Archive for July, 2013

Director Kwon was born in Andong, North Gyeongsan Province in 1923. at a very young age, he and his family moved to Japan and did not return until his education was complete. Upon returning, he was immediately employed in the film industry as an assistant director of Han Hyeong-mo’s 1949 film Breaking the Wall.
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And below there is an image of a movie from Director Kwak Jeong-hwan. Information on the earlier works of Kwak had been uploaded several years ago. They can be seen by clicking the tab at the top of the page marked ‘The 1970s’

The Terror Live–
I know everyone is talking about Snowpiercer this week, but I really hope this movie does well too.

Snowpiercer–

And since it will be rainy again, t’s a good week to watch a movie or two! Don’t miss these two!

I finished the films of Ko Yeong-nam! That is a huge step towards completing the index of 1970s Korean films. Oh, there are still quite a few to do.. and some directors with nearly two dozen films left.. but no filmographies are quite like Mr. Ko’s. Some of his films were very difficult to come up with images for. Finishing his works for this decade has me looking forward to the future. When I finish the 70s, should I continue with the 80s? Go backwards to the 60s? go to the next tab at the top of the page– the 2000s– or don’t restrict myself to any one decade, just upload images as I feel? There is still time to think about it, I am not done yet..
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Click the thumbnails to see a larger size. And as always, go to the tab at the top of the page marked ‘the 1970s’ to see the rest of Ko Yeong-nam’s 50+ films from this decade and most other films made in Korea between 1970-79

I have been slowed down with posting because of the sheer number of Ko Yeong-nam films.. I have already posted 26 six of them from this decade.. I am continuing here with another 13, and there will be yet another 15 or 16 in a post a few days later. To see information on Ko Yeong-nam’s films that I had already uploaded, click the tab marked ‘The 1970s’ and scroll down to Ko’s name. Click the thumbnails below to enlarge the image.
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I was all set to write off Director Ko as a one-hit wonder..and his film wasn’t even a hit.. Fortunately, after a little searching, I learned that Director Ko Ho was actually Ko Eung-ho, a moderately prolific director of the 1980s. Ko Eung-ho was born in Seoul on January 4, 1941 and attended Geonguk University majoring in law. He was not at all interested in the systematic study of law and claimed he was far more interested in studying society and the various kinds of lives people live. After graduating in the late 60s, he started to work as an assistant director– most often under Director Choi In-hyeon and debuted as Ko Ho in 1978 with the film shown below. This was the only film for which he used an alias and it was his only movie that he directed in this decade. We will be dealing with him again when I begin the movies of the 1980s..

To view images of the filmographies of other directors from this decade, click the tab marked ‘the 1970s” at the top of this page.

There are two Korean films opening this coming weekend.

The first is a documentary on women’s boxing called RING OF LIFE:

The second film has no trailer on Youtube, Naver or Daum. It is a low budget mystery entitled District 820 and it will probably have a very limited release.

Kim Yeong-hyo was born on February 17, 1931 in Cheolwon, Gangwon Province. After graduating from university with an Economics degree, Kim went straight into acting appearing in minor roles in many films in the late 1950s including Shin Sang-ok’s Flower in Hell. He put his his acting career on hold to complete his military service but when he returned to the film industry, it was as a director. He worked as an assistant director for a couple of years and debuted with a film he wrote himself in the mid-1960s. Kim Yeong-hyo’s directorial career takes takes him through several decades, but he was most active in the 1970s with more a dozen films under his belt. I had already included a few of his films in the index and information on them, and films from other directors of this decade, can be seen by clicking the tab marked ‘The 1970s’ at the top of the page. Click the thumbnails below to see a full-sized image.

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The Puppet– 꼭두각시– directed by Kwon Yeong-rok. Starring Lee Jong-soo (as Ji-hoon), Ku Ji-seong (as Hyeon-jin), Won Gi-joon (as Joon-ki), Han So-yeong (as Yoo-ri). Running time: 85 minutes. Release Date: June 20, 2013.

This is just going to be a short review. This is a newer film so I feel the need to avoid spoilers so I will keep this post to just my quick impressions. The movie has some good points and several disappointing parts, The good in this film is the pacing. I really had absolutely no idea that I was at the end of the film when it came. There are many movies that I start checking my watch to figure out how much longer until the end comes, and many others…especially when thinking about Korean horror films that don’t seem to know when to end. The Puppet, although it could have continued on, chose to end the film on a very disturbing image and let our imagination take over as to what, if anything, would happen next in the story of these characters.

What is the bad? Well, much of the film seemed like a male’s erotic fantasy. It was certainly the director’s intention to have some of these scenes be uncomfortable because of that situation that led up to them which is understandable in terms of story.And of course, the script justifies ..or perhaps ‘redeems’ this situation by the conclusion.

Another problem I had was the absolute wasted use of the puppets. There are lots and lots of puppets.. I would have used them more. Yes, they were symbolic when used.. the director hits us over the head with that, but I would have liked to seen them used more in the horror/thriller elements of the film.

Actually, I question the need to classify this film as horror.. thriller definitely, but horror..not so much.

I would like to say more about the film, but I would rather not spoil it Honestly, the more I think about it the more I have to say. I was originally going to give the film a rating of 4 out of 10, however, the fact that I have a lot to say about it and it has gotten me thinking as I write the review makes me raise my original evaluation to a 6 out of ten. Perhaps, at a later date, a second viewing is in order.

Director Kim Tae-jong has just a single movie to his name,

This is something that may look familiar to anyone who was alive in the late-70s. When I was a child in the USA, an animated television program debuted in 1978 called Battle of the Planets starring a team called G-Force. Much later, I learned that this was actually modified Japanese program called Gatchaman. What you are looking at however, is not Gatchaman. It is a much inferior knockoff that would certainly land a lawsuit for copyright violation today. How inferior was it? Well, take a look below. The first video you will see is the opening for Kim Tae-jong’s White Eagle. Below that is the opening from Battle of the Planets. Judge for yourself.

White Eagle

Battle of the Planets

Waitaminute! That was terrible too! I had totally forgotten about the stupid robot.. Turns out, the original Gatchaman beginning is superior to both of the previous videos.

MISTER GO

I pray that the inflight magazine I sometimes write for does not contact me to see this film…. (opening on the 17th, a day earlier than this week’s other debuting films)

WE WERE THERE