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South Korea’s leading entertainment company Cj Enm has appointed former Acemaker Movieworks CEO Jung Hyun-joo as its head of film business.

Jung takes the role with immediate effect and joins directly from Acemaker, a financing, distribution and production company that she founded in 2018. Cj Enm said the executive would “bolster the competitiveness” of its films, in what is an increasingly challenging market.

Previous head of film business Jerry Kyoungboum Ko has been named global project leader and will focus on Cj Enm’s global film projects in his new role.

With more than 20 years in the business, Jung is...

Entertainment powerhouse Cj Enm has recruited seasoned executive Jung Hyun-joo as its head of film business. Jung, who previously served as CEO of Korean film company Acemaker, steps into the role effective immediately.

The appointment brings a heavyweight industry player to Cj Enm’s film operations. Jung’s resume includes her pivotal role behind Bong Joon Ho’s monster hit “The Host” during her tenure at Chungeorahm Film, where she managed production and marketing for what became one of Korea’s highest-grossing films.

Jung brings more than two decades of experience across production, financing and distribution. Her background includes spearheading Korean distribution for international blockbusters like “The Lord of the Rings,” “Shaolin Soccer” and “Kill Bill” while working at Taewon Entertainment, where she helped introduce over 100 international titles to Korean audiences.

During her stint at Showbox in the 2010s, Jung guided investment and production for commercial and critical successes including...

It’s an occassion when a prominent director does a tv series project, in this case Yoon Jong-bin, who brought us hard-hitting hits like ”Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time” and ”The Spy Gone North”. But it’s another massive occassion when he brings together for the first time two of the biggest Chungmuro actors.

Synopsis

Based on an incresible true story, this is the life-threatening journey of Kang In-gu, a civilian businessman who has no choice but to cooperate with the secret operation of the National Intelligence Service to catch Jeon Yo-hwan, the Korean drug lord who has taken control of Suriname.

Yoon Jong-bin has managed quite a casting coup for this Netflix series, bringing together Ha Jung-woo (who he worked with on ”Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time”) and Hwang Jung-min (his star in “The Spy Gone North”), two of the most bankable Korean superstars and members of elite 100 Million Viewers Club,...

The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center have announced two final titles, completing the lineup for the upcoming 20th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff). The festival will be screening over 70 films, both virtually and in person, to audiences in New York and across the country from August 6 – 22, 2021. Tickets are already on sale.

Nyaff is thrilled to present as its festival Centerpiece the international premiere of Nyaff favorite director Benny Chan’s final work, Raging Fire. Completed shortly before his untimely death in August 2020, the Hong Kong-Chinese action film stars the inimitable Donnie Yen as Shan, a by-the-book cop whose past returns to haunt him. After a sting operation goes disastrously awry, Shan finds himself pitted against Ngo (Nicholas Tse), a former protégé who has turned criminal mastermind and is out for revenge. Nothing, it seems, can stop him, including his former mentor.

Despite the fact that it screened during February, a low season for movies in S. Korea, rated R, using Busan dialect overtly and screened less frequently due to its running of 133 minutes, “Nameless Gangster” was one of the most successful movies of 2012, grossing a total of ₩36 billion after nine weeks of screening, particularly due to the pairing of Choi Min-sik and Ha Jung-woo, but also due to the supporting cast, that includes Hwang Jun-min, Cho Jin-woong and Ma Dong-seok

The film is set in the Korean port city of Busan during the reign of organized crime in the 80s and the subsequent declaration of war toward it in the 90s by President Roh Tae-woo. Choi Ik-hyun is a corrupted Busan customs officer, who is not averse to taking bribes or pilfering goods. Eventually he discovers a shipment of crystal meth, which leads him to kingpin Choi Hyung-bae,...

South Korean spy films have almost exclusively been action fares: an undercover agent from the North is stuck in the South or vice versa or agents from both agencies work together for a common end with lots of big action set pieces and hand-to-hand combats. This makes director Yoong Jong-bin’s latest film “The Spy Gone North” quite a unique effort, in that it draws inspiration from a real-life operation in South Korean covert operations history, to gives us a solid espionage thriller in the real sense.

“The Spy Gone North” is screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

It’s 1993. News of the North establishing reactor plants capable of manufacturing nuclear weaponry have worried the power structures in South Korea, which leads the National Intelligence Agency, spearheaded by Director Choi Hak-seong, to put in place a spy to find out more about the status of these rumoured plants. Enter Park Suk-young,...

