[movie 2006] Traces Of Love 가을로

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Kim Ji Soo + Yoo Ji Tae

in Traces of Love

Source: CINE21.com

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PIFF 12/10 - Opening Night & Red Carpet event

Kim Ji Soo & Yoo Ji Tae (credit: empas.com)

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PHOTOS FROM CINE21

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2006/10/19 11:43 KST

PIFF film market has things to celebrate but sees long way to go in debut year

BUSAN, Oct. 19 (Yonhap) -- A film fair inaugurated at this year's Pusan International Film Festival paved the way for Asian movies eyeing sales overseas, but large buyers in general seemed reluctant to do business in the new-born market, organizers said Thursday.

"It was better than we expected for an opening market. Things we were missing here were just that the Japanese buyers whom we expected to be biggest did not really move," said Park Kwang-su, director of the Asian Film Market that closed Wednesday after a four-day run as part of the film festival in the South Korean southern coastal city of Busan.

The presence of giant Japanese distributors like Toho-Towa Co. and Shochiku Co. gave a major boost to the film market seeking to become a business center for Asian movies. But few deals were signed with the Japanese firms, while buyers from Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, France and Germany took some home.

Also, the market did not involve much-awaited films like Park Chan-wook's newest work tentatively named "I'm Cyborg" starring Asian heartthrob Rain.

"They (the Japanese buyers) drew the line after collecting data on screen movies. They didn't go any further to buy them," he said.

Still, the first-time PIFF film market made its own record. Fifteen Korean movies found buyers, including "Thousand-year Crane," the 100th movie by acclaimed director Im Kwon-taek that was signed by the French sales company, Wild Bunch, and the festival opener "Traces of Love," a melodrama by Kim Dae-seung sold to Japan's Sony Pictures.

South Korea's major distributor CJ Entertainment inked deals with "The Road," by China's Zhang Jiarui, and with the works by Focus Film, a Hong Kong production company led by Andy Lau.

Movies from abroad that found buyers include "Eternal Summer" by Taiwan's Leste Chen, "Slaughter Night" by Germany's Edwin Visser and Frank van Geloven and "Love Sick" by Romania's Tudor Giurgiu.

hkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

Source: Yonhap News

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/Engnews/20...19114355E2.html

[Guest conduongmuathu]

Trace of love premier

vod 01

vod 02

credit: sarangksw.com

[rubie]

^Hi! Thanks very much for the premiere VODS.

Really appreciate them, a wonderful sharing for everyone. Please keep on posting.

[rubie]

Sunday, October 22, 2006

[movie REVIEW]

'Traces of Love' tackles triangular theme involving tragic disaster

"Traces of Love," which opens this weekend nationwide, has been promoted as a typical melodrama tailored along the sentimentality associated with autumn. That's why its Korean title is "Gaeulro," roughly translating into "Into the Fall."

But before plunging into this seemingly benign category, viewers have to deal with two other genres - a disaster theme and a road-trip (in fact, a highly sophisticated travel guide) theme - that bolster the high-profile opener at the Pusan International Film Festival which ended Friday.

With his cinematic sensibility and commercial potential widely recognized, director Kim Dae-seung attempts to mix all the three genres together in the hope of consolidating the three starkly different elements to provide a three-legged theme.

"Traces of Love," directed by Kim Dae-seung, attempts to

uncover human relations buried under the rubble of the

Sampoong Department Store disaster.

For the most part, the three legs move separately and viewers have to decide whether such cinematic device really works. The initial shocking development in the film, however, does not give viewers much time to ponder. On June 29, 1995, Hyun-woo (Yu Ji-tae) is set to shop together with his fiancee Min-ju (Kim Ji-su) for their much-anticipated wedding, and he asks her to wait for him at a nearby department store.

Min-ju, however, insists on waiting near the prosecutor's headquarters - a fleeting yet disturbing moment that highlights women's mysterious instincts for sensing danger. Eventually, she heads for the Sampoong Department Store, which is destined to cave in literally a couple of hours later.

The Sampoong disaster, a real tragedy in 1995, cost 502 innocent lives and wounded about 900 people - one of the most notorious examples of shoddy construction practices in Korea. In fact, the nation was in for another grossly man-made disaster - this time, it's a Han River bridge collapsing - before the scars left by the Sampoong disaster had time to completely heal.

Back to the movie, Hyun-woo is just about to cross the street to meet Min-ju but the department store suddenly begins to collapse. Terrific computer graphics recreate unbelievable images in a realistic and dramatic fashion.

