Lee Byunghun interviewed today on the KBS Show in relate to the upcoming 'I Saw the Devil' movie release, fans were asked to pose questions for him via twitter before the taping begins. The interview will be aired on July 31, 10.35pm (KBS2, Movie is Good)
Director Kim Ji-woon’s highly anticipated new thriller I Saw the Devil has its summer release date set for August 11, as announced by the film’s distributor Showbox. Kim’s return to the noir-thriller style of his 2005 hit A Bittersweet Life stars top actor Lee Byeong-heon and leading thespian Choi Min-sik (Old Boy).
Both actors have worked with Kim in previous films, Lee playing the villain in The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) and the embattled hero of A Bittersweet Life, while Choi starred in Kim's debut feature A Quiet Family (1998). I Saw the Devil also marks Choi's first return to mainstream filmmaking since his portrayal of a vicious killer in 2005’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
The new film has Choi reprising the role of an extreme psychopath, who, when he makes the daughter of a retired police his latest victim, is tracked down by her fiancé, played by Lee, a secret agent whose scheme of vengeance is equally gruesome.
The film’s international sales rep FineCut has already made a slew of pre-sales deals including to the UK, France, Taiwan and Turkey.
"Maid" and "Saw The Devil" Invited To The Toronto International Film Festival
Korean films are gaining more attention abroad with each passing year. Both of the films "Maid" and "Saw The Devil" will be included in this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
The movie "Maid" -- which stars Jeon Do-hyun and was directed by Im Sang-soo -- is seeing it's second international event as it was also included in the most recent Cannes Film Festival. Seven separate distributors competed to win the right to show the film in North America. US-based IFC Films won the bid and there are high expectations for the movie to do well at the box office when it finally premieres. At the Toronto International Film Festival, "Maid" was invited to be shown in one of the main categories while "Saw The Devil" will be shown in the Special Presentation section. This will mark the first time the latter film, starring Lee Byung-hun and Choi Min-shik, is shown in North America.
The Toronto International Film Festival will be running from September 9-19. This festival is considered to be within the top four film festivals in the world, along with the likes of the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice film festivals.
TV production companies have long been complaining about the exorbitant fees charged by top stars, which drive production costs up to the point where even a hit series no longer guarantees profits for the producers. But their complaints have curbed neither the stars' demands nor the public's appetite for watching them.
The leading star of the Korean pop-culture craze, actor Bae Yong-joon earned a record fee of W100 million (US$1=W1,202) per episode for MBC series "Taewangsasingi (The Four Guardian Gods of the King)" in 2007. In addition, he was reportedly guaranteed an additional W150 million per episode based on ratings and overseas sales. When Bae starred in "Winter Sonata," the series credited with setting off the craze, in 2002, he was paid W4 million per episode.
Other stars also rake in huge sums. Park Shin-yang made W50 million per episode and Lee Byung-hun W25 million for "IRIS," though Lee's actual earnings added up to W100 million per episode considering all the incentives. Actresses Son Ye-jin, Kim Tae-hee and Ko Hyun-jung make about W20-30 million per episode, excluding additional incentives if their dramas get re-aired or sold overseas. Pan Entertainment President Kim Jong-sik said, "Compared to five years ago, actors get paid five to six times more now on average."
This distorts the way productions are financed. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, actors' fees account for 60 percent of the total cost of a TV drama, compared to 20 percent in Japan. TV production companies argue that the terrestrial networks demand big names, allowing the stars to negotiate exorbitant contracts.
The CEO of a TV production company said, "When I visit broadcasters with a business plan for new drama without a star in the cast, they refuse and say we need to get a few huge stars in the cast. If we want to get a place in the program list, we have no choice but to do what they say because they have absolute power."
Broadcasters claim they have to protect their investment. Huh Woong, head of the drama department at SBS, said, "It is broadcasters' inherent right to demand a better cast when viewers’ have trust in star actors, because the risk of airing unpopular dramas fall mostly on broadcasters."
wah wah bt grafic novel plak..
cuma ubah ckit plot cetr,,
ismaha Post at 22-7-2010 13:26
July 30, 2010
Graphic novel emerges as comics for adults
By Chung Ah-young
Staff reporter
The 2009 hit television drama “IRIS” has been adapted into a graphic novel,
pages of which are shown above. The book will be published in Japan and Korea.
