[Movie 2017] The Fortress 남한산성 Namhansanseong

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Photos: CJ Entertainment

Cinematographer Oscar 'Energa Camerimage' Film Festival 
Kim Ji-yong Cinematographer 
Awarded the first Golden Frog Award in Asian Cinema!

 

Spoiler

 

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November 21, 2018

 

KIM Jee-yong Earns Top Camerimage Prize for THE FORTRESS
Korean Cinematographer Earns Coveted Golden Frog

 

by Pierce Conran KoBiz // EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2018

 

This past weekend, KIM Jee-yong earned the Golden Frog Award from the 26th edition of EnergaCamerimage, the world’s top cinematography event which takes place in Bydgoszcz, Poland every year, for his work on HWANG Dong-hyuk’s austere siege drama The Fortress (2017). It is the first time that a cinematographer from Korea has earned the prize. 

 

Meanwhile, the Silver and Bronze prizes were picked up by Paweł PAWLIKOWSKI’s Cold War and Alfonso CUARÓN’s Roma, respectively. Earlier this year, KIM earned the Best Cinematography Awards from the Asian Film Awards and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards, also for The Fortress.

 

Released during last year’s Chuseok holiday, The Fortress features PARK Hae-il as the King of Joseon who confers with his ministers, played by KIM Yun-seok and LEE Byung-hun, about whether to surrender to the Qing Army invaders laying siege to their fortress.

 

KIM Jee-yong, who spent time working in America before returning to Korea, made his debut as a feature cinematographer on KIM Jee-woon’s action-thriller A Bittersweet Life (2005). He has continued to work frequently with KIM, having shot his Hollywood debut The Last Stand with Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER in 2013, as well as his acclaimed colonial-era espionage yarn The Age of Shadows (2016).

 

Prior to The Fortress, KIM also shot Director HWANG’s previous films Silenced (2011) and Miss Granny (2014). Other notable credits include YIM Pil-sung’s Hansel and Gretel (2007), JANG Joon-hwan’s Hwayi: A Monster Boy (2013) and LEE Won-suk’s The Royal Tailor (2014).

Published on November 17, 2018 by Polskie Radio PiK
 

 

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December 12, 2018

The 18th Director's Cut Awards Announces Winners For Actor Categories
 

Source: Soompi by K. Lew

 

This year’s Director’s Cut Awards has announced the winners of the actor award categories as well as some of the nominees for the director awards.

 

The awards ceremony began in 1998, with this year marking the 18th Director’s Cut Awards. The Korean Film Directors Association hosts and chooses the awardees for the ceremony. This year, the directors in the association personally voted for the awardees whose works premiered from October 1, 2017 until September 30, 2018.

 

There are four award categories for directors — Director of the Year, Rookie Director of the Year, Vision of the Year, and Screenplay of the Year. There are four award categories for actors — Male Actor of the Year, Female Actor of the Year, Rookie Male Actor of the Year, and Rookie Female Actor of the Year.

 

This year, Lee Sung Min won Male Actor of the Year for “The Spy Gone North,” while Kim Tae Ri won Female Actor of the Year for “Little Forest.” The Rookie Male and Female Actor of the Year awards went to EXO’s D.O. for “Along With the Gods” and Kim Da Mi for “The Witch” respectively.

 

The nominees for Director of the Year are Hwang Dong Hyuk for “The Fortress,” Jang Joon Hwan for “1987,” Im Soon Rae for “Little Forest,” Lee Chang Dong for “Burning,” Min Kyu Dong for “Her Story,” and Yoon Jong Bin for “The Spy Gone North.”

 

For the Rookie Director of the Year award, nominees include Kang Yoon Sung for “The Outlaws,” Kim Dae Hwan for “The First Lap,” Jeon Go Woon for “Microhabitat,” Shin Dong Suk for “Last Child,” and Kim Eui Seok for “After My Death.”

 

The nominees for Vision of the Year are Shin Soo Won for “Glass Garden,” Kim Il Ran and Lee Hyuk Sang for “The Remnants,” Jeon Go Woon for “Microhabitat,” Go Bong Soo for “Loser’s Adventure,” Shin Dong Suk for “Last Child,” and Kim Eui Seok for “After My Death.”