Minutes before the actual collapse, the camera briefly shows department store officials hurriedly rushing out of the building, suggesting that they might have known about the possibility of the collapse in advance. Director Kim seems to raise the social issue about those irresponsible department store officials, but he doesn't go further.

Instead, Kim fast forwards Hyun-woo's life. He's now a ranking prosecutor and fighting against corrupt politicians who seemingly have taken bribes in return for business favors that involve, well, apartment complex construction.

Hyun-woo's life is far from glorious. He chases after the bad guys, but the old-boy network is too powerful and wicked. Hyun-woo is forced to acknowledge his defeat, at least momentarily.

But new momentum comes along when Min-ju's father visits the depressed prosecutor who might have become his son-in-law and passes along a long-lost diary written by Min-ju about 10 years ago.

Min-ju, a broadcast producer, traveled extensively and discovered many scenic spots. For her forthcoming honeymoon, she meticulously recorded the travel courses, including maps and comments.

The disaster flick is now gone, and a road-trip theme emerges with Hyun-woo visiting all the famous tourist spots described in Min-ju's diary. It's more of a travel guide since the diary lays out not only the specific route but also anecdotes and background stories associated with forests, temples and villages.

The film delicately depicts spectacularly beautiful images of Korean rivers, mountains, temples and forests, which will surely impress even most Korean viewers who think they have traveled enough around the Korean Peninsula.

But where is the love story (please, try to remember three legs)? Min-ju's affection toward Hyun-woo, in fact, is intertwined with the travelogue. Her image is superimposed on many scenes where Hyun-woo is tracking down her traces of love.

To help remind moviegoers that what they are watching is a melodrama, director Kim brings back to life Min-ju and makes her talk in a melodramatic fashion in order to put together the gorgeous scenic spots and her long-lost travelogue. But the scenic images are so powerful and overwhelming that it is questionable whether Min-ju's love story is delivered properly.

Strangely enough, Hyun-woo bumps into Se-jin (Eom Ji-won) in most of the spots mentioned in the diary. Se-jin is more than a simple traveler who happens to know the route, forging a triangle of relationships that props up the plot in the second half of the movie.

"Traces of Love" is chiefly concerned with human reaction and relations buried under the rubble and then rediscovered through beautiful, almost healing, images of Korean landscape. Such luxurious images certainly deserve praise, but the actors' performances (Yu's smiles, smirks and almost snarls) are less than impressive, and the three-legged theme is too complex to trace.

(insight@heraldm.com)

By Yang Sung-jin

2006.10.23

Source: The Korea Herald

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/htm...00610230018.asp

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Not sure if KJS attending the festival for Traces of Love or something else

Culture - Oct. 25, 2006

Actress Kim Ji-su attends a press conference for the fourth

Asiana International Short Film Festival at Kumho Art Hall

in Seoul on Tuesday./Yonhap

Source: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0610250004.html

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10-26-2006

'Traces' Leaves Not Much to Follow

By Kim Tae-jong

Staff Reporter

Yoo Ji-tae, left, and Kim Ji-soo play lovers in "Traces of Love,"

directed by Kim Dae-seung.

A luxurious Seoul department store abruptly collapsed into rubble in June 1995, claiming more than 500 innocent lives. It was recorded in history as one of the most disastrous and shocking accidents ever, yet the tragic stories of individual victims were buried all together.

Ten years have passed since, and director Kim Dae-seung attempts to dig into the forgotten accident in his new melodrama "Trace of Love."

But different from typical Hollywood disaster movies like James Cameron's 1997 film "Titanic," Kim sheds light on the efforts made by victims to deal with the painful memory and heal the painful aftermath.

Starring Yu Ji-tae, Kim Ji-soo and Uhm Ji-won, the movie portrays a man who suffers from the loss of his girlfriend in the accident and sets out on a journey following the same path and the same footsteps his late girlfriend took when she traveled through the country.

In the film, Hyun-woo (played by Yu) passes a law exam and proposes to his lover Min-joo (by Kim), and they are about to enter the world where their love seems as if it will last forever.

But it meets a tragic and sudden end when she dies in the department store collapse.

Since that day, 10 years have passed and he is now a successful prosecutor and changed into a seemingly very coldhearted man but he still suffers from the loss, remembering that on that day, she insisted that he come to the mall with her, but he asked her to go there alone and wait for him.

