Small week forKorean film releases, since thereis only onenew film that will landin theaters.But it's not slouch as this isanother moviewidely anticipated by thepublic, and it will bravely attemptto overthrow theestablished order in thebox office. I caneasily understandwhy no other distributor has dared to release a filmat the moment,as the marketis now completelysaturatedby three Korean films, that together attracted three million viewerslastweekend. Thusthe filmFoolhas been postponeduntil next weekto afford him a better chance.
Well, PiFan gets underway tomorrow and I've been burning with anticipation for a few weeks now. It'll be my first Korean film festival after landing here 6 weeks ago. The programme looks great and there are many people I'm excited to meet. I'll be at the event for the duration though I won't be able to see as many films as I'd like since I do have a fulltime job that gets in the way of most of the screenings during the weekdays but I've still devised a pretty packed schedule.
Since I won't be able to take in each day from morning to night I won't be publishing daily recaps as I did for this year's Fribourg and Udine Film Festivals but there will still be plenty of reviews, some news and hopefully a few interviews as well. Anything that comes up here will be crossposted on Twitch, where I will be covering the event with James Marsh (@Marshy00) and in addition I will also be participating in daily coverage of the event for Cine21, Korea's no. 1 film magazine.
Next week, from June 5th to 10th, the 6th Annual Korean American Film Festival, which boasts a lineup of nine features and 20 shorts will take place in New York. One of the highlights in the lineup is Magic and Loss, a feature that premiered at the Busan Film Festival in 2010 and features Korean indie stars Yang Ik-june (Breathless, 2009) and Kim Kkobbi (Life Is Peachy, 2011).
Given the changing landscape of cross-cultural cinema, events such as these, especially those that take a broad view on a diaspora's influence on global culture, are becoming increasingly important. As such, the 6th KAFFNY, just as in previous years, promises to highlight the connections between very different cinematic global communities by showcasing a broad and eclectic array of independent cinema. Only wish I was in New York myself to take part!
This monthly features previews the coming month's attractions in Korean cinema. All of these monthly posts are available in an archive on the Upcoming Releases page.
May 3
As One (aka Korea)
Just Friends
May 10
Du-re Sori Story
I Am
The Strangers
May 17
All About My Wife
Granny Is in 1st Grade
The Taste of Money
May 24
Children of Heaven
Hello!
U.F.O.
May 31
Don't Click
In Another Country
Runway Cop
Still Strange
May TBC
Rosa
Tummy
As One (aka Korea)
Director: Moon Hyun-sung
Cast: Ha Ji-won, Bae Doo-na
Synopsis: As One chronicles the victory of the first inter-Korean team at the 1991 Chiba Worldwide Table Tennis Championships.
Release date: May 3
There's a lot of buzz surrounding this project, especially with its two big female stars and theme of rapprochement of the divided Korean nations. It the film clicks with audiences it may be one of the highest-grossing films of the year.
Just Friends
Director: Ahn Cheol-ho
Cast: Oh Yeon-so, Lee Young-hoon
Synopsis: Just Friends is a romance about an unemployed art school graduate who has recently been dumped but meets an aspiring musician at a concert
Release date: May 3
I Am.
Director: Choi Jin-sung
Synopsis: A documentary of SM Entertainment's recent Madison Square Garden concert. Release date: May 10
Du-re Sori Story
Director: Cho Jung-rae
Screenplay: Baek Jong-min
Cast: Kim Seul-gi, Jo Ah-reum, Ham Hyeong-sang, Choi Eun-yeong
Synopsis: Two friends at the National High School of the Traditional Arts take a special class taught by a teacher with conflicting western influences. The class will compete as a chorus in contest.
Release date: May 10
The Strangers
Director: Choi Yong-seok
Cast: Yeo Hyeon-soo, Han Soo-yeon, Kim Joong-ki
Synopsis: Yeon-hee returns to her hometown following the death of her mother in a fire and there she meets Seok who has lost in father in the same accident. They bond and attempt to overcome their grief while Yeon-hee revisits the reason she left in the first place.
