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

Published on 2013/09/14

K-Films Coming Soon:

★★★★ "The Russian Novel": A deeply troubled writer awakens from a failed suicide attempt, only to discover his novel is now viewed as a masterpiece. (09/19)

Title: "The Russian Novel"

Genre: Drama, Romance, Mystery

Length: 140 min

Release Date: 2013/09/19

Director: Shin Yeon-shick ("The Fair Love", "Rough Play")

Screenplay: Shin Yeon-shick

Stars: Kang Shin-hyo, Kyung Sung-hwan, Kim In-soo-I, Lee Jae-hye, Kim Jung-pal

The Short and Sweet: A deeply troubled writer awakens from a failed suicide attempt, only to discover his novel has become a masterpiece.

There is just this one new Korean film being released next week: Shin Yeon-shick's melodrama "The Russian Novel". The film tells the story of novelist who commits suicide but, instead of killing him, it leaves him in a coma for a number of years. When he awakens, he finds that his novel has become a huge success and is heralded as a masterpiece. The film follows him through this personal journey as he struggles towards individuation.

Born in 1976, Shin reportedly dropped out of college to pursue a career as an independent filmmaker. Shin's latest piece tied in the "Vision Section" (한국영화감독조합상) category at the 2012 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), so despite little information available, the film promises to be a worthwhile outing. This year will also see the release of his next film "Rough Play" (although an actual released date has yet to be announced) starring Lee Joon and Yang Dong-geun. Interestingly, "Rough Play" was written by Kim Ki-duk, so we will have to keep a close eye on this young talent and the prolific company he keeps.

★★★★

Also Coming Soon:

"Alexander: The Neva Battle" (2008), "The Conjuring" (2013), "Free Birds" (2010)

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

Sources:

http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_The_Russian_Novel.php; http://www.hancinema.net/korean_Shin_Yeon-shick.php; http://www.hancinema.net/korean_drama_Rough_Play.php

http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/jsp/films/index/peopleView.jsp?photoRownum=7&cdKind=014003&peopleCd=10040499&strMenuId=010401&newsRownum=3&mode=INDEX_FILMS_VIEW&indexChar=A&photoType=&photoSeq=9&refCd=&searchKeyword=&pageIndex=1&movieCd=

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