Poetry picks up its 17th award

30 March 29, 2011March 29, 2011

by javabeans

And the awards keep rolling in for Poetry, which has just collected its 17th from Switzerland’s 25th Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF), taking home the festival’s top prize, the Regard d’Or. Starring Yoon Jung-hee as an elderly woman finding happiness writing poetry for the first time, the film was praised “for the skillful fusion, the perfect unity, the beauty, the purity and essence of art in itself: poetry.”

Writer-director Lee Chang-dong can add this to his well-decorated mantel: Poetry’s highest-profile win to date is probably the Best Screenplay award from the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. (He also wrote and directed Secret Sunshine back in 2007, which took home Cannes’ top prize.)

Just a week ago, Poetry also won for Best Director and Screenplay at Hong Kong’s Asian Film Awards, which joins its Best Picture prize at the Grand Bell Awards and Best Actress trophy at the Blue Dragon Awards. Breaking down the 17 wins by category, four were for Best Picture, five for its screenplay, three each for its director and actress, one for supporting actor, and one critic’s award.

Meanwhile, FIFF was also a good day for director Kim Tae-yong and his classic-film remake Late Autumn — starring Hyun Bin and Tang Wei — which won two awards of its own. One was the Special Mention of the Jury of the International Federation of Film Societies, and the other was the special youth-jury-selected Ex-Change Award. It was lauded as “a beautiful film that delicately portrays the process of two people opening their hearts to each other, transcending language.”

Not a bad showing for Korean films, which are starting to make greater headway on the international scene and the festival circuit. It’s funny how the ones that get raves abroad aren’t the ones pulling in the major attention back home — or maybe that’s just always the way.

Via Sports Chosun, Screen Daily

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1 girlfriday

March 29, 2011 at 4:32 PM

THAT KISS o__o

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2 maez

March 29, 2011 at 5:08 PM

Had to watch this for my class.....it was ok. Need patience but I liked it.

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3 tegami

March 29, 2011 at 5:09 PM

Man, that picture of Hyun Bin and Tang Wei kissing practically singed my eyebrows off.

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4 paula253

March 29, 2011 at 5:20 PM

::fans self:: PLEASE let Late Autumn come to Seattle Intl Film Fest!! after all, it was filmed here!

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5 peanut butter

March 29, 2011 at 5:52 PM

As far as korean movies go, that's probably true. I myself never did watch the movies that raked in awards on an international scale. I do watch movies like Finding Kim Jong Wook.

If you think about it, it could be that viewers prefer rom-coms and the serious movies are probably the ones be sent out to the festivals.

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6 Nars

March 29, 2011 at 5:53 PM

Meanwhile, Transformers 5: Planet of Earth will win no awards for the screenplay writer, no one.

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7 Rickshot

March 29, 2011 at 5:56 PM

Yeah, the internationally lauded films tend to be less ....popcorn entertainment lol. i mean if i had to choose between a woman discovering herself, or won bin shooting and maiming baddies on a rampage, I think i know which one i'd go with

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8 guini

March 29, 2011 at 6:09 PM

.......oh that kiss! I'm glad I open this, I wasn't even planning to read this article...but ola the treasured kiss of HB!

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9 Dara

March 29, 2011 at 7:03 PM

Yep, that's always the way. Groups of hard-to-please peeps praising their own lots!

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10 samgetang

March 29, 2011 at 7:08 PM

I watched "Poetry" in dramacrazy(dot)net during one of those times when I've had too much rom-com that they are almost coming out of my ears, hehe.

It was an excellent film! I loved how the title seem to promise you beauty, peace and fluidity only to find out that it was about how the main character's grandson became involved in a very jarring experience for someone so young. I think it is this fusion of harmony and discord within the film that made it interesting for me. And how the grandmother tried to live through that tragedy through her new-found discovery of the art of poetry-writing. Poetic justice, indeed!

Not to miss at all!

I'd love to watch Late Autumn, too. Any chance where we can watch an eng subbed version of it? Main reason? Hyun Bin. Need I say more? Here is one actor who can transcend festival to commercial and back effectively and seamlessly.