When the first still shots for Crying Fist began to circulate a month or so back it immediately jumped on to my 'films to look out for' list for 2005. Why? It's the latest film from the director of Arahan (my review here) starring Old Boy's Choi Min-Sik as an aging boxer along with Arahan's Ryu Seung-Beom. Well, no official site or trailer yet, but with some help from the folks at Koreanfilm.org I just managed to turn up a bunch more film stills and some behind the scenes footage.
Check out the image gallery here for a slightly battered Choi Min-Sik and to develop a man-crush on Ryu's dreads. Or you can click here to check out the behind the scenes footage of Min-Sik going all Kaufman and boxing women in the streets. Nice.
Ryu Seung-Beom also starred in "Conduct Zero," a terrific high-school comedy set in the 80s that's been recently released in the US by ADV--it's definitely worth checking out.
He gives a winning, utterly charming performance--I'd call it star-making if he weren't already a star. (Whereas if made in the US the film would have probably starred someone like Freddie Prinze jr.)
As an actor he's got everything going for him--raffish good looks with physical assurance and a great sense of humor and irony. I hope he has a very long and fruitful career.
I keep meaning to check out Conduct Zero but for some reason never have ... I'll have to dig it up ...
I bought Conduct Zero expecting something completely different. The folks were trumpeting the fact that the folks who did Shaolin Soccer's effects did these, and that it was all zany action and whatnot. As such, I was actually a bit disappointed when I first saw it, because it's much more of an offbeat high school romance with a couple of over-the-top pieces thrown in for good measure. It's definitely one that could grow on me, now that I know what to expect.
And IA's right... Ryu Seung-Beom gives an amazing performance in the film.