News
Parade of New Films in Various Genres
Fresh Korean Films
Cameras roll all year around and new films continually come to us one after another. Here are several films that finished shooting in February and March. Expectations are high for all of them, as a result of their directors, actors and stories.
▶ Tear-jerking drama of a mother and her son
Ggangcheol (working title)
Ggangcheol (working title)
Provision and Distribution CJ Entertainment | Production Cinema Service, ORM PICTURES
Director AHN Gwon-tae | Starring YOO Ah-in, KIM Hae-sook, JUNG Yu-Mi
Filming start Dec 4, 2012 | Filming end Mar 19, 2013 | Scheduled Release Date Late 2013
Shooting of Ggangcheol, starring the young and talented actor YOO Ah-in, finished in Busan on March 19th. Ggangcheol is a film about a boy named Gang-cheol who is unemployed but leads a hard life to make money to pay the hospital bills for his mother and in the process gets involved with an organized gang. KIM Hae-sook of The Thieves and YOO Ah-in of Punch meet as mother and son to perform and show great harmony in this film.
YOO acted as Gang-cheol, who struggles to make money for his mother’s medical treatment while KIM played the role of the mom who has dementia but is still full of love for her son. Soo-ji, who travels alone in Busan, accidently meets Gang-cheol to give him hope, she is played by JUNG Yu-Mi. JUNG appeared in In Another Country and Oki’s Movie, both directed by HONG Sangsoo, as well as in Silenced. In addition, good supporting actors such as KIM Jung-tae and SIN Jeong-geun rounded out the cast with their great acting skills.
The last filming took place for a scene where YOO feels desperate after he is rejected when submitting an application for a bank loan for his mother’s hospital fees. YOO was passionate and hopeful for Ggangcheol, a new film after Punch, and he brought an impassioned performance to this final set-up. It has been nine years since AHN Gwon-tae directed My Brother starring WON Bin. Ggangcheol will be released later this year following post-production.
▶ Violent duo in an action thriller
Punisher (working title)
Punisher (working title)
Co-provision and Distribution Invent D | Production and Co-provision NBRIX Pictures
Director Shin Dong-yeob | Starring YANG Dong-keun, JOO Sang-uk, LEE Tae-im
Filming start Dec 17, 2012 | Filming end Feb 15, 2013 | Scheduled Release Date Late 2013
YANG Dong-keun and JOO Sang-uk are up for a fierce duel. The last filming for Punisher took place at Maryang harbor in Seocheon, Chungcheongnam-do on February 15th. In this action thriller, Chang-suk (YANG) bullies Joon-suk (JOO) at high school and the animosity remains until Joon-suk takes revenge 15 years later. They even canceled New Year’s holidays to shoot the scene where the two leading characters have their last bloody fight. It is the climax of the film. At the shooting site where the atmosphere was full of tension, both YANG and JOO emitted their emotions and put their full energy into the scene.
Punisher is a film about school violence. YANG played Chang-suk, who tortures one of his classmates at high school but later forgets about it and lives calmly and happily. JOO acted as Joon-suk, the victim of school violence who takes revenge exactly the same way he was tortured 15 years before. LEE Tae-im paired up with YANG, appearing as his fiancee Ji-hee.
The hardcore action thriller Punisher will show how a normal person can turn into the devil and how one can destruct another person’s life. In a sense, the film is based on the philosophy that good and evil coexist in humans.
▶ Romantic comedy of a couple's rocky relationship
Queen of Night
Provision Capital One | Production i Vision
Director KIM Je-young | Starring CHUN Jeong-myoung, KIM Min-jung
Filming start Dec 17, 2012 | Filming end Mar 12, 2013 | Scheduled Released Date Spring of 2013
Shooting for Queen of Night, starring KIM Min-jung and CHUN Jeong-myoung, was completed on March 11th. The last shooting was for a scene concerning the past of wife Hee-joo (KIM) which triggered the husband Young-soo (CHUN) to have doubts about her. After finishing the last scene at a club in Gangnam-gu in Seoul, KIM monitored her own acting and said, “I made a lot of effort to show as much of what I have as possible. I want to hear people say that I worked really hard.” CHUN said, “I enjoyed the shooting of this film more than I did for any other film.”
CHUN used to be tough and charismatic in previous films such as, Les Formidables and Hindsight, but is extremely timid in this film. KIM, who has constantly been active since her childhood career, changed over the course of shooting from a virtuous wife, and a kind tutor to a femme fatale and a dancer.
Queen of Night is a film about a timid man who figures out the fishy past of his wife and stubbornly investigates her past days.
▶ Comic action drama about two Koreas raises curiosity
Secretly Greatly
Secretly Greatly
Provision Michigan Venture Capital | Co-provision Showbox/Mediaplex, leyeast, Daemyeong Group/Gian Culturetainment | Provision Showbox/Mediaplex | Production MCMC | Original Story Webtoon ‘Secretly but Greatly’
Director JANG Cheol-soo | Starring KIM Soo-hyun, PARK Ki-woong, LEE Hyun-woo, SON Hyeon-ju, SIN Jeong-geun, HONG Kyung-in, LEE Chae-young, PARK Eun-bin, CHOI Woo-sik
Filming start Oct 2012 | Filming end Mar 8 | Scheduled Release Date Jun 5, 2013
The much expected film Secretly Greatly is soon to be released as the shooting came to an end on March 8th. The last filming took place at a slum where Dong-goo (KIM Soo-hyun) and Hae-jin (LEE Hyun-woo) hide and stare at something. They played the roles of the secret top elite spies of the 5446 Corps from North Korea disguised as ordinary high school students.
Based of the mega hit webtoon ‘Secretly but Greatly’, which attracted over 40 million clicks, the film features strong acting and great looking elite actors including KIM, PARK Ki-woong and LEE Hyun-woo. It was directed by JANG Cheol-soo, who debuted with Bedevilled three years ago.
The material and the story are both unique. WON Ryu-hwan (KIM), the top elite agent who beat the high competition rate of 20,000:1, LEE Hae-rang (PARK), son of a North Korean top class officer and high class agent almost as good as WON and LEE, the youngest secret agent in North Korean history, are all legendary spies of the 5446 Coprs.
Under the great goal of unifying their country, they are ambitiously dispatched to the South, where each disguises himself as a silly boy, a would-be singer and a high school student, respectively. Passing dull time without receiving any orders from the North, they gradually get used to life as ordinary citizens in a slum until a secret and important mission is suddenly assigned to them.
