Dramabeans » Ha Ji-won

Opening red carpet at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival

javabeans — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:32:36 +0000

On October 8, the 14th Pusan International Film Festival, or PIFF, opened in Busan. (Yes, the city takes a different official spelling than the film festival. Blame inconsistent Romanization.)

As the largest film festival in Korea, it drew a large list of attendees, as you can see from the long list of red-carpet walkers. It was definitely a star-studded opening night, and even included one familiar Hollywood face (Josh Hartnett).

This year’s PIFF features its largest lineup to date, screening 355 films from 70 countries, and closes on the 16th.

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Read the rest of Opening red carpet at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival (241 words)

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Post tags: Byun Jung-soo, Choi Jung-won, Eom Ji-won, film festivals, Go Eun-ah, Go Jun-hee, Ha Ji-won, Han Chae-young, Han Eun-jung, Han Hye-jin, Han Ji-hye, Han Ye-seul, Im Joo-hwan, Im Soo-jung, Jang Dong-gun, Jang Hyuk, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeon Hye-bin, Jo Jae-hyun, Jung Ryeo-won, Kang Ji-hwan, Kim Haneul, Kim Kang-woo, Kim Nam-gil, Kim So-yeon, Kim Yunjin, Lee Byung-heon, Lee Seon-kyun, Min Hyo-rin, Park Hee-soon, Seo Woo, So Ji-sub, Su Ae, Sung Yuri, Sunwoo Sun, Uhm Jung-hwa, Wang Seok-hyun, Yeh Ji-won, Yoo Hana, Yoo Sun, Yoon Kye-sang

Another big movie weekend: Take Off, Haeundae

javabeans — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:18:56 +0000

Joining the club of 2009 blockbusters is the currently screening film Take Off, also called Ski Jump or National Athlete [국가대표]. The sports comedy starring Ha Jung-woo, Sung Dong-il, and Kim Ji-suk has been buoyed by favorable word-of-mouth buzz and has pulled in over 7 million viewers since its July 29 release. It also picked up six awards at Saturday’s Chunsa Film Festival, including Best Picture. This is director Kim Yong-hwa’s follow-up to the romantic comedy 200 Pound Beauty, a sleeper hit that brought in 6.6 million viewers.

Such is its success that it has also announced a re-edited version (akin to a director’s cut), also to be released in theaters, with material that promises additional fun and laughs that been cut out of the original. (That’s not surprising, since the original run clocks in at 137 minutes.) These added parts feature 15 more minutes of Ha Jung-woo’s storyline involving his search for his biological mother and his memorable first encounter with the eccentric Lee Jae-eung, as well as a new-and-improved version of the film’s opening Olympic sequence with enhanced graphics (7 minutes longer than the first version). The new version is called Take Off: The Complete Version and opens on September 10. (This creates the somewhat unusual scenario of an original and its re-edited version screening in theaters concurrently.)

Meanwhile, the Ha Ji-won and Sol Kyung-gu disaster film Haeundae, which opened the week before Take Off, has now brought in more than 11.1 million viewers, beating Silmido (11.08 million) on the list of biggest box-office Korean films of all time. Its performance to date puts it into fourth place behind The Host (13 million), The King and the Clown (12.3 million), and Taegukgi (11.74 million).

Via Star News, Yonhap News

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Post tags: box office, Ha Ji-won, Ha Jung-woo, Kim Dong-wook, Kim Ji-suk, Sol Kyung-gu

Jang Geun-seok admits to crush on Ha Ji-won

javabeans — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:11:15 +0000

Back in 2006, Jang Geun-seok was a baby-faced, 2119-year-old actor transitioning into more adult roles in the hit KBS sageuk drama Hwang Jini, which starred Ha Ji-won as the famous gisaeng. (Okay, he’s still baby-faced.) Three years later, he has admitted to an old crush on his noona co-star back when they played mutual first loves in that drama.

He made the confession at the taping of an upcoming episode of KBS’s Entertainment Weekly, in response to the question, “Have you ever fallen in love while filming?” He answered yes, saying, “When I was filming Hwang Jini, I had a one-sided crush on Ha Ji-won noona. … She’s so beautiful and kind that a person can’t help but fall for her.”

He also named Lee Byung-heon as the actor he’d most like to be like, explaining, “I’m envious of Lee Lee Byung-heon, who displayed such unforgettable acting in the movie Bittersweet Life.”

