[HanCinema's Digest] Cinema Snippets

KoBiz's latest infographic tracks the rise in successful adaptations, BIFF's Korean Cinema Award winner is looking forward to the future of Korean cinema, The New York Times profiles "the man who put Korean cinema on the map", and Pierce Conran reveals how Korean filmmakers are standing up for comfort women.

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"Match between Novel and Film"

Hwang Hee-yun explores the start of a potentially fruitful trend in Korean cinema in a new infographic on KoBiz. Won Shin-yun's fifth film, the thriller "Memoir of a Murderer" (Sol Kyung-gu), and Hwang Dong-hyuk's "The Fortress" (Lee Byung-hun, Kim Yun-seok, and Park Hae-il), for example, are two recently successful adaptations that have claimed 2.6 million and 3.6 million admissions respectively. There are also a few interesting adaptations on the horizon...

...READ ON KOBIZ

"[Herald Interview] Christoph Terhechte says Korean cinema 'still has surprises'"

BIFF's Korean Cinema Award recognizes those who work to bring Korean features to the world. This year the award went to Christophe Terhechte, head of programming for the Berlin International Film Festival's Forum section. The Korea Herald's Rumy Doo recently interviewed Christophe about his passion for Korean cinema, what he thinks about some of the criticism and challenges facing the industry, and why he's excited to see what the next generation of Korean filmmakers will produce.

...READ ON THE KOREA HERALD

"Park Chan-wook, the Man Who Put Korean Cinema on the Map"

Alexander Chee profiles the "man who put Korean cinema on the map", the prolific visionary Park Chan-wook, for The New York Times. Park made his debut back in 1992 with the noirish melodrama "The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream", but it was his 2003 film, "Oldboy" (the second film in his "Vengeance Trilogy") that really put Park on the map, the rest is history. His work "combines dark humour, a painterly sense of composition and lots of gore", writes Alexander. "But beneath the violence lies a deep humanity - and a love of the absurd".

...READ ON THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Korean Filmmakers Stand Up for Comfort Women"

One of the most incendiary topics in Korea's current political discourse, writes Pierce Conran for KoBiz, is "the acknowledgement of the plight of comfort woman during Korea's era of Japanese occupation". Even though the history of the victims goes back to World War II, filmmakers have been hesitant to explore such topics through their works. Recently, however, the Korean film industry has taken to exploring these sensitive topics with great success; Pierce concludes: "... perhaps it's an indication that the legacy of comfort woman could change before the last of the survivors of this painful chapter of Korean history pass on".

...READ ON KOBIZ