Gam Woo-seong Movies
- 2005
South Korean director Lee Joon-ik's feature The King and the Clown has the double distinction of being the highest-grossing film in Korean history at the time of its release and one of the first Korean commercial films to deal openly and unabashedly with gay themes; it is regarded in many quarters as "the Korean Brokeback Mountain." Adapted from Kim Tae-Woong's play Yi, this period drama concerns two 16th century, Chosun Era clowns: the supremely self-assured Jang-seng (Kam Woo-seong) and transsexual Gong-gil (Lee Jun-gi), who earn a meager living as street performers in Hanyang. Miraculously, their excruciating poverty comes to an end when the tyrannical King Yon-san (Jeong Jin-yeong) catches their act and, delighted, invites them to serve as resident court jesters at his palace. But matters grow increasingly complex and tricky when Yon-san feels a torrent of lust for Gong-gil and attempts to possess the androgynous performer. This elicits unbridled jealousy from Jang-seng and not only sets him on a head-to-head collision course with the king, but threatens to propel Yon-san into full insanity. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gam Woo-seong
Kang Min (Gam Woo-seong) wakes up in the middle of a forest and wanders toward a nearby cabin, where he's shocked to find the scene of a brutal, bloody crime. A man lies hacked to death, and Kang Min's girlfriend, Su-young (Kang Gyeong-heon) lies dying of stab wounds nearby. Kang Min sees a dark figure fleeing the cabin and gives chase. Eventually he winds up in a tunnel, where he is struck down by a speeding SUV. In the hospital with a head injury and suspected of murder, Kang tries to recall what happened for his policeman friend, Choi (Jang Hyeon-seong). In flashback, we see Kang, a TV producer, try to deal with the tragic death of his wife. As he sinks into a pit of alcoholism and despair, Su-young, a co-worker who shares a secret bond with him, tries to rouse him out of his funk. When Kang is assigned to investigate rumors that Spider Forest, the remote wood where the murder took place, is haunted, he asks a girl from the region, Su-in (Seoh Jung of The Isle), to tell him all about the local legend. As it turns out, Kang has his own mysterious connection to the ghost story. Spider Forest, written and directed by Song Il-gon (Git), was shown at the 2005 New York Korean Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
A mysterious radio signal prompts a troop of South Korean soldiers to set out in search of a missing patrol unit, only to find that the horrors of war aren't limited to the human realm in director Su-Chang Kong's tale of supernatural terror on the battlefield. As the Vietnam War rages, a South Korean army base begins receiving radio contact from a patrol unit that has been missing in action for nearly six months. With resources dwindling and the battle taking its toll on the fatigued troops, the determined but shell-shocked commanding officer leads his unit on a brave rescue mission to the source of the signal - a war-torn parcel of land known only as R-point that is seemingly devoid of human presence. But there is a presence there, and when it finally makes itself known to the weary soldiers, the one-time rescue mission quickly becomes a harrowing struggle for survival against a force more deadly than any war. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gam Woo-seong, Son Byeong-ho, (more)
