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South Korean cinema loves the thriller genre and like a number of her contemporaries, director Chun Sun-young too chose to make her feature debut with a thriller, “A Girl with Closed Eyes”. After debuting her previous short film “Good Night” at Cannes Critics’ Week, her feature debut too takes the festival route, having its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in its Korean Cinema Today section.

A Girl with Closed Eyes is released by Finecut and screened at Busan International Film Festival

Up-and-coming author Jeong Sang-woo, whose new book is all the rage, is murdered in cold blood, shot three times in close quarters with a shotgun. Found standing over his body, smoking gun in hand, is Lee Min-ju, who is taken into custody but refuses to talk to anyone until Seoul detective Park Min-ju is called in. When Min-ju arrives in her hometown of Hongcheon, she realizes that...

Kim Hye-soo returns to the big screen two years after “Default” with a hard-hitting mystery thriller “The Day I Died: Unclosed Case” by first-time director Park Ji-wan.

Synopsis

On a dark stormy night, a young witness to her father’s crime disappears on an island leaving her shoes on the cliff and her last will in her house. Due to the bad weather, a body has yet to be found. In the absence of the body, the case cannot be closed, but is simply dismissed as suicide. Detective Hyun-soo heads to the island to investigate the mysterious death of the girl.

Park Ji-wan, who has previously worked as script supervisor on “Haunters” and “Castaway on the Moon”, directs from her own script. Along with Kim Hye-soo, the project stars Lee Jung-eun in her first film role since “Parasite“, Roh Jeung-eui (“Phantom Detective“), Kim Sun-young (“Juror 8“), Lee Sang-yeob (“Ordinary People”) and...

South Korean production giants Cj Entertainment had quite a successful 2019. Beginning the year with “Extreme Job”, which benefitted from such a strong word-of-mouth that it went on two become the second most successful Korean film of all time at the domestic box office, their hit record continued later in the year with the record-breaking “Parasite” and furthered their commercial success for the year with the disaster comedy “Exit”. Their last film of the year, “Ashfall”, is still running successfully in the cinemas when promotions have already started for their next release and it looks as though they will be beginning 2020 as they ended 2019: with a film starring Ha Jung-woo.

Synopsis

After his daughter disappears without a trace in the new home, a mysterious man who claims to know secrets approaches the desperate man who searches for his daughter.

Fresh from trying to save Korea from a volcanic eruption in...

Bong Joon-ho’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning “Parasite” was the winner of the 28th Buil Film Awards, held alongside Busan International Film Festival on Friday.

The dark comedy won six awards, including best film. Other awards “Parasite” received included best supporting actor and actress, for Park Myung-hoon and Lee Jung-eun, respectively, best screenplay for Bong and co-writer Han Jin-won, best cinematography for Hong Kyung-pyo, and best score for Jung Jae-il.

“Director Bong Joon-ho and Song Kang-ho [lead actor] are currently in the U.S for the film’s premiere. We will regard this [best film] award as being given to the hundreds of people who worked on this film,” said Kwak Shin-ae, CEO of the film’s production house Barunson E&a, on the stage.

Best director went to director Kim Tae-gyun for “Dark Figure of Crime.” Hong Sang-soo’s “Hotel by the River” won best actor for Ki Joo-bong, while Jeon Do-yeon won best actress for “Birthday.

After receiving the New York Asian Film Festival’s Star Asia award last year, actor Kim Yoon-seok returns, this time as the director of his first feature, Another Child, the sensitive tale of two teenagers caught in a web of domestic upheaval. Kim spoke exclusively with Lmd about his directorial debut, his role in the also featured thriller, Dark Figure of Crime, and confirms his upcoming collaboration with director Ryoo Seung-wan. The Lady Miz Diva: Welcome back to the festival on the occasion of your directing debut. I remember discussing plans for your first directing project last year. I am also happy to see that you must also be a fan of the hit drama, Sky Castle (Another Child features Sky Castle stars...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Jeon Do-yeon-starring Korean drama “Birthday” climbed to top spot at the Korean box office, up from the previous week’s second. Distributed by Next Entertainment World, the first commercial film about the Sewol ferry disaster earned $1.75 million from 231,000 admissions for a two-weekend total of $5.65 million.

“Hellboy” opened on Wednesday and landed in second. The American action adventure film earned $1.69 million over five days. Thursday opener “Another Child” earned $1.09 million over four days. Distributed by Showbox, the directorial debut feature of veteran actor Kim Yun-seok (“Dark Figure of Crime”) is the story of two teenage girls struggling through their dysfunctional parents’ affair.

Korean crime drama “Money” dropped to fourth from the previous weekend’s third. The Showbox release added $730,000 to extend its total to $24.8 million after four weekends.

Incurring a painful week-on-week drop of 84%, “Shazam!” tumbled from first to fifth place. The Warner Bros. release earned $46300 for a total of $4.92 million after two weekends.

