kim jee woon

COBWEB: Song Kang-Ho Is An Artist Trapped In Inspiration In The First Trailer

COBWEB: Song Kang-Ho Is An Artist Trapped In Inspiration In The First Trailer

Fully immersed in vibrance for its introspection is Cobweb, a dramatic new thriller with a trailer now online and ripe with energy. It’s the latest from director Kim Jee-woon who has been best known for delivering pulsating actioners and cult favorites like A Bittersweet Life, I Saw The Devil and manga adaptation Ilang: The Wolf Brigade, now reteaming with leading man Song Kang-ho for a fifth time since 1998’s The Quiet Family, and the hit 2000 comedy, The Foul King. Kim, who recently delivered Apple TV+ series “Dr. Brain,” directs from a script he wrote with Shin Youn-shik (Rough Play), with a story that, according to the film’s press kit, is inspired by Kim’s own mid-pandemic ruminations and reflections on the filmmaking process re: “creativity” and “originality,” and what kind of impact cinema will have in the future. As Kim himself noted in the director’s statement of the press kit, […]

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A BITTERSWEET LIFE: Umbrella Lands 4K Restoration Limited Collector’s Edition Coming In April

2005 was a terrific year for niche Asian film fans fond of actor Lee Byung-hun amid the ceremony for his darling hit thriller, A Bittersweet Life, about a mob enforcer faced with retribution by his boss after falling for his repressed mistress. The film is a point of inspiration for some directors and was even the topic of a potential remake in the U.S., the updates on which remain to be seen. Moreover, the film also is available on streaming on some platforms which is great given the film’s Out-Of-Print status from physical media in most markets in the years since. Nevertheless, if you’re knowledgeable of Aussie-based firm Umbrella Entertainment and you’ve been craving this title as a longstanding hopeful addition to your collection, consider yourself in luck. The company is releasing a decked out 4K restoration of the flick on Blu-Ray this April, loaded with special features and gems, […]

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Kim Jee-Woon’s DR. BRAIN headed to Apple TV – Trailer Available Now!

In the wake of the international success of  Squid Game on Netflix, Apple has decided to make it’s own foray into the Korean film market. New drama Dr. Brain is headed to the giant’s streaming service, Apple TV+, in November. Starting Lee Sun-Kyun (Parasite), the show is described as a “mind-bending journey with a genius neuroscientist who navigates through other people’s memories in search of the truth.” Directed by filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon (The Age of Shadows, A Tale of Two Sisters), Dr. Brain is sure to be an exciting rider through a surreal dive into the mind when it premieres November 4 on Apple TV+.    

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ILLANG: THE WOLF BRIGADE Gets Prequel Development, Netflix Release

Terrific things are happening already ahead of the upcoming release of Kim Jee-Woon’s Illang: The Wolf Brigade. The film is set to open in Korea on July 25 while efforts toward a prequel are officially in motion according to a KoBiz report by Pierce Conran last Tuesday. Webtoon writer Yoon Tae-Ho (Inside Man) is penning the script for the prequel which is being jointly developed by Kakao Pages and Daum Webtoon. The story is said to be set five years before Illang (formerly Inrang); there are any number of stories before and after Jin-Roh in the Kerberos saga to guess from seeing as how there are prequels to draw from on both ends, and so I’m not sure where Yoon is starting from. It’ll be interesting to guess too considering Illang is set nearly eighty years later compared to the alt-1950s Germany setting of the animated movie. That news comes […]

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INRANG: Don’t Miss The Official Trailer For Kim Jee-Woon’s New ‘Jin-Roh’ Adaptation

If you’re not at at all familiar with the animated Kerberos feature, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, just know that it comes highly recommended from pretty much anyone who has seen it, or basically anyone who watches anime. For this, you’d have a pretty good window to make use of between now and the July 25 release of Kim Jee-Woon’s adaptation, Inrang, which now comes full throated with an official trailer. Oshii Mamoru’s original story serves as the basis for this take which replaces the alternative 1950’s Japan setting with that of Korea in the year 2029 wherein both  neighboring countries are seemingly at the tail end of a seven-year effort toward peace. And at the forefront of our story in which an elite unit emerges to suppress the radical attacks on both sides, one of its members falls into a dangerous romance with a mysterious woman. If you’ve seen the […]

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INRANG: Kim Jee-Woon Brings Classic Anime To Fiery Life In The Explosive Official Teaser

