시간 / Time (Shi gan) [2006] (Korean Movie)

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Kim Ki Duk's movie TIME movie trailer

Director Kim Ki-duk (김기덕) in his film from 2006 called "TIME" (Shi Gan)

I have seen Kim Ki Duk's films and this one incorporating Plastic Surgery was a bit harrowing and sobering. But overall a great film and there was alot dialogue in comparison to his other films. Great acting and the plot was good. It makes the viewer assess what their thoughts on relationships and looks. Seh Hee realizes that her two year long relationship might a bit be boring for her boyfriend Ji Woo whom she loves obssessively. One day she disappears without a trace from him to get plastic surgery.

During her six month absense, he is alone and missing her. He wants to be comforted by other women but it somehow never happens. Then he meets at the coffee shop a gal named See Hee (Seh Hee under her new name). They start dating but soon she realizes that Ji Woo is haunted by Seh Hee, whom he still loves. See Hee becomes insanely jealous of herself.

What happens when Ji Woo discovers the truth of See Hee? The tables are then turned on her and results in an interesting ending.

I loved the sculpture park on the island Ji Woo and Seh Hee liked to go to. I really loved the hand they would sit on.

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From Avistaz Asian Torrents review:


To save her relationship, a woman puts herself through extensive plastic surgery.
Prolific author and enfant terrible of Korean cinema Kim Ki-duk plumbs the depths of obsessive love in Time. Kim plays with the craze for plastic surgery that has invaded our lives, as magazines and television shows such as “Extreme Makeover” have streamed together into a nightmare of eternal youth and beauty. Kim’s unpredictable genius takes a fashionable issue to extremes in order to probe the dark, jealous core of a relationship gone wrong.


Attractive Seh-hee (Park Ji-yun 박지윤) is having problems with her boyfriend, Ji-woo (Ha Jeong-woo (하정우). After two years, their love has entered a period of weariness. Though faithful to his fiance, Ji-woo eyes other women and, in bed, seems to get excited only at the thought of making love to other partners. Seh-hee can’t cope with the mounting jealousy tainting her life and decides to dramatically change her look - to become a new woman, with whom her boyfriend can again fall in love.


She enters a plastic-surgery clinic and then vanishes for six months - long enough for the scars to heal - leaving Ji-woo hurt and confused by her disappearance. Resurfacing as the new waitress at the coffee shop Ji-woo frequents, Seh-hee - now calling herself See-hee (Seong Hyeon-ah (성현아) ) - tries to seduce him. But between them stands the spectre of Ji-woo’s lost girlfriend, with whom he is still very much in love. Jealousy once again creeps into the shaky existence Seh-hee has artificially crafted.


A clean style guides the circular syntax of this extreme tale of love. Set mostly in coffee shops and bars, where the intimacy of a lovers’ discourse is shared by curious clients, Time is steeped in a quiet, disturbing violence that censors feelings and mutilates the soul through body surgery. As if trapped within a meandering, irrational mind, the script follows a complex rhythm that mirrors the obsessive tone of the film and displays once again Kim’s talent for transforming high-concept ideas into incandescent cinema.


AKA - Time (International: English title)
Year - 2006
Genre - drama/romance
Directed - Ki-duk Kim
Country - South Korea
Audio - Korean
Subtitles - English
Run Time - 97min
Links - IMDB , @hancinema
Cast: Sung Hyun-ah, Ha Jung-woo, Park Ji-yun

A Moment to Remember (KR 2004)

(2004) -A Moment to Remember 내 머리 속의 지우개

Nae Meorisogui Jiugae



A Moment To Remember-movie trailer

CAST (Pics and Cast-Hancinema)

Jeong Woo-seong (정우성)--Chul Soo

Son Ye-jin (손예진)-Su Jin

Kim Boo-seon (김부선)

Baek Jong-hak (백종학)
Lee Seon-jin (이선진)
Kwon Byeong-gil (권병길)
Kim Joong-ki (김중기)
Hyeon Yeong (현영)
David McInnis (데이비드 맥기니스)

This chronicles the love story of two unlikely people. Beautiful Su Jin caused scandal for her family for her affair with a married man. One day returning home, she forgets her coke purchase and goes to get it back. She bumps into a man, looks at the counter and proceeds to open his can and drink it in front of him (she assumed he took her "paid" can of coke). But she goes back into the convenience store to find out that the clerk put away her can of coke.

