Director Kim Jee Woon 김지운 Kim Ji Woon

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August 26, 2013
Lim Soo Jung & director Kim Ji Woon reminisce 'A Tale Of Two Sisters' STARN News l Nate


Director Kim Ji Woon told that Lim Soo Jung makes frequent NGs.
On August 24th, 'A Tale Of Two Sisters 10th Anniversary Event' was held at Cinema Tech KOFA located in Sangam-dong, Seoul.
During the event, actress Lim Soo Jung said, "There was one scene that I made endless NGs. Director Kim Ji Woon got furious, and he quit the shooting. I started losing myself as more and more NGs happened, and I was so scared of director Kim."
Director Kim Ji Woon said, "I thought she was an idiot because she made so many NGs. She could not memorize one line. I just turned back and walked away back then. I do that only when I am really angry."
He went on, "Lim Soo Jung made it after two takes the next day. She prepared herself perfectly. We had over thirty shots the day before, but she became a totally different person the next day. I saw how an actor grows through her, and I also felt myself grown up a bit more."
'A Tale of Two Sisters' is a horror movie which was released back in June, 2003, and it was attended by 3,146,217 people, which is an exceptionally high number for a horror movie.
Especially, Lim Soo Jung received a great number of awards at different film festivals, and got herself widely recognized for the firs time.
Meanwhile, Moon Geun Young, Yeom Jung Ah, and Kim Gap Soo also casted in 'A Tale Of Two Sisters'. /Reporting by Lee Mi-Ji en@starnnews.com

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August 27, 2013
Korean Films Set New Box-Office Record
The Chosun Ilbo
Korean films attracted a record 20 million moviegoers in August. According to the Korean Film Council, 24.36 million people watched Korean films between Aug. 1 and 25.
The figure easily beats the previous monthly record of 18.09 million in February, when "Miracle in Cell No. 7" and "The Berlin File" made a splash at the box office simultaneously. 
This month, four Korean films are contributing to the success -- "Snowpiercer" with 8.8 million, "The Terror Live" with 5.4 million, "Hide and Seek" with 4.07 million, and "The Flu" with 2.7 million. 
Korean movies also posted record sales of W145.6 billion (US$1=W1,113), but their combined share of total sales stood at 78.9 percent, less than the 85.3 percent in October 2006.
Over the whole year, Korean films exceeded the 100 million-viewer mark for the first time in 2012. With a total of 80 million moviegoers so far this year, they are likely to beat that record equally comfortably and could even reach the 200-million mark.
The sweeping popularity of Korean movies in recent years is attributed to their appeal to a wider spectrum of viewers. "Secretly Greatly" attracted teenagers who usually prefer TV or online games, while "Miracle in Cell No. 7" appealed to the middle-aged. 
Another factor is that a wave of films by famous directors hit the theaters -- "Stoker" by Park Chan-wook, "Snowpiercer" by Bong Joon-ho, "The Last Stand" by Kim Ji-woon, and "The Berlin File" by Ryoo Seung-wan. But there have also been unexpected hits by rookie directors such as Kim Byung-woo's "The Terror Live" and Huh Jung's "Hide and Seek."
Kim Ki-duk's "Moebius," which has been invited to the Venice International Film Festival from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, will hit cinemas here next month after a re-edit to appease local censors. "Our Sunhi" by Hong Sang-soo picked up the Leopard for best director at the Locarno International Film Festival early this month and is due out in early September.
Korean films will likely continue to dominate the market in the second half of this year as "The Face Reader" and "The Spy," both with a star-studded cast, are released and the Busan International Film Festival takes place in early October.

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August 29, 2013
Korean films rocket toward record box office numbersDomestic movies expected to hit 100 million-viewer mark next month
By Claire Lee The Korea Herald

Domestic films are set to break the 100-million mark in attendance since January this year by next month, according to the state-run Korean Film Council. 
Local films exceeded the 100 million-viewer mark for the first time in November 2012. The milestone meant Koreans saw at least two local films on average last year. 
A new box office record is about to be set, beating last year’s performance by almost three months.