 

For Screenplay of the Year, nominees include Hwang Dong Hyuk for “The Fortress,” Kim Kyung Chan for “1987,” Oh Jung Mi and Lee Chang Dong for “Burning,” Jung Seo Kyung and Lee Hae Young for “Believer,” Seo Hye Rim, Jung Kyuh Woon, and Min Kyu Dong for “Her Story,” and Kwon Sung Hwi and Yoon Jong Bin for “The Spy Gone North.”

 

The ceremony for the 18th Director’s Cut Awards will be held on December 14 at 6:30 p.m. KST, where all of the winners will be revealed.

 

Source (1)

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Source: CINE21

 

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Thanks to the highlight & English translation by mistymorning at LBH soompi ~

 

December 20, 2018

 

Exhibition: Creating faces in movie - extensive records of Korean Movie make-up by Cho Taehee

 

Source: Interview365

 

Movie make up artist exhibition, who's specialized for historical movies. He did make-up and hair for the movie Gwanghae and The Fortress. Exhibition "Exhibition: Creating faces in movie - extensive records of Korean Movie make-up by make-up artist Cho Taehee" will be held in Dec 29th 2018 to Apr 23rd, 2019 in Ara Art Center in Insadong, Seoul.

 

This exhibition will show concept drawings, special wigs and mustaches, accessories and other high quality make up techniques, in the movies he worked on starting with the movie "Gwanghae"(2012), The Fatal Encounter(2014), The Throne(2015), The Fortress(2017), Park Yul(2017), The Great Battle(2018), total of 15 movies and main characters in those movies. 

 

From Cho's instagram, the exhibition poster.

 

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Thanks to the highlight & English description by mistymorning at LBH soompi ~

 

Bring you nice clip from 

The show is called "Pocha without border" (Pocha = Pojangmacha, a street food stall you can see in Korea, sell drinks and foods). I think they go abroad and I see old movie star Park Joonghoon here and current star Shin Sekyung(I remember her from drama, Deep rooted tree) cooking and serving foods here. In this clip, a French writer, Bernard Werber(Famous in Korea for the book , Empire of the ants),  visited with his friend a movie script writer. His friend is talking about the movie "I saw the devil", that it's his all time favourite movie.

 

Not in this clip, but later Bernard Werber said he liked the movie, "The Chaser" and "The Fortress". (Source) Hey, they happen to have great tastes in movies, just like us. 

 

The Clip mentioning THE FORTRESS from tvN 

 

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#TheFortress #Throwback

 

CINE21 pictorial feat. Lee Byung Hun, Park Hae Il, Park Hee Sun and Go Soo.

Published on September 13, 2017 by cine21, thanks to mistymorning for the gist ~

 

LBH: Wish you a bountiful Chuseok, and please watch many movies during the long holiday.

 

PHI: We're wearing hanbok in the movie. (Banner saying, hanbok is the must for traditional holidays. everyone laughing) looking forward to seeing you in fall with our movie.

 

 

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Photos: HANSFACTORY

 

Screen Drawing Make-Up

December 29th 2018 ~ April 23rd , 2019 

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Clip: style_taehee_cho

 

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Source: Jowana Bueser

 

THE FORTRESS (2017): B+
Bleak and bold. 

Topnotch performances from Lee Byung-hun and Kim Yeon-seok.
#500FILMS365DAYS 

 

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March 15, 2019

 

"The Fortress"  is one of the movies appearing in the "Creating the Face of Cinema Exhibition" which featured the work of Cho Tae Hee, an amazing makeup artist. 

 

 

Make up tools used on Lee Byung Hun. 

 

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Actor Park Hae Il who played King Injo in the movie visited the Screen Drawing, Movie Make-Up Exhibition (March 26?). He took photos and left his message at THE FORTRESS section as well.

 

Photos: Cho Taehee

 

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May 10, 2019

 

MOON So-ri and JANG Joon-hwan to Visit Korean Film Festival DC

LITTLE FOREST, BURNING, THE FORTRESS and More to Screen in US Capital

by Pierce Conran KOFIC

 

The Korean Film Festival DC returns this month for its 2019 edition, which will unfold from May 10 to July 1. This year’s event will feature 11 recent Korean titles as well as a pair of very special guests, acclaimed actress MOON So-ri and director JANG Joon-hwan. Screenings will take place at the Freer Gallery of Art, Meier Auditorium and the Korean Cultural Center in Washington, DC, as well as the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Maryland.

