Bong Joon-ho's 'Parasite' wins Sydney Film Festival top prize

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" has grabbed the Sydney Film Prize, the main award of the 2019 Sydney Film Festival, according to the festival's homepage Monday. The awarding of the AUD60,000 ($41,288) cash prize, which took place during the festival's closing ceremony at the State Theatre in Sydney on Sunday (local time), follows the tragicomedy's winning of the prestigious Palme D'Or at Cannes in late May."'Parasite' has an outrageous disregard for genre conv

June 17, 2019

'Parasite' surpasses 8 mln in admissions

The Cannes-winning "Parasite" surpassed 8 million in total admissions on Saturday, looking poised to join other films in the 10 million club.According to data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), "Parasite" reached over 8 million in admissions just past 3 p.m. Saturday, the 17th day since its much anticipated release. The family satire directed by Bong Joon-ho earned the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival and has stayed at the top of the local box office since it

June 16, 2019

CGV Arthouse kicks off ‘Cinema Adult Vacation’ in July

CGV, the country’s largest multiplex operator, will kick off an event featuring films exclusively for adult viewers from July 11-24 at CGV Arthouse branches, which focus on arthouse and indie films.  “Cinema Adult Vacation” will introduce 17 films, ranging from classic horror movies, such as “The Exorcist” and “The Omen,” to zombie film “28 Days later.” Some of the films will be screened here for the first time, including Jim Jarmus

June 14, 2019

[Newsmaker] Court dismisses filmmaker Hong Sang-soo's divorce suit

A Seoul court rejected award-winning director Hong Sang-soo's request for divorce at a verdict hearing on Friday.The Seoul Family Court handed down the sentence after Hong applied for a divorce settlement in November 2016 and filed a divorce suit in December that year."Hong and his wife's marriage is on the rocks, and yet the primary responsibility goes to Hong. Supreme Court precedent does not allow those who are responsible for a marriage's breakdown to seek divorce," judge Kim Seong

June 14, 2019

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Parasite(Korea)Opened May 30Drama, Black ComedyDirected by Bong Joon-hoThe Kims, a poor, jobless family of four, work their way into the wealthy glamorous Park family by landing jobs via deceitful means. They earn the affection of the Parks, who are worlds apart from them and yet somewhat alike. Their new way of life is turned upside down when an unexpected visitor comes knocking on the door, kicking off a series of unexpected events.Aladdin(US)Opened May 23Adventure, Comedy, Family Directed by

June 13, 2019

[Herald Review] ‘Men in Black: International,’ not-so exciting spinoff to beloved series

The “Men in Black” series was absurd, bombastic, outrageous and a whole lot of fun. Sure, the trilogy may have been uneven in terms of quality, but the unlikely duo of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have always managed to provide laughs with their fun-packed adventures.Aside from aliens, a few familiar faces, a good joke here and there and admittedly-good action, “Men in Black: International” didn’t really feel like an MIB movie, though that doesn’t mean the s

June 12, 2019

Thriller ‘The Culprit’ a story about trust

A man’s life is shattered when his wife is murdered and his best friend is a key suspect. He now must work with that suspect’s wife to piece together the truth, despite the lack of trust between them.The complexity of the relationship between Yeong-hun and Da-yeon, played by Song Sae-byeok and Yoo Sun, is what director Go Jung-wook said he was trying to depict in his upcoming mystery thriller “The Culprit.”“(The movie) is a film that tries to tell a tale about havin

June 12, 2019

‘Spider-Man’ Tom Holland to visit Korea

English actor Tom Holland, star of “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” is slated to visit South Korea from June 30 to July 1 to promote the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ahead of its opening.According to local promoters of the Sony Pictures action-adventure flick, Holland will participate in a press conference and fan events. The movie opens July 2, both here and in the US.This marks the 23-year-old’s third visit to Korea for an official promotional event. He first trav

June 10, 2019

'Spider-Man' actor Tom Holland to visit S. Korea

The lead actor in Marvel's upcoming superhero film, "Spider-Man: Far From Home," will visit South Korea later this month to promote the movie ahead of its release in the country, the film's distributor said Monday.Tom Holland, who plays Spider Man in the flick, will be in Seoul on June 30-July 1, according to Sony Pictures. It is Holland's third trip to South Korea, following visits in 2017 and 2018 as part of Marvel's global promotional tours for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" and

June 10, 2019

[Herald Review] ‘Long Live the King’ settles for cookie-cutter fun

With his directorial debut, “The Outlaws,” Kang Yoon-sung showed he was capable of creating quality action and characters, although the storytelling was a bit formulaic and cliched. “Long Live the King,” an upcoming comedy/drama about a reformed gangster, shows the director’s strengths and weaknesses with an interesting protagonist, a slightly overdone but promising premise and humor -- but also a weak narrative and clumsy storytelling. The film stars Kim Rae-won as

