HomeActor/ActressUhm Tae-woong
Uhm Tae-woong
엄태웅
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Portrait of a Beauty The movie is based on interesting hypothetical assumptions of the story of Shin Yun-bok (one of the three famous painters from the Joseon Kingdom alongside Kim Hong-do and Jang Seung-eop). Shin decides to dress in male attire, after her brother's suicide. While she raises issues about forbidden sexual affairs through her paintings, her master Kim Hong-do falls for her, making gisaeng (Korean geisha) Seol-hwa jealous. 18 and over. 108 minutes. Antique Jin-hyeok, a millionaire's son, opens a cake shop named ``Antique,'' to meet as many women as he can. He hires three other men, including a genius patissier Seon-wu, cake-lover Gi-beom, and his former bodyguard Su-yeong. However, there is never a peaceful moment as Jin-hyeok remembers Seon-wu once confessed his love for him at high school, and Seon-wu's boyfriend is coming to Korea from France to hire him as a patissier for a top hotel in Paris. Directed by Min Kyu-dong. 15 and over. 109 minutes. Iri Thirty years ago, a train loaded with 40 tons of dynamite explodes in Iri, a small southern city in Korea. After the accident, its name was changed to Iksan, and people slowly began to get on with their lives. However, born on the train at that time, Jin-seo (Yoon Jin-seo) cannot do so as she has a mental condition as a result of the accident. Her only brother Tae-woong (Uhm Tae-woong) becomes tired of taking care of her. By following the two, the movie slowly reveals a painful memory of Korea forgotten for 30 years. Directed by Zhang Lu. 18 and over. 108 minutes.
Handball ‘Sleeper’ Tops Box Office for Third Week
“Forever the Moment” tops box office figures for a third consecutive week. MK Pictures, the film’s producer, said Tuesday that the film has drawn 2.64 million viewers since its release on Jan. 10. It is based on the real story of the Korean women’s handball team, which won the silver medal in the Athens Olympics in 2004 after a neck-and-neck game with the world’s no. 1 Denmark that ran for 128 minutes including double overtime and a shoot-out. Directed by Lim Soon-rye, who also made “Waikiki Brothers” (2001), “Forever the Moment” stars Moon So-ri, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Ji-young, and Cho Eun-ji as players and Uhm Tae-woong as the coach. A sports movie on the surface, it is actually a human drama dealing with the life of people on the fringe of society. Few people expected the success of a film dealing with an unpopular sport and including no stars in its cast. In fact, producers had such difficulties attracting investors that they were unable to raise the entire budget until preview. With a preliminary re-match in women’s handball for the Beijing Olympics in Japan after the International Handball Federation found that Korea was victimized by an unfair referee’s decision in Asian preliminaries earlier in August, the movie was shown in Japan by the Korean Culture Center in Tokyo for local Korean residents and students. Kim Jung-eun attended the event to encourage Korean players.
Movie captures Athens Olympics handball drama
Mee-suk (Moon So-ri), a 34-year-old veteran handball player, wins a semi-professional handball tournament, but the same day she hears her team’s going to disband. That’s bad enough, but it’s nothing compared to four years ago when she won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. When Mee-suk came back home proudly wearing her Olympic gold, the rest of the country seemed indifferent. Handball had not captured the imagination of the country. Mee-suk, starring in Yim Soon-rae’s film, “Forever the Moment,” which was released last Thursday, suffers even more setbacks. Her husband (Park Won-sang), a former handball player, runs away from debts brought on by a failed business, and Mee-suk starts working at a mall as a shop assistant. Mee-suk’s life takes a turn when Hye-kyung (Kim Jung-eun) takes over as the newly appointed national handball coach for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Hye-kyung persuades Mee-suk to come out of her retirement from the game and join the national team. Mee-suk agrees, only to find more tension when Hye-kyung gets ousted as coach. The younger team members dislike her coaching style. Hye-kyung is replaced by Seung-pil (Eom Tae-woong), her ex-boyfriend. Forever the Moment is based on the true story of the phenomenal story behind Korea’s women’s handball team. After the indifference to their gold in 1992 in Barcelona, the entire nation was transfixed when the team took on Denmark in the 2004 final in Athens. The game went down to a penalty shootout and the Danes held their nerve to win a famous victory. According to the Korea Film Commission, 558,213 people have seen the film as of Monday, making it the most popular film in Korea right now. What makes for compulsive sports viewing also makes for compelling cinematic drama, it seems. In 2004, most of the players were veterans in their early 30s. They were called the “ajumma squad,” or the housewife squad. Despite the gold in Barcelona, the Korean team was pretty much the underdog. There were only five semi-professional women’s handball teams in Korea back then, and players made just 20,000 won ($21.34) a day. The team even had to enlist retired players since there weren’t enough players for the Olympics. On the other hand, their rivals, Denmark, had 1,035 semi-professional teams. To make the story more authentic, the four lead actors ― Moon, Kim Jung-eun, Kim Jee-young and Cho Eun-ji (the goalkeeper) ― undertook hardcore training. They started last March, training at the Taereung Training Center and Helleniko Stadium in Athens, Greece. They practiced for three months, four days a week, seven to eight hours a day. They began with basic physical training and graduated to dribbling, passing and shooting. They even practiced difficult set plays. One of Denmark’s players even appears in the film, and when the Danes visited Korea last June to play at an international semi-professional tournament, they helped in the filming at the Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon. “The film distinguishes itself from other sports dramas by bringing out the human story,” Yim pointed out. “Conventional sports-related films usually focus more on the dynamics that games provide,” he said. As coach, Eom also had to research his role thoroughly. “I constantly asked [the real] Coach Lim for advice,” Eom wrote in the film’s press release. “We [the crew and actors] went to many handball games so we could understand how the game works and how to move properly on the court,” Eom said. Reality was intensified by the involvement of two genuine commentators ― KBS announcer Choi Seung-don and Coach Kang Jae-won. During the 2004 finals, Choi and Kang said, “It’s a heroic battle between David and Goliath.” That struggle is captured in the film.
