Road of War

Kim jong un making sport of women

Korean film Pieta Receives Leone d'Oro

A Korean film is at the pinnacle of the film world. South Korea's Kim Ki-Duk's Pieta was awarded the Leone d'Oro, one of the world's most prestigious awards in the film world.

In 2004, Director Kim Ki-Duk received Best Director awards at two different festivals, for two different films. At the Berlin International Film Festival, he was awarded for Samaritan Girl, and at the Venice Film Festival he won for 3-Iron. And in 2011, At the Cannes International Film Festival, he received Un Certain Regard prize for Arirang. He is the first Korean director to receive awards from world's three major film festivals, Venice, Cannes, and Berlin.

Pieta is a film that depicts the mysterious relationship between a brtual man who works for loan sharks and a middle-aged woman who claims that she is his mother.

Korean wave is spreading from K-Pop to the international film scene. It almost feels like modern art culture shifted to Korea, a small Asian country.

A Korean film "Taste of Money" submitted to Cannes Film Festival

The 65th Cannes Film Festival will be held throughout May.

 People are already interested in movies nominated in competition lineup ahead of opening of world-renowned film festival.

 Of movies nominated in competition lineup, i'd like to talk about a movie called 'Taste of Money' directed by Lim Sang-su.

 The movie is about secret story related with Korea's the most upper class. And even a poster of the film is attracting prospective viewers.

 Cannes' general delegate Thierry Fremaux also gave a good review of the movie's cinematic quality, saying "I'm doubtless sure that "Taste of Money" is the best movie among official entries in the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

 As Korean movies such as 'Old Boy', 'Secret Sunshine' and 'Poetry' were awarded in major sectors of Cannes Film Festival, Movie community all over the world has paid lots of attention to Korean film. I think if current interest to 'Taste of Money' is continuous, that movie will get a good remarks from many people.

 

Korean Film: Architecutre 101 (건축학개론)

Although Architecture 101 (건축학개론) will premiere tomorrow, I got the opportunity to go to a preview screening. Long story short, the film was actually pretty good mainly because Suzy was in it (하악하악~).
Suzy took on the role of the young Seo-yun, who develops ties with Lee Je-hoon's role. The two college freshmen fall in love with each other but never confess their love because they don't have the courage. Later on, the future Seo Yun (Han Ga-in) goes to see Seung-min (Uhm Tae-woong) for the first time in 15 years to ask him to build a house for her. And together they reminisce about their past broken romance.
All I have to say (because I'm tired of writing shit on this blog (hint: I'm not voluntarily running this blog), and don't want to spoil the movie) is go watch this movie. Is it worth the money? Yes, if you like Suzy (or Han Ga In)... It was for me because I am a fan of her (I like Suzy over IU). For IU lovers out there, sorry, but IU is overrated.


And just a heads up, this guy(조정석)'s in it...

North Korea Human Rights International Film Festival

NKnet is hosting the first-ever North Korean Human Rights International Film Festival in Seoul on November 10~11, 2011. This event will include documentaries, new film shorts, and commercial films.

The films featured are : North Korea VJ, Lonely Echo, The Daughter of Tonyeong, Winter Butterfly, Dooman River, Children of Ryanggangdo, Crossing, Elephant in the Room, Final Report, and Inside.

For more information, visit the event website here.
Below is their itinerary.

Event : London Korean Film Festival 2011

What : The 6th annual event, showcasing the very best in Korean cinema, with a number of premieres and events. 
When : November 3rd until November 17th
Where : Various locations in London, refer to the website
List of films : War of the Arrow, Sunny, The Front Line, Detective K, Dance Town, Leafie a Hen into the Wild, Poongsan, and many, many more!

From the website...

Every year the festival looks to spotlight certain aspects of the Korean film industry whether it is the role of women in front of or behind the camera or how the country has dealt with war through the ages. This year is no different, shinning a light on the North and South divide which has been prevalent across many of Korea’s films since the ‘Forgotten War’. We shall examine how Korea has dealt with and utilised this in a wide variety of films including The Front Line, Dance Town and Poongsan. Also the festival will look to highlight a more lighter tone of film than the British public is used too with Korean films with a number of comedies and family friendly films.

This year we will continue to promote one of the principle aims of the festival which Is to showcase K-Culture with a number of films explore many different aspects of Korean culture. K-Pop is one of the most up and coming elements of Korean culture that is becoming more and more popular in the UK which the festival will be looking to help to increase the profile in this exciting and fresh musical wave. This will be shown with a lie performance from KPop sensation SHINee.

For more information, visit the official website here. 

North Korean Action Film: Pyongyang Nalparam

Nalparam(날파람) is a word that describes a gust of wind caused by a fast-moving object or person. So you get the gist of the title.

Action films in North Korea are pretty rare, unless you count those blatantly propaganda-isque movies as action films. During the 80s, "Hong-Il Dong" and "Order 027" were the action movies of the decade in North Korea. Then the industry was pretty much dead until 2006, when this film appeared.

