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Kang Dong-Won 강동원 [Upcoming movies: “The Plot”, “Dr. Cheon and Lost Talisman”, “ War and Revolt”]

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oceanluv
oceanluv

Kang Dong Won for 'ELLE' Sports Chosun - Naver: Kang Dong Won's undeniable visuals 1. [+3,109, -64] Were these taken in 2004, during his 'Dog and Wolf' days???? Daebak2. [+2,338, -60] Woa

oceanluv
oceanluv

강동원, 심쿵한 그 눈빛 속으로 KDW @ Elle Korea (full clip 1.11 mins) elle 엘르 dcdongwon source ------------------- Series Entertainer ep.4

oceanluv
oceanluv

HIGH CUT 비밀을 말하다 http://tvcast.naver.com/v/694916 &

oceanluv Fan Level: 30-1

oceanluv

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HIFF more

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short clip
http://www.enjoygram.com/m/843238197443865227_858517985

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Guest AnJilaah

Guest AnJilaah

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Recent survey conducted from journalists, broadcast PDs, filmmakers, etc for the Chungmuro ticket power of 2014 or in layman's term those who topped this year when it comes to movie ticket sales
1 - Choi Min Sik2 - Song Kang Ho3 - Ryu Seong Ryong4 - Ha Jung Woo5 - Kang Dong Won - Song Ye Jin - Yoo Hae Jin (3 way tie) - 3 votes6 - onwards - etc...
Cr: joynews
Glad to see DW placing here. He's back to back movies has been a successful for his comeback. Welcome back to Chungmuro! :)>-
BONUS: KDW's hand gestures ;))
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Cr: KDW DC

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oceanluv Fan Level: 30-1

oceanluv

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class="title" id="page-title"Kang Dong-won and Song Hye-kyo talk about learning life lessons from My Brilliant Life20141103_48_mag_cover_zpsf1d2a2df.jpg

South Korean stars Kang Dong-won and Song Hye-kyo learned valuable personal and professional lessons from their latest roles

Darcy Paquet

Song Hye-kyo and Kang Dongwon are superstars in their native South Korea, and they reached that status long ago. Both enjoyed early success, making professional debuts in their teens – the actress in television drama First Love (2000), and Kang as a model before trying his hand at acting. Now in their early 30s, they are both in their prime, and in their new film, My Brilliant Life, they play parents for the first time.

The film is based on Kim Ae-ran’s bestselling 2011novel, My Palpitating Life, about a 17-year-old boy, Ah-reum, who suffers from progeria, a rare genetic condition which causes premature ageing.

Looking like an 80-year-old and realising his time may be running out, the teenage Ah-reum sets out to write a story about how his young parents fell in love.

“As soon as I read the script I was drawn to it,” says Song. “I liked the humanistic focus of the story, and I have a lot of trust in director E J-yong, so I agreed to do it immediately.

” She happened to mention the project to Kang, who is in the same management company. The two have been friends since appearing together in Jang Joon-hwan’s Love for Sale (2010), and move in the same social circles. “He showed a great interest in the story, so I told him to ask for the script,” the actress recalls.

“To be honest, I cried when I read the screenplay,” says Kang. “I could really sympathise with the characters.”

Playing a father was a challenge at first. “I don’t have the experience of being a father in real life, so it took some time for me to feel comfortable with that aspect of the role,” Kang says.

For both Song and Kang, another attraction of this film was the prospect of working with director E J-yong (who has adopted a phonetic spelling for his name; the more conventional transcription would be “Lee Jae-yong”). Perhaps best known for his 2003 hit Untold Scandal, which transposed Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses to the 18th century Joseon dynasty Korea, the director has in recent years focused on low-budget experimental works like Actresses (2009) and Behind the Camera (2013).

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Kang Dong-won. Photo: David Pang

E’s return to commercial filmmaking has resulted in a movie that feels somewhat restrained and refined compared to the average South Korean melodrama, but nonetheless provokes floods of tears. “He doesn’t like exaggerated gestures or emotions in his films,” says Song. “He worked hard to bring out the subtlety of our performances.”