In spite of being generally lauded as one of South Korea’s best actresses, Moon So-ri has mostly featured in special appearances or as part of an ensemble in films in recent years. In fact, the only time she’s been in leading roles in the past 4 years has been in director Zhang Lu’s films and her own directorial debut “The Running Actress”. She kicks off her 2019 with yet another important leading role as part of an ensemble in director Hong Seung-wan’s debut film “The Jurors”.

Synopsis

Kim Joon-kyeom is a presiding judge who leads the first civil participation of a criminal trial in South Korea. 8 jurors are selected for the criminal trial including Kwon Nam-woo. The jurors are ordinary people, but, after they become jurors, they seek out the truth of the case.

Working off his own script, Hong Seung-wan attempts to tell the true story of...

Many crimes every year go undiscovered for different reasons, sometimes just because they are not discovered, other times because sadly nobody cares about the victims. It is what criminologists call the “dark figure of crime”, that opaque amount of unreported and consequentially uncared-for, crimes.

“Dark Figure of Crime” is screening at Florence Korea Film Fest

Shifting the point of interest from the killer to the victims is what makes Kim Tae-kyun’s new film “Dark Figure of Crime” stand out from the abundance of South Korean serial killer movies. Based on a true story, the project was inspired by a TV program called “Unanswered” whose incredible quantity of source cases made director Kim Tae-kyun think about the families of the vanished victims and their suspended lives in a limbo of uncertainty, as he told us in the Q&A after the screening.

All starts as a coincidence. Kim Hyung-min (Kim...

While it is not very common to see South Korean actors dabble in film direction, it is not completely unheard of. Yoo Ji-tae, Ha Jung-woo and lately actress Moon So-ri have all directed films before, to name but three. The latest to follow in their footsteps is Kim Yoon-seok, whose debut film “Another Child” (literal Korean title “Underage”) is ready for release.

Synopsis

Not much is known of the story of the film yet, but it is said to be a family drama that portrays the experiences of A 17-year-old girl and her friend take on the world of abnormal adults in this family drama.

Based on Kim Yoon-seok’s track record as an actor, boasting of films like “The Chaser”, “Tazza: The High Rollers”, “The Yellow Sea”, “Sea Fog” and “Dark Figure of Crime”, the tone of the film in the trailer, which seems to come across as a dramedy and a coming-of-age story,...

CinemAsia is back. The 12th edition will open doors on the 5th and will run until the 10th of March 2019.

The rich Programme includes 35 feature films from 14 countries and regions, of which there are 3 international and 12 European premieres.

Let’s have a look at all the titles and the sections:

Opening Film

Aruna & Her Palate by Edwin

Closing Film

The Lady Improper by Jessey Tsang Tsui-shan

Competition

The Competition champions new talent, featuring 9 films by directors with a singular voice, tackling multicultural themes.

A Boy and Sungreen by Ahn Jun-YoungAve Maryam by Ertanto Robby Soediskam

Born Bone Born by Toshiyuki Teruya (Japan. 2018)

Guang by Quek Shio-chuan

Long Time No Sea by Heather Tsui

Long Time No Sea

Official Selection

The Official Selection offers a wide spectrum of genres that challenge, inform and entertain. This year the theme “Little People. Big World” spotlights minority or marginalised children all over Asia, but...

The physical abuse of children at the hands of parents or trusting relatives is a very real problem, which is reflected in official figures. More often than not, such cases are not reported or are swiftly mopped under the carpet by both the culprits and authorities, the latter brushing most off as strict parenting. Hoping to bring a change to that attitude with her debut film is director Lee Ji-won, whose film “Miss Baek”, based on a true story, went on to outperform major Hollywood releases like “A Star is Born” at the domestic box office, eventually winning its lead Han Ji-min Best Actress awards at the Blue Dragon Film Awards as well as the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.

“Miss Baek” is screening at the New York Asian Film Festival Winter Showcase 2019

Baek Sang-ah, or “Miss Baek”, as she prefers to be called, knows one thing better than most: survival.

South Korean spy films have almost exclusively been action fares: an undercover agent from the North is stuck in the South or vice versa or agents from both agencies work together for a common end with lots of big action set pieces and hand-to-hand combats. This makes director Yoong Jong-bin’s latest film “The Spy Gone North” quite a unique effort, in that it draws inspiration from a real-life operation in South Korean covert operations history, to gives us a solid espionage thriller in the real sense.

“The Spy Gone North” is screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

It’s 1993. News of the North establishing reactor plants capable of manufacturing nuclear weaponry have worried the power structures in South Korea, which leads the National Intelligence Agency, spearheaded by Director Choi Hak-seong, to put in place a spy to find out more about the status of these rumoured plants. Enter Park Suk-young,...

Police procedural comedies are more often than not a fun ride. The latest to tackle the genre is director Lee Byung-heon with his new film “Extreme Job”.

Synopsis

A drug squad consists of 5 detectives: Detective Squad Chief Go, Detective Jang, Detective Ma, Detective Young-Ho and Detective Jae-Hoon. The team attempts to take down a criminal organization and they must go undercover to do so. The detectives begin work as employees at a chicken restaurant across the road, but the chicken restaurant becomes famous for its delicious chicken. Due to the restaurant’s unexpected popularity, the detectives find themselves in a situation they never expected.

