A Good Day to Have an Affair

director

Jang Moon-il(장문일)

cast

Kim Hye-soo

Lee Jong-hyuk

Yoon Jin-seo

Jeong Eun-pyo

Lee Min-ki

Oh Yoon-hong

Park Sang-myeon

Actresses Gain Presence Onscreen

While the female persona Korean entertainment remains largely reminiscent of Hollywood during the 1950~60s, a few in recently released or upcoming films are beginning to reflect, with some realism, Korean women today. Women onscreen tend to be either innocent asexual Audrey Hepburns (think Lee Young-ae, Choi Ji-woo, Song Hye-kyo) or smoldering Marylin Monroes oozing with sex appeal (Kim Hye-soo, Uhm Jung-hwa). Then there exists a third, very minor group of eccentrics like Katherine Hepburn that fit into neither category, like actresses Kang Hye-jeong, Bae Doona and Kong Hyo-jin. In other words, it is rather difficult to meet truly realistic female characters in movies. A most disappointing example is director Kwak Gyeong-taek's latest offering "A Love". In this terribly old-fashioned story about a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, the heroine is but a mere caricature embodying romantic fantasies: the unforgettable first love, frail damsel in distress and untainted prostitute. She is but a superficial plot element that gives the male protagonist a story to tell. Roles for sexual or even remotely sexually active women continue to be reserved for the more "mature" actresses. They tend to be over 30 and/or married. Sex icon Kim Hye-soo, for example, plays a string of femme fatale roles from "Hypnotized" (2004) to "Tazza: The High Rollers" ("The War Of Flower", 2005) and "A Good Day to Have an Affair" (2006). Upcoming sex comedy "Lovers Behind" ("Love Exposure") features two very different but equally sexy women. The film delightfully resembles "Sex and the City", with two women speaking frankly about love and sex. Lee Mi-yeon, the Nicole Kidman of Korea enjoying a newfound peak in her career following her divorce from actor Kim Seung-woo, plays the role of a photographer who wants romances with no strings attached. Lee Tae-ran, who enjoys steady popularity in her acting career, depicts a woman who marries one man after another to enjoy a lavish lifestyle. While these female characters provide much humor, they are over-sexualized in a sense that their sexuality is the only thing that defines them. The film will be released mid-October. Another recent film, however, brings to screen a fresh new female persona. In Heo Jin-ho's "Happiness", now playing in theaters, Im Soo-jeong's petite, slim and dewy-eyed character Eun-hi is at first glance another Audrey Hepburn. But Eun-hi is far from passive in her romantic relationship with Yeong-su (Hwang Jeong-min), and does not hesitate to initiate sex _ without being a seductive temptress _ or propose to move in together. "I wanted to show that when a woman is in love with a man, she too can be assertive", said director Hur during a press conference at a Seoul theater last month. For the baby-faced actress, this is a dramatic departure from her girlish roles as a high-school girl in "...ing" (200) or the fairytale-like character in "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK" (200). She has finally grown up enough to play parts closer to her actual age. Likewise, superstar Kim Tae-hee matures onscreen opposite award-winning actor Seol Kyeong-gu in "Ssaum" ("Fight" - "Venus and Mars")' coming to theaters December. The movie humorously portrays a couple who, once madly in love, are now fiercely battling each other. Kim casts off her sweet, angelic allure to personify an irritable woman who does not refrain from resorting to physical violence while arguing with her husband. The fighting spirit in women does not stop with Kim Tae-hee. Audiences can look forward to Do Ji-won in her role in "Punch Lady". Do plays a submissive housewife who one day decides not to put up with her abusive husband any longer. She begins training hard to master the Art of Fighting after publicly announcing a duel on the ring with her pro-wrestler husband. Although this is a rather comical theatrical situation, it reflects how women in Korean cinema are beginning to show a bit of dimension and color. "Punch Lady" is due for release at the end of the month.