In the month of August alone ― from Aug. 1 to 25 ― Korean films drew 24.36 million viewers to local theaters. 
A number of hit films contributed to this month’s box office success, including Bong Joon-ho’s blockbuster “Snowpiercer.” The dystopian sci-fi flick, starring Tilda Swinton and Ed Harris, has drawn 8.8 million viewers since its release on Aug. 1.
Emerging director Kim Byung-woo’s disaster thriller “The Terror Live,” starring Ha Jung-woo, has drawn 5.4 million viewers. Meanwhile, “Hide and Seek,” another thriller also directed by rookie filmmaker Huh Jung, has attracted 4.07 million. “The Flu,” a pandemic thriller by Kim Seong-soo, was seen by 2.7 million. The market share of locally produced films this month reached 78.4 percent.
The 24.36 million-viewer record beats the one set in February, which stood at 18.09 million viewers with the popularity of Ryu Seung-wan’s star-studded North Korean spy flick “The Berlin File” and tearjerker drama “Miracle in Cell No. 7.”
The number of domestic film releases has been increasing as well in the past four years. In 2009, a total of 118 Korean films were released, 140 in 2010, 150 in 2011 and 175 in 2012. As of August, a total of 98 local movies have hit theaters so far this year. 
The Korean movie industry also enjoyed significant success away from the box office last year. Director Kim Ki-duk won the Golden Lion Award for his bleak morality tale “Pieta” at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first Korean filmmaker to win the honor. Domestic films’ market share hit 59 percent as well, up 7 percentage points from the previous year. 
This year’s local movie lineup included movies by the country’s most prominent directors, including Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-woon and Bong Joon-ho. 
Park and Kim made their Hollywood debuts this year, Park with the psychological thriller “Stoker” and Kim with the action flick “The Last Stand.” Bong’s “Snowpiercer,” co-produced by Korea’s CJ Entertainment and Park Chan-wook among others, is the most expensive film in Korean movie history.
Korean films, both commercial and independent, were also diverse in genres and style, appealing to a wide spectrum of viewers. Jang Cheol-soo’s hit film “Secretly Greatly,” for one, was based on the popular 2010 webtoon series “Convertness” by artist HUN. 
The film, starring national heartthrob Kim Soo-hyun as an attractive North Korean spy disguised as an intellectually disabled person in South Korea, was especially popular among the young viewers. Another hit film “Cold Eyes” was about a group of detectives specializing in surveillance of high profile criminals. Independent movie “Pluto,” which critically deals with Korea’s competition-oriented education system, also received positive reviews from the audience and the press. 
Rookie directors Huh Jung and Kim Byung-woo also produced unexpected hits with their highly successful thrillers “Hide and Seek” and “The Terror Live.”
“The number of movie theaters did not increase much compared to the year before, so it’s not the venues,” said Kim Young-gi from the Korean Film Council. “So I’d have to say the box office success of domestic movies really has to do with their substance and quality. I think a lot of great, quality movies came out this year and the audience took notice of them.”
The local press and industry insiders predict that the films could even reach the 200 million mark by the end of this year, as a number of highly anticipated films are still to be released, including “The Spy” which co-stars Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri and Daniel Henney, and “The Face Reader” which stars some of the country’s biggest stars including Kim Hye-soo, Lee Jung-jae and Song Kang-ho. 
Hong Sang-soo’s latest work “Our Sunhi” and Kim Ki-duk’s controversial drama “Moebius” are set to be released in September as well. 

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Spetember 3, 2013
Busan film fest boasts rich lineup of rookie Asian directors
YonhapNews
SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- The annual Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) will open next month, featuring a rich lineup of films by rookie Asian directors and a diverse cohort of artists, the festival's organizers said Tuesday.
The 18th installment of the festival will be held at the Busan Cinema Center and seven other movie theaters in the southern port city of Busan from Oct. 3-12. Launched in 1996, the annual festival has grown to be the largest of its kind in Asia.