Here's the brief summary of the plot. North Korean Taekkyon(a traditional Korean martial arts) masters fight against Japanese invaders. I haven't been able to find the full movie yet, but I'd assume that it's all because of their glorious leader, or one of those lines. I've found a video highlighting the key scenes of the movie. Behold! It was 2006, and you shall experience the 21st century special effects and sound quality... North Korean style.

Busan International Film Festival 2011 and cleavages!

These are the relatively SFW ones anyway...

Recently, the 16th Busan International Film Festival ended, with many exciting news and events. But guess what the hot issue of the entire event was?

Cleavages.

Ahem. Well, seriously. A lot of beautiful Korean actresses wore beautiful, yet unprecedentedly revealing dresses, and that's what everybody's been talking about in the past couple weeks. Below is a video clip from the festival with actors and actresses in it, and another link, more NSFW.

Daeniel Dae Kim in the film Arena

Daniel Dae Kim, a Korean American actor popular for his role in LOST, is starring in the new upcoming sci-fi action gladiator movie. It is a movie where men are forced to "fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses." Sounds a little familiar, eh? It looks like a hybrid of the plot from Death Race and action from Undisputable. Well, it's got Samuel L. Jackson in it, so why not?


Source : Angry Asian Man

Korean B-Boy Phenomenon

What is a B-Boy?
B-Boy(비보이) refers to a professional male breakdancer. B supposedly stands for 'break' of breakdancing. However, others point to the origins of breakdancing and claims that the 'B' stands for Bronx of New York City, where the dancing genre originated. When there is a competition for B-Boy dancing, they call the event a 'Battle.' Although created in the midst of gang violence and terror, many assess breakdancing as a form of art with a thirst for freedom and escape from violence, poverty, and oppression.


Now B-Boy dancing is an international phenomenon, with South Korea, Germany, Japan, USA, France, and Italy being some of the major players. South Korea's B-Boy teams are widely said to be the best leading group among all, sweeping through competitions like Germany's 'Battle of the Year', UK's 'UK B-Boy Championship', USA's 'Freestyle Session', and an international event 'Redbull BC One'. 


Female counterpart of B-Boy is called B-Girl (duh).


B-Boy in Korea
As said above, B-Boy dancing is very popular in Korea. The latest statistics(2006) say that there were at least 3,000 B-Boys in Korea, at least 100 being world-class dancers. Korean B-Boy dancing videos are like classic textbooks for lots of B-Boys across the globe. During 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, a Korean B-Boy group "Gambler" performed live, and in 2006 the world-first B-Boy theater opened in Seoul, Hongdae.

The 'first' generation B-Boy groups in Korea include 'People Crew', 'Expression', 'Visual Shock', 'Subway', and 'Spark'. Second generation includes 'Gambler', 'Reverse' and 'Extreme Crew'. Third includes 'Last for One', and so on. More videos and information below.

GI Joe 2 film to feature Lee Byung-Hyun once more

Pictured : Lee Byung-Hyun

The film series G.I.Joe is reportedly going to feature Lee Byung-Hyun once again in its sequel. I guess the original film didn't succeed as well as they expected, so they're replacing most of the original film's crew. Lee Byung-Hyun, as Storm Shadow, will stay.

Not a fan of the GI Joe film, and I only got to see it a few nights ago on TV. But his English in the film was surprisingly good (acting too). I may not be a fan of the series, but I'm always down for Asian Americans and Korean folks featuring on popular films. Something to look forward to.

Sources : http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a324375/elodie-yung-linked-to-gi-joe-2-role.html
http://kr.news.yahoo.com/service/news/shellview.htm?linkid=490&articleid=20110613090822309b6&newssetid=1270 (Korean)

Documentary : Inside Undercover in North Korea

Inside Undercover in North Korea is a documentary by National Geographic, aired in 2007. Some of you I'm sure have had the chance to watch this documentary, but if you haven't, it's worth a watch.

It gives you a pretty good glimpse of history, politics, military, propaganda, and daily lives of North Koreans. Below is a screenshot I saw from Freedom North Korea Radio that gave me chills down my spine. I will list the links to the documentary below as well.

Ktown Cowboys : The Movie!

One of my all-time favorite web-series, Ktown Cowboys, is coming back. This time, as a film.... soon. The original Ktown Cowboys webseries featured a group of guys having an epic adventure in LA Koreatown. If you haven't seen it, check out this article HERE. Now they need some help raising money to market this upcoming film correctly. Check out their video :

More about the film below.

Video : Korean Drama Parody 'Gochu'

This is also sorta old, but in case you've never seen it... cuz it's hilarious.

In case you don't know, Gochu... means penis. *cough*

Film to watch : Koreatown Cowboys

This is old, but in case you missed...

Ktown Cowboys, directed by Daniel Park and written by Danny Cho, is one hell of a funny short series about Ktown life. Mostly nightlife. This has almost everything you probably want to know about Ktown nightlife - drinking, eating, partying, clubbing, booking, and uh, apparently brawling.

I've met and heard Daniel Park and Danny Cho speak in a couple different ocassions, and they're very funny and smart people. Considering that this is done on a super low budget, it's very impressively well-done. More below.