Archive for the 'K-Movie Index' Category

One of my favorite things to do used to be creating the plates for the index I was building. I was proud of the fact that I had been able to type what I believe to be a nearly complete list of feature-length films by decade and that I had been able to locate images for the majority of them- posters where possible, but when not I would track down newspaper advertisements or video box covers if available. However, that proved to be the easy part. Completing the plates as I was with the entire known cast and key staff members as well as a plot synopsis turned out to be incredibly time consuming. In its own way, it was fun however I have to be honest with myself that I will never complete even one decade at the rate I am able to work. So, in the hopes of making a significant dent in the work that needs to be done– and backed by the fact that I really don’t have as much time as I used to have between work, non-film related writing (that actually pay money as opposed to blogging), hobbies, and life in general– I have decided to shorten the process. I will be no longer be building plates for each film. I will simply be adding images for the films title with some basic information. No more entire cast, plot or crew.

That being said, I will start this with director Kim Jeong-yong. Kim was born in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province on November 19, 1938. He started in film working as part of the staff for such directors as Shin Sang-ok, Ko Yi-bong, Lee Gyu-bong and Na Bong-han during the mid- and late 1960s. He debuted as a director in 1975 and continued right up until the year 2000.

His movies are listed below. Some were created a while ago and have the full information attached while the later films are the new, smaller plates. Click the thumbnail to view or head to the top of this page and click the decade 1970s where a list of directors and links to images of all their films can be found.

, , ,
, , , , , , , , ,

Last time I had posted an entry for the Index of 1970’s Korean films, I mentioned that the next director I would cover would be Kim In-soo. However, I have been doing these in alphabetical order and next on the list should have been Kim Hyo-cheon.  I accidently overlooked him because I had previously entered 24 of his films from back when I was entering movies by year instead of by director. Because of that, his filmography from the 70s looked full. It was only upon closer examination I realized I needed two more movies, both about the historical figure Kim Du-han.  The other reason I nearly skipped over him was because Kim In-soo’s films seem so much more interesting– a mix of horror, high teen, action.. that I was anxious to get started with his. 

But in fairness, let’s start with Kim Hyo-cheon.  To start, his real name was Kim Chi-han and he was born in Daegu in 1935,  He graduated from the Korea Mercantile Marine College majoring in Navigation. For a time, he worked in that field, but he felt no love for the job and had long wished to be a movie director. He had written a handful of screenplays in the early 1960s but it was through the recommendation of a mother of a child actor that he got the chance to debut as a director in 1967.  As I previously mentioned, I uploaded plates on 24 of his 26 films made in the 1970s. To view these, click the tab marked ‘The 1970s’ at the tip of this page.  His final two films in this decade are below. Click the thumbnail to view the full-sized image.

,

Kim In-soo was born Kim Beom-soo in Incheon in 1939. He graduated what was formerly called Hangwang Public High School (now Dongbook High School) and does not appear to have gone to a university. He worked as an assistant director in the late 1960s and debuted as a director in his own right in 1971 and made 13 films in the decade covered in this post. He continued to make films into the 1990s. Information on three of his films had been uploaded previously. Here are the final 10.

, , , , ,

, , ,

Next– The films of Kim Jeong-hyeon

This week I am listing two directors here as neither made many films during the 1970s.  The first is Kim Hyeon-yong who made exactly one film in his life–an animation that copies the Japanese character Mazinger Z far more than it should have and made no effort to hide it. Meet Mazinga X!  As always, click the thumbnail to view the full-sized image… and you can access the films of other directors from this decade by clicking the tab marked ‘The 1970s’ at the top of this page.

The other director whose films I have included today is Kim Hyeong-joon. He was involved in the making of several co-productions with Hong Kong filmmakers. The movie I have listed here as Magnificent Fist can be found on the KMDb under the title The Fighter with Miraculous Martial Arts.  I did not change the title on a whim because the latter is unwieldly. Instead I chose the shorter English  title as that is what the movie was released under in Hong Kong in 1979.

, ,   Next time:  Director Kim In-soo

Director Kim Gi was a popular director of melodramas throughout the 1960s and 70s (although he does have one horror film in the films pictured below) and he continued making films well into the 1980s.  In the years between 1970 and 1979, Kim Gi made more than 2 dozen films. I had previously posted the information for most of these and here now are the final eleven. I should note that although Because You’re a Woman was released in 1980, its production year is listed as 1979 so it is included here.  You can click the thumbnail below to view a full-sized plate and you can view the plates with posters and information on Kim’s and other director’s films by clicking the tab at the top of the page marked ‘the 1970s.’ 

, , , , , , , , , ,   Next in the index: Kim Hyeon-yong and Kim Hyeong-joon

Normally on a Tuesday night, I post the trailers of the new Korean films that will be opening in theaters at the end of the week. However, this week there are no Korean films opening so instead I will post theinformation on the remaining nine films from the 1970s of Director Kim Eung-cheon.  Click the thumbnails to see the full-sized image. The plates I made of the rest of his films, as well as the movies from other directors, can be seen by clicking the tab at the top of this page marked ‘The 1970s.’  