The Busan Cinema Center, built in 2011, will serve as the primary venue for the annual festival, with three movie theaters and a 4,000-seat outdoor performance hall also set to host BIFF-related events.
"Vara: A Blessing," a highly anticipated third film from Bhutanese filmmaker Khyentse Norbu was designated as the festival's opener, while "The Dinner," an indie film by Korean director Kim Dong-hyun will close the event.
Set in an Indian village that has not yet caught up to the modern world, "Vara: A Blessing" intertwines India's traditional "bharatanatyam" dance and music with a story of love, devotion and a woman struggling through a life of agony.
A recipient of the Asian Cinema Fund's Incubating Fund in 2011, "The Dinner" depicts in a sharp and persistent manner the misfortunes experienced by a family.
This year's festival will feature 301 movies from 70 countries around the world, slightly less than 304 films from 75 countries shown last year. They will include 95 world premiers and 42 international premiers, with more than 90 of them either debut or second films by newbie Asian directors.
The head juror of the New Currents segment, a competition section of the festival, is Rakhshan Banietemad, an Iranian director best known for "Nargess" (1991) and "The Blue Veiled" (1995).
But another competition section for non-Asian films last year, dubbed Flash Forward, will be a non-competition segment this year, according to festival organizers.
The Gala Presentation section will present six of the latest films by directorial masters from five countries including South Korean directors Bong Joon-ho's "Snowpiercer" and Kim Jee-woon's "The X."
   The festival will offer a special retrospective of some 70 signature films by Korean cinematic master Im Kwon-taek, the winner of the 55th Berlin International Film Festival Honorary Golden Berlin Bear for his contribution to the advancement of Korean cinema.
There will also be special screenings of films from Central Asia and Ireland as well as movies by Korean director Park Chul-soo, who was killed in a traffic accident in February.
"This year's edition will present films by rookie Asian directors in a massive scale," Lee Yong-kwan, the executive chairman of the film festival, told reporters in a news conference in Busan. "This will well represent the identity of the Busan International Film Festival."
sshim@yna.co.kr

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Source: https://twitter.com/HangulCelluloid
Korean Film Nights
I Saw the DevilDirector : KIM Jee-woonRunning Time : 141mins (Eng Sub, Cert 18)7pm, September 12, 2013Multi-purpose Hall
http://www.kccuk.org.uk/navigator.do?menuCode=201104050063&action=VIEW&seq=807

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September 5, 2013
Lee Jong-suk’s New Movie to Hit U.S. Next Weekend
by Lee Hye Ji TENASIA
Korean rising actor Lee Jong-suk’s new movie “The Face Reader” will mark the opening of the biggest showcase for Korean movies in Southern U.S.
Upcoming period-set film “The Face Reader” will have its U.S. premiere as the opening film of the 2nd Atlanta Korean Film Festival (AKFF 2013), which will open its 9-day festivity of Korean cinematography next Friday, the film fest’s official website showed Thursday.
A total of 21 contemporary Korean films to be screened at this year’s AKFF, including Moon Geun-yeong’s mystery horror “A Tale of Two Sisters,” Lee Byung-hun’s crime thriller “I Saw The Devil” and Western adventure “The Good, the Bad, the Weird,” which of all were directed by Korean famed filmmaker Kim Ji-woon.
Director Kim, along with and actress Cho Yeo-jung of erotic period movie “The Servant,” Ryu Seung-ryong of 2013 box office smash “Miracle of Cell No. 7” and Ye Ji-won of comic romance pic “Hahaha” are set to attend the opening ceremony and red carpet event of AKFF 2013 at the Rialto Center for the Arts at GSU, which will be accompanied by a mini-concert led by famous music director Lee Dong-hoon.
The four film professionals will also give special lectures at Georgia Institute of Technology a day ahead, sharing their precious experiences with the university’s Korean and non-Korean students.
Other features to be introduced to film lovers in the Southern U.S. are Ko Soo’s war drama “The Front Line,” Han Hyo-joo’s romance pic “Love 911,” Kim Soo-hyun’s comic action “Secretly Greatly,” 2012 box office hit “The Thieves” and So Ji-sub’s action drama “A Company Man.”
“A Company Man,” co-starring Dongjun of idol group ZE:A, will also be screened at the 9th Atlanta Asian Film Festival on October 24, as the only Korean film out of nine line-ups for this year’s annual film festival.

