Artist Name(s) : Ha Ji Won | Lim Chang Jung
Release Date : June 30, 2007
Language : Korean
Subtitle : Korean, English

First Street sits on the run down fringes of Seoul where a small cluster of losers are barely hanging on to hope. With no electricity and a shared hole in the ground for a bathroom, they don’t have much but each other to care about. When Pil-je (IM Chang-jeong) comes around to “persuade” everyone to sell their little patch of broken down land to the thuggish real estate developers that he represents, he discovers to his amazement that to people who don’t have anything, home is everything. He settles in for the long haul but for his own convenience forces the city to bring in power and the internet and finds himself something of a hero to the community. It feels good being the good guy for a change and he begins to help the bullied kids, the boy who wants to fly like Ultraman and he can’t keep his eyes off of the lovely Myung-ran (HA Ji-won), who dreams of some day following her brain damaged father (JUNG Doo-hong) into the boxing ring. This flick has Capra written all over it like a neon sign, but Frank Capra is long gone and it’s Capra’s evil twin at the helm as the gangsters decide Pil-je has had enough time and bring their tools of the trade to work ­ bats, bricks and no mercy. As in every
feel good film suicides, beatings and self-immolation follow. (more…)

Original Title:
Annyeong UFO

South Korea 2004

Genre:
Romance, Drama, Comedy

Director:
Kim Jin-min
Cast:
Lee Eun-ju
Lee Beom-su
Pong Tae-gyu
Byeon Hie-bong
Jeon Jae-hyeong
Seon Ji-hyun
Kim Eung-su
Jeong In-seon

Synopsis

Kyeong-woo (Lee Eun-ju) is blind and her boyfriend has just broken up with her. She moves to a little town, where she wants to sort out her life. She then meets the bus driver Sang-hyeon (Lee Beom-su), who henceforth drives her home every day. Sang-hyeon is a nice guy, who’s sharing a room with his younger brother and who likes moderating and taping radio shows, which he then plays in his bus. Just by accident, he meets Kyeong-woo in the city and the two end up in a conversation, in which Kyeong-woo makes fun of the radio shows in the bus and as she doesn’t know that her new acquaintance actually is the bus driver and thus the “radio host”, Sang-hyeon introduces himself as Pyung-gu. “Pyung-gu” shows her the city and the two become friends.
Sang-hyeon begins to develop some kind of feelings for his new friend but doesn’t have the courage to tell her so. In addition he seems to be caught in his own trap of lies. But what does Kyeong-woo think about him and is she finally over her last boy friend? (more…)

Movie : Highway Star / Bokmyeon dalho / 복면달호
Year : 2007
Country : South Korea
Director : Hyun-su Kim, Sang-chan Kim

Cast

• Tae-hyun Cha
• Chae-mu Lim
• So-yeon Lee
• Seok-yong Jeong
• Yong-joon Jo
• Hyeong-ja Kim

Synopsis

Dal-ho is the lead singer of a local heavy metal band in a small rural town in Korea. A somewhat desperate owner and manager of a small record label in Seoul visits the nightclub where Dal-ho’s band is rehearsing. The owner of the label listens to Dal-ho sing and becomes convinced that Dal-ho has what it takes to become a star. They follow Dal-ho to a nearby restaurant and offer him a recording contract with Big Sound Entertainment. Dal-ho excepts on the spot. The caveat? The record label releases exclusively Trot music, a musical style loved by the older generation, but despised by the younger kids. (more…)

Movie : Our Happy Time / Maundy Thursday / 우리들의 행복한 시간
Year : 2006
Country : South Korea
Director : Hae-sung Song

Starring: Kang Dong-Won (Yun-soo), Lee Na-Young (Moon Yu-jung)

Sypnosis

Yu-Jung has now attempted her third suicide attempt. Her disdain for her mother and indifference to the rest of the world, isolates her from any chance for happiness. Yu-Jung also has an aunt named Sister Monica. Her aunt often goes to prison to meet with death row inmates. Sister Monica meets a new death row inmate, who asks Sister Monica if he could meet her niece Yu-Jung. Sister Monica asks Yu-Jung if she would counsel this death row inmate and Yu-Jung reluctantly agrees to do so.

Yu-Jung and the death row inmate do not open up to each other immediately. Yu-Jung comes from a family of wealth and is now a professor at a university. Yet, she has never known happiness since the age of 15. The inmate that she meets, named Yun-Soo, has had an even more traumatic childhood experience. He was abandoned by his parents at an early age and has had to live on the streets while caring for a younger brother. Eventually Yun-Soo ends up involved in the criminal world and gets convicted for murder. With their disparate backgrounds, Yu-Jung and Yun-Soo are still able to connect with each other, because both people know grief like few others could possibly know. As they both regain the will to live through their weekly meetings, they must now deal with their feelings for each other and come to grips with the short amount of time they have together. (more…)

The Restless (중천, Jungcheon) is a 2006 South Korean film directed by Jo Dong-oh, starring Kim Tae-hee and Jeong Woo-seong.

Cast

• Kim Tae-hee
• Jeong Woo-seong
• Heo Joon-ho
• Park Sang-wuk
• Kim Kwang-il
• Yoo Ha-joon
• Park Jeong-hak

Synopsis

“The Restless” is set in ancient Korea, where demon slayer Yi Gwak (Woo-sung Jung) finds life difficult. In a series of flashbacks, we learn that Yi Gwak was once living an idyllic existence with the love of his life, Yon-hwa (Tae-hee Kim), before accusations of supernatural happenings dooms the poor girl. Despondent, a lovelorn Yi Gwak is left to fend for himself (looking very homeless doing it, I might add) when Ban-chu (Jun-ho Heo), the leader of the empire’s elite Demon Slayers runs across him. Sensing a bond with the younger man, Ban-chu recruits Yi Gwak, who soon rises to second-in-command of the Demon Slayers. Alas, Ban-chu is harboring a secret grudge against the ruling class, which ends with Ban-chu and the rest of the Demon Slayers slaughtered in an attempted uprising. (more…)