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The Frontline - Shin Ha-kyun, Goh Soo, Kim Ok-bin; UPCOMING 2011 RELEASE
Topic Started: Nov 9 2010, 03:25 PM (2,876 Views)
Dragonrage
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Hitman-Reloaded
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Black Belt 10th Dan
The Front Line' spotlights the Forgotten War
By Park Sung-hee

Jang Hoon, who directed the hit inter-Korean drama “Blood Brothers,” has returned with another film involving the two Koreas.

“The Front Line” takes viewers back to the Korean War (1950-53), which is largely known as the Forgotten War, and looks into parts of the conflict that have slipped into oblivion. Jang teamed up with a seasoned scriptwriter Park Sang-yeon for the 10 billion-won project.

“Even Koreans remember only about six months of the Korean War,” scriptwriter Park told reporters Tuesday in Seoul. “But the actual conflict went on for another 30 months. We wanted to tell the forgotten parts of the Forgotten War.”

The film is set in July 1953, when the war is coming to an end through an armistice. A South Korean squad leader has been killed by a bullet shot not by the enemy, but by one of his men. Eun-pyo, a lieutenant played by Shin Ha-kyun, is appointed to look into the case.

While searching for an answer, Eun-pyo heads to the frontlines where he comes across his old friend Su-hyeok (Goh Soo), who was thought to have died two years before. During the time they had not seen each other, Su-hyeok, who had been characterized by a small physique and weak stamina, has risen to the rank of lieutenant.

Park had penned Park Chan-wook’s “Joint Security Area (J.S.A.),” which became the highest grossing film in Korean history in 2000. It also concerned an investigation surrounding a fatal shooting incident within the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

“When we were producing J.S.A., (since its theme revolved around a heavy topic) I thought 10 years from now it would be a movie that people could view more easily,” said Park. “Sadly, that hasn’t been the case.”

Though it has been over 60 years since the Korean War broke out, the event remains a sensitive issue for many. Making a movie that accurately portrays this sentiment while also capturing the difficulties that soldiers faced remains a challenge in itself, say filmmakers.

“The external situations didn’t make it easy to shoot the movie,” said Shin Ha-kyun. “But there was history to be told, and the bigger obstacle is how war movies deal with the topic of war.”

Director Jang agreed. “I knew going in that this would be a challenge,” he said.

“None of the people on set, including the cast and crew, had experienced an actual war. But war should always be dealt with delicately in films; this is a point I would like to get across to the audience. After all, my perceptions changed significantly while filming the movie.”

Meanwhile, Jang, who made his directorial debut with a film penned and produced by Kim Ki-duk (“Rough Cut”), had been subject to controversy after the elder cineaste explicitly criticized him as “a betrayer” in the Cannes award-winning film “Arirang.”

Regarding the matter, he said, “I hope director Kim can find consolation through ‘Arirang.’ He is a great teacher and I still respect him very much. I feel very sorry as a pupil of his.”

“The Front Line” opens in theaters on July 21. Distributed by Showbox/Mediaplex.

Korea Times intern Leon Jun contributed to the story.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/
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Front' brings harrowing views of war
By Lee Hyo-won

It’s another Korean War (1950-53) film, made on a hefty budget — at least for local standards — and featuring an A-list cast.

The viewer, already having seen such action-packed, homespun tearjerkers celebrating humanist values as “Tae-guk-gi” and “71: Into the Fire” or any one of those Hollywood World War II blockbusters, can easily doubt whether Jang Hoon’s upcoming “The Front Line” could bring something new.

The film, albeit slightly flawed, chooses a road not yet taken in the genre here — straight into the tropes of Conradian heart of darkness, offering harrowing observations about the tragedy of war and, moreover, the savage rules of survival.

Scriptwriter Park Sang-yeon, who showed the painful reality of a divided country in Park Chan-wook’s 2000 inter-Korean thriller “Joint Security Area (J.S.A.),” depicts the contradictions of war in a more direct and realistic way in “Front” by zooming into life and death at the front line. Jang, who has directed well-received films such as “Rough Cut” and “Blood Brothers,” enlivens Park’s story by turning it into a surprisingly satisfying war film, complete with spectacular battle scenes, dramatic tension and reverberating universal messages.