One day, he is suspended from his office because of bad management of a case. Knowing his poor situation, Min-joo's father visits him and hands him his daughter's diary, on which she wrote about various beautiful spots where she visited while working as a television tour program director. She planed to revisit every beautiful place in the book with him on their honeymoon.

On his journey, he is overwhelmed by the great scenery and feels as if she was with him. He also encounters a mysterious woman (by Uhm) with characteristics similar to those of his late girlfriend, and traveling together, they start to learn how to deal with their pain.

The movie is full of beautiful scenery, including the country's rivers, fields, temples and mountains in the fall, which make you want to follow the trace of the main characters' journey.

But the overuse of such great scenery is rather disturbing in the end.

The director may want to say that Mother Nature symbolizes the opposite of radical civilization and has magical powers to heal the pain of her children. However, the film employs too many symbolic and poetic spins due to the poor fostering of a simple story and characters' inner emotional conflicts given the vivid images on the 1995's accident broadcast on TV.

e3dward@koreatimes.co.kr

Source: The Korea Times

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/20...18004010970.htm

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Oct 27, 2006

Eom Ji-won Rediscovered

"After I finish my vacation, I think my heart may be filled with trees." Screenplay gems seem to stick in the memory forever, and with the way actress Eom Ji-won puts her all into her role, her performance will linger in the minds of audiences for some time. The film that opened this year's Pusan International Film Festival, "Traces of Love," was the vehicle for the actress’s rediscovery. With the fluidity that is born automatically from frank and simple acting, the actress is enchanting. Appearing with the "two greats" Yoo Ji-tae and Kim Ji-su, being entrusted with the lead role was "very intimidating."

"Ji-su is a veteran of soap opera on the small screen, and Ji-tae is veteran of the big screen. So I thought that just as long as I did well, things would turn out fine. But any little mistake seemed like it would be so noticeable, so it made me very worried." In this film, Eom Ji-won has to hold her own alongside the two giants. It wasn't easy. Since she only makes her appearance halfway into the film, one little mistake could easily give rise to antipathy.

As a survivor of a department store collapse, her character is troubled by re-emerging trauma. She did a lot of research into the role, studying news and documentaries about the 1995 Sampoong Department Store collapse and even read over psychology texts. As the fruit of her labors, she was able to create a character that expresses the sorrows of those who lived through the tragedy.

She set the atmosphere on the set. When she did the scenes buried in the rubble after the collapse, it was extremely trying for her, but she still managed to laugh about it afterwards. Finishing the 10-month shoot with no major problems is also a testament to her character.

Just like her character in "Traces of Love" Eom Ji-won loves to take trips. They "got over their post-trauma difficulties and nursed their wounds -- everything turning out well made my heart grown light again. I hope that this fall turns out the same way."

Source: englishnews@chosun.com

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/new...0610270003.html

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October 22, 2006

Traces of Love

The opening film of the 11th Pusan International Film Festival in 2006, Traces of Love, is a difficult film to talk about Spoiler-Free. You just have to expose the first surprise to make any sense and even the advertising blurbs know this and do just that. But knowing this surprise doesn't ruin the film because this is a melodrama and certain things are 'known' to happen within the genre. It's the getting there that's more than half the fun.

So for those of you who are greatly Spoiler averse, I'm going to need to ask you to leave after the next two sentences. I advise you to not even read the plot summary provided online because, like I said, the surprise has to be given away. All that can be said is that if you enjoyed Kim Dae-seung's debut Bungee Jumping of Their Own, you will enjoy this film even more.

The reason I can make the claim above is because Kim, as if on the return trip of a bungee cord of his own, retraces his steps along a love border that cannot be crossed. Hyun-woo (Yoo Ji-tae) is a young prosecutor who has just proposed to his love Min-joo (Kim Ji-soo - This Charming Girl). Still insecure in his position at work, Hyun-woo must delay a date with Min-joo, strongly urging her to meet him in the coffeehouse of a department store after work. The narrative then takes a pacing that prepares the audience for something terrible to happen, which does indeed happen. While in the underground cafe, moments after the camera zooms in on a notebook to confirm it will have gun-on-the-wall significance later within the narrative, the department store collapses just as Hyun-woo begins to cross the street. If you have flashbacks to the Sampoong Department Store collapse that killed 501 South Koreans in 1995, such is the intent of this allusion. Still, the image is horrifying regardless of one's memory sense.

