Won Bin

I want to talk a little bit about Won Bin today because he seems to be making all the right moves as of late. I first saw him in a little drama call Autumn Tales costarring Song Seung Hun and Song Hye Kyo that was broadcasted in 2000. Since then, all three has an amazing career but Won Bin and Song Seung Hun briefly left the limelight to fulfill their mandatory 2 years of military service as required for all Korean males. Won Bin served his military duty in 2005 and was discharged in 2006 due to an injury. After rehabilitation, he officially makes his comeback in 2008 with the movie Mother and most recently Ahjussi (English title: The Man From Nowhere). Both movies are major successes.

Mother tells the story of an un-named mother played by Kim Hye-ja who has a mentally challenged son name Do-joon (Won Bin). Do-joon is accused of murder when a local teen ends up dead and the police needs someone to take the blame. Who’s an easier scapegoat than someone who doesn’t even know he’s being framed? The movie follows his mother and her quest to find justice for her son. The plot sounds remarkably interesting and an amazing performance by the actors can really make this movie even better. Thankfully, they did and the movie is both a success at the theaters and at many film festivals. Mother screened at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and recently won for best film, best screenwriter and best actress at the 4th Asian Film Awards.

Won Bin next plays a character quite different from that in Mother. Before, he played a character that was wronged by the justice system. in Ahjussi, he plays a character who takes justice into his own hands. His character is said to be a lonely man who cuts himself off from society. When a young girl gets kidnapped, he goes off to find her and anyone in his way is basically…in the way and must be destroyed. The plot details are still a bit sketchy since it only just premiered in Korea but is already a big hit. Won Bin is clearly choosing his projects wisely and doing things that he knows he can do well which is a soft performance that’s still powerful and memorable. When he does try to venture into new territory like an action-movie such as Ahjussi, I feel he’s still playing a character he knows he can portray well.

I’m hoping to see Mother real soon. Since I’m not much of an action movie fan, Ahjussi might have to wait but it still sounds really good.

Treeless Mountain

Hey all. I’m breaking away from my schoolwork to report to you about this new movie. Once I saw the trailer, I just had to post it up here for everyone to know about it.

The movie is called Treeless Mountain directed by So Yong Kim. The name of the movie alone intrigues me. The basic storyline from what I gather is two young Korean girls (Jin and Bin) are left in the care of their aunt by their mother while she looks for the girls’ father. The mother tells her daughters that once they fill up a plastic piggy bank that she gave them, she will return by then. Other minutes details of the movie are yet unknown, but I’m hoping it’ll be one of those calm yet powerful movie like Il Mare.

A quote from the trailer pretty much peaks my interest even more in that it says the movie portrays the “…quiet resilience of children.” I thought about my own childhood and how I could force myself to wake up freakishly early in the morning to catch the cartoon shows and now I can barely get up by noon. When did this resilience get lost? Maybe this movie will tell me. 😛

A Man Who Was Superman | Review

I saw this movie just yesterday at 10 and stayed up late to midnight just to finish it. What an awesome movie. That’s why I’m writing a review now to spread the love.

Release in 2008
Directed by Jeong Yoon-chul
Overall Rating: A+

Main Cast: Actors / Characters

Jun Ji-hyun as Song Soo-jung
Hwang Jeong-min as Lee Hyun-suk

I’d like to start this review off with a quote from “Superman” in the movie.

“Strenghts don’t open big, iron doors but a small key. We all have a key inside of us…to open the door to a new future.”

Song Soo-jung is a long-time TV show producer who has grown bored of the mechanics of her job. Doing the same thing years after years has removed all sparks from her. Furthermore, she hasn’t been paid in awhile. The reason wasn’t explicited stated, so I am assuming it’s because the studio hasn’t got a hit yet. Soo-jung decides to take the company’s camera as payment and go to Africa for a shoot. She lazily steps out of the office without a wave to her co-workers. As she waits for the train to come, she falls asleep and wakes up to find her camera (i.e. company’s camera) is stolen. She tries to run after the crook but can’t match his speed. Suddenly, a color bullet comes rushing by. It’s a man in a colorful Hawaiian printed shirt. He flies by everyone and quickly catches up to the thief. Scared, the thief runs off leaving his chaser exhausted on the ground and the camera too. When Soo-jung finds him, she checks for her camera first, then pour water on her savior to wakes him up. He quickly comes to and identifies himself as Superman. Apparantly, he’s well-known throughout the neighborhood to help out everyone and everything he sees. He explains he has lost his superpower because a piece of kryptonite is lodged in his brain. Soo-jung is puzzled but interested, this could be her next documentary and a big hit at that. Is this man really Superman? If not, what’s his reasons for helping out everyone at the expense of himself? Yet still, should there really be a reason to help out others?