`Forever’ Loses Its Own Game
It's sweaty and teary, and preaches self-challenge. After a seven-year hiatus, director Lim Soon-rye (``Waikiki Brothers'' makes a comeback with ``Forever the Moment,'' the world's first handball movie inspired by the women's match at the 2004 Athens Olympics. So you expect it to be another adrenaline-pumping sports movie, with a coach or athlete nursing some sort of wound (heartbreak, injury, etc.), comic-relief teammates and a big hurdle to overcome. Usually, team spirit magically pumps up muscles and the main character scores the winning point. Add a few slow motion scenes zooming into the sweat and tears with dramatic music. Lim, however, asks audiences to forget typical Hollywood conventions for sports dramas. The main characters lose the big game at the end, and there is no fancy camerawork. Korea and Denmark had shared four Olympic titles for women's handball from 1988 to 2000, with the Danes winning the latter two. The two dueling teams met again as finalists in 2004, and the pulsating game continued long and hard with a tie score leading to two killer overtimes and a penalty throw showdown. Korea lost, but won what many call a silver medal that shines more brightly than the gold. At the time, Korean women's handball was at its worst state ever, and players who should have been retired joined the national team to face the indefatigable Denmark. It was a miraculous achievement _ ``the greatest moment of our lives'' (the film's title in Korean). ''Forever'' gives an account of the events leading up to the Olympics, though the characters are fictionalized. Hye-kyeong (Kim Jung-eun) is called to coach the troubled national team. In desperation, she recruits retired players, including her good friend and longtime rival Mi-suk (Moon So-ri). Mi-suk had been But various problems push Hye-kyeong out of her coaching position. To add fuel to the fire, Hye-kyeong's ex-boyfriend and handball star Seung-pil (Uhm Tae-woong) is appointed as her replacement. This time Mi-suk convinces Hye-kyeong to join the team as a player. Lim focuses on the individual lives of characters, and most of the action does take place outside of the court. This works mighty well in the first half of the movie. Want it or not, however, ``Forever'' is deeply rooted in the classic formula. The main drama inevitably involves coach-player conflicts and other problems inherent to the world of sports. As the movie kicks and thrashes about to defy conventions of its genre, the painful struggle becomes much too apparent. While traditional sports movies may be formulaic, it makes viewers fall in love with the featured sport. Characters in ``Forever'' desperately speak of their love of the game _ Mi-suk shouts at the top of her lungs how she returned to play only three weeks after having a baby while Hye-kyeong foregoes her pride to go from coach to player _ but the film doesn't actually show it. The most gripping parts of the film are issues rarely seen in sports films, such discriminations faced by female coaches and the burden of menstruation cycles for female athletes. This is also the source of team bonding, but the film touches upon it rather superficially. The final game scene is superbly crafted (the actual Danish team makes an appearance) but it's just a striking reenactment of the 2004 game. Ironically, it is dishearteningly realistic, and the film loses its dramatic touch. The most compelling part of the two-hour flick is the snippet of interviews and photos from actual team members that accompanies the film credits. Nevertheless, the leading ladies deserve a standing ovation for their convincing jumps and throws (though they remain a bit supermodel thin), and the moment of defeat is beautifully captured. As the film loses its dramatic edge, it reminds us more of the bitter loss of the gold than the glorious win of the silver. Lim deserves credit for her attempt to make an unconventional sports movie, but she ends up breaking her own game rules. In theaters Jan. 10.
`My Love’ Is Loathsomely Sweet
``My Love'' (working title) is a montage film that weaves together four different love stories like the popular romantic comedy ``Love Actually.'' If the British flick is like a mosaic of thoughts on love, this homegrown family drama is more like....
Jung Jin Young, Uhm Tae Woong, Jung Kyung Ho to join Director Lee Joon Ik
The male cast for Director Lee Joon Ik's new film has been determined. With Soo Ae as the female lead, Jung Jin Young, Uhm Tae Woong, and Jung Kyung Ho will join. Jung Jin Young who has appeared in three out of four films by the director wi....
