Links section

As you can see I recently added a Links section. Feel free to add any related links that you feel would be of interest. In the event that you're unable to add, just let me know and I will add your links for you.

The Host 2

The producer of the South Korean monster movie "The Host" said that it is now in preproduction on a sequel to the blockbuster hit, aiming for its release in 2008.

Chungeoram Productions said shooting will begin in the fall, but with a different director. Bong Joon-ho, who wrote and directed the 2006 hit, will not join in the sequel since he is already working on a different movie.

Recent Info

Recent Asian film acquistions
Several Asian films have recently been purchased by a handful of different US companies.

Kino International has purchased the Sundance award winning film In Between Days by Korean director So Yong Kim. The film is set to open at New York's IFC Center on June 27th and make its mark around the United States throughout the summer.

Netfilx, of all companies, has bought the US rights to The Go Master by Tian Zhuangzhuang, who you may recognize as the director of Spring Time in a Small Town. His latest film stars actor Chang Chen as Chinese prodigy Wu Qingyuan.

Tartan Films USA have rights to Kim Ki-duk's latest Breath, while their UK division also has purchased Kim Jee-Woon's upcoming western The Good, The Bad, and The Weird and Park Chan-Wook's I'm A Cyborg But That's OK.



This time around comes word of the Choi Min-shik starrer Failan becoming next in line for a Hollywood remake. At least a handful of talent is there to back it up.

The screenplay is being developed by Jose Rivera, who wrote The Motorcycle Diaries, with director Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) set to be behind the camera.

From film we move to manwha (the Korean equivalent of a manga), where Hollyweird has been working on plans to bring the Korean comic, Priest, to the big screen. The Hyeong Min-woo’s manwha is a warped love story filled with demons, revenge and the lose of souls.

Andrew Douglas (The Amityville Horror remake) is set to helm the film with a possible Gerard Butler (300) in the lead. Sam Raimi is on board as a producer with the film aiming for a 2008 release.

Shopping (cont.)

Some sites that I've purchased movies from include yesasia as well as dvdasian. I've probably purchased more from the latter due to price and selection. Then again, it's been awhile since I've purchased dvd's - nowadays I mainly rent through Netflix and TigerCinema. Netflix has a surprisingly decent Asian selection and seems to be getting better by the day. TigerCinema specializes in Asian dvd's, however, their distribution network is nowhere near the size of Netflix, therefore, it takes a while to get your order (they're based near LA).

Great topic, Sheffy - I think this is helpful information for all of us.

Shopping

I’m posting a new blog in hopes that most of the members will do what I’m doing by revealing their sources for Korean films that are cheap and legal. I usually by my films over the Internet, with e-bay being the cheapest source for films. But most of the films were bootlegs from fake licensing companies like BANZAI. Most of the DVD’s I got were Chinese version of the Korean Disk. Doing a research paper for a history class I learned that 90% of DVD’s sold in Hong Kong (where most of the DVDs were coming from or people who bought from there), were illegal copies. Which is part of the reason that Hong Kong’s Film Industry is technically bankrupt right now. Later I did another report and found out the film quota in Korea and how the M.P.A.A. (Motion Picture Association of America) forced them to cut their films so now I mainly buy Korean Made disks. Now, I mainly buy form two Internet sources yeasasia.com and asiandb.com. Of the two I would have to say that “yesasia” is the best. Their films are a lot cheaper than “asiandb” and delivery is a lot faster as well.

They also offer deals like buy 3 get one free.The only thing is after some time finding a Korean version of a film can be hard. If you do a search you’re most likely to get the VCD version first and then the Chinese disk. Meaning if you don’t buy it when it’s popular you might not be able to find it later on. That’s where asiandb comes in; they usually have lots of Korean films be them old or new. Rarely they offer versions that even yesasia wouldn’t have like collector editions.

The best example I can give are “The Host” and “200 Pound Beauty” where they offer special collector versions that come with more than one disk and the soundtrack together, yesasia doesn’t. Also they rarely have a display saying films are out of print. Another good aspect is they carry more than just films they have posters and a better selection of music from Korea. The good thing about both is that they also carry Korean versions of films from other countries like Japan but the selection is limited. Check each of them out for yourself, when both fail then I look to e-bay. The only other place I look for films online is cjapan.co.jp.com but only for Japanese products.

Tale of Cinema (not my review)

Yesterday night Hong Sang-soo's penultimate film had a late premiere in Berlin at the cinema Babylon. This special screening (unfortunately only from DVD) was made possible by "debut", a cinephile initiative that regularly shows films never distributed in Germany. According to Lukas Foerster (member of the debut-program team) the aim is to promote internationally acclaimed films and filmmakers lacking a lobby in Germany.

While other Korean directors like Kim Ki-duk or Park Chan-wook enjoy a certain notoriety on German movie screens, Hong Sang-soo is virtually unknown here -- despite a screening of his last film "Woman on the Beach" at this year's Berlinale. One reason for this may be his specific way of story-telling.

Rather than dwelling in exotic imagery or excesses of violence, Hong shows casual situations, filmed in a seemingly natural way. But -- as Ekkehard Knorer (independent film critic) notes during the discussion that followed the presentation -- at the same time "Tale of Cinema" is, like all of Hong's movies, a highly constructed "composition of repetitions and variations".

In an interview with the French movie magazine Vertigo the director recalls the situation that served as a nucleus for his film: "After watching a movie, I often walk a few steps in front of the cinema, smoke a cigarette, wait a bit". That's exactly what Tongsu, middle-aged movie-director and tragicomic hero of the film's second half, does. In fact everything described above turns out to be a film-within-a-film.

Tongsu strolls around, eventually meets the actress that played Yong-sil (she has the same name in "reality"), follows her around the street and forces her into situations that replay several scenes from the movie. The borders between fiction and reality bend constantly. This effect is supported by Hong's repeated use of irritating zooms that banish people into the off, travel from details to full shots and generally reframe situations in a matter of seconds -- in both halves of the film.

It is this "threshold to the cinema", as Sulgie Lie (assistant at the department of film studies at the Freie Universitat Berlin) calls it, that grants "Tale of Cinema" a special rank among Hong Sang-soo's other works. Actually the original title -- "Geuk Jang Jeon" -- plays with this ambiguity: It can be translated "in front of the movie theater" as well.

Still, Tongsu is one of Hong's typical heroes: "male loser" or "intellectual slacker", trapped in self-delusion, booze and cigarettes. He might be saved by a woman -- but this never happens. Even his final, life-embracing lines appear cynical. As Knorer puts it: "In Hong's universe it is impossible for men to grow up".

When the discussion is over, main entrances are already closed at the Babylon. The audience can leave only through the backdoor. So this time there are no circling steps in front of the cinema, no cigarettes after the movie.

After the film: The cinema Babylon in Berlin-Mitte.
©2007 Jan Creutzenberg

Hong Sang-soo's "Tale of Cinema" will be shown again this Friday night at 10 p.m. at the Babylon Berlin (Rosa Luxemburg-Platz).

Check out Open the link for information about the upcoming program (partly English, partly German). The next film in the "debut"-cycle is "Flandres" by French director Bruno Dumont.

More information on "Tale of Cinema", as well as film stills, are provided by the Korean Movie and Drama Database (in English): Open the link.
http://hancinema.net/korean_movie_Tale_of_Cinema.php

The fansite Open the link offers several essays and criticisms on Hong's films (in English).

The interview cited was published in Vertigo No. 28 (summer 2006).