Ha Jung-woo’s big ski-jump movie Take Off [국가대표, or National Athlete] has had another great run over the Chuseok holiday weekend, and its overall ticket sales have now landed it as No. 8 on the all-time box office list in Korea. With more than 8.28 million viewers, the sports-comedy movie has pushed 2001’s Jang Dong-gun film Friend down a slot (8.18 million viewers). This also puts Take Off within reach of the movies in seventh and sixth places: Speed Scandal (8.3 million) and D War (8.42 million).

The movie features a motley team of guys who take up the unfamiliar sport of ski jumping, wanting to bring honor to their country (by winning a ski jump competition, they hope to help bring the Winter Olympics to Korea). Take Off opened on July 29 and is still going strong in theaters; in addition to Ha Jung-woo, it stars Sung Dong-il, Kim Ji-seok, Kim Dong-wook, and Lee Jae-eung.

Via E Daily

RELATED POSTS

• Sports dramas struggle to stay in the game
• Another big movie weekend: Take Off, Haeundae

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 10 Comments →

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

RELATED POSTS

• 17th Chunsa Film Festival
• Haeundae eyes the 10-million ticket threshold
• Big openings for Haeundae, Chaw
• Ha Ji-won’s big-budget summer blockbuster

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 3 Comments →

While there are a few well-known sibling pairs in the acting world, I wouldn’t say there are a lot (you’ve got the Uhms and Kim Tae-hee and Lee Wan, among others). Now we may be getting another pair when the brother to film actor Ha Jung-woo makes his acting debut.

Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser, My Dear Enemy) was born Kim Sung-hoon; his younger brother, named Kim Young-hoon, will soon be taking on his first acting role, according to a recent interview with Ha. Kim Young-hoon was a member in a dance group in 1997 and also has some theater experience; currently, he is managed by NOA Entertainment, who also manages his brother. Also like his brother, he is expected to take on a stage name, though the name hasn’t yet been revealed. In the event he makes his debut successfully, that means there will be three actors in the family; father Kim Yong-gun is a well-known actor whom you’ve probably seen at one point in time, such as in dramas Swallow the Sun, Wife’s Temptation, and Sons of Sol Pharmacy (Eun-ji’s father Young-dal).

Meanwhile, Ha Jung-woo’s latest film project is the sports comedy National Athlete [국가대표], which also features Kim Ji-seok, Sung Dong-il, and Kim Dong-wook.

Via Hankyung

RELATED POSTS

• Sibling rivalries take to the small screen
• Ha Jung-woo romances Su Ae
• Dating rumors are true, confirms Ha Jung-woo
• Ha Jung-woo for Basso Wicus
• Sibling love

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 1 Comment →

Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser) and Su Ae (Sunny aka You’re Far Away) are pairing up in an upcoming film with director Lee Yoon-ki, who recently directed Ha (with Jeon Do-yeon) in My Dear Enemy. Their collaboration will begin filming in June and is currently operating under the working title 이별후애, or “Love After Goodbye.”

In a bit of a departure for director Lee, this film will take a more mainstream approach; the film depicts a “fresh love story” with a “bright tone.” It features Su Ae playing a songwriter and Ha Jung-woo as a model just starting out.

This is Su Ae’s next project after taking a bit of a break since wrapping Like Fireworks, Like a Butterfly last November, which plans to release in time for the Chuseok season in the fall. Meanwhile, Ha Jung-woo has been busy this year; he has six films slated for release in 2009 alone (the others include the Japanese-Korean co-production and crime film Boat; the sports-related National Athlete; Parallel Life with Ji Jin-hee; Like You Know It All, which showed at Cannes; and Love Fiction with Kang Hye-jung).

Via OSEN

RELATED POSTS

• Dating rumors are true, confirms Ha Jung-woo
• Ha Jung-woo for Basso Wicus
• And the awards keep coming for Su Ae
• Premiere’s Rising Stars 2008

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 10 Comments →

Congrats to another star couple who have gone public. Actor Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser, My Dear Enemy) has openly admitted that rumors of his romance with a model are true. He confirms that he been seeing fashion model Gu Eun-ae for the past eight months.

Gu Eun-ae is 23 (Ha is 31) and graduated from Ewha (the top women’s university in Korea) in the dance department, and the couple started dating last August after they were introduced by a friend. Gu has appeared in fashion spreads and CFs, and also was featured in singer Kim Gun-mo’s “Kiss” video from his 12th album last year. She has also been selected to model for Hera cosmetics.

Meanwhile, Ha is currently busy shooting the film National Athlete [국가대표], which co-stars Kim Ji-suk and Kim Dong-wook (and is directed by 200 Pound Beauty’s Kim Yong-hwa); it is looking to release later this year.

Via Break News

RELATED POSTS

• Ha Jung-woo for Basso Wicus
• Golden Cinematography Awards names its winners
• The 11th Director’s Cut Awards
• Premiere’s Rising Stars 2008
• One fine day with My Dear Enemy

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 5 Comments →