/ Courtesy of Creek and River Korea
In the past, comics were regarded as the genre for maniacs, mostly children or nerdy adolescents, with fantasy or superheroes stories. However, recently, the traditional comic industry has waned probably prompted by the advent of the digital era.
Instead, a graphic novel, which remains relatively unfamiliar in Korea despite a rapid global spreading, is knocking on the door of the local publishing industry.
Often called “comics for adults,”the graphic novel is similar in a conventional comic format with reliance on images but with more subtle, artistic quality alongside mature and serious themes. It has a longer storyline and a complicated plot akin to the novel structures, usually packed with a hardcover.
The Creek and River Korea and the Taewon Entertainment will publish a graphic novel based on the popular television drama series “IRIS” starring hallyu star Lee Byung-hun and top actress Kim Tae-hee. The drama broadcast here last year and now is airing in Japan.
The graphic novel will be published around September first in Japan right after the end of drama series to end and then available in Korea, according to the Creek and River Korea
In other countries, the graphic novels are first created and then made into other genres such as television dramas and films but not in Korea with the graphic novel development in a fledging state. “The graphic novel is still very new in Korea. So we have to create it with more familiar subject like the popular drama content. The graphic novel of “Iris” was planned when the drama was being aired,”Youk Yoen-sik, director of the creator agency, said.
Top three artists ― cartoonist Lee Hyun-se, Im Seok-nam and Choi Sung-hyun ― are collaborating to create the work.
Lee is one of the nation’s top cartoonists renowned for “Mythology of the Heavens Book: God of War,” “Buddy” and “Nambul.” Im is the nation’s top graphic illustrator and is now more famous in France and Japan than in Korea. Choi who also participated in Lee’s “Buddy” will write the story.
In the graphic novel version of the drama, the images portraying the main characters Hyun-jun played by Lee and Seung-hee played by Kim will be kept but the story will be different from the original drama.
The main plot is based on a love line between Hyun-jun and Seung-hee and added with new characters and fictional elements, which were not portrayed on the small screen. “As the graphic novel is usually limited to the short story with less than 100 pages, we have to trim the storyline fitted for the format. Our work is another creation,” he said.
The traditional comics were usually for just reading but the graphic novels are mostly for the collection. “The beauty of the genre is very delicate, high-quality and artistic. So the works are regarded as the collection item for readers,” he said.
Youk added that the current comic industry has required the change of the concept to brace for the digital era. “We can use the graphic novels for smartphones and other digital devices as their visual images are very appealing to the users. It is the future of the comic industry,”he said.
The graphic novel production requires more time, seven to eight times than the traditional comic books do, with much more cost and a compact but intensive storyline. “The quality of the illustration is very artistic, close to the paintings. So individuals are willing to collect them,” he said.
In other countries, the graphic novel has been popular. The film “300” is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel with the same title and also the film “The Sin City” was also based on the graphic novel. In Korea, Sigongsa has published the graphic novel series since 2008 after the success of the graphic novel-inspired films “300” and “The Sin City”
Youk said that the company is considering adapting the upcoming drama “Buddy Buddy” into a graphic novel as the next project. “The future of the graphic novel is very promising, I think. In Korea the graphic novel is a medium of once-source-multiuse of the drama or film to the literature territory. It is a blessing both for the literature and comic industry,” he said.
Local film industry looks to violent films for rebound
Three violent local films set to open later this month are cracking knuckles and sharpening knives, aiming to drag their Hollywood competition into a bloody fight to reclaim some of the summer box office spoils.
First to challenge “Salt” and “Inception” at the box office is Won Bin’s blood soaked revenge thriller “The Man from Nowhere,” scheduled for an Aug. 4 release. The ultra-violent picture directed by Lee Jung-beom has garnered plenty of publicity for its leading man shedding his squeaky-clean image in favor of a role as a merciless killer, hell bent on bringing terror upon the criminal underworld.
The following week, “The Good, the Bad, and the Weird” writer-director Kim Ji-woon returns with “I Saw the Devil,” a violent yarn with revenge as its main theme. Kim’s film, too, features Hallyu star Lee Byung-hun in the lead as a government special agent who goes on a personal vendetta against a serial killer accused of murdering his fiancée, played by method actor Choi Min-sik.