Soon afterwards she meets that dark stranger at the construction site her father is one of the archtects and he is the lead foreman. Su Jin tries to find opportunities to be around Chul Soo. Finally one night, while they are together at pojangmacha he tells her if she finishes the shot of soju, she will be his girlfriend. Su Jin quickly finishes the shot without hesitation.

They have a beautiful relationship and marriage after getting Su Jin's parent's approval. She is blissfully happy and always feeling she is on her honey moon. But Su Jin's forgetfulness is getting serious. Slowly Su Jin things such as getting home is problematic for her.

Her situation causes her to seek a specialist and find out the horrific truth she has the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. . At first she refuses to tell anyone especially Chul Soo. She wantes to bear the burden alone. But she quickly she realizes she cannot function normally.

She ends up needing to quit her job and has to stay at home due to her predicament. At this same time her ex-lover starts working with her again and thinks it is because of him. Due to her disease, she starts forgetting her beloved Chul Soo as her memory first erases her most recent memories much to Chul Soo's pain and anguish.

The scene where Chul Soo wears sunglasses to hide his tears from Su Jin as he acknowledges he loves her but she uses her ex-lover's pain was extremely hard to watch. When she gets a rare moment of her memory back, Su Jin write a heart breaking but achingly beautiful love note to her Chul Soo. This horrible disease has taken away from her the beautiful memories of them and their relationship. She assures Chul Soo though she might have her moments due to her disease of not recognizing him, just be re-assured that he is ONLY love.

I got teary eyed. Strong performances by Son Ye Jin and Jung Woo Seung.

Yama Onna Kabe Onne--山おんな壁おんな (JDrama 2007)

Drama theme song

Since AZN back in the 90's stopped showing subtitled Japanese Dramas I have been upset. If I want to watch Japanese dramas, I have to watch them with no subs on AZN or rent them but with Chinese Subs (granted my Chinese is not fluent but enough to get the gist of not complicated plot lines). My dad brought my attention to this drama.

I have been catching some episodes here and there of this drama which I have been enjoying.

I guess I should rent it?

(Thanks D-Addicts forum for this info below on the drama:)

Title: 山おんな壁おんな (Yama-onna Kabe-onna)

Time: AZN 11pm on SUNDAYS (EST) since this summer (In Japan start July 5th, 2007)

Cast: Itoh Misaki 伊東美咲,Kyoko Fukuda 深田恭子 ,Eiko Koike

Info: http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/fujitv/news/pub_2007/07-136.html (JAPANESE only)

http://wwwz.fujitv.co.jp/yamakabe/index2.html (official site-Japanese only)

Synopsis: Based on the manga of the same title by, Atsuko Takakura. The story revolves around a woman working in a department store Itoh whose meager bust has earned her the nickname of "kabe onna" ("kabe" means "wall" and "onna" means "woman"). Unfortunately for her, a well-endowed "yama onna" ("yama" meaning "mountain") gets assigned to the same department, heightening her insecurity. (from drama wiki)

Information below from wiki-d-addicts:

Synopsis
Megumi is a top sales person at the handbag section of a department store. Many people admire, and sometimes even envy, Megumi for her beauty and outstanding skills to sell products to customers. However, Megumi secretly suffers from a complex: she is flat-chested and was once nicknamed "kabe onna" (wall woman) by her former classmate. One day, a new sales person named Marie joins Megumi's department. Unlike Megumi, Marie is extremely busty as if she's carrying mounds (yama) on her chest. On top of her great bosoms, Marie also has her own special way of effortlessly selling the products to the customers. Though feeling a little threatened by Marie at first, Megumi soon realizes that they have more things in common than anybody else: they both take pride in their career and dedicate themselves to helping their customers. Through numerous obstacles, Megumi and Marie foster special friendships with each other. --groink