That meant using very few close-ups, says Kang. “It was a slightly different experience, shooting this film.”

Male viewers and parents have responded particularly strongly to this drama, which took in 12.3 billion won (HK$90.9 million) at the South Korean box office.

The roles required a fair amount of preparation before shooting. “The first thing we did was learn more about progeria,” says Song. “Together with the director, we watched a lot of documentaries on the subject, and discussed it extensively. It’s quite heartbreaking, when you learn about it in detail.

“We also had some debate early on about the visual look of our characters,” she says. “The director’s instinct was to go against the polished image that we’ve had as actors up to this point. I completely understood him, but I also worried that if it went too far it might look forced, or too deliberate. In the end I think we found a good compromise.”

But without question, the actor who worked hardest and made the most sacrifices in this film was 13-year-old Jo Sung-mok, who played Ah-reum. To create a convincing portrait of a prematurely aged child, he spent five hours in make-up each day before starting to act. “He worked so hard,” says on-screen mother Song. “He has a very reserved, quiet personality, and I think he felt quite nervous because this was his first film. We worked hard together on the set, but we became much closer afterwards while promoting the film, when the pressure was off.”

For Kang, the most memorable scene is when his character Dae-soo goes back to visit his father after years of estrangement. Playing opposite the highly accomplished Kim kap-soo, he became emotional in unexpected ways. “This has never happened to me before, but while rehearsing the scene I started crying hard. They started rolling the cameras immediately, to capture the emotion. I suppose because I have the experience of being someone’s son, the emotions came more easily to me than they did in the scenes where I’m playing a father,” he says.

His experience working on My Brilliant Life has also caused Kang to contemplate his life. “Shooting this film has made me think about one day raising a family and about my future as an actor,” he says. “In the coming years I’m likely to be taking on more roles as a father.”

For her part, portraying a mother made Song think more about her acting. “There is a line of dialogue that my character says towards the end of the film: ‘As a mother, I know this.’ I thought long and hard about how I should deliver that line, and what emotion I should put into it. I haven’t experienced motherhood directly, but after building up my character scene by scene, in the end I could feel how she would say it.”

This year marks17 years since Song’s acting debut and she vividly remembers the turning point of her career. “In my late teens and early 20s, I worked hard on my roles, but, to be honest, I didn’t feel any special commitment to acting,” she says.

All that changed when she met Noh Hee-kyung, the scriptwriter who wrote the screenplays for television dramas The World That They Live In (2008) and That Winter, the Wind Blows (2013), in which Song starred.

“We talked often while working together and we kept in touch between those times. She’d give me advice about my career, or we’d discuss personal matters. You could call her a mentor. Having her at my side gave me a lot of strength.”

Song also believes the craft of acting can become increasingly challenging. “Partly, it’s because your expectations and sense of responsibility increase, but also because it becomes more complicated and difficult as you do more of it. In most professions, you build up confidence and a sense of achievement as you go along, but that’s really not true for acting.” Although many Asian stars have headed to Hollywood, both Kang and Song express greater interest in staying at home.

“I really do hope that Asia can develop more of its own market for film,” Kang says. “Of course, China is always likely to be the centre of that market, but I hope that films from throughout Asia can cross borders more easily and that a closer filmmaking community can develop.” Kang is currently learning Putonghua and he hopes to shoot films on the mainland.

If he needs advice, he can turn to Song, who has four years of experience shooting high-profile works on the mainland. Having participated in Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster (2013), she will also be seen in John Woo’s upcoming blockbuster The Crossing, about the sinking of the steamer Taiping in 1949. The first of the two-part story will be released in December.

“Shooting the film was a great experience and it was a tremendous honour to work with John Woo,” she says. “In The Grandmaster I had a supporting role, but my character in The Crossing is much more central to the plot. When I think that I’m the only actor from South Korea to have worked with John Woo, it’s really humbling.”