It’s July 1953. The war is coming to an end, and North and South Korean officials and their allies are negotiating the geographic coordination of the demarcation line that is to split the peninsula in half. During the last two years of the chess game talks alone, some 3 million men lost their lives to determine whether the line would move up or down 1 centimeter, or 15 kilometers, on the map.

The film is essentially a mystery drama. One day, a South Korean squad leader is killed at the front by a bullet that seems to have been shot by one of his own men, while a North Korean soldier’s letter is delivered to his family in the South via Southern military mail service. Eun-pyo, a lieutenant played by Shin Ha-kyun, is dispatched to watch out for suspicious spy activity within the squad.

He arrives at Aerok Hill, which is a highly contested area in this land siege, and is surprised to reunite with his college friend Su-hyeok (Goh Soo), who had been kidnapped by Northern soldiers years before and long thought to have been dead.

Viewers accompany Eun-pyo on his first exposure to the front line, encountering one oddity after another. Su-hyeok, a cowardly geek, has transformed into a charismatic warrior. Soldiers shamelessly wear enemy uniforms to counter the cold while war orphans have made the military camp their home. Il-yeong (Lee Je-hoon), a morphine-addicted boy barely past his pre-teens, is captain of the squad, which includes a schizophrenic and a man speaking with a Northern dialect.

The film proceeds by unraveling one secret after another, and things take a turn by revealing how collusion had indeed been taking place. The moment the identity of the sender of that “spy mail” becomes known, references to “Joint Security Area (J.S.A.)” are inevitable. But what makes it interesting is that this incident takes place some half-century back, in the middle of the battlefield.

The movie shows how these men at the front, whether Northern or Southern, have seized to fight for “a greater cause.” They only struggle to survive, desperately hoping for the armistice to be announced. Their common enemy is the overbearing reality of war, and the men from both sides become united by their angst.

What makes “Front” work is that it is an ideology-free antiwar film; it simply shows the brutality of “killing without a purpose.” The only regret is that the film tends to take this theme to extreme ends, and have actors mutter at times contrived pacifist messages.

Nevertheless seasoned actors such as Shin and Ryu Seung-ryong, who plays a listless North Korean official, bring weight and girth to the story, while funnyman Ko Chang-seok peppers the film with humor. Lee, who entered the spotlight with “Bleak Night,” brings yet another memorable character while post-“Walking the White Night” Goh once again proves his capacity for more serious roles.

In theaters July 20. Rated 15 and over. Distributed by Showbox/Mediaplex.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/
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South Korea submits The Front Line for Oscar race
By Jean Noh

The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has announced The Front Line, directed by Jang Hun, will be the Republic of Korea’s entry to the Academy Awards’ foreign language film category.

Starring Shin Ha-kyun and Ko Soo, The Front Line deals with intrigue, confusion, violence and human drama on a hotly contested patch of hilly terrain towards the end of the Korean War.

Other films submitted to KOFIC’s selection committee included Hong Sang-soo’s Cannes entry The Day He Arrives, veteran director Im Kwon-taek’s film about traditional paper Hanji, Juhn Jai-hong’s North Korean-themed Poongsan, and Kang Hyung-chul’s local hit Sunny.

However, the committee said that it ultimately came down to The Front Line and Na Hong-jin’s The Yellow Sea.

“In the case of The Front Line, the subject matter dealing with the Korean War was an advantage, and the level of perfection in the last denouement received high scores. The Yellow Sea got high scores for cinematic perfection, but the excessive cruel violence was pointed out [as problematic],” they said.

The committee stated they made their decision with the criteria of quality and potential to win in mind. They noted, “this was a year with so many excellent films, we were left with regret” to have to decide upon one even after much debate.
http://www.screendaily.com/
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