Choe Min-sik Movies
- 1992
Han is on his way to the funeral of his fifth-grade teacher. He is a teacher himself these days, and as he travels he remembers a particularly difficult time when his family moved from Seoul to the countryside. There, he was shocked to discover an outmoded system of bullying by "class monitors" that was quietly supported by the local parents and teachers. When he tried to foment a rebellion among the oppressed students, he was even more shocked to discover that they actively supported the familiar bully over the revolutionary city boy. Eventually, he comes to an accommodation with the powerful class monitor, who is not all bad. When the winds of change finally reach his school, dethroning the monitors, the way this is done is also oppressively harsh. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Choe Min-sik
Rejecting current trends in mainstream genres and the conventions of commercial cinema, Choyonnghan-Kajok, an experimental black comedy, follows an eccentric story line with some surprise attacks on the audience. Comedy and horror elements are used intermittently to create a thriller in a family setting. The events are seen through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Mi-na, daughter of the Kang family, who decide to run Mt. Lodge in the suburbs of Seoul after the father is dismissed from his company. Contrary to expectations, there are no guests lining up at the door, and the youngest daughter is upset by a strange noise she hears at night. After two weeks, the first guest appears, but he is found dead the next day. The family buries him in a hurry to avoid bad publicity. Then a couple arrives and commits double suicide and they have to bury them, too. By the time they get used to digging, it's announced a road construction will pass beside their property. The set of the film, Mt. Lodge, was created in real size by a set specialist and architect large enough for camera equipment to move around. Although the subtexts are not labored, the sanctity of family solidarity and the capacity for sudden violence in the very conservative Korean society are some of the themes the audience is left to reflect. Choyonnghan-Kajok was screened as part of the International Forum of Young Cinema at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Song Kang-ho, Park In-hwan, (more)
Billed as Full Metal Jacket meets Heat meets Nikita, Kang Je Gyu directs this wildly popular action-thriller about tensions between North and South Korea. The film opens with agents in North Korean spy school T19 engaged in an unbelievably difficult rigorous training regime. The school's fanatically committed leader, Park Mu Young (Choi Min Sik) singles out the beautiful and sinewy Lee Bang Hee (Kim Yun Jin), an ace student and a deadeye shot, for a top-secret mission. A couple of years later, South Korean intelligence agents are baffled by a spate of murders of scientists working on a top-secret defense project. Agents Yu Jong Won (Han Suk Kyu) and Lee Jang Gil (Song Kang Ho) suspect the North Korean Lee but cannot locate her. One day, Yu finally spots Lee Bang Hee icing an arms dealer with a sniper rifle. At the same time, North Korean spy Park Mu Young and his fellow commandos take out a military convoy and swipe a top-secret substance called CTX, an explosive that is completely undetectable. Park and Lee's plan slowly becomes horribly apparent: to blow up a North and South Korean friendship soccer game, launching a war that will bring South Korea under the North's hegemony. At the same time, South Korean intelligence is starting to suspect a mole in their midst and evidence seems to point to Yu's girlfriend. This film was screened at the 1999 Pusan Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Han Suk-Kyu, Choe Min-sik, (more)
