It’s rare for a rookie director like Kim Chang-hoon, whose debut action noir “Hopeless” hits local theaters this week, to be invited to the Cannes International Film Festival. “(The festival took place in) a foreign country so I couldn’t really understand the feedback (I received). But just last week in Busan, I was able to meet with local audiences and hear their responses and communicate with them,” Kim told The Korea Herald in an interview in Seoul on Tuesd

This year’s Busan International Film Festival, which kicked off Oct. 4, invited a total of 269 movies -- about 90 fewer than last year due to a cut in government funding. But Asia's largest film festival continues to be a hit with the public, achieving a 90 percent seat occupancy rate as of Monday. With just days to go before the 28th edition of Asia's largest film festival comes to an end Friday, following is a recap of the first half of the festival. 'Ballerina' A

“Because I hate Korea,” director Jang Kun-jae’s coming-of-age film based on the novel of same title by Jang Kang-myung, realistically portrays the journey of Kye-na (Go Ah-sung) in search of empathy and consolation. In her late 20s, Kye-na isn’t sure about her life in Korea. Her longtime boyfriend Ji-myeong who is preparing to become a journalist, not so well-off parents who are dependent on Kye-na and her boss who asks Kye-na to do something unethical because it is a com

The 28th Busan International Film Festival held its new awards festival, the Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards, at Busan Cinema Center on Sunday, with Disney+ drama "Moving" the biggest winner on the night. The Asia Contents Awards, established in 2019, has been renamed to the Asia Contents Awards & Global OTT Awards this year, to reflect the global trend toward streaming. At this year’s edition, five new awards have been added, including the Best Creative award. D

South Korean veteran actor Youn Yuh-jung and prolific actor Han Hyo-joo went over their latest acting career feats with the audience in Busan during the 28th Busan International Film Festival’s flagship special talk session Actors' House. Launched in 2021 as an intimate, in-depth talk show, Actors' House has become a place where actors go over their filmography, reveal behind-the-scene stories and their new plans and projects. Youn shared what it meant for her to receive the pres

Director Kim Seong-sik’s “Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman,” which has been top of the box office since the extended Chuseok holiday that started Sept. 28, comes after he spent 10 years as an assistant director. In the first week of opening, the film attracted over 1.5 million moviegoers. Originally an animator who wished to become like renowned Japanese animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Kim decided to change course after watching director Bong Joon-ho’s “Memories

BUSAN -- Korean American actors and filmmakers including John Cho, Steven Yeun, Justin Chon and Lee Isaac Chung gathered Friday in the port city of Busan, South Korea, as part of the Busan International Film Festival’s newly established section, “Korea Diasporic Cinema,” which showcases critically acclaimed works by or featuring Korean Americans. The programmer of Asia’s largest film festival said that the festival organizers wanted to delve deeply into Korean Americans&r

“30 Days” (South Korea) Opened Oct. 3 Comedy Directed by Nam Dae-joong Jung-yeol (Kang Ha-neul), an intelligent lawyer, and his wife Nara (Jung So-min), a passionate film producer, see their idyllic newlywed life eventually drive nerdy Jung-yeol and quick-tempered Nara apart. “Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman” (South Korea) Opened Sept. 27 Fantasy/Mystery Directed by Kim Seong-sik Fraudulent exorcist Dr. Cheon (Gang Dong-won) meets a new client, You-kyung (Lee Som), who

Actor Park Eun-bin opened this year’s Busan International Film Festival Wednesday, Asia’s largest film festival which will showcase a total of 269 films from 69 countries on 25 screens in Busan throughout the 10 day-long festival. The related Asian content and film market will be held Oct. 7-10. Park, the breakout star of hit drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022), was the festival’s first-ever solo host for the opening ceremony, due to a sudden surgery of actor Lee Je-hoon. L

Director Nam Dae-jung who directed comedy flicks “The Last Ride" (2016) and “Homme Fatale” (2019), has returned with “30 Days,” a rom-com featuring a couple with amnesia going through a comical divorce. Nam said he watched the film hundreds of times while editing. “The film ended shooting in February this year. Since then until the opening of the film, I think I’ve watched the film more than 600 times while editing. This is because, for comedy films