 

Kicking off the program on May 10 will be YIM Soon-rye’s youth drama Little Forest (2018), the remake of the Japanese manga and films of the same name, which stars KIM Tae-ri and RYU Jun-yeol. One of the event’s highlights will be a screening of LEE Chang-dong’s Cannes-selected BURNING on May 18, which, as part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, will feature an informal discussion of the film’s literary sources, the ‘Barn Burning’ short stories by William FAULKNER and MURAKAMI Haruki. The selection will then come to a close with the acclaimed period siege drama The Fortress (2017), from director HWANG Dong-hyuk and featuring stars LEE Byung-hun, KIM Yun-seok and PARK Hae-il.

 

A Good Lawyer’s Wife (2003) star MOON So-ri will be in town to present a screening of her directorial debut The Running Actress (2017), which she also stars in, on June 7. Director JANG will accompany the screening of his latest film 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) on June 9.

 

Other films to be featured this year include the Hong Sangsoo films Grass (2018) and Hotel by the River (2018), the indies Hit the Night (2018) by JEONG Ga-young and JEON Go-woon’s Microhabitat (2018), as well as commercial titles such as PARK In-jae’s election drama The Mayor (2017) and PARK Kwang-hyun’s action-thriller Fabricated City (2017).

 

The Korean Film Festival DC is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.

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An update on the director's new project.

 

September 8, 2019

 

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk Takes on Netflix Drama "Squid Games"

 

Source: Asiae via HanCinema.net

 

 

"The Fortress" and "Silenced" director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, is taking on a Netflix drama. He personally wrote this piece, going by the title of "Squid Games", too.

According to Netflix, "Squid Games" is about people who've failed at life take part in a mysterious survival game for the reward of 10 billion won.

 

The title "Squid Games" comes from the game in which an attacker and a defender come face to face on shapes that are circle, triangle and square, like a squid. If an attacker manages to break through the defender and gets into the circle, or the head of the squid, he or she wins.

 

Director Hwang said, "I'm excited to introduce "Squid Game" to the world. I'm highly anticipating working with Netflix, which guarantees freedom of creativity".

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September 19, 2019

 

Chuseok movie trends reflect changes in the times:

Harvest holiday period no longer dominated by historical drama genre

 

Source: INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily

 

 

The Chuseok harvest holiday is one of the biggest local holidays that guarantees people at least three days of rest. Traditionally, it is a period where families gather together from all over the country. However, for the local box office, the holiday season means high ticket sales as those families spend some of their time together at the movie theater.

 

There were patterns that have repeated throughout the past two decades, one being that certain family-friendly genres have successively topped the box office during the Chuseok holidays.

 

But have these patterns held true? Do people still view the holiday period as a time for families to get together? With more and more people using the break to go abroad, there may no longer be a “family-friendly” genre for film distributors to prepare for next year’s holiday box office.

 

Certain types of genres dominate movie theaters over the Chuseok holidays. Above are a collection of characters from films that ranked number one in the holiday box office over the last 10 years. [EACH DISTRIBUTOR, JEON TAE-GYU]

Popular genres over the years

 

For nearly a decade since 2001, gangster mob action comedies, such as “My Wife is a Gangster” (2001) and the “Marrying the Mafia” franchise, were the popular Chuseok genre. The latter was especially a hit during the Chuseok holidays, with four out of five films being released in accordance with the period. The series reached its peak when it topped the holiday box office in the fourth installment titled “Unstoppable Family” in 2011 with 1.47 million moviegoers over the holidays.

 

However, after a decade the local audience began to lose interest in light-hearted comedies with shallow story lines and instead veered toward well-made historical dramas. “Masquerade” (2012) kick-started the genre’s popularity, drawing 2.8 million audience members to theaters over five days. Over the recent decade, six out of the 10 top films for the holiday box office were historical dramas.