My Brilliant Life opens on November 6

source: http://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1631827/kang-dong-won-and-song-hye-kyo-talk-about-learning-life-lessons-my

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translated by @hclover96 from SHK Thread <thx so much>

In the film "MPL", Song Hye Kyo and Kang Dong Won played young parents who at the age of 17 gave birth to a son suffering from progeria.  As for the challenge of playing first time parents, the two said before filming this movie, they didn't specifically go to friends with children to ask for advice.  Because the characters' and their real life ages are similar, Kang Dong Won rely on his own feelings to act out the role.  But they both said the biggest difficulty were the scenes where they act as students, worried that their appearances are not convincing enough.

In the film, Song Hye Kyo and Kang Dong Won eloped in order to keep their son.  When asked if in real life, can they accept being unmarried, pregnant and eloped?  Song Hye Kyo said:  I think Mira and Dae Soo (their roles in MPL) are powerful parents, but in real life, I do not have that courage.  When I was younger, I thought marriage and having kids are very common things, but slowly by slowly, I'm having more concerns, becoming to have no confidence.  Kang Dong Won said:  It's hard to imagine, but I would do everything I can for the child.  Because I'm a man, have to be responsible.

If they are to become parents in the future, Song Hye Kyo and Kang Dong Won hope to be able to mingle with their children.  Kyo said:  I have debuted when I was young so teaching my children to learn (in terms of education) may be a little difficult, but because I have gained a lot of social experience, I will share everything with my children, we can chat about everything just like friends do, no topics are restricted.

In MPL, Kang Dong Won filmed a "nude" scene by the river, in regards to "baring skin" for the first time, he did not specifically go to the gym.  As for in the future, will he challenge a larger scale?  He answered:  I've always don't like shooting nude scenes, but if the script calls for one, I would seriously consider it.  My personality is someone who worries a lot, I just want to relaxingly film the productions I like.

Kang Dong Won admitted that like all other men, he likes beautiful, kind and smart women, but he's a little oppose to sexy women.

source: http://www.weibo.com/p/1001603771713233016288

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Song Hye Kyo Kang Dong Won @ Hong Kong Star Talk interview 20141105



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czakhareina Fan Level: 30

czakhareina

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Film adaptations boost book sales

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At a glance, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between movie theaters and bookshops these days. The best-seller shelf in stores selling novels is often stacked with publications that have been adapted into movies, while film posters promoting the original books are exhibited all over.

Of course, films inspired by literary works have been around for years, starting in Korea with Lee Gyeong-son’s “The Pioneer” (1924), which was based on writer Lee Gwang-soo’s eponymous novel. 

Because a published book often has a pre-existing fan base, its cinematic version usually receives an extra popularity boost when it hits the big screen. 

But in the past couple of years, this particular genre - novel-based movies - has started to reversely affect the publishing industry, pushing the original printed works to the top of the best-seller list in Korea’s online and offline bookstores.

The phenomenon has spread so much within the local literary business that the term “screen-seller” has been newly coined to indicate books that sell well after making it to the movie theaters.

Swedish film “The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared,” based on best-selling novelist Jonas Johansson’s book of the same title, was released domestically on June 18. According to statistics released by Interpark, a leading online shopping mall in Korea, it soared to the top of the best-seller list, where it stayed for three consecutive months from June to August. 

The movie is based on the whimsical adventure of an old man who one day decides to escape his residential home and becomes involved in all kinds of trouble. 

“I watched the movie and thought the book would tell the story better,” said Kim Ji-eun, 26, who decided to buy the novel after watching the film.

Another best-seller that received a push from the success of its movie version was John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” which centers on the heart-rending and life-appreciating story of two teenagers who are chronically ill. 

Top; “The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” by Jonas Johansson topped the best-selling list for three consecutive months after the movie’s domestic release.above;John Green’s “The Fault In Our Stars” is in the limelight for the first time since it was published in 2011, after the movie was released in Korea in August.

The book was published in Korea in 2012 but did not do so well at first. Two years later, however, when the movie adaptation got its domestic release on Aug. 13, sales rose steeply and it landed in second place on the best-seller list that same month.

Korean novelist Kim Ae-ran’s latest work, “My Brilliant Life,” was also dramatized on the silver screen, featuring top actors Song Hye-kyo and Gang Dong-won. When the book garnered attention for being made into a movie, its sales shot up. More than 300,000 copies have been bought since “My Brilliant Life” was published in 2011. 