Release date: May 10
All About My Wife
Director: Min Gyoo-dong
Screenplay: Min Gyoo-dong
Cast: Im Soo-jeong, Lee Seon-gyoon, Ryoo Seung-yong
Synopsis: A romantic comedy about a man who, in a bid to cleanly divorce his wife, hires a playboy to seduce his spouse.
Release date: May 17
The Taste of Money
Director: Im Sang-soo
Screenwriter: Im Sang-soo
Cast: Kim Kang-woo, Kim Hyo-jin, Baek Yoon-shik, Yoon Yeo-joong
Synopsis: A woman divorces a salaryman and becomes wealthy. A tale of greed and sex in the upper strata of Korean society
Release date: May 17
Im Sang-soo's new film wrapped in January and looks to be another fascinating exposé of our darkest desires. The film will have its world premier at Cannes where it is in the main competition vying for the Palm d'Or. The Taste of Money will also feature a small role for the founder of koreanfilm.org and MKC contributor Darcy Paquet.
Granny Is in 1st Grade
Director: Jin Kwang-gyo
Cast: Kim Jin-goo, Shin Chae-yeon
Synopsis: A 70-year-old woman loses her son but she can't read the final letter he sent her so her 7-year-old granddaughter teaches her how to read.
Release date: May 17
Children of Heaven
Director: Park Heung-shik
Cast: You Da-in, Park Ji-bin, Kim Bo-ra
Synopsis: A new teacher begins a three month stint at a school for troubled children. She hopes to involve some of new students in a talent contest by staging a musical.
Release date: May 24
U.F.O.
Director: Kong Quee-hyun
Screenwriter: Kong Quee-hyun
Cast: Lee Joo-seung, Kim Chang-hwan, Kim Tae-yoon
Synopsis: A group of students catch sight of an alien spacecraft and decide to travel to UFO mountain but on the way there they are warned to turn back.
Release date: May 24
This sci-fi comedy opened last July at the Puchon International Film Festival and has since played at the Digital Seoul Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.
Hello!
Director: Lim Tae-hyeong
Cast: Lee Sang-bong
Synopsis: Documentary chronicling the lives of 14 blind schoolchildren
The new Hong Sang-soo film stars a major French actress and will be premiering in Cannes ahead of its Korean release, not to be missed.
Don't Click
Director: Kim Tae-kyeong
Screenwriter: Kim Tae-kyeong
Cast: Park Bo-young, Joo Won, Kang Byul
Synopsis: Bizarre events occur after a pair watch a mysterious video.
Release date: May 31
This sounds like a blatant ripoff of The Ring (1998), given the poor quality of last summer's horrors, I'm not expecting much from this one. Also, as you'll notice on the poster, Don't Click was scheduled for release last August but got pushed back, never a good sign.
Runway Cop
Director: Sin Tae-ra
Cast: Kang Ji-hwan, Sung Yu-ri, Kim Young-kwang, Lee Soo-hyuk
Synopsis: In order to break a case, a determined detective goes undercover in the fashion world.
Release date: May 31
Still Strange
Director: Lee Hong-jae
Screenwriter: Kim Tae-kyeong
Cast: Jang Si-won, Kim Soo-woong, Lee So-hee
Synopsis: An old couple and their grown up children gather during the first New Year's Day following their only son's death.
Release date: May 31
Rosa
Director: Maeng Gwan-pyo
Cast: Ruzmetova Dayana, Jo Ha-seok
Synopsis: 16-year-old Uzbeki ballet dancer Diana loses her chance at a scholarship as the iron curtain rolls back. She then goes to Korea with a stranger in the hope of following her dreams.
Release date: May
Tummy
Director: Park Bo-sang
Cast: Cheon Ho-jin, Lee Mi-sook, Seo Yoon, Ye Hak-yeong
Synopsis: A sex comedy about a family's romantic entanglements. Release date: May
This film was made in 2008 and is finally seeing the light of day.
I recently finished reading Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X, a book I
picked up by chance in London Luton Airport as I was trying to offload my last
10 pounds following my trip to the East Winds Festival and Symposium earlier
this month. Truth be told, I
rarely read modern fiction anymore and much less do I purchase physical
paperbacks. However, as I browsed
the WHS Smith, I didn’t find any classics so I resignedly drifted over to the
general fiction section and after a thorough perusal of the shelves I elected
to get Dance Dance Dance (1988), one of the
few novels I hadn’t read from Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors,
but as I made my way to the check-out a book buried deep in a display table
caught my eye. I was immediately
drawn to it and quickly changed my mind about Murakami. I didn’t know what it was but I later
realized that I had come across its name in passing as it is happens to be an
upcoming Korean film project, though I knew nothing beyond its title. I certainly wasn’t aware that it was
based on this popular Japanese crime thriller.
