The career of director Choi Ho is quite a peculiar one, if anything because of the variety of his projects. The man first debuted in 1998 with the gritty teen angst flick 바이준 (Bye June) , right when the genre was being carried by director Kim Seong-Su of 비트 (Beat) and 무사 (Musa - The Warrior). Then he disappeared until 2003, when his 후아유 (Who R. U.) came out right as the "Korea as IT megapower" syndrome was being used as a slogan, more than simple statistics. It was short on things to say all right, but it was cute, well shot and with a great indie-rock flavored soundtrack, not to mention Jo Seung-Woo and Lee Na-Young. His best film is probably 2006's 사생결단 (Bloody Tie), the no-bullshit, sink-the-silly-jopok-comedy-Titanic angst-ridden pulp extravaganza with Ryu Seung-Beom and a magnificent Hwang Jung-Min.
Now he's back with.... rock. In the Seventies, to be precise. The idea is a gogo band during the military dictatorship of the Seventies, with all the promising entanglements you can expect. Leading the cast is Jo Seung-Woo, who not only already worked with director Choi, but has paid his dues in the musical world as well (and one could argue it's musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, not necessarily films, which jumped up his popularity). But also Shin Min-Ah, who keeps choosing good projects lately. Release is set for September, but we'll talk about this a lot more before then. The interesting trailer, as always, is below the break.
Looks promising! Was it called Group Sounds in Korea too? For some reason I can see Oh Man Suk in the role too, although JSW is a bigger star.
Oh Man Seok in the cast would be heaven.^^ But this cast is good, too. I enjoyed Who R U lots.
X, what k-movies on rock bands would you recommend? I loved Radio Star and Wakiki Brothers.
Well it's not about a band per se, but "Highway Star" is another that wasn't too bad (well compared to all the crap that has come out in the past year and a half or so - gives a little insight into Korean "country" music or "Trot (maybe a better comparison would be the Japanese "Enka")
I agree, Bravo my life, was absoulute garbage. The only thing that film had going for it was the eye-candy that is So-Yeon Lee.
Yeah, that was surprisingly OKish. Lee So-Yeon has so much potential... shoudn't really waste it on pedestrian work like this.