, , , , ,

, , ,   Up next on the list: Kim Gi

Although Kim Eung-cheon had been directing films since the late 50s, he hit his stride in the 70s with his ‘high-teen’ dramas, second only perhaps to Director Seok Rae-myeong.  I was hoping to post all of his films this week, however I was only able to finish creating plates for a little more than half of his movies from this decade. I will post info on the rest of his films next week.

, , , , , , , , , , ,

To see the full-sized plates, just click the thumbnails and expand. You can also search through the directors of the 70s by clicking the tab at the top of this page marked ‘the 1970s.’  Oh, I am also including the lone film of this decade from Director Kim Dae-hee. We’ll be seeing more from him when I get to the 1960s…

In the 1970s,  director Kang Moon-soo returned after a nearly thirty year absence to direct Little Star, a film based on a popular singing group of the 70’s and early 80s.  At least one of the singers appearing in the movie, Kim Aerisa, went on to continue with a moderately successful music career after Little Star (or at one point Little Star Family) broke up.  Below is the information on the film. Just click the thumbnail and enlarge to see the full-sized image.  Oh, and if you want a laugh, you should see the image the IMDb approved for this film.. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322812/)  I used to enter film information there and this was one of the reasons I stopped.  The editors never check anything.  That video box cover has nothing to do with the Korean movie Little Star!  I wanted to upload facts on the movies that cannot be altered except by me.

A far more prolific director, and one who was much more important when discussing Korean cinema, was Kim Cheong-gi, creator of Robot Taekwon V, Ttoli and numerous other animated movies. 

, , , , , , , ,

To see information from other directors from this decade, simply click the tab marked “The 1970s” at the top of the page.  Oh.. and any similarities between Kim’s Wonder Princess and DC Comics’s Wonder Woman is purely imagined…. She is a unique character and does not violate any trademarks.. really.

Up next: Kim Dae-hee

Director Kang Dae-seon was born on December 28, 1938.  He dropped out of university and started working for a Korean film magazine called World Movies. He worked as part of the editing staff and the connections he made there got him  a foot in the door when Shin Sang-ok established Shin Productions.  He did odd jobs there including a bit of acting, writing dialogue and planning of films.  He finally debuted as a director in his own right in 1971.  He made 11 films during this decade and continued directing films until the end of the 1980s.  I had previously posted information on the majority of his films from this decade, and only the three listed below remain. To see these, click the thumbnail and expand the image.  You can also access the plates of this other films by clicking the tab marked “the 1970s” at the top of this page and browsing through the directors by family name.  Up next, Kang Moon-soo and Kim Cheong-gi. 

, ,

Director Kang Dae-jin was born on May 4th, 1933 and passed away on April 1, 1987.  He debuted as a director in 1959 with Like Father, Like Son but what is probably his most famous film, The Coachman, was made the following year.  In the decade we are covering here, Kang made 11 films.  I had previously posted information on six of his films and here are the remaining five.  To view the other films Kang Dae-jin made in the 70s,or any other director for that matter, just click the tab at the top of the page marked ‘The 1970s’ 

To see a full-sized plate just click the thumbnail and expand the image. Up next: Director Kang Dae-seon

, , , ,

Recently, I have been trying to update the index weekly, but there was a week-long delay this time. The reason is because of double whammy that forced me to search a little bit longer than I usually have to.  The last time I put up an “Index” post, I wrote at the end that up next was Kang Beom-goo and Kang Dae-ha.  Kang BG gave me the first problem, although it was entirely my fault.  While the posters for his two films no longer exist to the best of my knowledge, I was able to find original newspaper advertisements for the two remaining films of his that I had to post information for..  However, I apparently did not take a photo of The Great Boxer (1974).  That is a small annoyance and I can correct it later as I know the ad exists.  Kang Dae-ha was a bigger problem.  The KMDB and every website shows Immoral Man (1976) as his film. However, it turns out that Kang did not direct any movies in the 70s. He wrote quite a few during this decade, but his directoral debut was not until 1983.  The proof was on the poster itself.  If you look at the green letters above the title pictured above/right, you can see it says Director, Kim In-soo.  Kang is actually the writer of this movie –his name appearing in black in the upper left hand corner of the poster.  So why does every Korean site.. and even the Encyclopedia of Korean Directors have Kang credited as the director?  Tracing back, it appears to be a clerical era made in 1986. A precursor of the Korean Film Commission published a record of Korean films made between 1971 and 1985.  This is one of the sources that the Korean Film Archives used when creating their website.  The publisher of the book transcribed the original records into the text, but apparently typed Kim Dae-ha’s name twice. KOFA then used this as the basis of the KMDB which other websites and publishers look to as the source of info on Korean film.  Back in the mid-2000s, a collector donated his collection of posters through the decades to the Korean Film Archives. Because of the shear volume of posters, KOFA simply attached the images to each movie but apparently did not examine them beyond the titles.  So even though the proof of a mistake is clearly written on the poster, it escaped notice.  Until now. 

Therefore, below are the remaining two films of Kang Beom-goo and a single movie directed by Kim In-soo.  To see the rest of Kang’s films, click the tab marked ‘The 1970s’ above.  Information on the rest of Kim’s films will be posted when we eventually come to him. But up next is Kang Dae-jin.  (Click the thumbnails below and expand to see a full-sized image)

, ,