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Yim Pil-sung

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In this Korean name, the family name is Yim.
Yim Pil-sung
Yim in 2019
Born (1972-05-13) May 13, 1972 (age 52)
Seoul, South Korea
Occupation(s)Film director,
screenwriter,
actor
Years active1996–present
Korean name
Hangul
임필성
Revised RomanizationIm Pil-seong
McCune–ReischauerIm Pilsŏng

Yim Pil-sung (born May 13, 1972) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He wrote and directed Antarctic Journal (2005), Hansel and Gretel (2007), and Scarlet Innocence (2014).[1]

Career

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Short films

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Yim Pil-sung began directing short films in 1997, with Souvenir as his first. Brushing (1998), about an overweight teenage boy who is left home alone with his senile grandfather, was invited to the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.[2][3] Baby (1999) screened at the Venice Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.[4] Mobile (starring Park Hae-il, Yoon Jin-seo, and Yoon Je-moon) was included in the 2003 omnibus Show Me.[5]

Antarctic Journal

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In 2005, he made his feature film debut with Antarctic Journal, a tale of six South Korean explorers on an expedition to reach one of the remotest points in the South Pole, until mysterious deaths begin to occur as the human psyche preys on itself amidst the icy, barren landscape. The big-budget film starred Song Kang-ho and Yoo Ji-tae, and was shot in New Zealand.[3] It won the Best Feature Film award in the Orient Express-Casa Asia section of the 38th Sitges Film Festival.[6]

Yim then played a small supporting role in Bong Joon-ho's monster movie The Host (2006), as a white-collar worker who betrays his college friend. He had agreed to appear in the film in exchange for Bong co-writing the screenplay to Antarctic Journal.[7]

Hansel and Gretel

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With his second directorial feature, Yim established himself as a genre filmmaker whose works explore the depths of horror and fantasy.[8][9] Inspired by the titular fairy tale, in Hansel and Gretel (2007) a young man (Chun Jung-myung) gets lost in a forest and stumbles into a house inhabited by three strange children (Shim Eun-kyung, Eun Ji-won and Jin Ji-hee) who refuse to let him leave.[10] It received a Special Mention at the 12th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2008 and won two awards at the 29th Fantasporto in 2009, the Special Jury Prize in the Fantasy competition and Best Film in the Orient Express sidebar.[11][12]

Despite praise for their striking visuals and surprising narrative twists, both of Yim's films were unsuccessful at the box office, which led to him having difficulty finding financing for his succeeding projects.

Doomsday Book

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In 2007, Yim and Kim Jee-woon (as co-directors) began filming the sci-fi omnibus Doomsday Book. But financing problems halted production; it resumed in 2010, and the film was released in 2012.[13] Yim wrote and directed two of the film's three segments. Both black comedies, the first segment A Brave New World is about a zombie invasion caused by contaminated meat (starring Ryoo Seung-bum), while the third segment Happy Birthday is about a family hiding in an underground shelter as an 8-Ball-shaped asteroid wipes out mankind (starring Jin Ji-hee). Doomsday Book won the top prize at the 16th Fantasia Festival, the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film.[14]

Yim had next planned to direct a suspense drama about a married American expat who falls for a Korean femme fatale. Titled Flower of Evil, it entered pre-production in 2009 but was eventually shelved.[15][16] Weekend Prince, a comedy about three men in their thirties who get roaring drunk one weekend (which had Park Hae-il and Song Sae-byeok attached), similarly did not come to fruition.[17]

In 2010, twelve Korean directors and cinematographers shot short films using the iPhone 4 for the iPhone 4 Film Festival (later renamed the Olleh Smartphone Film Festival).[18][19] Yim's short Super Nerds: No Pain No Gain is a comedy about two die-hard iPhone fans and their journey to find someone who can attach a protective film to their newly purchased iPhones without causing air bubbles to form (in the Korean title Super Deokhu, "deokhu" originates from the Japanese word "otaku").[20]

Yim then starred in two mockumentary-style films in 2013. In E J-yong's Behind the Camera, an absentee filmmaker attempts to direct a film remotely via Skype.[21] Then in Bong Man-dae's comedy Playboy Bong, Yim played a director shooting an erotic-horror film in Bali who gets replaced when the film's producer is disappointed in the sex scenes.[22]

Scarlet Innocence

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Seven years after Hansel and Gretel, Yim returned with his third feature in 2014. Scarlet Innocence is a modern-day retelling of the classic Korean folktale Simcheongga; in the original, a virtuous girl named Shim Chung sacrifices herself so that her father's sight may be restored. But in Yim's film noir, a university professor gradually succumbing to blindness moves to a rural town and begins an obsessive affair with a young woman 17 years his junior (played by Jung Woo-sung and Esom, respectively).[23] Scarlet Innocence made its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.[24]

Filmography

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Short films

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Short film credits
Year Title Credited as Ref.
English Original Director Screenwriter Planner Editor Producer
1996 A Bit Bitter 생강 — Yes —
1997 Souvenir 기념품 Yes Yes —
1998 Brushing 소년기 Yes Yes — Yes Yes
1999 Baby 베이비 Yes Yes — — Yes
2003 Mobile 모빌 Yes Yes —
2010 Super Nerds: No Pain No Gain 슈퍼 덕후 Yes Yes —
2012 Doomsday Book – "A Brave New World" and "Happy Birthday" 인류멸망보고서 Yes Yes — [25][26][27]
2019 Persona 페르소나 Yes
— [28]

