The cast was out to promote the film made from popular internet manhwa Soonjung Manhwa (i.e., shojo manga) on November 3 in Seoul. Well, most of the cast — the production press conference featured stars Chae Jung-ahn (Coffee Prince), Super Junior’s Kang-in, and Lee Yeon-hee (East of Eden), but was missing one of its leads, Yoo Ji-tae (Oldboy), who was in Japan.

The relationships in the film feature the large age gaps between its older generation and the younger, pairing Chae Jung-ahn (as an older woman who’s experienced disappointment in love) with the younger Kang-in, whose character is a high school student “who chases her around doggedly.” Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-tae plays a bashful 30-year-old who meets the “tough” high school student played by Lee Yeon-hee (and is pushed around by her strong(er) personality).

Soonjung Manhwa opens on November 27.

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I’ll just give you a second to let that image sink in. (I mean, really, really sink in that this is indeed two of Korea’s hottest rising pretty boys made famous by two of Korea’s biggest youth drama hits, Joo Ji-hoon of Goong and Kim Jae-wook of Coffee Prince.)

October 28 was press preview day for the new movie Antique (full title: Western Antique and Bakery Shop), starring Joo Ji-hoon, Kim Jae-wook, baby-faced Yoo Ah-in (Strongest Chil Woo), and model Choi Ji-ho (Time of Dog and Wolf).

 
Also: Let the Coffee Prince comparisons begin?

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Lee Wan (Insoon is Pretty) and Song Chang-eui (Golden Bride) promoted their new film, Boys Don’t Cry, on October 14 at a somewhat unusual location for movie press conferences: an indoor pojangmacha (streetside food tents) in Seoul’s Cheongdam-dong neighborhood.

The film takes place in 1953 following the Korean War and two youths who lose everything and grow up quickly to survive in postwar conditions. Director Bae Hyung-joon perhaps didn’t seem the most obvious choice for the harsh realism of a wartime film — his previous film was the romantic comedy Don’t Believe Her — but he explained, “I enjoy coming-of-age films as much as I do the romantic comedy genre. Even if recent films depict adolescents in a dark, brooding way, they don’t compare to those who survived the war.”

However, he doesn’t describe his film as a re-creation of the war, but rather, “I aimed to take a look at people in adversity facing extreme conditions.”

Because of the subject of the film, the director needed his actors’ appearances to correspond to the poverty of the times, and actor Lee Wan thus slimmed down 6 kg for the role, even losing much of his muscle tone. Song Chang-eui likewise dropped 6 kg.

Boys Don’t Cry opens on November 6.

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On October 5, the short film Boy Meets Boy held an open discussion at the Pusan International Film Festival with its stars Kim Hye-sung (Jenny, Juno) and Yeh Ji-won (Mixed-up Investigative Agency) and director Kim Jo Kwang Su.

I remember being intrigued when I first heard about Boy Meets Boy [소년, 소년을 만나다], which marks Kim Hye-sung’s departure from his family-friendly image in Unstoppable High Kick. His early career had been marked by an emphasis on his pretty face more than anything (he rose to fame as an internet uljjang with thousands of fans, got a couple movies, and then the hit sitcom High Kick), but he seems to have a grounded perspective of his fame (as he explained in the interview linked above).

Not only is he portraying half of a gay romance in the short film, the narrative is expressed without dialogue — the director opted instead to tell the story mostly in the characters’ gazes.

More photos and discussion points from the event >>

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“I read the script, and liked it so much it was shocking.” So said 29-year-old Lee Na-young, starring in director Kim Ki-duk’s latest film, Bimong (Sad Dream).

The film held its press preview event on September 23 at Seoul’s Yongsan CGV theater, and Lee explained her interest in the script: “More than feeling an affinity for the story, which isn’t really plausible in the real world, I was drawn to the situation these characters were placed in.”

From the start, news of the project drew interest with the casting of the male lead, Japanese actor Odagiri Joe, for whom Lee had these words of praise: “I’ve seen Odagiri in his other works, and liked him. Despite him being a non-Korean, I didn’t feel any sort of block working with him.”

In the film, Lee Na-young’s “Ran” sleepwalks into the dreams of Odagiri’s “Jin,” who cannot forget an old lover, and a dreamlike love unfolds. Apparently Lee and Odagiri communicated in English while working together, but Odagiri took every chance to learn and speak Korean with those around him. His character, however, speaks Japanese (with subtitles), while Lee’s character speaks Korean.

Kim Ki-duk explained that he’d been a bit doubtful whether this would work, but his actors had no problem with it, and he figured it was better for his actors to speak their native languages rather than making awkward attempts to act in foreign languages.

The film had had some early buzz when, in May, it had been sold for distribution at the Cannes Film Market (which took place during the Cannes International Film Festival). It is currently being screened as a part of various film festivals, such as the Czech Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival. It releases in Korea on October 9.

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