Acknowledgements Publisher AN Cheongsook, Chairperson of KOFIC 206-46, Cheongnyangni-dong, Dongdaemun-gu. Seoul, Korea (130-010) Editor in Chief Daniel D. H. PARK, Director of International Promotion Department Editors KIM YeonSoo, Hyun-chang JUNG English Translators KIM YeonSoo, Darcy PAQUET Collaborators HUH Kyoung, KANG Byeong-woon, Darcy PAQUET Contributing Writer MOON Seok Cover and Book Design Design KongKam Film image and still photographs are provided by directors, producers, production & sales companies, JIFF (Jeonju International Film Festival), GIFF (Gwangju International Film Festival) and KIFV (The Association of Korean Independent Film & Video). Korean Film Council (KOFIC), December 2005 Korean Cinema 2005 Contents Foreword 04 A Review of Korean Cinema in 2005 06 Korean Film Council 12 Feature Films 20 Fiction 22 Animation 218 Documentary 224 Feature / Middle Length 226 Short 248 Short Films 258 Fiction 260 Animation 320 Films in Production 356 Appendix 386 Statistics 388 Index of 2005 Films 402 Addresses 412 Foreword The year 2005 saw the continued solid and sound prosperity of Korean films, both in terms of the domestic and international arenas, as well as industrial and artistic aspects. As of November, the market share for Korean films in the domestic market stood at 55 percent, which indicates that the yearly market share of Korean films will be over 50 percent for the third year in a row. In the international arena as well, Korean films were invited to major international film festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, and San Sebastian and received a warm reception from critics and audiences. It is often said that the current prosperity of Korean cinema is due to the strong commitment and policies introduced by the KIM Dae-joong government in 1999 to promote Korean films. The government founded the Film Promotion Fund and launched the newly re-structured Korean Film Council, and henceforth the Korean Film Council has carried out film promotion policies. 4 Most of all, however, the seven-year history of Korean films from 1999 to 2005 matches the publication history of Korean Cinema. Throughout these seven years, Korean Cinema each year has collected information about all Korean films produced and/or released in that year, including features, animation, independent works, short films, and documentaries. Korean Cinema actively volunteered to take responsibility for delivering the most comprehensive and objective information on each film, as well as on the whole of Korean cinema to the international film community, and it is certain that it has made a difference in the international status of Korean films. In the future as well, Korean Cinema will continue to take the role of the core gateway leading to Korean films. December 2005 Cheongsook AN Chairperson Korean Film Council 5 A Review of Korean Cinema in 2005 1. Humanism The films released in 2005 delivered the humanism which Korean moviegoers had long yearned for. Amongst these films, <Marathon>, a film directed by Jeong Yun-cheol that created its own new sub-genre, the human drama, emerged as the front runner. This film, which tells the story of a young man with autism, who with the help of his mother and a coach, begins to train for a marathon, attracted 5 million moviegoers nationwide despite the fact that it did not showcase a dramatic story or spectacular scenes. The film <Marathon> does not criticize the reality which the disabled have to face, nor focus on the arduous path which disabled persons must take to overcome their limitations. Rather, the film describes how a child with autism grows mentally, becomes independent, and learns to communicate with other people. Audiences openly accepted the main character’s heartfelt efforts, and were impressed by the film’s depiction of the insignificant events which make up the reality of our daily lives. The success of <Welcome to Dongmakgol>, which finished on top of the box office (8 million admissions) in 2005, seems to have been based on similar circumstances. On the surface, <Welcome to Dongmakgol> appears to have all the attributes of a blockbuster. However, this is a film which is at its core a human story. The film tells the story of a group consisting of South Korean deserters, North Korean soldiers retreating from the front, and a member of the U.S. armed forces who survived a plane crash, that must live together in a small village in Gangwon Province. The North and South Korean soldiers soon become impressed with the pure hearts of the village people and decide to find a way to coexist. In this remote location, the soldiers are finally able to remove the ideological shackles which have long forced them to suppress their own opinions, and to see each other