Finally, “Failan” and “Rikkidosan” director Song Hye-sung will look to break his streak of back to back box office failures with a film that has the proven pedigree to become the year’s biggest seller -- a remake of John Woo’s seminal gangster opus, “A Better Tomorrow.”
The local adaptation stars popular heartthrobs Ju Jin-mo, Song Seung-hun, Cho Han-sun, and Kim Gang-woo.
The unenviable tall order of filling in the role of Mark, originally played by the talismanic Chow Yun-fat, has fallen onto Song and has created plenty of Internet buzz, both positive and negative among fans of the original. In all the three upcoming films, there’s no shortage of bare knuckle beat-downs and stabbings.
Excluding the “A Better Tomorrow” remake, the other two films have been stamped by the Korea Media Ratings Board with restrictions limiting the admissions to adults over 19 years of age. This is in stark contrast to last year when family-friendly fare like writer-director Yoon Jae-kyun’s tsunami disaster epic “Haeundae” and the feel good ski-jumping picture “Take Off” dominated the box office. Yoon’s CGI destruction of Busan’s Haeundae beach garnered over 10 million admissions, while the inspiring tale of a rag-tag group of misfits that represent the South Korean ski-jumping team became a sleeper hit with just over 8.4 million tickets sold.
Lee Byung-hun stars in writer-director Kim Ji-woon’s “I Saw the Devil.” Co-headlining the film
is veteran “Oldboy” actor Choi Min-sik.
Advance reviews of Won’s film had many a critic commenting on the graphic screen violence, with some giving negative marks for its attempt to shock audiences through gratuitous displays of blood and gore.
Early buzz for Kim Ji-woon’s “I Saw the Devil” has also mostly focused on the film’s violent content, with some industry insiders saying the screen violence trumps even “The Man from Nowhere,” where slicing open arteries, multiple stabbings, death by pick ax, gunshot, mutilation, and illegal organ harvesting made up all of the stomach churning sequences shown throughout the film.
Critics all across the board have brought attention to the lack of family friendly local films available, especially at a time of year when children and teens are out of school for summer break. This isn’t to say children and teens have slim pickings at their local multiplex.
Pixar’s hotly anticipated “Toy Story 3” and the critically lambasted live action adaptation of “Sixth Sense” writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” are rolling out nationwide on Aug. 19 -- both available also in 3-D. The two current box office champs, “Inception” and “Salt” have had positive critical feedback in North America, but given that both films were given ratings of 12+ and 15+ by the Korea Media Ratings Board, the two films are largely expected to score well at the box office, even with competition from local films.
Since the runaway success of Na Hong-jin’s 2007 serial killer thriller “The Chaser,” there’s been a rush by local filmmakers to come out with their own violent films after seeing the box office potential of targeting adults. Na’s film is still the biggest selling film of its kind with 5 million in ticket sales, but with Kang Woo-suk’s “Moss” pulling in good numbers currently at the box office and with a string of films aimed at adult audiences about to roll out, the local film industry might just rebound on the back of these blood soaked thrillers.
August 2, 2010 I Saw the Devil and The Housemaid invited to Toronto
Two Korean features have been invited to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The fest, which has yet to announce its full line-up, will present KIM Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil and the North American premiere of IM Sang-soo’s The Housemaid during its run September 9 – 19.
I Saw the Devil, which has its Korean release August 11, will screen in TIFF’s Special Presentations section – a program devoted to major films from renowned directors. Director KIM is one of Korea’s top three genre masters with previous films, the Manchuria-set “kimchi” western The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008) and noirish-mafia-thriller A Bittersweet Life (2005) winning critical acclaim and broad festival play. Actor LEE Byung-hun, who starred in KIM’s last two films, takes the lead, playing a secret agent who plans gruesome revenge on a vicious serial killer, played by CHOI Min-sik.
The Housemaid, an erotic-thriller, is a remake of the 1960 KIM Ki-young classic. The 2010 version had its world premiere in competition at Cannes and stars former Cannes Best Actress winner JEON Do-yeon. TIFF officials explained that The Housemaid takes a satirical look on class structure, comparing the picture to La Ceremonie by famed French director Claude Chabrol. Korean production company and sales agent Mirovision recently signed a deal with IFC for multi-platform distribution in North America.