The situation seen in the past, where movies were reinforced by the content and popularity of the original book, has reversed. It is the novel that now relies heavily on its film version for success. 

Superficially, the symbiotic effects of adaptations seem to do no harm, but critics point out that there are downsides to this phenomenon for the publishing industry. Some say relying on other forms of popular culture to sell novels indicates how vulnerable the literary market really is. 

Because leisure experiences have become exceedingly dependent on digital gadgets, the publishing industry is also becoming subordinate to technology. If books aren’t exposed through films, and receive less media interest as a result, there is less of a chance that readers will pick them.13065733.jpgKim Ae-ran’s “My Brilliant Life” was picked up by many readers after it was announced that it would be made into a movie with Song Hye-kyo and Gang Dong-won. [JoongAng Ilbo]
“There is a risk that books that are not made into movies will experience some kind of a reverse discrimination,” said Heo Hee, a literary critic.

“Filmmakers prefer books that have a clear story development with a precise narration.”

Heo also pointed out that readers will suffer as a consequence. 

“But there are also books that talk about calmer issues that sometimes give linguistic inspiration to readers with their prose,” Heo explained. 

“It’s difficult for these kinds of books to lure interest from the film industry and thus the readers.”

Books selected by filmmakers are also usually already well-known among readers, which makes it difficult for new or relatively unknown writers to receive attention. 

For example, Kim Ryeo-ryeong, who has had the novels “Punch” and “Elegant Lies” made into movies, was already a best-selling author before receiving further exposure.

“The book-and-movie combination is not as effective as expected in expanding the publishing industry,” said Heo. 

“Novels that are revisited by filmmakers are usually ones that are already highly marked within the industry.”

Despite concerns, the publishing industry is trying to look on the bright side. Since the literary market has been sagging for years, with the number of people reading hard copies of books decreasing every year, a film that introduces a novel to the public on a grander scale is seen as more than a bonus.

“While some may worry that the readers’ choices are too concentrated on ‘screen-sellers,’ we consider it a nice opportunity to introduce the original book to the potential readers,” said Lee Ji-young, an assistant manager at the publishing department of Yes 24, an online retailer in Korea. 

“Also, books that are dramatized into movies mean that they have been approved in terms of content and quality.” 

“There are a lot of positive consequences we get from the movies if they do well in the theaters,” said Kim Eun-kyeong, a marketing director at Mirae’N, which published the Korean-language version of “The Fault in Our Stars.” 

“Promotion for books is very limited in online and offline bookstores. If movies are well received by the public, we can build a marketing strategy combining the movie and the book, which means a lot to us.”

The publisher often replaces the book’s old cover with a jacket that shows the film’s official poster, and rolls out many promotional events related to the adaptation, such as selling a cinema ticket as a package with the novel. 

It is doubtful that books that act as inspiration for films will disappear anytime soon. 

Asia’s biggest movie event, the ongoing Busan International Film Festival, held a third “Book to Film,” section, where directors and publishers meet to promote adaptations of published content.

Even more ambitious plans to churn out cinematic versions of books are coming up. French novel “Woman in Straw,” written by Catherine Arley, will be remade in Korea under the title “Secret Temptation,” starring Im Soo-jung and Yoo Yeon-seok. 

Actor Ha Jung-woo’s second directorial feature, “Chronicle of a Blood Merchant,” is also based around a book by one of China’s most influential writers, Yu Hua. 

And most recently, news broke that French best-selling author Guillaume Musso’s “Will You Love Me” will be turned into a Korean movie, the first Asian adaptation of the novel. 

“There can be concerns that readers’ preferences lean toward one side, but in the end it is a virtuous cycle that both benefit the film and the publishing industry. ... Literature becomes movies because they like the literature, and likewise, if people like the movie, they revisit the book,” said Yu Gina, a film critic and a professor of film and digital media at Dongguk University. 


BY JIN EUN-SOO [jes@joongang.co.kr] KOREA JOONG ANG DAILY
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