[HanCinema's Film News] New Korean Films Inbound...

K-Films Coming Soon:

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★★★★ "Fasten Your Seatbelt": A plane headed to Tokyo from Gimpo with a Hallyu star on board flies into an unexpected storm and becomes in danger of crashing. (10/17)

★★★★ "Queen of the Night": A romantic comedy about a timid husband named Yeong-soo discovering the eventful past of his beautiful and perfect wife Hee-joo. (10/17)

★★★ "Neverdie Butterfly": Life starts getting better for a bullied boy when he meets his old middle school friend, but the school bully has other plans for them. (10/17)

★★ "Title for Members Only": Three glamorous and privileged women go on a seductive vacation with three men they've targeted. (10/17)

★★★ "Silk Flowers": A documentary that follows national shaman Kim Keum-hwa through various performances around the world as an artist. (10/17)

Title: "Fasten Your Seatbelt"

Genre: Comedy

Length: 94 min

Release Date: 2013/10/17

Director: Ha Jung-woo

Screenplay: Ha Jung-woo

Stars: Jung Kyung-ho, Han Soo-hyun, Kim Jae-hwa, Choi Kyu-hwan

The Short and Sweet:  A plane headed to Tokyo from Gimpo with a Hallyu star on board flies into an unexpected storm and becomes in danger of crashing.

"Fasten Your Seatbelt" comes out this week and is the award-winning actor Ha Jung-woo's directorial debut. This highflying comedy asks what would happen if a Hallyu star and few other interesting characters (including a monk and a celebrity photographer) find themselves amidst a violent storm in the skies praying for their lives. I really like the premise/setting here and the trailer looks like a lot of fun. Ha Jung-woo ("The Terror Live", "The Berlin File", "Nameless Gangster") is hugely talented and popular actor and it will be interesting to see how Korean audiences respond to his opening outing in the director's chair.

★★★★

Title: "Queen of the Night"

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Drama

Length: 113 min

Release Date: 2013/10/17

Director: Kim Je-yeong

Screenplay: Kim Je-yeong

Stars: Chun Jung-myung, Kim Min-jung, Kim Ki-bang, Lee Mi-do

The Short and Sweet:  A romantic comedy about a timid husband named Yeong-soo discovering the eventful past of his beautiful and perfect wife Hee-joo.

Debuts, debuts everywhere this week and Kim Je-yeong's "Queen of the Night" is no exception. Kim directed a 17-minute short film called "Going Together" back in 2008, and also wrote the screenplay for the cute drama "Wonderful Radio" starring Lee Min-jung and Lee Jung-jin in 2012. "Wonderful Radio" was directed by Kwon Chil-in but, however, failed to breach the million admissions mark. Kim will be hoping that his first outing here will be able to surpass his previous scripting effort with some fun and frantic chemistry between his leads Chun Jung-myung and Kim Min-jung (who actually appeared together in 2005 in the drama series "Fashion 70s"). Jeong-myeong plays an unassuming husband who suspects his wife (Min-jeong) is hiding some wild secrets from her past. The trailer looks promising and despite appearing a little generic, the film still looks enjoyable.

★★★★

Title: "Neverdie Butterfly"

Genre: Drama

Length: 93 min

Release Date: 2013/10/17

Director: Jang Hyeon-sang

Stars: Shin Jae-seung, Kim Tae-yoon-I, Lee Dal, Kang Gi-dong 

The Short and Sweet: Life starts getting better for a bullied boy when he meets his old middle school friend, but the school bully has other plans for them. 

This is Jang's debut feature after he entered Korea National University in 2006. In addition to "Neverdie Butterfly", he has produced a short film entitled "Oh! My Goodness" as well as a comic book called "Dairy of Seaman Change". The film was screened at this year's 13^th Gwangju International Film Festival under the "New Perspective of Korea Films" section and is released nationwide this Thursday.

★★★

Title: "Title for Members Only"

Genre: Thriller

Length: 87 min

Release Date: 2013/10/17

Director: Park Sun-uk ("90 Minutes")

Stars: Yoo Sa-ra, Wi Ji-woong 

The Short and Sweet: Three glamorous and privileged women go on a seductive vacation with three men they've targeted.

Director Park Sun-uk is hoping to impress with his second commercial feature "Title for Members Only", a sexy thriller in paradise that looks quite flashy and doggedly flirty. Park's previous film "90 Minutes" also contained a modern femme fatale of sorts, and involved blackmail, a sex tape, and like here with "Title for Members Only", an ambitious and attractive woman pulling all the strings. "Title for Members Only" appears on the surface to be very much alone these same lines, but hopefully for Park his latest will be able to stick around longer in the charts.

★★

Title: "Silk Flower"

Genre: Documentary

Length: 91 min

Release Date: 2013/10/17

Director: Kim Jeong-wook-I

Stars: Kim Keum-hwa, Seo Kab-sook 

The Short and Sweet:  A documentary that follows national shaman Kim Keum-hwa through various performances around the world as an artist.

★★★

 

Also Coming Soon:

"The Ward" (2010), "Grimm's Snow White" (2012), "Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall" (2013), "Playing for Keeps" (2013), "Benda Bilili!" (2010), "Paradise: Love" (2011), "Redline" (2013), "Thomas & Friends: Blue Mountains Mystery" (2012), "Beautiful Lies" (2010), "Famous Five" (2012), "Lovelace" (2012), "Like Someone in Love" (2012), "Akko's Secret" (2012), "Gravity" (2013)

- C.J. Wheeler (chriscjw@gmail.com; @KoreaOnTheCouch)

Sources:

AsianWiki: http://asianwiki.com/Fasten_Your_Seatbelt; http://asianwiki.com/Queen_Of_The_Night;

Gwangju International Film Festival: http://www.giff.org/eng/sub03/?item=view&scode=s07&mcode=3062

Daum: http://movie.daum.net/movieinfo/coming/movieInfoScheduled.do?modeType=day&order=recently

HanCinema: http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Vacation.php; http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Silk_Flower.php#synopsis; http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Fasten_Your_Seatbelt.php; http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Queen_of_the_Night.php; http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_Neverdie_Butterfly.php  

KOBIZ: http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20138162; http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20123384; http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20124052