Feature films

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Feature film credits
Year Title Credited as Ref.
English Original Director Screenwriter
2005 Antarctic Journal 남극일기 Yim Pil-sung Yim Pil-sung
Bong Joon-ho
Lee Hae-jun 		[29]
2007 Hansel and Gretel 헨젤과 그레텔 Kim Min-sook
Yim Pil-sung 		[30]
2014 Scarlet Innocence 마담 뺑덕 Yim Pil-sung
Jang Yoon-mi 		[31][32][33][34][35]

Art performance

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Directing credit in art performance
Year Title Role Ref.
English Korean
2015 The Red Dance 적 (赤) Director [36][37]

As Actor

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References

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  1. ^ "YIM Pil-sung". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  2. ^ "Brushing". Busan International Short Film Festival. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  3. ^ a b "K-FILM REVIEWS: 남극일기 (Antarctic Journal)". Twitch Film. 15 August 2005. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  4. ^ "Doomsday Book". Korean Cinema Today. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  5. ^ 모빌 [Mobile]. IndieStory (in Korean). Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  6. ^ "Film Antarctic Journal Wins Award in Spain". The Korea Times via Hancinema. 19 October 2005. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  7. ^ "K-FILM SPOTLIGHT: Bong Joon-Ho Talks 괴물 (The Host)". Twitch Film. 26 July 2006. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  8. ^ D'Sa, Nigel (26 December 2007). "Hansel and Gretel: YIM's Dark Fantasy Opens". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  9. ^ Yi, Chang-ho (4 January 2008). "Hansel and Gretel ends the year on a high". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  10. ^ "K-FILM REVIEWS: 헨젤과 그레텔 (Hansel and Gretel)". Twitch Film. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  11. ^ Dale, Martin (2 March 2009). "Idiots and Angels tops Fantasporto". Variety. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  12. ^ Yi, Chang-ho (6 March 2009). "Hansel and Gretel wins twice at Fantasporto". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  13. ^ "Korea's M-Line opens Doomsday Book". Screen International. 11 February 2012. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  14. ^ "Doomsday Book scoops up top prize at Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada". 10Asia. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  15. ^ D'Sa, Nigel (10 February 2009). "YIM Pil-Sung's Flower of Evil Project". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  16. ^ "Im Pil-Sung Returns with 악의 꽃 (The Flower of Evil)". Twitch Film. 21 September 2009. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  17. ^ "Park Hae-il to star in comedy flick with Song Sae-byeok". 10Asia. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  18. ^ Lee, Hyo-won (28 September 2010). "Lights! iPhone! Action!". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  19. ^ Lee, Hyo-won (21 December 2011). "Smartphone film fest accepting submissions". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  20. ^ Sung, So-young (22 October 2010). "Festival of big films made on a small gadget". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  21. ^ Huh, Nam-woong (26 February 2013). "Frustrated Actors at Work: Behind the Camera". Korean Cinema Today. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  22. ^ Jeong, Ji-won (23 September 2013). "Playboy Bong all about arousal". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  23. ^ Conran, Pierce (11 December 2013). "JUNG Woo-sung Eyes New YIM Pil-sung Film". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  24. ^ Ahn, Sung-mi (25 August 2014). "Toronto film fest taps Korea for spotlight". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
  25. ^ "Doomsday Book" Archived October 16, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. M-Line Distribution. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  26. ^ "Human Extinction Report suspenseful trailer released". StarN News. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-18.[permanent dead link‍]
  27. ^ Choi, Eun-hwa (5 April 2012). "Preview: The End of Mankind is Near in Doomsday Book". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
  28. ^ Dela Paz, Maggie (March 13, 2019). "K-Pop Star IU to Lead Netflix's Korean Anthology Film Series Persona". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on April 27, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  29. ^ Elley, Derek (16 June 2005). "Antarctic Journal". Variety.com. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  30. ^ "K-FILM REVIEWS: 헨젤과 그레텔 (Hansel and Gretel)". Twitch Film. 26 August 2008. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011.
  31. ^ Chung, Joo-won (20 August 2014). "Jung Woo-sung's sensual film poster hails autumn romance". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2014-08-20.
  32. ^ Conran, Pierce (11 December 2013). "JUNG Woo-sung Eyes New YIM Pil-sung Film". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  33. ^ Kim, Hee-eun (13 March 2014). "Jung Woo-sung takes on classic folk tale". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  34. ^ Jones, Julie (12 March 2014). "Jung Woo Sung Stars In A Modern Fairy Tale". KDramaStars. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  35. ^ Conran, Pierce (12 August 2014). "TIFF Reveals City to City: Seoul Lineup". Korean Film Biz Zone. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
  36. ^ "[우리문화신문] 붉은 춤, 인간의 욕망을 파고들다". www.koya-culture.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-09-15.
  37. ^ "국립무용단, 신작 '적(赤)' 11~13일 공연". 뉴스1 (in Korean). 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
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