Netizens Pick 'A Bittersweet Life' as Kim Ji Woon's Best Work
In prelude to 'I Saw the Devil' movie release on August 11, an online-survey conducted throughout 5-26 July had chosen ' A Bittersweet Life' as the best work by Dir. Kim Ji Woon.
1. A Bittersweet Life 46%
2. The Good, The Bad, The Weird 29%
3. A Tale of Two Sisters 13%
The top two movies were those highlighting the combination of LBH-KJW really showed the preference of the fans and the upcoming movie 'I Saw the Devil' with Korea's top method actor Choi Min Sik have really increased the anticipation for another KJW masterpiece to enjoy.
Korea gives 'Devil' restricted rating
Rating stays the same even after a month's worth of editing
By Park Soo-mee
SEOUL -- “I Saw the Devil,” the director Kim Ji-woon’s new crime thriller, was given a restricted rating by the Korea Media Rating Board Wednesday. This is the second time that the film received the restricted rating after the film’s producer Peppermint and Co. asked the board to give it an 18+ rating last month.
The film’s press premiere, which was originally scheduled for Thursday, will be delayed until next week.
“This is a story of revenge from the eyes of a victim,” said Kim Hyun-woo, the film’s producer.
“The expressions of revenge were deliberately direct and realistic to make it more engaging for audiences to see the film from the victim’s point of view.”
The producer is currently adjusting "technical alternatives" to condense the controversial scenes without damaging the film’s motive, he added.
The problematic scenes raised by the board include sequences in which the film’s character throws a dead body part to a dog and keeps the remainder in the refrigerator. The board explained that the scenes “severely damage the dignity of human values.”
The film, starring a duo of top Korean actors Lee Byung-hun (“GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra”) and Choi Min-shik (“OldBoy”) is the story of a cop whose fiancé was killed by a serial killer. The film is distributed by Showbox and co-produced by Ciz Entertainment.
Restricted rating, which is officially called “limited screening” in Korea, virtually bans a film from being screened here since such films can only been played in special theaters featuring exclusively adult films and no such theater exists here. Advertising and marketing such film is also banned, which forces a commercial film director to compromise with the board's decision.
The film was originally scheduled to open on August 11.
History issues make S. Koreans more worried than Japanese about neighborly relations
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Koreans are far less satisfied with their country's relations with Japan than their neighbors, and believe Tokyo should clear unresolved historical issues to improve the ties, a joint survey said Thursday.
The survey jointly conducted by Korean national broadcaster KBS and its Japanese counterpart NHK on the occasion of the centenary of Japan's annexation of Korea also revealed three out of 10 Japanese citizens are uninformed of the colonial occupation.
Sixty percent of Korean respondents said bilateral relations with their neighbor country are "not good," while the pessimistic view was voiced by 29 percent on the Japanese side. Those who found the relations "good" accounted for 39 percent in Korea, compared to 62 percent in Japan. Views also differed on issues the neighbors should first tackle. Most Koreans (62 percent) called on Japan to abandon its territorial claim over the Korean easternmost islets of Dokdo; Japanese citizens sought "political dialogue" (37 percent) to improve bilateral ties, and efforts to resolve territorial disputes came next (27 percent).
Regarding the efforts, Koreans believe the neighbors should try to achieve consensus on their shared history (34 percent) and Japan should apologize and compensate for its occupation of Korea (26 percent). The Japanese, meanwhile, cited such solutions as economic exchanges (28 percent), cultural and sports exchanges (28 percent) and historic consensus (27 percent).
Both sides supported a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries (63 percent in Korea and 68 percent in Japan). Concerning North Korea, most South Koreans expressed concern about Pyongyang's nuclear program (78 percent) and the families separated by the Korean War (47 percent), while Japanese were more worried about their fellow citizens abducted by Pyongyang in past decades (79 percent) as well as the nuclear issue (72 percent). Some Japanese citizens were not aware of Japan's 1910-45 colonial occupation of Korea. Those who said they know of the colonization accounted for 68 percent, compared to 91 percent among Koreans.