Not too long ago I read Natsuo Kirino’s Grotesque and Cut back to
back and was quite taken with their effortless style chronicling extraordinary
and often horrific events. From
its opening pages, The Devotion of
Suspect X gripped me and turned out to be the very definition of a
page-turner as I devoured it in two sittings. When I put down the book I was filled with a nervous energy
and I’m sure its devastating ending will stay with me for a long time. Suddenly I’ve become terribly excited about
the forthcoming Korean version of this 2005 novel, which was already made into
a cult 2008 Japanese film. The
premise, the characters, the atmosphere and the underlying themes make it a
natural fit for Korean cinema and if done right it could well become one of the
breakout hits of the year.
Ryoo Seung-beom
The story, taken from the backpage blurb of the
English-language Abacus edition, is as follows:
“Yasuko lives a quiet
life, a good mother to her only child.
But when her ex-husband appears at her door without warning one evening,
her comfortable world is shattered.
When Detective
Kusanagi of the Tokyo Police tries to piece together the events of that night,
he finds himself confronted by the most puzzling, mysterious circumstances he
has ever investigated. Nothing quite makes sense…”
Though not referred to in the above synopsis, the principal
character of the novel is actually Yasuko’s next-door neighbour Ishigami, a
high school math teacher who sets in motion the extraordinary story. Before making the connection to the
forthcoming Korean film, I was already picturing the burly and jovial Ko
Chang-seok as this formidable and fascinating character. When I remembered the upcoming Korean film I
hoped he was playing him, though it would have been a long shot as he is not a
top leading man. Indeed that
did turn out to be the case but I was no less excited by the actor selected in his place.
Lee Yo-won
Ryoo Seung-beom played the punk kid for years in Korea
cinema (often in his brother Ryoo Seung-wan’s films) until he was finally cast
in meatier roles in The Servant (2010) and The Unjust (2010) among others. Now he is one of the industry’s leading
lights and at 31, he still has a lot ahead of him. He’s about 20 years younger than the character (who has been
renamed to Suk-go for the Korean film) so it remains to be seen whether the
teacher’s age will be changed or if Ryoo will be subjected to hours of makeup
everyday like Jeong Jae-yeong and Park Hae-il were for the recent Moss (2010) and the upcoming Eungyo (2012). In any case I
think Ryoo is a great choice and while he will certainly set himself apart from the
protagonist presented in the book I think he has just the right combination of
charisma, intelligence and paranoia to pull it off.
Playing the role of Yasuko (renamed Hwa-sun) will be Lee
Yo-won who most recently starred in The Recipe (2010) and the K-Drama 49 Days
(2011). Her beauty and demureness should be advantageous for the role and though I am not overly familiar with
her work she seems like a strong choice.
Bang Eun-jin
Leading the whole affair will be Bang Eun-jin, who was
primarily known as an actress before she turned to the director’s chair with
Princess Aurora, one of the best genre efforts to come out in 2005. Her sophomore film is a much more
ambitious affair but given the nature of her first outing and the way she handled
herself, I am confident that she is the right person for the job.
I think it’s fair to say that The Devotion of Suspect X (I
imagine this title will subsequently change) is one of my most anticipated Korean films,
not too far below Bong Joon-ho’s Snow Piercer (2013), Lee Hae-joon’s My Dictator (2013), Im
Sang-soo’s The Taste of Money (2012) and Ryoo Seung-wan’s The Berlin File (2013). I hope this has whetted your appetite
as well!
While no release date has been confirmed as of this writing, filming, which began in December 2011, should be completed. I imagine the film is being prepped for an autumn or winter release.
For more information on this and other films, visit MKC's Upcoming Releases page.
This monthly features previews the coming month's attractions in Korean cinema. All of these monthly posts are available in an archive on the Upcoming Releases page.
