Arts Film Film Blog The 43rd Baeksang Arts Awards
| The 43rd Baeksang Arts Awards |  |
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| Film Blog - News | |
Still on a big break from New York. 
In a different kind of theater: Epidauros.
In the meantime, while the Korean film industry was having cold sweat over the massive releases of Hollywood-produced blockbusters (300, Spiderman 3, etc.), the results of the Baeksang Arts Awards winners were announced on Wednesday, April 25th. One of the most important ceremonies of the genre in Korea since its creation , this year’s edition saw the triumph of Tazza: The High Rollers (also known as War of Flowers, and reviewed here) which won both the Daesang Film Big Prize and Best Director for Choi Dong-Hoon. The Host added the Best Film Award to an already long list of distinctions (the most recent of which being the Best Film prize of the First Asian Film Awards, earlier this year in Hong Kong). Tazza: Glamour and Honour. The Host: more and more guests. Ryu Seung-Beom was honored with the Best Leading Actor Award for his performance in the gritty drug-and-crime thriller Bloody Tie and former Miss Korea Yeom Jeong-Ah was named Best Leading Actress for her remarkable composition in the adaptation of Hwang Sok-Young’s literary masterpiece, The Old Garden. New talents were greeted: Jeong Ji-Hoon, better known as Rain, received the Best New Actor award for I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK (the R3 2-DVD Limited Edition distributed by CJ Entertainment is now available for pre-order); Park Si-Yeon was granted the prize for Best New Actress for The Fox Family. Jeon Kye-soo earned the Best New Director Award for The Ghost Theatre (not seen yet), and Like a Virgin won the Best Screenplay.
The excellent historical TV series Jumong was the major winner of the drama awards category and received the Daesang Big Prize to nobody’s particular surprise (I’m still stuck somewhere mid-show though: considering the 81-episode run of the show, it seems unlikely that I’ll catch up any time soon). Seoul 1945 won the Best TV drama award. Kim Myung-Min was named Best Leading Actor for his work in White Tower. Son Ye-Jin, whose career and reputation have so far been associated with this kind of melodramatic part (The Classic, A Moment to Remember, Summer Scent), was awarded the Best Leading Actress prize for her performance in Alone in Love (which also stars the always excellent Gam Woo-Sung, of King and the Clown fame). 
Jumong: Korean history for the masses.
As is always (or almost always) the case with this type of events, the Baeksang Arts Awards ceremony was the occasion of bringing a lot of glitter and gold to the red carpet:
Choi Jin-Sil. Bringing sexy back after a long absence, a few lawsuits and her “Vie en Rose” rebirth
Jeong Ji-Hoon, AKA Rain and Lim Soo-Jung.
Son Ye-Jin, a well-deserved award for a nuanced performance. |
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