Cast

Correlation Chart
Ito Misaki as Aoyagi Megumi
Fukada Kyoko as Mariya Marie
Oikawa Mitsuhiro as Okuen Masayuki
Koike Eiko as Ooyama Haruka
Tanihara Shosuke as Tamura Takehiko
Nishijima Hidetoshi as Iguchi Shouhei
Kawata Hiroki as Matsubara Tetsuhito
Miura Rieko as Kokuban Rika
Uehara Misa as Yoshino Kanako
Yazawa Shin as Toyokawa Misato
Nukumizu Youichi as Kazunuma Tadashi
Wakabayashi Go as Okuen Goemon
Komoto Maki as Nagashima Masumi
Yonehara Kosuke (米原幸佑) as Morita Goro
Tokui Yuu as Harada Kenji
Suzuki Sawa as Harada Yuko
Matsuoka Kanon (松岡佳音) as Kuwata Riyoko

(DRAMA WEBSITE:)
青柳恵美 …… 伊東美咲
毬谷まりえ …… 深田恭子
奥園雅之 …… 及川光博
松原徹人 …… 川田広樹（ガレッジセール）
大山　遥 …… 小池栄子
黒板リカ …… 三浦理恵子
吉野加奈子 …… 上原美佐
豊川みさと …… 矢沢　心
長島真澄…… 河本麻希
葛沼　忠 …… 温水洋一
奥園五右衛門 …… 若林　豪（特別出演）
田村剛彦 …… 谷原章介
井口昌平 …… 西島秀俊

Guest stars
Washio Machiko (ep1)
Masako (雅子) as Jinguji Sayoko (ep2)
Ogura Hisahiro as Tominaga Shigeo (ep2)
Iwahashi Michiko (岩橋道子) as Tamura Miyuki (ep2,5)
Sasano Takashi as Aoyagi's father (ep2-5,7&8)
Yamanaka Sou (山中聡) as Uenohara (ep2,3)
Yoshimura Tamao (吉村玉緒) as Swimsuit saleswoman (ep3)
Kasahara Orito as Mariya's younger brother (ep3-5)
Hasegawa Jun as Herself (ep3)
Maro Akaji as Ijuin (ep4)
Matsumoto Jun as The pickle merchant (ep4)
Muramatsu Toshifumi as Sasaki workshop manager (ep4)
Enjouji Aya as Nankota (ep5)
Oka Mayumi (岡まゆみ) as Mariya's mother (ep5)
Toida Keiko (樋田慶子) as Mariya's grandmother (ep5)
Minami Miho (南美穂) as Nana (ep5)
Megu-chan (メグちゃん) as Marie (ep5)
Suzuki Kosuke as Komiyama (ep5)
Taguchi Shusho (田口主将) as The custodian (ep5)
Kinoshita Hoka as Midorikawa (ep6)
Takemoto Satoko (竹本聡子) as Takoko (ep6)
Seki Keisuke as The doctor (ep6)
Suzuki Shohei (鈴木昌平) as Sleepy man on bus (ep7)
Akaza Miyoko as Aoyagi's mother (ep7)
Sato Jiro as Kazuo, Aoyagi's cousin (ep7&8)
Yatsu Isao (谷津勲) as Doctor Oyabu (ep7)
Oshima Yoko as The angry customer (ep7)
Takasugi Ko (高杉亘) as Kokubo (ep7)
Yamaguchi Makiya as Sawada (ep7)

Production Credits
Original writing: Takakura Atsuko (高倉あつこ) Yama Onna Kabe Onna (manga)
Screenwriter: Maekawa Yoichi (前川洋一)
Producer: Hobara Kenichirou, Tsukada Yuko (塚田洋子)
Director: Hayashi Toru, Hayama Hiroki (葉山浩樹)
Music: Ishida Katsunori

Episode Titles
Ep1: The button flies…!?
Ep2: A pink pig!?
Ep3: An ant and a grasshopper
Ep4: Watermelons in a hot spring!?
Ep5: Dreaming of an H-cup!!
Ep6: Is marriage built upon affinity!?
Ep7: My first crush...!?
Ep8: Goodbye, my dear
Ep9: Will you marry me!?
Ep10: Sweatdrop!? A feeling of love!!