February 2
Nameless Gangster
Papa
February 9
Two Lines
February 16
Howling
February 23
The Angel's Breath
February 29
Comic Book Store 3D
Love Fiction
Nameless Gangster
Director: Yun Jong-bin
Screenwriter: Yun Jong-bin
Cast: Choi Min-sik, Ha Jung-woo
Synopsis: Nameless Gangster chronicles the happenings in Busan, South Korea when the government in 1990 declared its war against crime. A corrupt public official (Choi Min-sik) faces criminal charges and meets Choi Hyung-bae (Ha Jung-woo), a mysterious man with connections to the Yakuza.
Release date: February 2
Anticipation is riding high for young Yun Jong-bin's third feature after The Unforgiven (2005) and Beastie Boys (2008). The period set gangster film pairs veteran thespian Choi Min-sik (Oldboy, 2003; I Saw the Devil, 2010) and up-and-coming star Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser, 2005; The Yellow Sea, 2010). Numerous impressive stills and some promising trailers have already appeared on the web. Nameless Gangster is shaping up to be one of the 2012's early hits.
Synopsis: Choon-Sub (Park Yong-roo) is a talent manager who goes to the US after a client runs off. To stay he must get married for a visa and soon he ends up with six new children.
Release date: February 2
Papa is Han Ji-seung's second film following Venus and Mars in 2007. 90% of the film is said to have been filmed in America and it follows a rash of multicultural Korean films that have appeared recently, such as He's On Duty (2010). Originally slated for the Lunar New Year holiday weekend, Papa was rescheduled due to an overcrowded field.
Two Lines
Director: Ji Min
Synopsis: Ji Min and Cheol met in university ten years ago and now live together as roomates and lovers. People ask them why they won't get married since they're at that age but they've never seen the reason to. Life was happy enough as it was until they come face to face with two dark red lines on a home pregnancy test.
Release date: February 9
New documentary which premiered at the 13th International Women's Film Festival in Seoul last March from Ji Min. Her previous film won the Ock Rang Award at the same festival and she had previously also been involved with docs To Live - Save Our Saemankum (2006) and The War, You and I (2010).
Howling
Director: Ha Yu
Cast: Lee Na-young, Song Kang-ho
Synopsis: A man dies by spontaneous combustion. Animal teeth marks are discovered on his body. A veteran male cop (Song Kang-ho) and rookie female (Lee Na-young) start to investigate.
Release date: February 16
Without a doubt one of the most promising projects of 2012, Howling is acclaimed director Ha Yu's (Once Upon a Time in High School, 2004; A Dirty Carnival, 2006; A Frozen Flower, 2008) fifth feature. As well as boasting a top cast with Song Kang-ho and Lee Na-young, the film has an intriguing premise which starts off with spontaneous combustion. The moment this project came to light I was already very excited and there are few films I am more eager to discover.
Synopsis: Jae-min's (Han Ji-won) dream is to become a super star. His sick mother Yeong-ran (Kim Yeong-son) does what she can to support him.
Release date: February 23
Bar the information provided above and the trailed posted below, I have no further information on this low budget release.
Love Fiction
Director: Jeon Kye-soo Screenwriter: Jeon Kye-soo Cast: Ha Jung-woo, Kong Hyo-jin Synopsis: A shy novelist falls for a beautiful, confident woman.
Release date: February 29
Jeon Kye-soo's third feature, after Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater (2006) and Lost and Found (2009). Ha Jung-woo has been very busy of late, racking up an impressive set of credits including The Yellow Sea (2010) and The Client (2010) and has a lot coming up including Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Berlin File, and Nameless Gangster which will be released the same month. The film also stars Kong Hyo-jin who has been equally impressive of late with stand out turns in Crush and Blush (2008) and Rolling Home With a Bull (2010).
Comic Book Store 3D
Director: Heo Jae-hyeong
Cast: Lee Eun-mi, Lim Ah-yeong, Jang Sang-jin, Jeong I-gyeol
Synopsis: So-ra has tough luck with her auditions and she blames the directors for her rejections. One She runs into Seung-hyeon, someone she used to act with. He invites her to a film set and So-ra gets to fill in for an actress fails to show up. Release date: February 29
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