News

“Bogotá: City of the Lost” is a 2024 Korean drama categorized as a Crime Thriller, and is streaming on Netflix.

Summary: Sometimes change is good. Sometimes change is bad. All you know is that you have to survive.

Why Move From One Country to Another Country to Be Lost

“Bogotá: City of the Lost”, begins with a reference to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-1998 when “severe balance-of-payments pressures in South Korea brought the country to the brink of default”. Because of the country’s financial crisis Guk-Hui’s father uprooted the family. He, and his mother and father moved to Bogotá, Columbia. The father had a friend, Mr. Park, who lived and worked there. They were both soldiers who fought in Vietnam together. The father had high hopes. He was told that if you knew Mr. Park, your success was guaranteed. As soon as they arrived they were in a...

“Miss Baek” is an award-winning 2018 Korean Crime movie based on a true story, streaming on Viki. (**Spoiler Alert!**) Summary: A young woman who was abused and abandoned as a child find an abused child on the streets. She tries not get involved since the child has parents. But the abusive treatment of the child becomes too much for her to ignore. ♦ I Can’t Be a Wife or a Mom But I Care In “Miss Baek”, is the true story of a young woman who put her life in jeopardy to save the life of a child. Baek Sang-a has a childhood filled with memories she would like to erase, but she can’t. Her mother would get very drunk and then beat her. One day, the mother decided that enough was enough. Realizing she had a problem and might end up killing her own child, she abandoned her daughter instead.

Let’s be honest: 2021 was one of the worst years Korean cinema had in recent times. One would’ve hoped that they would have built upon the brilliant couple years that 2019 ad 2020 were but sadly that wasn’t to be. The pandemic situation did not help, with many production houses deciding to pull scheduled releases, halting production or waiting on things to calm down before releasing some projects that have big money riding on them. Even on the indie cinema front, which actually thrived in 2021 due to the lack of mainstream releases, did not manage to impress with what little out there was.

Things however do seem to be on the up with this year, as a few postponed releases are finally getting rescheduled and seeing theatrical releases. New releases are also being talked about and promotional material for some long gestating projects is also being circulated. Without further ado,...

The global popularity of “Parasite” star Song Kang-ho has turned sports drama “One Win” into a major calling card for Korean film sales company K-Movie Entertainment. The film, still in post-production, has drawn pre-sales interest to the new titles being launched by the company at Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market.

“One Win,” sees Song star as a former volleyball player who is now coaching a young women’s team ‘Pink Storm’ with an unenviable record as the worst in the league. The team’s owner stymies the coach’s efforts to earn a victory by repeatedly trading out the best players.

The film, directed by Shin Yeon-shick and co-starring Park Jeong-min, Park Myung-hoon and Jang Yoon-ju, is produced by Luz Y Sonidos and is set for a 2022 delivery. K-Movie will screen a new promo version at its Acfm virtual booth.

New sales slate addition “Portrait of a Family” sees...

The hit Japanese anime “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish” is getting a Korean live-action adaptation and the first trailer has recently been launched.

Synopsis

A story that depicts the brightest moments of Josee and Young-seok. Josee has a physical disability and lives in her own world. Young-seok enters her world.

Director Kim Jong-hwan knows how to tell female stories, with both his previous feature films “The Table” and “Worst Woman” as well as his last work, the segment “Walking at Night” in the Netflix anthology series “Persona” starring Iu, being female-centric narratives. “Josee” features superstars Han Ji-min (“Miss Baek”) and Nam Joo-hyuk (“The Great Battle”) in the central roles of Josee and Young-seok. It is scheduled for a release in December, 2020.

The subject of domestic violence against children is a very delicate one that has often been interpreted in cinema to various degrees of success. Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Shoplifters” is probably the most famous Asian production to touch on the topic, while in Korea, “Miss Baek” a couple of years back, told a very strong and necessary story on it as well. The K-Drama “Mother”, itself an adaptation of a Japanese tv drama, is also a series worthy of mention on the issue. Seven years after his last work “I am the King”, director Jang Gyu-sung returns to tell yet another story, purportedly based on a true story, on the subject.

Small-town resident Jang-yeob, who has studied to be a lawyer, is having a hard time finding a job in Seoul with a good law firm. To help his sister out, at whose place he’s crashing, and to be active...

Director Yoon Ga-eun took the indie film world by storm with her debut feature film “The World of Us“. Featuring tremendous acting from young actors, the film was lauded by critics and audience alike. She now aims to follow up on the success of her debut with her second film “The House of Us”.

Synopsis

“What’s wrong with my house?”

12 year-old Ha-na is worried about her parents fighting all the time, and Yoo-mi and Yoo-jin hate that they move all the time. One summer holiday they become friends and share a bond. The three of them talk about their families and decide to take a risk to protect their more than precious homes.

“I am going to protect my house and yours, too!”

The highlight of “The World of Us” was the performance that Yoon Ga-eun had gotten out of her child actors and she once again works with children in this one.

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.

The New York Asian Film Foundation

Announces lineup for

The First New York Asian Film Festival Winter Showcase

Feb 1-3, Feb 8-10, 2019

Co-presented with Sva Theatre

New York, NY –The New York Asian Film Festival launches “Crazy Broke Asians”-themed first Winter Showcase, names Korean actress Han Ji-min as Inaugural Ambassador

For the inaugural edition of the New York Asian Film Festival Winter Showcase we’ve chosen a very timely theme. Everyone’s talking about “Crazy Rich Asians”, but what about the other side of the tracks? The showcase offers an alternate perspective on the continent with films that range from pure entertainment to profound introspection, stories about the 99% and the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, which might be from halfway across the world but are more relevant than ever in our troubled times. A deeply moving epic of despair, raw tales of the streets, crime thrillers, redemptive boxing dramas,...

The New York Asian Film Festival, which takes place every summer, is launching its first winter showcase. The 15-title season runs Feb. 1-10 and claims ‘Crazy Broke Asians’ as its theme.

“The showcase offers an alternate perspective on the continent with films that range from pure entertainment to profound introspection, stories about the 99% and the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, which might be from halfway across the world but are more relevant than ever in our troubled times,” organizers said in a statement.

The season opens with 2018 Korean crime drama “Miss Baek.” It stars actress Han Ji-min, who the festival organizers have also named as the ambassador of the winter showcase.

Most of the remaining screenings are of revived East Asian titles in an array of commercial genres, described as “deeply moving epic of despair, raw tales of the streets, crime thrillers, redemptive boxing dramas, a comic period piece, darkly humorous animation,...

Korean Director Ji-won Lee is set to release her debut film “Miss Baek”. The film, based on a true story, stars Ji-min Han as a reformed convict who befriends a young traumatized child, and attempts to save her from an abusive family.

The film was released October 11th, 2018 in South Korea and is awaiting a domestic release, a trailer for the film has been previously released.

Synopsis

A woman’s past as a convict follows her everywhere and because of this she doesn’t open up to others. But then she strikes up a friendship with a broken child who has suffered from domestic violence and decides to save the girl from the cruel world. A man who holds feelings for the woman, tries to protect her in his own way. (mydramalist)...

A jaded child abuse survivor tries to save a young girl from suffering the same fate in Miss Baek, Lee Ji-won’s first feature, which has been doing brisk business since its domestic release in South Korea on Oct. 11.

With double the box-office gross of A Star Is Born (which bowed two days earlier on just a fraction fewer screens) during both films’ opening weekend in the country, the indie drama is now just a whisker away from overtaking Lee Chang-dong’s much more critically acclaimed Burning in terms of total revenue.

While offering hardly a subversive take on films about ...

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...