 

Another pattern that resurfaces during this period is that middle-aged veteran actors that are well-recognized across age groups feature heavily in lead roles. For “Masquerade” it was actors Lee Byung-hun and Ryu Seung-ryong, while Lee Jung-jae and Song Kang-ho starred in “The Face Reader” (2013) and Song also in “The Age of Shadows” (2016). Lee Byung-hun, Kim Yoon-suk, and Park Hae-il starred in “The Fortress” and in last year’s “The Great Battle,” Jo In-sung and Park Sung-woong featured in lead roles.

 

All the cast from the above are big-name actors acclaimed for their impressive skills, making it evident the films released for the holidays are extra careful to plant at least one familiar face amongst their lead roles to attract family units. Song seem to be a representative example of an actor with the credibility that families can easily agree on.

 

End of an era?

 

Therefore, avid moviegoers might have been surprised to see this year’s line-up: All three films that were released one day prior to the beginning of the holidays - “The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos,” “Tazza: One Eyed Jack” and “Cheer Up, Mr. Lee” - were either comedy or crime-action blockbusters. No historical drama films were released after four such films took the number one spots successively over the last four years.

 

“It’s probably a rebound from the relative lack of popularity of the genre over recent years,” said film critic Kim Hyung-suk. “Although ‘The Great Battle’ ranked number one, it didn’t receive as much attention as it expected and didn’t do so well in the overall ticket sales, and neither did ‘The Fortress’ from the year before.”

 

“[Right now] audiences are growing tired of the genre,” said another film critic Oh Dong-jin. “Historical fictions tend to see and reflect the world from a different perspective but people feel that the world is already in disarray. They don’t want to reflect upon their history. I believe film organizers quickly caught on to the public sentiment and released more lightweight comedies, like ‘Cheer Up, Mr. Lee’ as a result.”

 

Oh continued to say that heading to the movies over the Chuseok holiday is no longer a way for families to spend some quality time together.

 

“The media continues to portray Chuseok that way but that is simply no longer the case,” said the critic. “People have become individualized and [their tastes] are more diverse than before due to an increase of one-person households and OTT (Over The Top) platforms such as Watcha and Netflix. The majority of people regard the period merely as rest days instead of Chuseok holidays, which is why I believe that it is up to economical or political conditions to affect the box office [instead of the Chuseok holidays]. Categorizing films in accordance with the holidays is pointless now.”

 

However, Kim still said that the holidays still hold some power over box office success. “If word-of-mouth gets around that the film is fun to watch, then they instantly draw attention and often generate huge box office success if it strikes a chord with the audience,” said Kim.

 

According to statistics, over 5.6 million people have seen local films throughout this year’s holidays, which is actually a surge from a few years back. In 2012, only about 3.5 million people saw such films during the same period.

 

In other words, a lot of people still visit the theaters during the holidays, but no longer as family units. While the holidays still hold power over ticket sales, it seems that film distributors are betting differently this year as moviegoers’ preferences no longer unify into one trending genre.

 

Although another “Tazza” series ranked second for this year, drawing 1.67 million people to the screens, there was quite a gap between the top film and the second, which was dominated by actor Ma Dong-seok’s blockbuster “The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos” which sold 2.7 million tickets. “Cheer Up, Mr. Lee,” on the other hand, only sold 857,000 tickets although it was promoted as a “comedy to be seen with families in Chuseok holidays.”

 

Nonetheless, Kim reasoned that people’s avoidance of historical dramas was not due to the genre itself as it covers a wide spectrum of topics. “To sum it up, it’s not a problem of the genre itself, but we need to go into more detail to see what kind of entertainment the film has in store for the people. For instance, we can’t say that ‘The Fortress’ and ‘Rampant,’ where zombies run wild [in the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910)], are of the same genre. They are a completely different set of works.”

 

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]

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Source: Cinema Space

 

"The Fortress" (Namhan Sanseong) presented by @kcc_uae at @ManaratSaadiyat
 starring Lee Byung-hun and Kim Yoon-seok in a spectacular epic set during the Qing invasion of Korea and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk shows for free Monday, Sept. 30, 7:30pm. RSVP at http://cs-thefortress.splashthat.com