Yellow Sea

Best Music

Winner: 

Mogue (Silenced)
Nominees:
Sunny
War of the Arrows

Silenced

The Front Line

Late Autumn

Best Art Design

Winner: 

Ryoo Sung-hee (The Front Line)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Sunny
The Yellow Sea
War of the Arrows
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow

Best Technical Award

Winner: 

Oh Se-young (War of the Arrows) (action)

Nominees:
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow (costume)

Sunny (edting)

War of the Arrows (action)

Sector 7 (CG)
The Front Line (fx)

Best Screenplay

Winner: 

Park Hoon-jung (The Unjust)
Nominees:

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Park Sang-yeon (The Front Line)

Park Hoon-jung (The Unjust)

Choi Min-suk (Blind)

Hwang Dong-hyuk (Silenced)

Best Short Film

Winner: 

Yang Hyo-joo (Broken Night)

Popularity Award
Winners: 

Ko Soo

Gong Yoo

Choi Gang-hee

Kim Hye-soo

Audience Choice Award for Most Popular Movie

Winner: 

War of the Arrows

Petty Romance (Jje-jje-han Ro-maen-seu) 2010

Korean romcoms are a dime a dozen in Korea, this is well known, the good news is that most of them are quite good, which is also well know but more than a little surprising to people who may not have seen any. I remember when I first saw My Sassy Girl (2001) and was whole-heartedly enjoying myself, even in spite of my previous prejudice to the genre. Back then I would talk anyone’s ear off who would listen about Korean cinema, truth be told I still do that. It was easy to recommend films to film buffs, most of my colleagues in college, but I struggled to honestly recommend Korean films to many other people. Save the Green Planet (2003) and Oldboy (2003) may have left an impression on me but doubtless those who may not be so keen on stylized violence would be left in the cold. Similarly, Peppermint Candy (1999) and The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) may have been perfect fodder for intellects (would be and otherwise) but those who go to the theater purely for entertainment could not hope to find much to their liking in these films. It was then with great joy and relief that I came across My Sassy Girl, a wonderfully entertaining film that was clever, well-made, and would appeal to a different kind of film viewer. I was able to recommend Korean cinema to people who don’t ever seek out foreign film.

Jeong-bae and Da-rim

This was a turning point in my appreciation of Korea’s film industry, revenge picks and arthouse flicks were all well and good, and they were oh so good, but I learnt that Korea had a lot more to offer to a broader audience. My Sassy Girl was a complete departure from what I’d seen and yet the skill, craftsmanship, and many of the inherent themes still made this evidently cut from the same cloth as what I had previously digested. It’s just that the cloth was bigger than I had once thought, if such a commercial film, a romantic comedy could be produced by an emerging industry, what else was in store? I quickly found out that the answer was a lot, I opened myself to films that on paper may not have been my cup of tea. I was wholly democratic in my Korean film selection and the treasures I uncovered were rich and plenty.

Petty Romance is not My Sassy Girl, and likely it will not motivate the same kind of response as it did in me, but it is a more than serviceable film that reminded me of that same feeling. If it were an American film I would probably hate it, because it would have displayed less ingenuity, quality, and verve, but I admit also because it wouldn’t have been Korean. I am completely biased at this point, and unashamedly so. I will watch any Korean film and pretty much always find something to like in them or link them to others I’ve seen. On paper, Petty Romance is a film that I would have no interest in, but I trust Korean filmmakers to do something new and I also trust the online community of filmmakers that have been quite taken with this new offering.

Externalizing the internal with animation

The film is about an amateur comic book writer Jeong-bae who is a great illustrator but has some problems when it comes to writing a story. After being rejected everywhere with his 3-years in the making oeuvre, he decides to enter a competition for an adult comic with a $100,000 prize. He must do this in order to buy back his late father’s painting, which otherwise will be auctioned off to cover his debt to one of his father’s friends. Da-rim is a struggling sex columnist who can’t hold down a job and is staying with her playboy brother. Jeong-bae interviews for a story writer to help him win the competition and selects Da-rim, they bicker their way through the project and of course fall in love but not without a few obstacles.

It’s a simple story that is told effectively but it does approach its subject matter in a clever fashion. As the two create the story for the comic it becomes apparent that it is just a externalization of their sexual anxieties, not least because Da-rim is a virgin. Debut director Kim Jeong-hoon-Il, who previously penned Sword in the Moon (2003), capitalizes on these moments with well-rendered animation sequences which also serve to quicken the pace of the film, which is not always up to speed with the snappiness of the film’s characters. In fact the film’s main flaw is probably its length. At 117 minutes it is not an overly long Korean film but the story struggles across it at points. A curious amount of counterpoint is achieved throughout the film, especially due to the animation scenes which are explicitly violent and sexual that are placed in this quirky good-natured romcom. I think it is a good addition as it adds some gravitas to the inner frustrations of the characters.

A very modern film

The lead performances from Lee Seon-gyoon and Choi Kang-hee are quite charming and their chemistry is engaging. The supporting characters are the typical placeholders you would expect in this kind of a film and while the resolutions are visible from a distance the journey is entertaining enough for this to be a worthwhile venture. One last thing I should say about this film is that it is definitely one of the most modern Korean films I’ve seen. It was released last December and besides its use of iPhones and the various other trappings of modern society it has an extremely modern look and feel: one scene features Da-rim and her friend at a club where the music is very downbeat minimalist techno and the patrons dance in a trance. I can’t quite explain all it but it felt a little different from what I’ve seen previously. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who doesn’t already know they like Korean romcoms but if you have any interest in them Petty Romance is definitely worth a look.