“Reborn Rich,” hit drama on local cable channel JTBC that aired in December last year has been nominated to the finalist of International Emmy Awards’ TV drama and series category. According to the production firm SLL, “Reborn Rich” will compete along France’s “Infiniti,” Mexico’s “Dive,” and UK’s “Life and Death in the Warehouse.” “Reborn Rich” revolves around Yoon Hyun-woo (Song Joong-ki), a loyal s

South Korean auteur Chung Ji-young returns for the first time in four years with the crime flick “The Boys,” another work based on a real-life high-profile case. The new film follows “Unbowed” (2011) and “Black Money” (2019), which dealt with the true stories of a professor who went against a corrupt Korean judicial system in 2007 and the 2012 sale of the Korean Exchange Bank to American equity firm Lone Star Funds, respectively. “The Boys” revolve

Actor Song Joong-ki, who has wowed the audience with both commercial and critical TV success through “Reborn Rich” (2022) and “Vincenzo” (2021), chose to show his rough side this time through rookie director Kim Chang-hoon’s noir flick “Hopeless.” Song, who returned to Korea after spending time with his newborn son and British wife in Rome for nine months, said he has always been on the lookout for opportunities to try new genres and projects internation

Just like director Kim Yeol in “Cobweb,” the film's 58-year-old director, Kim Jee-won, is adamant about what he does as a filmmaker. “Amid the unprecedented crisis that Korean cinema is facing, all I ask for (regarding the release of my film) is for ‘Cobweb’ to create a momentum for the revival of the Korean cinema,” Kim told The Korea Herald in an interview in Seoul on Sept. 21. Kim was behind hit projects like “The Good, The Bad, The Strange&rdquo

Hit filmmaker Kim Jee-woon has returned with black comedy “Cobweb,” joining forces with Cannes-winning actor Song Kang-ho to bring a breath of fresh air to the box office where plot-missing disaster flicks and childish romantic comedy films have been dominating recently. “Cobweb” follows a fresh plot development, storyline and characters. The weighty question “What is film?” penetrates the 130-minute running time, anchoring the scenes of witty, funny and sad m

In director Kim Jee-woon’s upcoming black comedy, “Cobweb,” Jung Soo-jung, also known as Krystal from K-pop girl group f(x), plays a chic and edgy rising star, Han Yu-rim, giving the role her own, almost flawless interpretation. The 28-year-old actor seamlessly reproduces a unique tone that actors would use in the 1970s, making it hard to believe that “Cobweb” is Jung's first commercial film role. Jung has previously starred in the indie film, “More Than

In Sophie Compton and Reuben Hamlyn’s new documentary “Another Body,” a 23-year-old engineering student named Taylor finds herself victimized in a uniquely modern-day form of abuse: deepfake pornography. But this eye-opening 80-minute film doesn’t just show Taylor tracking down who has digitally planted her face over the bodies of porn stars -- it also shows how she navigates the devastating situation and manages her mental health. “Another Body” is told from

Dr. Cheon, the fake, comical exorcist Gang Dong-won portrays in the upcoming occult comedy flick “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman,” has many similarities to the characters he played in 2009’s “Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard” and 2016’s “A Violent Prosecutor.” “I did intend to set the tone of Dr. Cheon character to be somewhere in between Woo-chi and Chi-won -- at least in the first half of the story where Dr. Cheon’s cunning wits had t

“Sleep” (South Korea) Opened Sept. 6 Mystery/Thriller Directed by Jason Yu A pregnant Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) discovers that her husband, Hyun-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), has started exhibiting strange behaviors while asleep. Overcome with anxiety that he may be a danger to the family, Soo-jin goes to great lengths to protect them and their baby. “A Haunting in Venice” (US) Opened Sept. 13 Mystery/Crime Directed by Kenneth Branagh Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot returns to his peace

Actors often say they strive to show a different side of themselves in their latest films. But actor Gang Dong-won’s performance as Dr. Cheon in “Dr. Cheon and the Lost Talisman,” seems very familiar, as if he intended to act like he has done in the past. His comical swordsmanship and his impactful role as Dr. Cheon is reminiscent of his characters in “Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard” (2009) and “Kundo: Age of Rampant” (2014). His cunning wit is also sim