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Feb 07, 2013
  • Writer by JI Yong-jin
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▶ Who Is The Most Evil? - AN ETHICS LESSON
 
 
 
▶ information
Director PARK Myoung-rang | Starring LEE Je-hoon, CHO Jin-woong, KIM Tae-hun, KWAK Do-won, MOON So-ri | Genre Criminal, Drama | Running Time 110min | Rating 19+ | Release Date Feb 21
 
▶ synopsis
One day, a beautiful university student is murdered. After she dies, people who knew her get to know each other. As they mix with one another, the identities of a bad guy, a brutal man, a worthless scum, a coward and a bitchy girl are revealed one after another. Each of them is involved in wiretapping, loan sharking, murder or adultery. As their true colors become known to others, a game of survival starts.
 
An Ethics Lesson is worthy enough simply for the combination of its cast. LEE Je-hoon, who became a big star for his role as a naive boy in Architecture 101, a huge hit in Korea last year, appears as the bad guy who spies on every movement of the university girl living next door. He seems like a warmhearted neighbor working as a sincere cop during the day, but he turns out to be a far different person who is obsessed with a twisted love for the next door girl at night. Supporting actors including CHO Jin-woong, KIM Tae-hun, KWAK Do-won and MOON So-ri, who will all add to people’s expectations.

An Ethics Lesson reveals the personality of individuals who are hiding evil behind their normal and gentle looking appearances while the story develops in a surprising direction. The villains in the film look very normal, but they are extremely selfish. One accidently tapped someone else’s telephone, but he insists he didn’t do any harm to others. Another man claims that fury is the reason for his existence. There’s even a pathetic guy who can never accept the fact that he was dumped. The other one cheated on his wife and was framed for murder, but he tries to hide the truth from her. A bad woman observes all of them, but she puts more weight on her pride than other people’s lives. As all these characters mix with each other and sometimes get in trouble, the story is driven to catastrophe.

PARK Myoung-rang is a new director but he fluently develops a complicated story through different characters. He successfully highlighted every protagonist without losing the charm of the unique story to come up with a novel film.

Film fans are anticipating An Ethics Lesson directed by PARK Myoung-rang, the dramatizer of Romantic Island (2008), as they await a new thriller.
 
 
 
▶ We Want to Win So Badly! - GOODBYE HOMERUN
 
 
 
▶ information
Director
LEE Jeong-ho | Starring Wonju High School’s Baseball Team | Genre Documentary | Running Time 84min | Rating All | Release Date Feb 14
 
▶ synopsis
Nobody expects Wonju Highschool’s baseball team will ever win a game. The sweet fruit of being drafted by a professional team after a lot of hard work seems to have nothing to do with them. Entering university also seems elusive considering their poor records. Even the coaches are desperate, so they cannot encourage the players. Frustrated and seized with a losing mentality, can they possibly win for the first time?
 
Goodbye Homerun is a coming-of-age film about the baseball team of Wonju High School standing at the crossroads of their lives. The film shows the hidden truth of professional baseball where only 70 players out of 700 graduates are picked by professional teams every year. The story is very touching as Wonju High School’s baseball players miraculously come back to win from behind, despite the deep desperation accrued over their consecutive loses.

It also is very exciting as a sports film. The leading actors were never willing to stop their challenge to get at least one win. The realization of their dream is portrayed spectacularly. The players waiting for a ‘Goodbye Homerun’ (a homerun hit at the bottom of 9th to finish the game) reminds audiences of how today’s people live tirelessly. What the passionate players show audiences is not just baseball but the meaning of life.

When viewers watch Wonju Highschool’s baseball team, known by the unpleasant moniker ‘losing team,’ manage to win in the end, they will feel a sense a clam wahs over them. Goodbye Homerun is a coming-of-age film in a way because it portrays the process of highschool baseball players growing up after a series of games. Besides what happens in classroom such as school violence, ostracization and the collapse of teachers’ authority, it focuses on students on the playground, outside of the classroom. This is a story about school from a different perspective.

Another charming point of the film is that the tension of baseball is emphasized through the soundtrack performed by an independent band. 
 
 
▶ Honest But Bold! - THE ETUDES OF LOVE
 
 
 
▶ information
Director LEE Yoon-Hyung | Starring SEO Ji-seok, JUNG Da-Hye, YEON Je-wook | Genre Sexy Romantic Comedy | Rating 15+ | Running Time 102min | Release Date Jan 31
 
▶ synopsis
Su-jeong, who has dreamed of having a great relationship and wanted her first experience to be romantic, meets three men over the course of a year. Sang-cheol is obsessed with the idea of sleeping with her. Jeong-su looks considerate and innocent. Seok-tae randomly shows up once in a while and takes care of her. Among these three men, who will she have her thrilling first experience with?
 
Seo Ji-seok has played the role of a faithful and simplehearted man, but he is different this time. Different from the sweet guys in his previous films, he is a black-hearted man aiming at one goal; sleeping with her. The Etudes of Love is about ‘first experience,’ a hot and sensitive issue for youngsters, but the film deals with it in a natural and realistic manner.

This film will demonstrate a new direction for Korean sex comedy films. The best elements from the previous hit sexy comedy films Sex Is Zero, Wet Dreams and Singles are put together in one film. This is funnier than Sex Is Zero, dives deeper into the young generation’s secret than Wet Dreams did and is franker than Singles.

The is the feature debut of LEE Yun-hyeong, who adapted the scripts of A Blood Pledge and Where Is Ronny.... As the director says, “Someone said a couple is matched when the love history of each one meets the other. I wanted to show how couples repeat or change what they learned, mistakes they made and what they felt from previous relationships through trivial episodes in the earlt stages of love.” He minimized the characters’ range of emotion and strengthened their relationships to empathize the film's position as a romantic comedy.
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