Busan-native Kwak Kyung-Taek has had quite the conflicting last four-five years, all considered. His bombastic action blockbuster 태풍 (Typhoon) tanked miserably (forget the over four million tickets sold, since it cost much more than what such figures would bring) and was mostly derided by critics. 사랑 (A Love) suffered from a murky second half, despite the predictably gritty and powerful love letter to his Busan, and 눈에는 눈 이에는 이 (Eye for an Eye), which he took over midway, is certainly diverting, but has been largely forgotten. Ironic, then, that his greatest achievement since 친구 (Friend) was actually... well, the same story, but adapted into a glorious TV Drama called 친구 - 우리들의 전설 (Friend - Our Legend), which actually happens to be even better than the 2001 gangster drama responsible for catapulting Kwak to stardom.
Kwak has announced his next project, and we're back to conflicting territory, methinks. Conflicting because he's great when it comes to drenching small stories in pathos - think both Friend works, 챔피언 (Champion) and 똥개 (Mutt Boy). But much less so when he moves to a bigger canvas, in no small part because he seems to revert to small stories which are buried by all the explosions and multi-million dollar chicanery. Kwak's new film, tentatively entitled 아름다운 우리 (The Beautiful) will in fact deal with the second Yeonpyeong battle. This was a rather touchy naval confrontation between North and South from 2002, with plenty of diplomatic ramifications (only as much as diplomacy can matter with the cousins up north, that is). Set aside Kwak's style, it's a risky project because not only will it feature complex naval battles, but also be completely shot in 3D. If you consider only 60 screens in Korea are 3D-compliant, then that either sounds like a worthwhile challenge (it's expected screens will reach the 100 by next year), or a gigantic flop waiting to happen.
Film is set to start shooting next March.
[NewsEn]
Kwak has announced his next project, and we're back to conflicting territory, methinks. Conflicting because he's great when it comes to drenching small stories in pathos - think both Friend works, 챔피언 (Champion) and 똥개 (Mutt Boy). But much less so when he moves to a bigger canvas, in no small part because he seems to revert to small stories which are buried by all the explosions and multi-million dollar chicanery. Kwak's new film, tentatively entitled 아름다운 우리 (The Beautiful) will in fact deal with the second Yeonpyeong battle. This was a rather touchy naval confrontation between North and South from 2002, with plenty of diplomatic ramifications (only as much as diplomacy can matter with the cousins up north, that is). Set aside Kwak's style, it's a risky project because not only will it feature complex naval battles, but also be completely shot in 3D. If you consider only 60 screens in Korea are 3D-compliant, then that either sounds like a worthwhile challenge (it's expected screens will reach the 100 by next year), or a gigantic flop waiting to happen.
Film is set to start shooting next March.
[NewsEn]
TYPHOON is one of the stupidest, most completely worthless movies I've ever seen - a huge disappointment considering how well FRIEND worked for me. It's hard to be optimistic about this impending folly but I'd really love to be proven wrong. If nothing else it joins TRUE LEGEND in the "3D movies I'll never, ever get to see in 3D" hall of disappointment.