We jump in time (some might find the melding of time frames annoying in the film but I really took a liking to this tried and true technique here) and see Hyun-woo a changed man. Once a stumbling lawyer who couldn't take control of his clients and charges, Hyun-woo emerges as cold and calculating after the tragedy. A political court case involving the mayor is steered away from his control but he still gets the blame from the victims. Seeing him pelted with eggs on TV, Hyun-woo's could've been father-in-law sees that it is time to present the present Min-joo intended Hyun-woo to receive. The gun is fired in the form of that notebook mentioned earlier, drawn in which is a map to the hike she planned to take Hyun-woo on during their Honeymoon. Hyun-woo proceeds to follow this map in hopes that it will act as a form of therapy, as a sort of labyrinth towards healing from the loss of his beloved from which he still obviously suffers.

Of course, he's going to meet someone there, and keep meeting her, because this is a melodrama. And this genre requirement comes in the person of Se-jin (Uhm Ji-won). We know this means she has a connection to the department store collapse that killed his fiance. And if you don't know this, the sound that director Kim brings in when Se-jin feels claustrophobic well underscores this character's motivation. Turns out she's taking the very same path to work through the personal pain she carries.

Many commentators on South Korean film have credited this common theme of the 'un-crossable love border' to the politically un-crossable border of the DMZ, so it is obvious why such narratives as this will resonate with the older generations of South Koreans who experienced the war and the separation first hand. As part of their cultural script, younger generations will feel this in their own way as well. However, such an idea of unattainable love is also universal. Who hasn't felt the impotence of not being able to complete a confession of love let alone maintain a romantic relationship dear to them? (And if you are one of those 'lucky' ones, there is something us 'unlucky' folks learn from such unattainable loves that causes me to question how 'lucky' you actually are if you have been able to avoid this pain in your life. There's a valuable lesson learned from the unattainable loves that I'm not sure, knowing what I know now, is a class I'd want to skip.) What Traces of Love demonstrates is the power of letting go of that incomplete relationship with another in order to receive someone new who understands a similar, how be it different, loss. Whereas Bungee Jumping of Their Own could be propagandized as evidence supporting the one soul mate for life myth, Traces of Love does less so while still holding onto the belief that fate brings lovers together. And it is this belief in fateful love that partly explains why melodramas are held so dearly to our chests. (Adam Hartzell)

CREDIT to koreanfilm.org

http://koreanfilm.org/kfilm06.html#tracesoflove

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눈물 나는 가을, 왠지 멜로가 끌린다

[OSEN 2006-11-04 09:23]

Source of article http://news.naver.com/news/read.php?mode=L...amp;menu_id=106

[rubie]

A little side-update for Kim Ji Soo's fans...

Her new movie coming out

SOLACE (2006)

http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=98043

[Guest el dia]

Trace of Love (DVDrip)

is avaliable to download @ naynay123

[Guest jojo]

Thanks Rubie, l am late as usual.....but very please that l discover this thread....l am frantically trying to dl all the clips now and would be back again....once again thanks for all the links and pixs. Should have known that you would put up this thread....l am looking forward to see this movie...both are my favourites. * ^ ^ *

[Guest bluenitesky]

anyone noe if the there's a sub for this movie or where i can get it ??

[shirley]

anyone noe if the there's a sub for this movie or where i can get it ??

the DVD coming out on 23 Jan ..i just ordered it ..i love the DVD design already .it come like a diary

[rubie]

^It looked just like the diary in the movie, right... very ingenious idea. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Rubie, l am late as usual.....but very please that l discover this thread....l am frantically trying to dl all the clips now and would be back again....once again thanks for all the links and pixs. Should have known that you would put up this thread....l am looking forward to see this movie...both are my favourites. * ^ ^ *

Hi jojo... I thought you knew about the thread already. :blush: Nonetheless, it's really good to see you here, lets share about the movies like before.

Hope to see it too... I'm hooked on KJS as well.

ps: thanks Sarang for the CB info, appreciate it!

[Guest love.]

this movie sounds so touching!! i love the cast. this looks like a must-watch<3

[Guest jojo]

Shirley, thanks for sharing, l think the special edition looks absolutely great !

Hi Rubie, :blush: l am always slow lah....hope to see the movie soon. Saw the mv and making of.... l think the "making of...." actually gives a clue about the 3rd character and why she knows the route so well. Nevertheless, knowing the answer does not really matters much, l am even more keen to see this movie.... like you l am also hook on KSJ and YJT has always been a favourite of mine since "Ditto" days.