as human beings. These North and South Korean soldiers who are liberated from the dark ideology of hatred come to regard each other as brothers, and the U.S. soldier as an equal. In addition to <Welcome to Dongmakgol> and <Marathon>, which finished first and second respectively at the box office in 2005, there were also other films emphasizing a human aspect that fared well with audiences. Although <You Are My Sunshine> directed by Park Jin-pyo has been classified as a melodrama, the love affair depicted in this film is based on the notion of humanism. AIDS is the barrier which exists between the film’s two main characters: a farmer and a sex worker from the local coffee shop. Under the harsh reality of Korean society, in which a patient with AIDS is branded in a manner akin to the "scarlet letter", the only way for these lovers 6 to consummate their relationship is for them to first see each other as human beings. Humanism can be defined as the unconditional love which one person feels for another, and as a love which transcends social norms and external appearances. The unexpected success of <Mapado: Island of Fortunes> can also be understood as having been based on a similar foundation. A woman who runs away with a lottery ticket and the gangsters who run after her arrive on a remote island known as Mapado. Although the gangsters must endure all kinds of difficulties on this island populated only by five old widows, they are eventually overcome by the humanity possessed by the five widows. This film, despite being a comedy, has all the elements of a human drama. Other films which can obviously be listed in the human drama category include <Crying Fist>, the story of two men who try to secure a better life for themselves through boxing, <Little Brother> which is about a boy and his older brother who has cancer, <Long and Winding Road> which tells the story of a mother who walks hundreds of kilometers to attend her daughter’s wedding, and <My Wedding Campaign> in which two men in rural Korea fly to Uzbekistan in order to secure ethnic Korean brides for themselves. Certain common themes can be found in these human dramas. With the exception of <Mapado: Island of Fortunes> and <Welcome to Dongmakgol>, these films were based on real stories. These real-life stories are different from those found in <Silmido> and <Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War>, two films which shattered box office records in 2004 and which were based on historical facts. While the "historically authentic films" released in 2004 simultaneously exposed two tendencies, namely the desire for spectacular scenes and a return to the past, the real-life films released in 2005 are characterized by their focus on the reality of individual lives. The fact that this individual reality has replaced the desire for spectacle which had been dominant over the last few years proves that Korean cinema has now entered a phase in which the focus will increasingly be on the telling of more authentic and individual stories. This trend is also visible in fictional blockbusters such as <Welcome to Dongmakgol>. The fact that humanism has proven to be a popular topic does not mean that the range of realism has been extended. Nevertheless, the emergence of new themes and materials constitutes a significant development, in that, it marks a new departure for a Korean film industry which had long dealt with the same topics. Furthermore, these films attracted not only moviegoers in their teens and 20s, but also appealed to audiences over the age of 30. As such, human dramas have to some degree contributed to expanding the range of moviegoers in 2005. 2. Hallyu The Hallyu - Korean Wave- phenomenon, which has been gaining steam across Asia, emerged as one of the most influential variables for Korean cinema in 2005. The film which best characterized the Hallyu craze was Hur Jin-ho’s <April Snow>. Due in large part to the fact that it starred Bae Yong-joon -- whose popularity with female fans in Japan, where he is known as 7 Yonsama, has reached epic proportions -- this film was presold for an estimated 7 million dollars in Japan, and did rather well at the box office there as well. <April Snow>, which revolves around a love affair between two people in their 30s, marked director Hur Jin-ho’s first foray into this particular genre. However, this personal milestone was overshadowed by the presence of Bae Yong-joon as the film’s main star. While it fared rather poorly at the box office in Korea, <April Snow> was able to finish in the black on the balance sheet due to strong overseas sales in places such as Japan. Kim Jee-woon’s <A Bittersweet Life> featuring another top star, in this case Lee Byung-heon, is another example of this phenomenon.