Kim Jee-Woon’s new film, Inrang, is doing a pretty ample job with the hype this week after rolling out a 22-second teaser the other day. My guess is that was only announcement with Warner Bros. Korea applying the Hollywood formula in kind these days with a full teaser now online ahead of an official trailer to possibly come between now and its July 25 release. As for the film, Okiura Hiroyuki’s animated 1999 hit, Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade – adapted from Oshii Mamoru’s Kerberos Saga at the time – serves as the basis seen in Kim’s iteration; Transplanting from alt-1950s Germany, Inrang settles for dystopian future tale in the year 2029 following seven years of peace talks in lieu of a truce between North and South Korea, and the warring extremist factions from both sides. Terrorist attacks arise and thus, a new specialized military force is implemented to counter […]

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INRANG: Kim Jee-Woon’s ‘Jin Roh’ Remake Howls Online With Two New Teaser Posters

I’m almost instantly fascinated by any piece of film put out from I Saw The Devil helmer Kim Jee-Woon. His recent release, The Age Of Shadows, further showcased his strength in harnessing the full breadth and scope of a period war epic which pretty much holds firm enough in describing Okiura Hiroyuki’s 1999 animated thriller, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. The relevancy here, though, is that Kim has taken the mantle for a live-action adaptation of Oshii Mamoru’s beloved Kerberbos saga-based sci-fi anime classic. Inrang is the name and from a script by none other than the venerable Oshii who does away with the alt-1950’s German-conquered Japan setting for a dystopian futuristic Korea where the North and South are seven years in their negotiations become a united country. At the crux of the tale is the beleagured member of a troubled special counterterrorism unit following a deadly incident with a suicide […]

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Watch The U.S. Trailer For Kim Jee-Woon's Thrilling Spy Flick, THE AGE OF SHADOWS

Things are looking lively for I Saw The Devil and The Last Stand helmer Kim Jee-Woon whose latest, The Age Of Shadows, is being noted as a worthy Oscar contender. It’s also great first for Warner Bros. as it is their first Korean production, and with a director like Kim now poised for more stellar work to follow, including a live-action adaptation of the hit anime feature, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Bear these in mind when you look at the trailer for The Age Of Shadows, now leaving numerous, upbeat reviews in its wake after premiering in Venice prior to its Toronto screenings as of Friday. The high production value and intensity here speak highly to Kim’s ability to craft a fictional tale around an albeit real-world period era, and with morsels of intrigue, action and danger to top it all off. Indeed, it’s a good time to be a […]

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Kim Jee-Woon Howls To Helm JIN-ROH: THE WOLF BRIGADE For Live-Action

Acclaimed director Kim Jee-Woon is on the road promoting his latest period espionage thriller, The Age Of Shadows, which releases in South Korea in the next several days following its TIFF premiere, marking a first for Warner Bros. Pictures. In the course of all this, Kim took to the press this weekend to discuss the film, the industry and future plans while in attendance at the Venice Film Festival. Thus, such plans now include the confirmation to direct a live-action adaptation of helmer Okiuta Hiroyuki’s 1998 animated sci-fi war thriller, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, according to Screendaily. An award-winning feat written by heralded animation auteur Oshii Mamoru, the film takes place in an alternate version of 1950’s Japan post World War II, telling of a deadly political war between Public Security Division and the Special Unit – the latter from which Fuse, a demoted solider traumatized by the death of […]

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Check Out The New Trailer For Kim Jee-Woon's THE AGE OF SHADOWS

I Saw The Devil and The Last Stand helmer Kim Jee-Woon has returned with a thrilling new period pic, The Age Of Shadows, which now has a first trailer circulating online. You can expect this one to make the festival rounds while a date is currently pending for Warner Bros.’s premiere Korean this September release of the film, and with actors Song Kang-Ho and Gong Yoo leading the cast. SYNOPSIS: Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters led by Gong’s character, trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them. Song plays a talented Korean-born Japanese police officer who was previously in the independence movement himself and is thrown into a dilemma between the demands of his reality and the instinct to support a greater […]

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Song Kang-Ho To Star In SECRET AGENT For Warner Bros.'s Korean Debut

Big things are happening this week over at Warner Bros. with the studio now looking to ramp up its Korean-language debut for I Saw The Devil helmer, director Kim Jee-woon‘s new Korean period film, Secret Agent. The report comes as the studio has come to see Korea as a lucrative market for investing in film due to the country’s successes in recent years, in addition to Fox’s latest slew of Korean titles, including Intimate Enemies starring Ryoo Seung-Bum. Secret Agent was reportedly pitched to the studio by Harbin production CEO Lee Jin-sook, and is currently being described as a co-production venture between Warner Bros. and Grimm Pictures, with Warner Bros. fully financing the film, according to Variety. Actor Song Kang-Ho is set to reunite with the director following the 2008 flick, The Good, The Bad And The Weird and there is currently is no plot for the film said to […]

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