The 8th Korea Film Awards was a big night for the folks affiliated with dark thriller Ajusshi (aka The Man From Nowhere) and the Cannes winner (for screenplay) Poetry, both of which took home multiple awards.

To wit: Ajusshi was nominated in 11 categories and won in seven, including acting awards for both its leads, Won Bin and Kim Sae-ron. Meanwhile, Poetry won three, two of which were the top honors of the night, Best Picture and Director.

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Post tags: awards, Daniel Choi, Eom Ki-joon, Jung Yumi, Kim Sae-ron, Lee Seon-kyun, Lee Yo-won, Park Hee-soon, Park Joong-hoon, Park Shin-hye, Seo Ji-hye, Seo Woo, Seo Young-hee, Song Chang-eui, Song Sae-byuk, Won Bin, Yoon So-yi, Yoon Yeo-jung

Aie, is it that time of year again? We’re heading into the holiday months, which also means that awards season is about to descend upon us. (It’s still early, but I bet you’ll tire of them soon enough!) Here we have the 47th Grand Bell (Daejong) Awards, which were held on the evening of October 29, giving out awards to films in 22 categories.

The event was emceed by comedian Shin Dong-yub and actress Kim Jung-eun (I Am Legend), and big winners included Poetry, which notably won the best screenplay prize at Cannes; Moss, the dark thriller from the director of Silmido; Ajusshi, the dark thriller starring Won Bin, who picked up two awards; and Lee Min-jung, who likewise took home two trophies.

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Post tags: awards, Cha Ye-ryun, Chu Ja-hyun, Daniel Choi, Eom Ki-joon, Hwang Jung-eum, Jeon Do-yeon, Jin Gu, Jung Jae-young, Kim Heung-soo, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Sae-ron, Kim Yun-jin, Lee Min-jung, Min Hyo-rin, Oh Ji-ho, Park Hee-soon, Seo Young-hee, Shim Eun-kyung, Song Seung-heon, TOP, Won Bin, Yoon Yeo-jung

Saturday, September 18, was the day of the 18th Icheon Chunsa Film Festival, held in the city of Icheon in Kyeonggi Province. The overwhelming winner was the film Moss, a crime thriller from the director of Silmido starring Jung Jae-young, Park Hae-il, Yoo Jun-sang, and Yoo Sun. It picked up awards in seven categories, including Best Picture and Supporting Actor.

Moss released in theaters in July and is based on the “web toon” of the same name. It was a big performer this summer, logging 3.3 million attendances.

Other notable winners were the war movie Into the Fire, which was given a special jury prize, and Bestseller, which picked up a few awards as well.

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Post tags: Cha Ye-ryun, Choi Jung-won, film festivals, Go Chang-seok, Go Eun-ah, Jo Jin-woong, Song Ji-eun, Uhm Jung-hwa, Yoon Yeo-jung

IFC Films picked up North American distribution rights for The Housemaid, which debuted at Cannes in May and has sold over 2.3 million tickets in Korea since its release.

The erotic thriller by director Im Sang-soo is a remake of the classic 1960 film, and stars Jeon Do-yeon as the titular housemaid who seduces Lee Jung-jae away from his pretty young bride, Seo Woo. Things don’t pan out exactly how the maid would like, so she takes her own kind of revenge. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t need much more than this to seal the deal for me. Sold.

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Post tags: Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, Seo Woo, Yoon Yeo-jung

Um. Wow. That’s pretty much all I’ve got left in my brain after seeing this still from The Housemaid, which was just released.

The film is currently at Cannes International Film Festival, where it screened yesterday (May 13). The Korean press has kept a close eye on the reaction, and particularly regarding its stars Jeon Do-yeon (who won Best Actress at Cannes for Secret Sunshine in 2007) and Lee Jung-jae. Initial press has been generally positive (calling it entertaining) and while The Housemaid has been described as suspense thriller, it also drew laughs for its black comedy. In addition to the two leads, veteran actress Yoon Yeo-jung drew praise as the elderly housekeeper.