The official poster for Atlanta Korean Film Festival 2013. [AKFF]
Reporter. Lee Hye-ji hjlee@tenasia.co.krPhotographer. Paeng Hyun-joon pangpang@tenasia.co.kr

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September 5, 2013
2nd Atlanta Korean Film Festival Gears Up21 Films to Reflect Diversity of Korean Film Industry by Pierce Conran KOFIC l AKFF 2013 Official Website l Facebook
 Atlanta will become the site of a large celebration of Korean film as the second edition of the Atlanta Korean Film Festival is due to take place later this month. 21 titles will be presented at the event, representing the breadth and scope of the Korean film industry. Opening the proceedings will be the upcoming costume drama The Face Reader. Directed by Han Jae-rim and starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Jung-jae, Kim Hye-soo and Baek Yoon-shik, the period film is set to open in Korea on September 12th, just ahead of the Chuseok holiday season. The other 20 films on the program will be broken down into three categories. A special exhibition on the works of Kim Jee-woon will present A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), The Good, the Bad and the Weird (2008), I Saw the Devil (2010) and this year’s The Last Stand, his debut Hollywood feature. 

Special invitation films will include the independent films Eden, Innocent Blood, Maria, The Korean Bride and Hong Sangsoo’s HaHaHa (2010) as well as the commercial war film The Front Line (2010) and the period drama The Servant (2010). The rest of the program will be made up of a selection of recent Korean films. The lineup includes A Company Man, All About My Wife, Love 911, Miracle in Cell No. 7, New World, Pieta, Secretly Greatly, The Grant Heist, The Thieves and The Weight. The second annual Atlanta Korean Film Festival, which will take place in the cities of Atlanta, Duluth, Suwanee and Lagrange, will unspool from September 20th to 28th.

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Source: AKFF2013

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September 11, 2013
Shin Min-Ah and Gang Dong-Won's 'The X', first premiere in Busan International Film Festival
Source: Innolife Korea


Movie 'The X', directed by Kim Ji-Woon and starring Gang Dong-Win, Shin Min-Ah and Lee Som, is drawing attention. 'The X' is the first movie produced by multi projection screen X, and it will be first released in the 18th Busan International Film Festival. 
Starring Gang Dong-Won, who's meeting the audiences for the first time since he was discharged from military, popular actress Shin Min-Ah and a rookie Lee Som draws massive expectation. The movie for 30 minutes is about elite agent X receiving a mission from secret agent R to deliver an unknown thing. But agent R is found dead, and X's girlfriend Mia aims gun on X. The movie is going to be very thrilling.

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Source: Nate

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September 11, 2013
Gang Dong-won’s Short Film Invited to Busan International Film Fest
by Lee Hye Ji TENASIA


A Korean short film starring top Korean actor Gang Dong-won will have its world premiere at the upcoming Busan International Film Festival.
“The X,” Korean famed director Kim Jee-woon’s newest work, has been invited to the Gala Presentation section of the 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which will kick off its ten days’ festivity in the city of Busan on October 3, the film’s promoter Younghwain said in a press release Wednesday.
The half-an-hour film centers on a strange case of agent X (Gang) on a special duty to deliver unidentified material to agent R. Actress Shin Mina made a special appearance as X’s girl friend.
While director Kim confirmed his appearance in the upcoming BIFF, Gang and Shin are still negotiating their participation in the renowned festival, an official with Younghwain told TenAsia over the phone.
Produced as the new project of Korea’s biggest movie theater brand CGV’s new video projection Screen X, the film is set to hit some 31 screens around the country next month.
Reporter. Lee Hye-ji hjlee@tenasia.co.kr
Courtesy of CGV

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Kim Jee Woon on the making of The X.

