Oasis, the Best Movie of Korea

● Korean movie this year

As a result of answer by respondents, ‘Oasis’ got 110 points recording the top spot, making big gap with the second movie ‘The Way Home…’(73 points). Every respondent among 31 except 2 chose ‘Oasis’ among top five.

‘Chihwaseon’ that obtained 44 points and ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’ were selected for the third position together. ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’ by producer Park Chan-uk failed in box-office, but was highly evaluated on quality.

‘Enemy of public’ that received even support from most of the respondents despite not being included in top three received sixth position by 37 points. Three respondents selected ‘Enemy of public’ as the best movie among ‘top five’ Korean movies this year and two chose ‘Crazy Marriage’ (26 points), which received 7th position, as the best movie this year.

● Director of this year

Producer Lee Chang-dong of ‘Oasis’ was selected as the best producer this year receiving 39 points from 25 respondents. Top second producer was Lee Jung-hyang (32points) of ‘The Road Home…’ and top third was producer Im Gwon-taek (30points) of ‘Chihwaseon’ who received 30 points from 14 respondents. A respondent who selected producer Lee Jung-hyang expressed opinion, saying, “I hope that I have commercial mind like this producer.”

Producer Park Chan-uk of ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’, which is co-top third with ‘Chihwaseon’, was top fifth gaining 17 points from 10 respondents and producer Hong Sang-su of ‘Find a Life’ was fourth grade by 19 points from 10 respondents.

● Actor of this year

Seol Gyeong-gu won the top position by 76 points. Most of the respondents selected him as the best actor of this year, evaluating his acting in ‘enemy of public’, ‘Oasis’, ‘Amnesty of Independence day’. Mun So-ri of ‘Oasis’ and Song Gang-ho of ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’ and ‘baseball team of YMCA’ was co-top second by 23 points. And Cha Seung-won was fourth by 11 points, Kim Yun-jin of ‘secret love’ and Kim Jung-eun of ‘honor of family’ made up the co-fifth grade by 6 points. Two respondents chose couple Park Chi-gyu and Lee Soon-ae, who are not professional actors, of ‘Too Young To Die’ as third among top three best actors.

● Noteworthy New Director · Actor/Actress

‘Road Movie’ won the prizes for the best new director and new actor of the year. Kim In-Sik, the director of ‘Road Movie’ won the first place in the field of the new director by receiving 10 votes. In addition, Park Jin-Pyo (4 votes), director of ‘Too Young To Die!’ won the second place, and Jo Ui-Seok, director of ‘Just Run’ and Kim Hyeon-Seok, director of ‘‘YMCA baseball team’, and Byeon Yeong-Ju, director of ‘Deep Love’ won the joint third place.

In a category of the new actor/actress, Hwang Jeong-Min (Road Movie) won the first place with 6 votes, Kim, Jung-Eun of ‘Glorious Family’ and Gam Woo-Seong of ‘Crazy Marriage’ won the joint second place with 5 votes. Moon So-Ri won the fourth place with 4 votes in the section of the new actress.

● Others

The influence of a star player decreased this year. ‘Addiction’(Lee Byeong-Heon & Lee Mi-Hyeon starring), ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’ (Song Gang-Ho staring) and ‘YMCA baseball team’ were not in box office. On the other hand, ‘The Road Home’ played by nonprofessional actress won the first half of the year. The Korean movies selected by audiences were ‘Mongjunggi’ and ‘Sex is Zero’.

This year, many new directors made a debut. Among 59 Korean movies, 37 films were made by new directors. Last year, 27 movies out of 52 movies were made by new directors.

Among movies, the longest title of movie is ‘Mere wife, wild& woolly husband & taekwon girl’, the shortest title of the movie ‘H’ to be released on December 27.

Hee-Kyung Kim susanna@donga.com