Director Lee Byung-heon is no stranger to comedy, with his previous two films “Twenty” and this year’s sleeper hit “What A Man Wants” both being well-received, as well as having written the screenplays for “Scandal Makers” and “Love Forecast”.

Starring as Chief Go a leaner,...

“Dark Figure of Crime” had the honour of opening last night the 3rd edition of the London East Asian Film Festival (Leaff), together with its director Kim Tae-kyun and actor Kim Yoon-seok, who also received The Best Actor Award from the Festival and has a dedicated retrospective within the Programme.

Dark Figure of Crime is screening at London East Asian Film Festival

Many crimes every year go undiscovered for different reasons, sometimes just because they are not discovered, other times because sadly nobody cares about the victims. It is what criminologists call the “dark figure of crime”, that opaque amount of unreported and consequentially uncared-for, crimes. Shifting the point of interest from the killer to the victims is what makes Kim Tae-kyun’s new film “Dark Figure of Crime” stand out from the abundance of South Korean serial killer movies. Based on a true story, the project was inspired by...

Space exploration drama, “First Man” opened on Thursday and moon landed in top spot of the South Korean box office. The Upi release earned $3.48 million from 423,200 admissions over its four opening days.

Korean drama, “Dark Figure of Crime” slipped to second from the previous weekend’s top spot. The Showbox release earned $2.46 million from 311,600 admissions between Friday and Sunday for a total of $26.4 million after three weekends on release.

Sony’s “Venom” took third place, earning $1.88 million between Friday and Sunday. That gave it a three-weekend total of $28.6 million from 3.67 million admissions.

Incurring only a modest week-on-week drop of 11%, Korean drama “Miss Baek” took fourth. The Little Big Pictures release earned $1.13 million between Friday and Sunday for a total of $3.45 million after two weekends.

“A Star is Born” slipped to fifth from the previous weekend’s fourth. The Warner Bros. title earned $470,000 for $2.09 million after two weekends. Walt Disney’s...

Local crime drama, “Dark Figure of Crime” jumped to top spot at the South Korean box office, toppling the previous week’s winner, “Venom.” The Showbox release earned $4.42 million from 553,000 admissions between Friday and Sunday for a total of $22.0 million from 2.83 million admissions after two weekends.

“Venom,” incurred a week-on-week drop of 58% and slipped to second place. The Sony release earned $3.93 million between Friday and Sunday for a two-week total of $25.4 million.

Opening on Thursday, Korean drama “Miss Baek” landed in third. The Little Big Pictures release earned $1.5 million over its opening four days. Starring Han Ji-min the drama is Lee Ji-won’s directorial debut feature. It sees the story of an ex-convict woman who meets a girl that reminds her of her own childhood. The woman decides to save the youngster from domestic violence.

Musical drama, “A Star is Born” opened on Tuesday and landed in fourth. The Warner Bors.

First Man touches down for Universal; Sony’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation crosses $350m internationally.

October 15 Update: The appetite of Sony/Marvel’s Venom to rule the world showed little sign of abating as the comic book adaptation gobbled up the competition for a second straight weekend thanks to an estimated $106.1m haul that brought the running total to $378.1m after 12 days in release.

Warner Bros’ A Star Is Born grossed $20.2m to boost its early tally to $41.2m, while Universal’s First Man touched down in its initial wave of markets and took $8.6m, powered by a $3.1m...

First Man touches down for Universal; Sony’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation crosses $350m internationally.

The appetite of Sony/Marvel’s Venom to rule the world showed little sign of abating as the comic book adaptation gobbled up the competition for a second straight weekend thanks to an estimated $105.4m haul that brought the running total to $378.1m after 12 days in release.

Warner Bros’ A Star Is Born grossed $20.2m to boost its early tally to $41.2m, while Universal’s First Man touched down in its initial wave of markets and took $8.6m, powered by a $3.1m number four debut in the UK.

Released on Wednesday, American action thriller, ‘Venom’ topped the South Korean box office. The Sony release showed on some 1,300 screens nationwide and earned $16.4 million from 2.08 million admissions over five days.

Another Oct. 3 opener, South Korean crime drama “Dark Figure of Crime” landed in second. The Showbox release earned $12.6 million between Wednesday and Sunday. Based on real events, “Dark Figure” sees the story of a police detective and a killer, who confesses to multiple murders. The two films together accounted for 82% of total weekend box office.

Korean historical action drama, “The Great Battle” slipped to third from the previous week’s top spot, with a week-on-week drop of 72%. The Next Entertainment World release earned $1.8 million between Friday and Sunday for a total of $38.8 million after three weekends on release.

Disney’s “Christopher Robin” debuted on Wednesday and landed in fourth. The live-action adventure drama earned $1.73 million between Wednesday and Sunday.

Cj Entertainment...