Casting has been confirmed and Hyun Bin will in fact be acting alongside Lust, Caution actress Tang Wei in his new movie, the remaking of 1966’s classic Late Autumn (aka Manchu, 만추).

The plot features a three-day love story between a woman who is let out of prison on a special leave and a young man who is on the run from pursuers. The original, now lost, is considered one of the best of its lauded director Lee Man-hee’s prolific but short-lived career. It had been remade twice before (in 1975 as Promise of the Flesh and 1981 as Late Autumn) and even once in Japan as 1972’s Promise. (In fact, Promise of the Flesh was directed by the famous Kim Ki-young, who had previously made The Housemaid, which is regarded as one of Korea’s best films and is the source material for Jeon Do-yeon’s upcoming remake.)

Late Autumn/Manchu will be shot in the U.S. by Korean director Kim Tae-young, but both stars will be acting in English. CEO Lee Joo-ik of production company Boram Films said, “We’ve thought carefully about what we can do to make our film connect with the rest of the world, and it seems like just yesterday that we’d gone to the U.S. to location scout five years ago, but now that we’re really going to the States to begin filming, the feeling is remarkable.”

The film will begin shooting at the end of the month and release in 2010.

Via OSEN

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Hyun Bin has announced his next role, and like Jeon Do-yeon’s latest, it will be a remake of a 1960s film. This one is the 1966 classic Late Autumn (also called Manchu, 만추), by “genius director” Lee Man-hee. Currently, actress Tang Wei (Lust, Caution) is said to be considering the female lead role.

The remake is a co-production with an American production company and will be filmed entirely in the U.S. with English dialogue. (Eep! How good is Hyun Bin’s English?)

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One of Korea’s top actresses, “Cannes Queen” Jeon Do-yeon, is returning to film her next project following a yearlong break (during which she’d given birth to her first child). She’ll take on a remake of the highly regarded 1960 film The Housemaid [하녀], which gets updated with a modern take.

The original sounds pretty fascinating: a housemaid moves in with a family of four and things take a dark turn. Seducing the husband is only the beginning of the trouble, as the maid’s bizarre behavior escalates and the wife tries to assert her place. Although its themes may seem familiar today — adultery, murder, twisted ambition — the provocative thriller was made in the “Golden Age” of Korean cinema, back before the censorship code descended upon the film industry. Jeon will play the maid character.

The Housemaid, widely seen as one of the top Korean movies of all time, is noted for its solid structure, shocking and erotic storyline, and the casting of top actors of the day (Kim Jin-kyu, Joo Jeung-nyeo — and even a young Ahn Sung-ki as the son, who is now a respected veteran actor).

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The action comedy Level 7 Civil Servant, or per its English title, My Girlfriend is a Secret Agent, drew in more than 4 million viewers in a slumping movie industry and proved to be a smash hit. Such was its success that now it’s entertaining the prospect of being adapted for a television drama.

According to the production company, offers for drama remakes are pouring in: “We had proposals while we were still in production on the movie, but because of filming, we weren’t able to look into it. We’re considering it in a positive light.”

One source said, “There have been a lot of dramas about spies. We plan to make the Level 7 Civil Servant drama look at their lives in a little more detail.”

On the downside, if the drama doesn’t cast Kang Ji-hwan and Kim Haneul (very unlikely, I’d think), it’s already lost a lot of its charm. But on the upside, the movie’s screenwriter, Chun Sung-il, is expected to return as the drama’s screenwriter (which would follow his current project, writing the fusion sageuk drama Chuno).

Via Star News

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Group Eight, the producers who butchered adapted Hana Yori Dango into the hot mess that was Boys Before Flowers, is adapting another popular Japanese manga for Korean television: Itazura na Kiss, or Playful Kiss, which was turned into an anime series as well as the Taiwanese drama It Started With a Kiss.

(Waits for manga/anime/Tdrama fans to stop swearing angrily.)

Normally, I’d be all for a kdrama adaptation of what sounds like a cute romantic trendy drama, but Group Eight has pretty much lost its credibility with me after Boys Before Flowers. Not that I didn’t enjoy watching it, but it was nowhere near what it could, and should, have been. Group Eight is often mentioned as producing Goong, but that’s not strictly true (there was that production company split with Group Eight and Eight Peaks). The titles that Group Eight can claim as exclusively theirs are Fantasy Couple (okay) and Goong S (highly disappointing). On the other hand, they’re also doing Tamna the Island, which looks promising.

According to Group Eight president Song Byung-joon, the adaptation of Itazua na Kiss is next on their slate after Tamna, and they are currently in the planning stages. The licensing has been finalized and they are currently in the process of finding a scriptwriter. They are aiming to broadcast the series (I’ll use the Korean title, 장난스런 키스 or Playful Kiss) next summer.

Song did add that because the original manga never had an official ending (the writer passed away before finishing the series), the Korean version of Playful Kiss may choose to make its own, “entirely different, Korean-style ending.” Just as long as nobody dies of sudden cancer harboring a hidden birth secret, we hope.

Via Joy News

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