The inaugural Big Bad Film Fest is partnering with Secret Movie Club and Well Go USA’s exclusive Asian film streamer, Hi-YAH!, to host a repertory screening of Lee Jeong-beom’s multi-award winning hit 2010 action thriller, The Man From Nowhere. Tickets are now on sale for the August 26 screening as the first of the festival’s ten-title presentation to be announced, with the remaining line-up set to go live in the next few weeks.
Produced by Opus Pictures, Lee’s third film pairs him with lead actor Won Bin (Guns And Talks, Mother) and then-burgeoning screen talent Kim Sae-ron (A Brand New Life). Bin plays Tae-Sik, a reclusive widower whose newfound friendship with a neglected young girl named So-mi, finds him thrust into the seedy underworld when she is suddenly kidnapped by a vicious gang. Hell-bent on justice after being framed for a crime he didn’t commit, Tae-sik treads into a dark underbelly of drug and organ trafficking to dispense justice and take matters into his own hands.
The Man From Nowhere was released by CJ Entertainment, and scored a bevy of awards between 2010 and 2011 following its box office success earning more than six million admissions on August 5, 2010. To its credit, the film stands out as one of the highest bookmarks of Korean cinema post-2000, further placing South Korea on the global map with Lee alongside other laureates such as Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-woon, Hong Sang-soo, Ryoo Seung-wan, Bong Joon-ho, Kwak Kyung-taek, Kang Je-gyu, Kang Woo-suk and others.
Interestingly, the film would also become Bin’s final film with anyone’s guess as to what his next move would be going forward. Meanwhile, Kim has since continued to build her resumè with a number of film and TV credits, partly including features Manhole (2014) and Ordinary People (2018), and Netflix’s hit live-action series adaptation, “Bloodhounds”.
Big Bad Film Fest formally announced its plans last October as a banner festival to promote and celebrate contemporary and classic action cinema, and the stunt industry in support of devoted stars and filmmakers of yesteryear and today. The festival, curated by co-chairs Powell Robinson and Patrick R. Young, runs from August 24 through 27, with the festival’s pending line-up set to expand with World Premieres, action shortfilms, and more repertory screenings. Q&As sessions will he held at the LOOK Dine-In Cinemas in Glendale.
Tickets for the full festival will go live on July 29.