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Just want to share the screening schedule of Kim Jee Woon's The X at the 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF):
- 4th Oct 2013 (Fri) - 5.00pm- 5th Oct 2013 (Sat) - 10.00 am
For additional info just check this link: BIFF 2013

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Source: Atlanta Korean Film Festival Facebook

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Source: AKFF Facebook

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Director Kim Jee Woon and Kang Dong Won while filming The X...




South Korean leading directors pose for "Marie Claire BIFF Special" : Im Kwon-taek , Chung Ji-young, Lee Chang-dong, Kang Woo-Suk, Lee Joon-ik, Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee Woon, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Tae-Yong and Choi Dong-hoo

source: mediapaper

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September 25, 2013
Kim Jee-woon’s THE X to Premier at BusanTHE WOLF BRIGADE Pushed Back by Tae Sang-joon KOFIC



The X by KIM Jee-woon, the director of A Bittersweet Life (2005) and The Last Stand, will premiere at this year’s Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). The X has been officially invited to be a Gala Presentation at the BIFF, which is set to start on October 3rd. The X was produced for the ScreenX format that makes use of not only the central screen but also the side walls of theaters. The film aims to publicize the new format. But it also attracted people’s attention from its production stage as the film cast GANG Dong-won of Woochi (2009) and Haunters (2010) and SHIN Min-a of A Bittersweet Life and Early Spring, Gyeongju. In the film, GANG plays the elite spy X while SHIN takes on the role of a femme fatale. The X is GANG’s first film following the end of his military service. GANG performs some motorbike action and takes part in a fight between ten men and him. SHIN has joined with KIM Ji-woon for the first time in the eight years since A Bittersweet Life and will demonstrate her appeal as a femme fatale. On the other hand, a live action version of the Japanese animation The Wolf Brigade that KIM had been preparing has been temporarily pushed back. The Wolf Brigade, a OKIURA Hiroyuki film, depicts a duel between the police with strong military power and an anti-government group in a near-future Japan. According to film industry sources, the filmmaker was set to finalize the pre-production work for the live action version within this year with a shoot planned for early next year. However, recent internal reasons have moved the project to the back burner.

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September 30, 2013
Elegance

Recently I read a short interview with the American writer Andrew Solomon, where he was asked what book he is currently reading. He said, “I’m rereading The Portrait of a Lady, which I do every few years to remind myself that there really is such a thing as elegance, in life and in prose – and to remember how much devastation can unfold around it.”
I was struck by the way he used the word “elegance.” It’s a word that these days is used more often by advertisers selling luxury cars or jewelry than by ordinary people. It can be a useful term for describing art, fashion or architecture, but Solomon clearly had something else in mind when he spoke that sentence. His words gave the impression of elegance as something rare, or perhaps hidden, and he makes us wonder: why should it be linked with the word “devastation?”
In one sense, elegance can simply mean a commitment to beauty. But when Henry James wrote The Portrait of a Lady in 1880, the word was more often used in a social sense. It described the way you interacted with other people, and the way you chose to live your life. To live with elegance is to live according to certain ideals, not to compromise yourself in order to get along better with other people. To be elegant is, in one sense, to be in opposition with the world. Perhaps this clash between elegance and the reality is what can bring on such devastation. Solomon says, “I am moved by Henry James’s ineffable sadness, the belief that human experience is full of loss, and that high morals don’t stand a chance.”
I think it’s probably easier to capture the spirit of elegance in novels than in the more realistic medium of cinema. In contemporary cinema in particular, it’s a rare quality. Viewers looking for elegance in films this month would be more likely to find it in the retrospective devoted to 1950s-60s Japanese filmmaker Masumura Yasuzo screening at the Seoul Art Cinema. (An old retrospective at the Cinematheque Ontario was titled, “Elegant Beast: Discovering Japanese New Wave Master Yasuzo Masumura”) 
If I were the director of a film festival, I would love to screen a special section devoted to the idea of elegance. It would be interesting to ask different critics and directors to choose films that they believe express this quality. Since everyone has a different concept of elegance, there would probably be a wide spectrum of films. But there are some contemporary classics, such as Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood For Love 화양연화 (2000), that would be particularly likely to appear. My own choice for the most stunningly beautiful and elegant work of recent years is the Italian film I Am Love (2009) starring Tilda Swinton, which captures both the awakening of a woman and the decline of a wealthy family. 

