I guess when you hit two homeruns in a row like Choi Dong-Hoon, everything is possible. After debuting in great fashion with the stylish caper 범죄의 재구성 (The Big Swindle), Choi successfully adapted the manhwa classic 타짜 (War of Flowers) into the super hit 타짜 (Tazza: The High Rollers). But his upcoming project 전우치 (Jeon Woo-Chi) appears to be his most ambitious film to date, as just a quick look at the cast should prove: Kim Yoon-Seok of 추격자 (The Chaser), ad-lib master Yoo Hae-Jin, Im Soo-Jung of 장화, 홍련 (A Tale of Two Sisters) were cast already, supporting Kang Dong-Won of 형사 Duelist, who's playing the protagonist Jeon Woo-Chi. But now a few more stars have been added to the list, and we're not talking of average names: Baek Yoon-Shik, who starred in Choi's two previous works, is joining along with Yeom Jung-Ah and Kim Hyo-Jin.
The film sounds like a pretty strange beast to describe. Chronicles narrate that Jeon Woo-Chi lived during the reign of King Jungjong (first half of the 16th century), first working as a low ranked official in the capital, then moving to Songdo (current Gaeseong in North Korea) and becoming a master in Daoshu (Taoist Magic). Jeon was incarcerated and then sentenced to death for his "nefarious" practices, but when his relatives went to exhume his body and move the grave elsewhere, they only found an empty coffin. So... a sageuk with supernatural touches? Not really, since the story will bring Jeon Woo-Chi to the present, fighting off spirits as a sort of superhero from the past. That is, Choi will use only Jeon's name and few details from the original 전우치전 (The Tale of Jeon Woo-Chi), and then go in a completely different direction. I'd usually frown at the sole mention of using historical figures in a present setting, but Jeon's life was surrounded by so much mystery, and essentially was only tangentially connected to the period he lived in, so it shouldn't be too "offensive" in that sense. And... Choi Dong-Hoon, with that cast? Sold.
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@X: Sorry to be off topic, but you seem to be so well informed about Chungmuro, that i just have to ask...do you happen to know what is going on with Jang Jun-hwan and his Tazza sequel? It was supposed to come out in Q4 of 2008, but i haven't heard any news whatsoever in at least half a year, if not longer. Is he near completition or has it been delayed, who is cast and when can we expect it? Is there any industry buzz about the production?
wow, so many super projects for '09! i hope Yeom Jung-Ah's role isn't too small. supposedly she's a "Greatest Actress" character. after seeing her one-take, nonstop crying scene in Working Mom, sailing through 2~3 different emotional registers from sad to funny to absurd, i wanted to hand the cannes award to her myself!!
choi's new script sounds like he sat down with jang Jun-hwan over too many drinks!
They're indeed smaller roles, something like glorified cameos, but doesn't really matter.
For Tazza 2 (Man... the people who started spreading the idea that ㅉ can be romanized as zz, like anyone outside Korea is going to spell it "jj/ch," should be shot), I guess they're buying time. The drama version starts airing very soon, so maybe they're avoiding over-saturation of the franchise. Then again, SidusFNH is having funding problems, with only 6 or so of the 30 million fund they had remaining (doesn't help when, like, everything flops). But I've heard this was the most likely to start shooting during the second half of 2008, so probably a early to mid 2009 release. No casting announced.
@X: Thanks for the update on Tajja 2, greatly appreciated! Seems like Jang just doesn't have any luck with his projects. Well, at least he got to marry Moon So-ri, hehe. However, i really hope he will land a big success with this movie or whatever movie he will do next (after 5 years and still counting just about any Jang Jun-hwan movie will do it for me).