18th Icheon Chunsa Film Festival

by javabeans

Saturday, September 18, was the day of the 18th Icheon Chunsa Film Festival, held in the city of Icheon in Kyeonggi Province. The overwhelming winner was the film Moss, a crime thriller from the director of Silmido starring Jung Jae-young, Park Hae-il, Yoo Jun-sang, and Yoo Sun. It picked up awards in seven categories, including Best Picture and Supporting Actor.

Moss released in theaters in July and is based on the “web toon” of the same name. It was a big performer this summer, logging 3.3 million attendances.

Other notable winners were the war movie Into the Fire, which was given a special jury prize, and Bestseller, which picked up a few awards as well.

WINNERS LIST

Best Picture (Daesang): Moss
Jury Prize (Film): Into the Fire
Jury Prize (Actor): Park Joong-hoon (My Gangster Boyfriend)
Chunsa Daesang: Lee Dae-geun
Special Award: Moon Hee

Best Actor: Sol Kyung-gu (No Mercy)
Best Actress: Uhm Jung-hwa (Bestseller)
Best Supporting Actor: Yoo Jun-sang (Moss), Go Chang-seok (Barefoot Dreams)
Best Supporting Actress: Yoon Yeo-jung (The Housemaid)
New Actor Award: Jo Jin-woong (Bestseller), Choi Jae-woong (Sword With No Name)
New Actress Award: Kang Ye-won (Harmony)

Directing Award: Kang Woo-seok (Moss)
New Director Award: Kang Dae-kyu (Harmony)
Screenplay Award: Yoon Jae-kyu (Secret)
Cinematography Award: Kim Sung-bok (Moss)
Lighting Award: Kang Dae-hee (Moss)
Music Award: Jo Young-wook (Moss)
Producer Award: Jung Tae-won (Into the Fire)
Art Direction Award: Yang Hong-sam, Jang Seok-jin (Bestseller)
Editing Award: Go In-pyo (Moss)
Visual Technology: (Sword With No Name)
Sound: Park Jong-geun, Park Jun-oh (Into the Fire)

As for the red carpet? Everyone looked pretty and presentable, which is nice on one hand, but makes it so much less fun to talk about (okay, mock) on the other. Nobody really stood out, and there was a lot of black. Safe and simple.

Uhm Jung-hwa (Bestseller) proves that one great accessory is all you need to jazz up the little black dress, though I wish she’d rocked funkier heels (and shortened the dress a few inches). She took home Best Actress for her horror-thriller movie Bestseller, in which she plays a famous author dogged by plagiarism scandals:

 
New dad Sol Kyung-gu (No Mercy), regarded as one of Korea’s best actors, won for Best Actor:

 
Cha Ye-ryun (Dr. Champ) came with Supporting Actor winner Yoo Jun-sang (Moss). I’ll bet her dress was pretty in person, but it sure blends in with her skin tone and makes it look like she’s wearing a plain ol’ robe. Love the makeup and styling, though.

 
After doing these posts for a while now, I think I’ve come to a basic conclusion: I don’t like long white gowns at awards shows. They just always look like bridal dresses to me, as New Actress winner Kang Ye-won‘s (Harmony) does here. Not that the dresses aren’t pretty — they usually are lovely — but they lack a certain dash of interest. Or maybe I just really don’t want to get married.

 
Kim Bum-soo and Go Eun-ah were hosts for the event, and let’s just say, what a difference a year makes. At last year’s festival, Go Eun-ah looked so sweet and fresh, and now she looks like she’s aged fifteen years and is out to prove something. When you’re talking about extreme cleavage, I sorta think you should pick a side, rather than slitting down to there and up to there, especially if “there” is unfortunately represented by a jeweled crotch that vaguely resembles the thing it’s hiding. Eep.

 
Kang Woo-seok (Moss) and Kang Dae-kyu (Harmony) both won directing awards, the latter as a new director.

 
I love how Choi Jung-won (Wish Upon a Star) looks, from the braided hair, make-up, simple accessories, flirty short dress, everything. She also looks a little awkward in many of the photos, which gives her the look of a startled deer. In a cute way, of course.

 
Go Chang-seok won for his movie Barefoot Dreams:

 
Jo Jin-woong won an acting award for Bestseller, although to me he’ll always be the big softie Brutus from Sons of Sol Pharmacy.

 
I’d always expected to see Park Shi-eun (Iron Empress) acting more; it seems like she’s just getting back into the swing of things after three to four years of non-activity. (I know her best as the Bitchy Noona character in Delightful Girl Chun-hyang, which was more than five years ago.)

 
Funny enough, Park Su-jin‘s character in My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho has been compared a lot to Park Shi-eun’s from Chun-hyang, and there are a number of similarities. (The Gumiho version is a lot easier to love to hate, imo, since she’s so ineffectual.)

 
Like I said, a lot of black at the event. By all accounts, Yoon Yeo-jung gave The Housemaid some of its funniest moments of black humor, and she picked up an award for the role:

 
I can’t tell if Song Ji-eun (Dr. Champ) is wearing one or two pieces. Unfortunate how the top fits so well and the bottom is so drab and shapeless.

 
Kim Jung-tae (Bad Guy) can’t go wrong in a classic tux:

 
I kind of hate everything about Ji Sung-won‘s (Harmony) dress, which is doing a lot of things at once: side slit, tulle underskirt, shiny material, train, sparkly bosoms. She arrived with director Jang Chul-soo of the upcoming thriller movie The Truth About Kim Bok-nam’s Murder.

 
Sohn Eun-seo (Queen Returns) looks young and cute and a little bit precious. Adorable dress.

 
Kim Soo-jung does more white. Da dum da daaaa… I’m humming the bridal march in my head as I write this.

 
Veteran actress Moon Hee won a special award, and no wonder: Her film resumé may not have anything since 1973, but there are more than 200 titles on it.

 
Lee Dae-geun is another longtime industry veteran with 103 films to his name, mostly from the ’70s and ’80s (his most recent credit is 2008’s My Mighty Princess starring Shin Mina). He picked up the Chunsa Daesang Award:

Via Star News

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