Art of Fighting (KR 2005) 싸움의 기술

싸움의 기술 (Ssa-woom-eui Gi-sool) Art of Fighting

Baek Yoon-sik (백윤식)

Jae Hee (재희)

Kim Eung-soo (김응수)

Choi Yeo-jin (최여진)

Park Won-sang (박원상)

Park Ki-woong (박기웅)

A good review of this film I came across by James Mudge at about Art of Fighting and I usually stumble upon movies to watch. I did not know what to expect with this film but it was violent.

This film made me despise all bullies. But I have give props to Byung Tae (Jae Hee "3 Iron") a weakling high school student who is always harrassed by thuggish bullies whereever he goes. His father being a cop does not help matters and he misses his mom who passed away years ago.

One day, he sees a Pan Su (Baek Yoon Sik) who is cool, can fight and he wants to be his student. The man says he is not a fighter. Slowly wearing him down, Byun-Tae learns how to fight with mixed results. His journey to get stronger is believable because of the embarrassment, pain and struggles he underwent to get where he becomes.

Pan Su is an enigma and clearly has a troubled past but he is not forthcoming nor does he try to represent himself as an honorable man. Together I enjoyed Byung Tae and Pan Su's affection for each other to the detriment of one of them.

A good movie and do not expect martial arts or slick choreographed fight scenes as the title might imply. In fact, the movie is laden with regular street fighting using whatever means you can to win over your opponent.

King and the Clown (KR 2005)

(photos:Hancinema/filmbrain/caltech)

왕의 남자 (Wang-eui Nam-ja) 王的男人 The King and the Clown 王의 男子

Director:Lee Joon-ik (이준익)

Cast:

Kam Woo-seong (감우성) (Jang Seng-Minstrel)

Jeong Jin-yeong (정진영) (King Yong San)

Kang Seong-yeon (강성연) (King's favored concubine Nok Su)

Lee Joon-ki (이준기) (Gong Gil-Minstrel)

I just caught finally after a long time "King and the Clown" last night. I have been dying to watch this movie. I had a Chinese dubbed version but after two seconds I had to return it to my mom. I cannot listen to it in the wrong language. So then I had to wait some more to watch it in Korean but with good English subs.

I have been able to read some good reviews "Tears of a Clown" a good review from (http://www.filmbrain.com/) which I enjoyed alot. A good synposis from Wikipedia of King and the Clown with a bit more of the story.

I personally gravitate to period pieces. This movie became the top grossing Korean Film in 2005 and a little bit controversial with the homo erotic undertones (though subtle when you compare it to the American "Broke Back Mountain"). There is a kiss that lasts literally a second that is much talked about but when you see it on screen---it looke more of a peck. There is more longing and hinting than actual action. I loved the costumes and the wit (though I am sure alot was lost in translation but the version I got was pretty good).

The movie opens showing two minstrels Jang Seng and Gong Gil performing a parody. Pretty boy Gong Gil is very effeminate and their troupe leader offers him to the aristocracy to make money much to Jang Seng's dismay. Finally fed up an altercation occurs and the leader is killed. They decide to restart their life in Seoul and form a group. Making money off of the audience with their wit and parodies of the King, they must perform with their lives on the line. Either make the King laugh or "off with their heads" but to their surprise they succeed to do the former. The King displays a strong affection for Gong Gil not unnoticed by his favored consort Nok Su. A few performances are done with the head Eunuch dictating the topic and theme all which result in blood shed. The intent is to show the king through these performances what is happening around him but it ends up backfiring. Instead, the King destroys all his enemies.