The segment airs on the August 29 broadcast of Entertainment Relay. Jang Geun-seok’s latest film, Itaewon Murder Case, opens on September 10.

Via Now News

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Post tags: Ha Ji-won, Hwang Jini, Jang Geun-seok

Kim Myung-min: “In the end I was so exhausted it was difficult to act”

javabeans — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:38:41 +0000

“With Lou Gehrig’s disease, your conscious mind remains active while your muscles deteriorate, but for me, I found that as I kept losing weight, my consciousness became equally paralyzed.”

Actor Kim Myung-min recently took on the challenge of portraying a patient gradually worsening from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in the upcoming melodrama film My Love By My Side [내 사랑 내 곁에]. On August 24, the cast of the movie gathered at the CGV cinema in Apgujung for a press conference.

Much has been made of Kim’s dramatic 20kg weight loss (mostly accomplished while he filmed the movie, losing the weight to correspond to his character’s deteriorating health). Kim admitted what he found the most difficult aspect of filming: “In the latter half, I had to become increasingly immersed in the emotions of the character, but because I was constantly exhausted, it was difficult to become absorbed in the acting.”

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Read the rest of Kim Myung-min: “In the end I was so exhausted it was difficult to act” (396 words)

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Post tags: Ha Ji-won, Kim Myung-min, press conferences

Posters unveiled for My Love By My Side

javabeans — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:49:31 +0000

Wow. We’ve already heard that Kim Myung-min (Beethoven Virus) would be losing a significant amount of weight as he filmed his latest movie, My Love By My Side [내 사랑 내 곁에], but the end result is even more startling than previously noted.

You can see how gaunt he is in these new posters for the movie; in order to play a convincing Lou Gehrig’s disease patient, he lost more than 20 kilograms over the course of filming, which translates to approximately 44 pounds. And considering that his normal starting weight was around 160 pounds, that makes his final number under a worrying 120 pounds.

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Read the rest of Posters unveiled for My Love By My Side (149 words)

Haeundae eyes the 10 million ticket threshold

javabeans — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:31:29 +0000

Despite being several weeks into its release, eyes are on disaster film Haeundae this weekend at the box office as the film is expected to break the 9 million mark in viewers.

As of reports on Saturday morning, the 15th, the film has sold more than 8.5 million tickets, putting it squarely at #5 in the all-time Korean box-office list. It recently surpassed the #7 film Friend (8.18 million), #6 Speed Scandal (8.21 million), and #5 D War (8.43 million).

There have only been four movies to break 10 million, and people are curious to see whether Haeundae will join them. They are: #4 Silmido (11.08 million), #3 Taegukgi (11.74 million), #2 King and the Clown (12.3 million), and #1 The Host (13.02 million).

If Haeundae manages to hit the 10 million mark, its stars Ha Ji-won and Sol Kyung-gu will join their colleagues Song Kang-ho and Jang Dong-gun as 10-million-ticket actors, earning Ha Ji-won the distinction of being the first woman in the club. (King and the Clown did star Kang Sung-yeon and The Host included Bae Doo-na, but they aren’t considered “10-million-ticket” actresses; they weren’t the lead draws and were part of the subplots.)

Via IS Plus, OSEN

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Post tags: box office, Ha Ji-won, Sol Kyung-gu

Big openings for films Haeundae, Chaw

javabeans — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:44:51 +0000

Disaster movie “Haeundae,” horror-action film “Chaw”

Korean movies are doing well this week at the box office, with the just-released tsunami movie Haeundae [해운대] selling more than 166,000 tickets in its first day alone, beating out Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince in the latter’s second week out. (Granted, Harry Potter is most certainly going to win in overall numbers, but it’s a strong showing for a Korean film to premiere at #1 when it’s going up against international blockbusters like Potter and Transformers 2.)

Meanwhile, another Korean action movie opened big last week, the killer-pig-on-the-loose film Chaw [차우] starring Uhm Tae-woong and Jung Yumi. Chaw opened on the same day as Harry Potter and secured a second-place box-office slot for the day. By the end of its first week, Chaw had managed to break the 1 million mark, benefiting from word-of-mouth buzz.

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Read the rest of Big openings for films Haeundae, Chaw (103 words)

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Post tags: box office, Ha Ji-won, Jung Yumi, Sol Kyung-gu, Uhm Tae-woong