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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Technically, 1 minute and 35 seconds.

Such is the box office draw of one of Korea’s favorite actors, Jang Dong-gun. The warm and humorous Good Morning President is his first film in several years, and Korean audiences are eager to see Jang back onscreen, as he has been out of the Hallyu spotlight to pursue Hollywood interests (The Warrior’s Way is still forthcoming). Thus they’ve leapt at the chance to get their first glimpse of his latest role when President opens October’s Pusan International Film Festival.

Sure, he only plays one of three presidents in the movie (with Lee Soon-jae, Go Du-shim) and stars opposite glamorous Han Chae-young, but really, the pull is all about Jang Dong-gun.

Tickets went on sale at 5pm on September 21, and according to a rep at PIFF, they sold out completely in the first minute and 35 seconds. This follows a similar response to last year’s PIFF opener, Gift to Stalin, which also sold out in under 2 minutes. Some previous fast sellers include The Coast Guard (which also starred Jang Dong-gun and sold out in 2 min 4 sec) in 2002, The Last Witness (2 min 28 sec) in 2001, and Traces of Love (2 min 45 sec) in 2006. President is therefore the fastest-selling Korean film at PIFF, which seems to me a strange statistic to keep track of, but oh well.

Via Joy News

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Ooh, now THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Jang Dong-gun plays a president in the upcoming film Good Morning, President [굿모닝 프레지던트], as we can see in these (many!) behind-the-scenes shots taken at the film set. The production opened the Kyunggi province shooting location to a press conference on July 20 and gave the media a glimpse of the crew and its universally liked lead actor (really, Jang Dong-gun has among the fewest anti’s — if any — in the business, which is remarkable given how incredibly famous he is).

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Allo’s Han Chae-young, Lee Jia and Style

Oh, I want Magazine Allo and Style to fight forever and ever, and keep the lulz flowing!

Their back-and-forth sniping is sorta going to meta levels, isn’t it? After all, would you really expect less of two summer dramas starring glamour queens and set in the backstabby world of fashion magazines?

The rivalry came into its second wind in the past week, when Allo’s producers defended their series, saying they did not plagiarize the other drama and accused Style’s director and production company president of creating the plagiarism rumors and interfering with Allo’s broadcast plans. They now want a public apology from the Style producers, and if one is not made, they have threatened to countersue for defamation and impeding business operations.

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Han Chae-young

It looks like KBS’s Magazine Allo (the fashion drama starring Han Chae-young, Kim Haneul) may not make it to air after all.

The drama is not canceled, merely postponed, but with plagiarism claims asserted by competing drama Style, KBS has decided to swap out Magazine Allo for a different drama, a law series called Partner. The show will follow current Wednesday-Thursday series Accidental Couple.

A representative from KBS’s drama department stated that legally they are clear and have not infringed on copyright, but they dislike being caught up in a fight over the matter. They’ll presumably give the matter more thought while Partner takes over the timeslot, although this may indicate that Magazine Allo is in danger of being dropped.

This is too bad, since I was looking forward to Allo much more than Style, even if the latter is based on a popular novel — I just can’t get past the casting (Lee Jia, Ryu Shi-won). Oh well, it’s not like I’m hurting for dramas to watch at the moment. Style will premiere on July 25 on SBS (it’s a weekend show).

Via Joy News, No Cut News

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