The cast and director gave the film’s official press conference at Cannes today, where the director explained that he was surprised when not just one but two Korean films were accepted into the festival’s competitive portion (the other is Poetry, which stars Yoon Jung-hee and Ahn Nae-sang). He also talked about the necessity for updating the film from the 1960 original, pointing out that Korea is well-known for its incredibly fast development in the past half-century, but that the central themes at the core (adultery, love, sexual relationships) are just as relevant now as they were then.

The Housemaid also released yesterday at home, and has already attracted an impressive 170,000 theatergoers in its very first day.

Via BNT News, E Daily

RELATED POSTS

• The Housemaid releases character posters
• The Housemaid’s teaser video
• The Housemaid wraps filming
• Jeon Do-yeon returns with a remake of a classic

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Post tags: film festivals, Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, Yoon Yeo-jung

The above main poster for The Housemaid was released a little while ago, but the following character posters are new. They feature the four characters of the erotic suspense thriller, namely Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, Seo Woo, and Yoon Yeo-jung. The movie is currently in post-production and will release in theaters on May 13.

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Post tags: Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, Seo Woo, Yoon Yeo-jung

The anticipated remake of psychological thriller The Housemaid — starring Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, and Seo Woo — has wrapped production after three months of filming. It has also released a new set of four stills, which feature the three lead actors and veteran actress Yoon Yeo-jung.

The film has been drawing a lot of interest with its casting and its description as an “erotic suspense thriller,” which places Jeon Do-yeon in the femme fatale role as the older housemaid who has an affair with Lee Jung-jae, who is married to a young perfect wife played by Seo Woo. Jeon said after filming her last scene, “The Housemaid is an extremely entertaining film. I still don’t feel like it’s really over.”

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Post tags: Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Jung-jae, Seo Woo, Yoon Yeo-jung

I previously posted about the new movie Actresses, which stars six famous movie stars playing six famous movie stars: each portrays a version of her real self, but the question is, how much of that is “acted” and how much stems from reality?

I found the initial reports really interesting, and much has been said of the supposed tensions between its two leads, Go Hyun-jung and Choi Ji-woo. No doubt the innuendos and possible exaggerations of real catfights are titillating for the public, who hardly ever get to see the real people beneath the smoothly polished images. (Korean entertainers are so carefully managed that it’s rare — and therefore big gossip — whenever one deviates from the carefully constructed narratives that have been built for them. And yet, it occurs to me that even if they’d all gotten along swimmingly, it would be a pretty shrewd promotional tactic to play up the fake-versus-real conflict to incite interest.)

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Post tags: Choi Ji-woo, Go Hyun-jung, Kim Min-hee, Kim Ok-bin, Lee Mi-sook, Yoon Yeo-jung

Talk about an all-star line-up: the new film Actresses [여배우들] features a whole slew of high-profile names, such as Queen Seon-deok‘s Go Hyun-jung and Hallyu princess Choi Ji-woo, pictured above, in addition to Lee Mi-sook (East of Eden), Kim Min-hee (I Like It Hot), Kim Ok-bin (Thirst), and Yoon Yeo-jung (The World They Live In).

Here’s the official description, which I think sounds GREAT:

Actresses: Christmas Eve. For a fashion spread in Vogue magazine, six top actresses are brought in spanning ages from their twenties through sixties. As expected, these ladies who are used to receiving the spotlight alone engage in a battle of wills, and tension fills the studio. It’s an unwritten law in the fashion world to schedule shoots to avoid actress encounters, so this experiment was playing with fire from the outset. The psychological battle starts with wardrobe choices and ends with the scandalous scene of [Choi] Ji-woo storming out at [Go] Hyun-jung‘s provocation. [Yoon] Yeo-jung suspects she was only called in at the last minute to substitute, and while [Kim] Min-hee enjoys the shoot, [Kim] Ok-bin feels the burden of being around sunbaes, wondering how far she has to go to treat them as elders. They endure an endless wait for the featured jewelry that doesn’t arrive. The staff is growing worried and the actresses are becoming more and more sensitive.

What events happened that night? What words were exchanged between these frank, bold women? Could they have really finished their shoot without incident?

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Post tags: Choi Ji-woo, Go Hyun-jung, Kim Min-hee, Kim Ok-bin, Lee Mi-sook, press conferences, Yoon Yeo-jung