Korean Movie News - The Host Sequel and Jang Dong-Gun returns to big screen

Two recent news reports made me pretty excited - the official sequel to the Korean mega-blockbuster The Host is in the works and popular Hallyu actor Jang Dong-Gun will be returning to the silver screen after an absence of four years.

The Host 2
According to this article, Singapore's Boku Films will be co-producing the sequel to The Host (tentatively named The Host 2) with Korea's Chungeorahm. The director has not been announced yet ... hopefully it will still be the original director of The Host - Bong Joon-ho. The film is scheduled to be completed sometime in 2010. Besides this official sequel, there is a Chinese language sequel that is also in the works, this version will be directed by Ning Hao who is most famous for his dark comedy Crazy Stone. The Chinese sequel was annnounced last June and there were some rumours late last year that popular Hong Kong actor Andy Lau will be the lead actor, but since then there have been no further news or confirmation of this on the web.

Jang Dong-Gun's New Movie
After an absence of four years from Korean moviedom, Jang Dong-gun is finally returning to the big screen. He will star as a very handsome President (see pic below for how good-looking he is ;-P) in a new comedy entitled Good Morning, President. The movie also stars Han Chae-Young (of Sassy Girl, Chun-Hyang fame) as the handsome Pres's love interest (lucky gal!). The film is currently in production and is set to be released in South Korea in October this year. Before this Jang was in the English-language historical action flick The Warrior's Way (formerly known as Laundry Warrior) which is set to be released in the U.S. and U.K. this September. Check out the promo trailer for The Warrior's Way here. I know I will be looking forward to both films ;-)

Source:
http://enjoy.eastday.com/e/20081024/u1a3938570.html, http://popseoul.com/2009/07/21/good-morning-jang-dong-gun/, http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/07/135_48739.html
http://www.dramabeans.com/2009/07/from-the-office-of-president-jang-dong-gun/

Pic from http://popseoul.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/jangdonggun_090721_20_289_29.jpg

Tags: The Host sequel, Jang Dong Gun, Good Morning President, upcoming Korean movies.

The Host Wins Big At Asian Film Awards

The South Korean hit monster movie The Host won big at the recent inaugural Asian Film Awards held in Hong Kong, it hauled home 4 awards - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Cinematographer and Best Visual Effects, making it the biggest winner of the festival.

Best Director went to Jia Zhangke for his work in Still Life (which won the Golden Lion at the 2006 Venice Film Festival). And Nakatani Miki took home the Best Actress award for her role as a hopeless romantic in Memories of Matsuko.

And here is an interesting article on the goings on at the festival which was attended by superstars like Rain and Michelle Yeoh and director Luc Besson:

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/179037.asp ;-)

Tags: Asian Film Awards, The Host, Still Life, Memories Of Matsuko, Rain, Nakatani Miki.