[DVD Review]Vagueness fills DVD on having affairs

Even with some thought, it’s not easy to figure out whether Jang Mun-il’s “A Good Day to Have an Affair” is a movie for a girl or a guy. The film dresses up as a girl’s movie at first, starring two female heroines as married women delving into their search for lost identity and sexual desire. Yet it’s unclear whether their escapes lead them to find something meaningful in life or surrender to the system. “Tweedy” (played by Yun Ji-seo) meets “Two Foxes” on an Internet chat line as a refuge from her meaningless marriage to her husband, who “stopped talking as soon as he entered the wedding chapel.” She finds freedom in Two Foxes, an immature womanizing banker who is always too busy fondling her chest in love motels and making up cheap, dirty stories about his sexual fantasies. “Dew” (Kim Hye-su) has a light affair with a young boy she also meets on a chat line, “the college student,” but she’s constantly chased around by a private investigator hired by her husband. The film triggers an uncomfortable tension, mainly because it tries to inject humor in an effort to lighten moments that are just too painful to watch. Despite the casual character established by Dew and her jolly relationship with a naive college boy, the desperation fumes when she hysterically hides in a balcony of her girlfriend’s house when she finds that her husband has come to take her. She approaches him only when he tells her, “I promise I won’t hit you.” But even without such drama, trivial details of their short-lived romance ― giggling at silly humor, running away on highways and making out in daylight motel rooms ― are sad images of loneliness and fading love. The film’s stance on Dew is unclear toward the end. On one hand it seems as if she purely aims for freedom without the fear of moral judgment. Yet later we learn that the whole point of her affair started out as a revenge against her husband, who was in love with another woman for three years. To spoil your expectation about the film’s title, there is not a real good day to have an affair. Instead of an answer, the film plays with the pun of “wind,” which also means “an affair” in Korean. Are these affairs like the wind in how they can come and go? Or like the song “May the Wind Stop Blowing,” which is played near the end. Was the affair for these women simply a means of sentimentalism to escape their life of boredom? The film mimics the shape of a road movie. Near the end, the three characters ― Dew, Tweedy and College Student ― leave on an adventurous joyride with a wrecked car. If it had been a girl’s movie, the film would have ended there. But in “A Good Day to Have an Affair,” the car blows up, and the women end up in a hospital. Then the sequence changes and the women are back to their married life, strolling around a gallery and dozing off during a concert. In the next scene, they appear on stage in a chorus and sing “May the Wind Stop Blowing,” a nostalgic Korean song from the 1980s sung by a female teenage pop star. It’s understandable why the director selected such a vague ending. Nevertheless, the idea seems like an abrupt compromise, though in the end that’s probably an ending that pleases most men and women. We complain about reality, but few have the courage to subvert it. As an option we seek pleasure in our everyday life. Case in point, an afternoon memory of Dew, in which she strips chicken meat off the bones for her young boyfriend in a restaurant. Title: A Good Day to Have an Affair Directed by: Jang Mun-il Starring: Kim Hye-su, Yun Jin-seo Running Time: 103 minutes Subtitles: English Genre: Drama

Kim Hye-soo Celebrated at Int'l Film Festival

Korean actress Kim Hye-soo was praised as the "Monica Bellucci of Asia" at an international film festival on Saturday. Kim was participating in the closing ceremony of the 9th Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy on the weekend. The Udine festival is the largest film event for Asian movies in Europe. Looking every inch an Asian diva, Kim appeared on stage with Sabrina Baracetti, the president of the festival. While expressing her gratitude to the Korean actress, Baracetti compared Kim to Monica Bellucci, the sexy Italian film star. Kim was present for the screening of two of her movies, "The War Of Flower" and "A Good Day to Have an Affair". Thanks to her popularity, tickets for the screenings at "il teatro nuovo giovanni da udin" were sold out. Following the movie, the audience shouted their praises for Kim, calling her "bellissima" or beautiful, and "una donna bellissima", or one of the most beautiful women. She also attracted a lot of attention from the local press and reporters from all over the world, indicating the possibility that she may become a global star. Kim also took the time to answer questions from about 30 journalists, including RaiRadio TV of Italy.