Subway Cinema News

In a bit of news that has been mostly ignored by the media, Korea’s acclaimed action director and stuntman, Ji Jung-Hyeon, died while shooting THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD. How do we know this? Because he’s a big presence in upcoming NYAFF movie, ACTION BOYS, and that film’s stuntmen pay tribute to his career in their documentary, which is the only place you’re going to see this talked about.

Ji Jung-Hyeon was the assistant action director and a key stunt player on numerous Korean films, choreographing the famous “hammer fight” in Park Chan-Wook’s OLDBOY and working as the assistant action director on MONGOL. He died near the set of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD when the car in which he was riding was hit by a lumber truck. Further details are not available, and people are not talking about it much in order not to bring bad luck onto the film. He was working as the assistant action director on THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD at the time of his passing. His credits include:

MUSA (aka, The Warriors, 2000), Stuntman
LAST WITNESS (2001), Stuntman
FAMILY (2002), Action Director
PUBLIC ENEMY (2002), Stuntman
OLD BOY (2003), Stuntman
RED SHOES (2005), Wire Action stuntman
BRAVO, MY LIFE (2005), suspicious guy
A BITTERSWEET LIFE (2005), gangster
THE CITY OF VIOLENCE (2006), construction worker
THE RESTLESS (2006), assistant to action director
MONGOL (2007), assistant to action director
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008), Assistant to action director

There’s a video interview with him about his career here (in Korean only) and if you’re interested, you can see him as a major presence in ACTION BOYS, with more info on the documentary here.

We just confirmed who’s going to be at this year’s New York Asian Film Festival and here’s the list of guests and when they’ll be at screenings.

THEN SUMMER CAME (Friday, June 20 @ 8pm) - director Ryo Iwamatsu will be introducing the screening of this new Joe Odagiri/Yoshio Harada father/son film and he’ll be conducting a Q&A afterwards. Tickets for this one are almost sold out, so get yours now! (Tickets here)

MISE EN SCENE SHORT FILM PROGRAMS ONE AND TWO (Friday, June 27 @ 3:45pm; Saturday, June 28 @ 3pm) - short film director Park Jae-Young will introduce both screenings and conduct a Q&A afterwards. His film, OUR PUPPY, OUR FAMILY is one of the best Korean movies of 2007 and it’ll be playing the second short film program. (Program One Tickets and Program Two Tickets)

M (Tuesday, July 1 @ 7pm) - director Lee Myung-Se (NOWHERE TO HIDE, DUELIST) will be introducing his dreamy love story, M, and conducting a Q&A afterwards. If you’ve ever attended a Q&A with him you’ll know that he’s going to leave you with your head spinning. Favorite moment: during the New Directors/New Films screening of NOWHERE TO HIDE he was asked to explain the movie and instead told a surreal story about fishing, leaving the audience highly entertained but leaving the programmers a bit flummoxed. (Tickets here)

ACTION BOYS (Thursday, July 3 @ 9pm) - the director, producer and one of the stuntmen from this brutal documentary about the stunt industry appear onstage to do some stunts, intro the film and conduct a Q&A afterwards. Very outspoken, if you ever had a question about the underbelly of the Korean film industry then these are the guys who’ll tell you about it. They were thrown off the set of THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD injured on CITY OF VIOLENCE, terrified on THE HOST and they have experienced pretty much every trauma and humiliation known to filmmaking. This is one that you absolutely shouldn’t miss. (Tickets here)