Not all spy movies are like every other spy movie. And not all spies are the same. The Spy Gone North is an impressive, riveting spy thriller from Korea, made by filmmaker Yoon Jong-bin. This first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in their Midnight category earlier this summer, but I just caught up with the film at the Sitges Film Festival. The more I think about, the more I love this film. It's such a slick, superb spy film that draws you into the story and keeps you intrigued with anticipation, on the edge of your seat the entire time. And there isn't much action, which works well for this fascinating story, yet it's thoroughly compelling from start to finish. This film really stands out above so many others - in the way of spy films and thrillers. Yoon Jong-bin's The Spy Gone North ...

Based on the testimony of infamous South Korean spy “Black Venus,” who once infiltrated the highest ranks of North Korean leadership, Yoon Jong-bin’s “The Spy Gone North” recounts a tortuous operation that’s more fascinating and far-fetched than many fictional espionage yarns. Instead of the usual dose of action and suspense one expects of this genre, watching this dense 140-minute political drama unfold is like fumbling through a long tunnel that’s nonetheless worth it when the ray of light emerges at the end. Though nowhere near as crowd-pleasing as the recent espionage action-fantasy “Steel Rain,” this well-crafted work deserves to be seen for its thorough account of intricate workings of secret service and political skullduggery.

After debuting with the violent and intense independent film “The Unforgiven,” which screened in Cannes’ Un certain regard section in 2005, Yoon went on achieve commercial success. Even so, a strain of social critique,...

Ma Dong-seok, the star of hits “Train to Busan” and “Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds,” next stars in “Champion” a Korean sports comedy that will make its debut at the Cannes Film Market.

The film is backed by Warner Bros. as part of its local film production incentive and will be released next month in Korea by the studio. In other territories, rights are handled by sales agency Finecut.

The first feature for director Kim Yong-wan, the film portrays the story of Korean adoptee who becomes an arm wrestling champion. While pitched as a comedy, “Champion” also flexes its muscles by also carrying a number of social issues.

Before breaking through in “Train,” Ma (aka Don Lee) has played a numerous supporting roles in films including :Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time,” and “The Unjust.” He was raised in the U.S. and attended a physical education degree at Columbia State University.

Rising To The Top

This is the story of Choi Ik-Hyun, a lowly civil servant who, along with his team, dabbles in a bit of racketeering on the side. Stolen gold watches and ginseng aside, he’s positioned himself rather well, regularly rummaging through shipping containers or getting his hands on the occasional ( or not so occasional ) bribe. Through a series of unexpected events, he will rise to the very top of a criminal organization only to become a prominent figure of a syndicate in the 90′s on the verge of an all-out war with the government agencies in charge of stifling its activities.

Within the first few moment of the film, Choi Ik-Hyun ( Choi Min-Sik ) gets thrown in jail. The prosecutor in charge of the investigation pays him a not so courteous little visit and, shall we say, encourages him to come clean by putting down a heartfelt confession on paper.

Sydney - Films from Iran, the Russian Federation, Hong Kong, Korea and Turkey are vying for the best feature film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in November. Turkish first time writer-director Emin Alper’s Beyond the Hill, winner of the Caligari prize at the Berlinale in 2012, leads the pack with nominations in three categories including best feature, best Screenplay and best actor (Tamer Levent). The four other films nominated for best feature include Shanghai Golden Goblet winner Bear (Khers, Iran), epic historical drama, The Horde (Orda , Russian Federation), Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (Bumchoiwaui Junjaeng, Republic of

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The nominees for the sixth annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) have been announced with 34 films nominated from 18 countries in the region. A record number of 264 films were entered this year.

Acclaimed Australian producer Jan Chapman will head a six-member trans-national jury which will decide the winner of Best Feature Film along with winners of five major craft awards, the Screen International Jury Grand Prize and the Unesco Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity in film.

The nominees for Best Feature Film include: Khers (Bear, Islamic Republic of Iran), Tepenin Ardi (Beyond the Hill, Turkey, Greece), Orda (The Horde, Russian Federation), Bumchoiwaui Junjaeng (Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time, Republic of Korea) and Wu Xia (Hong Kong (Prc)).

The winners of Best Children.s Feature Film, Best Animated Feature Film and Documentary will be decided by Apsa Academy members.

Australian film Happy Feet 2 was...