News

“Fabricated City” is Park Kwang-Hyun’s long overdue follow-up to his smash hit and award winning 2005 war comedy “Welcome to Dongmakgol,” which on its release was the fourth highest grossing film in South Korean film history, coming second at the box office that year just behind Lee Joon-ik’s “The King and the Clown.”

“Fabricated City” screened at the New York Asian Film Festival

Just his third film, “Fabricated City” keeps the humour of “Welcome to Dongmakgol” but trades the war time setting for a contemporary one, and the conflict between North and South Korea for that between youth and adults. The protagonist, Kwon Yoo (Ji Chang-wook), spends his days playing online video games at an internet cafe (baang) as the leader of a virtual team combat unit named Resurrection. In his online life, Kwon is a hero, placing his avatar at risk in order to save his virtual army.

The days of the zombie craze are over, everything has been done. And yet, it hasn’t. Movies like “Zombie on Sale” still manage to surprise. The Korean movie that had its international premiere in Udine, is the director’s first. You can find the interview of the director and actress Um Ji-Won here.

So, what is the film about, will you ask? It follows the adventures of a family, in a remote South Korean village.

Man-Deok wants to fulfil his late wife’s dream and go to Hawaii. He spends his days with his same-age friends. He lives with his first son, Joon-Gul, his pregnant daughter-in-law, Nam-Joo, and his younger daughter Hae-Gul. The middle son, Min-Gul, comes back after having been laid-off. Their lives take an odd new turn when Joon-Bi bites Man-Deok. The family adopts the (spoiler alert) zombie when they smell profit in the youngster’s bites.

This year, it’ll have been 15 years since the Korean film “Welcome to Dongmakgol” came out. A cultural phenomenon, and more than eight million South Koreans flocked to the movie theatres to see the movie, making it the most successful movie of that year. We were lucky enough to talk with American actor Steven Taschler, who plays the American lead in the movie, Neil Smith. Taschler, who got the role by submitting his headshot and resume back in the United States and later auditioned in an empty warehouse, had no idea what he was getting into when he arrived in Korea.

What were your thoughts about going to South Korea to make this movie?

“I didn’t know much about Korean cinema at the time and none of us really knew how big “Welcome to Dongmakgol” would become, especially me. It was a wonderful surprise when it was so well received all over the world.

When “Welcome to Dongmakgol” came out in 2005, it was a sensation. Based on the long-running play by Jang Jin, more than eight million South Koreans flocked to the cinemas to see the film, making it the most successful movie of that year. “Welcome to Dongmakgol” didn’t win any awards outside of Korea, but within South Korea, it was definitely a critical success as well.

Dongmakgol is a magical place. Not because of actual magic, but because it is somehow completely removed from the rest of civilization. Citizens have no clue about the ongoing war between North and South Korea, know nothing about guns or any kind of modern technology, and have never before stumbled upon outsiders. However, within the span of a few days, everything changes. First, American navy pilot Neil Smith (played by Steve Taschler) crashes his plane near Dongmakgol. Later, South Korean as well...

The days of the zombie craze are over, everything has been done. And yet, it hasn’t. Movies like “The Odd Family” still manage to surprise. The Korean movie, that had its international premiere in Udine, is the director’s first movie. You can find the interview of the director and actress Um Ji-Won here.

“The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale” screened at Udine Far East Film Festival

So, what is the film about, will you ask? It follows the adventures of a family, in a remote South Korean village.

Man-Deok wants to fulfil his late wife’s dream and go to Hawaii. He spends his days with his same-age friends. He lives with his first son, Joon-Gul, his pregnant daughter-in-law, Nam-Joo, and his younger daughter Hae-Gul. The middle son, Min-Gul, comes back after having been laid-off. Their lives take an odd new turn when Joon-Bi bites Man-Deok. The family...

One of the anomalies of the South Korean film industry is its sheer eclecticism. Whilst Asian neighbouring territories typically are known for exporting one specific genre, for example Horror from Japan or Action from Hong Kong, Korea refuses to be tied down by any individual type. In recent years Seoul has released a torrent of films across the board – the country has excelled in thrillers (Memories of a Murder), period (The King and the Clown), romance (Il Mare), gangster (My Boss, My Hero), drama (Christmas In August) and, to the envy of the world’s film industry, war epics. With delicious detail for aesthetics and melodramatic heart, films such as Welcome to Dongmakgol and Taeguki have really pushed the boundaries of cinema forward. So it is no surprise to announce that the new year will see the production of a film centred around the Korean War reports slashfilm. However, there...

Looks like the Korean distributors are sloooowly waking up from their sleep when it comes to release domestic films on Blu-ray Disc on their own instead of letting the International licensees spread the big Korean wave in high definition. While many International films are already available in Korea on Blu-ray Disc, only four domestic films (The Host, Taegukgi (Brotherhood), Welcome to Dongmakgol and The Good, The Bad, The Weird) have been released in Korea for the format. Now Cj Entertainment announced to heighten this sad number by releasing Bong Joon-Ho’s 2003 thriller Memories of Murder on December 10, 2009. According to MadMad.co.kr, the Blu-ray Disc release will include English subtitles, just as expected from a Korean distributor. Package wise, the special edition Bd looks a lot like Cj Entertainments technically pretty much perfect The Good, The Bad, The Weird release that only suffers from not including the longer Korean cut.

BUSAN, South Korea -- Leading Korean entertainment company Showbox is launching its new production house Motion 101 with a bang, thanks to the $13 million science fiction blockbuster Fist.

"We want to create a new style that will surprise people, like '300, ' " Motion 101 COO Jeong Tae-sung said. "We want a strong story, but also we want new ideas, new style, everything."

Fist -- the futuristic tale of a young man who becomes the defender of the poor in the slums of the futuristic Blue City -- is the brainchild of Park Kwang-hyun, whose debut film Welcome to Dongmakgol made about $53 million, the most successful Korean movie of 2005 and seventh biggest ever in Korea.

"Park has been talking about this project for a long time," said Jeong, "since before 'Dongmakgol.' Originally it was set in the present and was not science fiction. But when we talked about it, we added that element and decided to make it really fantastical."

To get the futuristic images of the film as extraordinary as possible, producers hired top Korean production designer Ryu Seong-hee (The Host, Oldboy) to come up with the conceptual designs.