To Koreans, the Japanese people conjure up an image of being "kind" (40 percent) and "diligent" (38 percent). Japanese tended to view Koreans as "having a strong character" (28 percent) and being "emotional" (27 percent). The first Japanese person to come to Koreans' minds was Ito Hirobumi (21 percent), who spearheaded Japan's annexation of Korea and was assassinated by Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun in 1909. Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (10 percent) came next, followed by figure skater Mao Asada (8 percent) and baseball player Ichiro Suzuki (6 percent).
Among South Koreans, the survey showed, the Japanese were mostly familiar with the actor and star of "Winter Sonata," Bae Yong-joon (21 percent). Some cited late former President Kim Dae-jung (8 percent), incumbent President Lee Myung-bak (7 percent) and actress Choi Ji-woo and actor Lee Byung-hun (both 4 percent).
The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews of 1,000 South Koreans and 1,473 Japanese from late June to early July. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent for Korea and 2.55 percent for Japan, and has a 95 percent confidence level for both.
For the first time, a hotly anticipated feature film produced by a major studio has been slapped by the Korea Media Ratings Board with the limited engagement rule, preventing the film from a nationwide debut.
“I Saw the Devil,” set for an Aug. 11 release was recently given the harsh ruling for several violent sequences, some of which involve cannibalism, mutilation, and specifically, a scene involving a serial killer tossing a human torso into a waste basket.
Lee Byung-hun stars in writer-director Kim Ji-woon’s controversial new film “I Saw the Devil.” Showbox
Such decisions are usually given to avant-garde or alternative independent films, but writer-director Kim Ji-woon’s (“The Good, the Bad, and the Weird”) summer tentpole thriller which stars Lee Byung-hun and veteran Choi Min-sik has been hindered by local censors for its gratuitous screen depictions of violence.
The result has pushed the scheduled press screening back to an undisclosed date, sounding off alarm bells for the film’s producers and its studio.
The production company chief, Peppermint Company’s Kim Hyun-woo said on Thursday the reason for the KMRB’s decision was not just based on the screen violence, but that it also had to do with the film’s leading men.
“We wanted to tell the story from the eyes of the audience -- to provoke the same vengeful impulses of the film’s hero through realistic portrayals of his revenge plan,” Kim said. “Because we wanted to be as real as possible, those graphic scenes were needed and perhaps the intensity of the two actors’ performances contributed to the decision by the ratings board.”
Some might see Kim’s comments as an elaborate publicity stunt carefully orchestrated by the film’s marketing team to pique public interest through stirring the media pot with controversial coverage.
“We’re now in the process of making additional edits of our first cut within the boundaries of retaining the director’s artistic vision,” said Kim. He added, “The second cut will be re-submitted to the ratings board to ensure we keep up with the original release date.”
The film follows a special agent’s (Lee) elaborate revenge scheme against a serial killer (Choi) suspected of brutally murdering his wife.
Revenge and violence have recently become the theme of the moment for the film industry with Won Bin’s “The man from nowhere” making much noise over its screen violence and the actor’s transformation from a pretty boy to a violent madman.
Since its announcement as Kim Ji-woon’s follow up to his hugely popular “The Good, the Bad, and the Weird,” “I Saw the Devil” has been one of this year’s most anticipated films.
Disclaimer: Hopefully there'll be a better English translation on this but for now the simpler gist by EverythingLBH
August 6, 2010
Dir. Kim Ji Woon: Endless Expression from Lee Byung Hun
The director of the summer thriller 'I Saw the Devil' has nothing but high praises for Lee Byung Hun who played the leading role alongside actor Choi Min Sik in the now controversial movie due the restricted rating by the KMRB. The director commanded LBH's expressive acting that truly conveys the perfect persona of Suhyeon, the man struck by tragedy losing his love to a brutal serial killer and in the process lost himself in unthinkable revenge and raging madness.
Distinctive emotions by Lee Byung Hun is leaving a strong impression to the director especially the eye-expressive details and wide-range of emotional (suppressed & explosive) acting. According to Dir. Kim, Lee Byung Hun efficiently portrays the feeling of being in love, grief, anger and revenge with such commitment that each emotions were fully maximized to evoke a well-deserved brilliant praise for his strong performance. "Suhyeon had implemented a complete confident portrait that left me wondering the end of his expressive detail," commented Dir. KJW in his accolade.
Author
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Thanks to the fan highlight at GBW cafe.daum 
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