Lee Jun Ki looked great as Gong Gil and he looks very attractive in his roles as women (in many cultures women were portrayed by men as they were not allowed to perform on stage both in the West and East). It is easy to see why he awakens the attraction to him in those around him. Some critics argue if Jang Seng himself is in love with Gong Gil. I feel that the movie though vague allows the viewer to make up their own opinion. I thought the actor who was King Yongsan played him well in his lust, madness, and playfulness. Even the simple finger puppet plays and the performances hold much meaning that I really enjoyed.

This movie won many awards and became the top grossing Korean Film of all time when it hit the theaters in South Korea. Plus Lee Jun Ki catapulted him into huge popularity where he even got oppportunities after this film. The OST is great! I really enjoyed this film.

9 stars out of 10 stars

King and the Clown---movie trailer

Thank You (2007) Jang Hyuk's return from the military

(pics from hancinema)

Thank You

(2007 MBC-Kdrama-played in Korea this past Spring ended in May 2007) \

고맙습니다 (Ko-mab-seub-ni-da)

*This drama marked the first drama and return of a more mature Jang Hyuk (The Successful Story of a Bright Girl/ Please Teach Me English/Windswept/ S Diary). He plays Min Ki Seo, a brash, handsome, smart and privileged young man who is a doctor from a prominent family. He meets Lee Young Shim on the island he is sent to help his mother's employ after being kicked out of a hospital. He ends up renting a room and mets her young daughter Bom "Spring" played well by Seo Sin Ae who has HIV. Young Shim (Gong Hyo Jin --Sang Doo go to School/Ruler of your World) and Bom are ostracized by the community due to Bom's illness. She is poor, pretty and not very bright but her kind heartedness and earnestness to care for her Alzheimer grandfather (only likes to be called Mr. Lee) after Young Shim's parents were lost at sea.

Slowly while Ki Seo is on the island with Young Shim he learns more about himself and learns to love Young Shim. I loved the fact that Jang Hyuk is more mature and the emotions and acting is very good. Plus it doesn't hurt he looks great too! All the actors did a great job most especially Seo Sin Ae as Bom. I love her smile---it really brightens up the television screen to watch her in action!

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source(chinkymovies.blogspot/hancinema/wikipedia)

Synopsis: Min Ki Seo and Lee Young Shim is a couple who hated the sight of each other at first but later developed affections along the way during their daily fights and disagreements. Min Ki Seo was orginally a doctor who always looked down on people and is very naughty as well until he met Lee Young Shim and her child who has HIV. Lee Young Shim is a very cheerful and positive person despite the difficult life she has to face. Through her, Min Ki Seo slowly becomes a warm, gentle person because of love.

Starring:
Jang Hyuk (장혁) as Min Ki Seo

Gong Hyo Jin (공효진)as Lee Young Shin
Shin Sung Rok (신성록) as Choi Suk Hyun
Kim Sung Eun (김성은) as Suh Eun Hee

Seo Sin Ae (서신애) as Bom

Coffee Prince-novel/drama

So one of the hottest Korean dramas over the summer was "COFFEE PRINCE" 커피프린스 1호점 which I liked alot. (Thanks to awesome websites and fansubs!). I stumbled upon the translated version (online) of the novel. Of course, since I saw the drama first, I was picturing all the actors and actresses as the characters while reading the online version of the novel. Mind you, the person who did it did a WONDERFUL job translating! The novel was written by Lee Son Mi.

Someone on Xanga started with the first five chapters : www.xanga.com/coffeeprince after reading the chapters, I was addicted and had nowhere to finish my fix.

Then I stumbled upon : http://www.dramabeans.com/category/korean-books/
This website by dramabeans is great with recaps, news, music clips etc! Good stuff if you are into this type of thing. There are so many Kdrama websites and also check out http://www.mykofan.com/ and other usual suspects ie soompi forums or for Korean entertainment news popseoul.com.

"Coffee Prince" is what a good beach book is for the summer. Nothing to take seriously but good addictive fun for the Kdrama fans!

As expected, the novel and drama have alot of parallels but not entirely the same. One big example Han Sung is different and more sensitive than portrayed in the drama and he has a cute dog in the drama too. Han Kyul has more inner turmoil and angst as well. But both were great!