June 9, 2019

'Parasite' likely to be remade into US drama series

Following the previous globally acclaimed film "Snowpiercer," director Bong Joon-ho's latest, Cannes-winning "Parasite" is presumed to become his second flick to be dramatized in the United States.Winning the top Palme d'Or prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the film was sold to film distributors in 192 foreign countries, becoming the most exported South Korean film title ever. With its piercing depiction of economic class division universally appealing to internation

June 9, 2019

Palme d'Or-winning 'Parasite' on its way to topping 7 mln admissions

The Cannes-winning Korean film "Parasite" has surpassed an accumulated 6.5 million admissions in South Korea and is on its way to topping the 7 million milestone, data showed Sunday.On Saturday alone, the tragicomedy film drew 637,677 moviegoers to local movie theaters, dominating the box-office No. 1 position every day since its official release on May 30, according to the data from the Korean Film Council.As of Saturday, accumulated admissions had reached 6.51 million, and the film i

June 9, 2019

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Parasite(Korea)Opened May 30Drama, Black ComedyDirected by Bong Joon-hoThe Kims, a poor, jobless family of four, find their way into the wealthy glamorous Park family by landing jobs through deceitful means. They earn the affection of the Parks, who are worlds apart from them and yet are somewhat alike. Their new way of life is turned upside down when an unexpected visitor comes knocking on the door, kicking off a series of unexpected events.Aladdin(US)Opened May 23Adventure, Comedy, Family Dire

June 7, 2019

Park Chan-wook’s ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ to screen in Busan

A 2018 BBC and AMC TV miniseries directed by renowned Korean auteur Park Chan-wook will be screened at the Busan Cinema Center this month.According to the center’s officials, the director’s cut of “The Little Drummer Girl” will be screened at its 212-seat Cinema II from Wednesday to Saturday. Two episodes per day will be screened in order from Wednesday to Friday, and the entire six-episode series will be screened on the last day, followed by a conversation between the au

June 4, 2019

'Parasite' to be screened with English subtitles

"Parasite," the winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, will be screened with English subtitles at South Korean cinemas for foreign audiences starting this week, operators said Monday.CGV, the country's largest multiplex operator, owned by retail giant CJ Group, will screen the black comedy with English subtitles from Monday at its theaters in Yongsan, Yeouido, Shinchon and four other locations in Seoul, as well as two in Gyeonggi Province. "We decided to off

June 3, 2019

'Parasite' smashes S. Korean box office

The Cannes-crowned "Parasite" smashed the weekend box office in South Korea, surpassing a cumulative 3 million admissions on the fourth day of its run, data showed Monday.Released Thursday, the flick sold 2.78 million tickets from Friday to Sunday for a total of 3.36 million, according to the data from the Korean Film Council. Directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Song Kang-ho, the family satire won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first South Korean tit

June 3, 2019

Did you know? Five facts about Korean cinema

1. The first on-screen kiss in South Korea was in 1954.Nearly six decades after the first on-screen kiss occurred in the West in the 1896 film “The Kiss,” there was an uproar in South Korea in 1954 when the two protagonists of “The Hand of Destiny” had their lip-to-lip moment.Although this lasted for only a few seconds, it was a symbolic moment in Korean cinema that highlighted the clash of Confucian values and the ever-growing Western influence. The director and the actr

May 31, 2019

Cannes-winning 'Parasite' opens strong in S. Korean box office

Cannes-winning "Parasite," directed by Bong Joon-ho, took off with unstoppable momentum and topped the local box office on the first day of its release.The family satire attracted some 568,000 viewers on Thursday, sharply outnumbering the runner-up, Disney's live-action film "Aladdin," with 74,000, according to data from the Korean Film Council. It showed on 1,783 local screens, with 8,263 viewings on the day.The film, starring Song Kang-ho, is expected to hit a cumulative to

May 31, 2019

[Weekender] Korean cinema: 100 years in the making

Last Saturday, renowned Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” became the first South Korean film to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. As the auteur said, it was a “timely gift” to commemorate the centennial anniversary of Korean cinema, which has grown in leaps and bounds to become the fifth-largest player in the world film industry by the number of box office admissions, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Although the box offi

May 30, 2019

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Parasite(Korea)Opened May 30Drama, Black ComedyDirected by Bong Joon-hoThe Kims, a poor, jobless family of four, find their way into the wealthy glamorous Park family by landing jobs through deceitful means. They earn the affection of the Parks, who are worlds apart from them and yet are somewhat alike. Their new way of life is turned upside down when an unexpected visitor comes knocking on the door, kicking off a series of unexpected events.The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil(Korea)Opened May 15Cr

May 30, 2019