Korean cinema is so modern, and so in tune with contemporary trends, that elegance (as opposed to style) is not something that many directors strive for. There are some classic examples that capture several senses of the word elegance, including Lee Man-hee’s Road to Return 귀로 (1967) and Kim Soo-yong’s Mist 안개 (1967). But among contemporary films there are two works in particular that for me embody this particular quality. The first one may seem a strange choice, since it contains such graphic violence and disturbing imagery, but what separates Kim Jee-woon’s masterpiece A Bittersweet Life 달콤한 인생 (2005) from other gangster films is its elegance. It’s not simply that the film is beautifully shot, or the way in which it captures both the refinement and brutality of the gangster’s life. It’s that the main character himself lives according to a certain code. It’s not so much a moral code, or a sense of idealism, as it is a strange sort of commitment to elegance.
The second film is My Dear Enemy 멋진 하루 (2008). In this case, it’s not so much the characters themselves who embody some form of elegance, but rather the tremendous naturalism of Jeon Do-yeon and Ha Jung-woo, combined with the sensitive directing of Lee Yoon-ki. The type of storytelling employed by the film stands in quiet opposition to commercial trends in the Korean film industry, in the sense that it’s a very simple story told without flourishes. But the way the film handles emotion is extremely refined and, yes, elegant. It may look ordinary on its surface, but My Dear Enemy is one of Korean cinema’s remarkable achievements of recent years.
Darcy Paquet

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According to Screen X fb additional screenings will be held at these 2 locations, Busan and Seoul. The schedule for these Special Screenings/Premieres:
1. Busan International Film Festival  (CGV Centum City 3)
Oct 7 : 11.00 am
Oct 8 : 10.00 am
2. Seoul  (CGV Yeouido 8)
Oct 23 : 7.00 pm & 8.30 pmOct 24 : 7.00 pm & 8.30 pm
To participate one needs to complete a simple online application from Oct Sept 17 to Oct 17 and the winners will be announced on Oct 1 (Busan) and Oct 21 (Seoul)


Source: Screen X fb

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October 3, 2013
I Saw the Devil | Netflix Instant Pick of the Day
Jenny Nulf GotchaMovies


To get into the Halloween spirit, today's Netflix Pick of the Day is a horror movie of sorts.
I Saw the Devil is one of the best Korean revenge films I've ever seen. While Oldboy is classic greatness and will always trump over many in fans' hearts, I Saw the Devil takes everything that is good about your classic revenge story and amps it up to a million.
Directed by the great Kim Ji-woon, who has films like A Tale of Two Sisters and The Good, the Bad, the Weird under his belt, I Saw the Devil stars the ever incredible Choi Min-sik (of Oldboy fame) and Lee Byung-hun (who has made his way into Hollywood through G..I Joe: Retaliation and Red 2).
Min-sik takes to the role of a villain really well, a striking contrast to his protagonist character in Oldboy. His character also stands his own up against Byung-hun's secret agent role, bringing out the villainy in his heroic mindset. Once the back-and-forth cat-and-mouse formula falls into place, it becomes hard to differentiate which character you're supposed to be rooting for. The film plays with your classic revenge story and everything about it works.
I Saw the Devil is an insane trip into brutal Korean revenge films. There's really is no reason to skip it to start of your Halloween horror right.