Latest news with #LeeHye-young
Korea Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
'The Old Woman With the Knife' confirms North American theater locations ahead of Friday release
Action film starring Lee Hye-young set for limited North American run Theater locations across the United States and Canada for Korean action thriller "The Old Woman With the Knife" have been confirmed ahead of its Friday release, public relations firm Blade Vista announced Wednesday. The film will open across downtown and suburban venues throughout major metro areas, including CGV Los Angeles in LA's Koreatown, AMC River East 21 in downtown Chicago, AMC Raceway in Long Island's Westbury in New York and Cinemark Legacy in Plano, Texas, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Additional screening locations cover the Greater Houston area, San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta suburbs, Las Vegas and the Seattle region. Canadian audiences can catch the film in select venues across Toronto, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Montreal, as the thriller expands its reach throughout North America for its limited run. Additional theaters may join the lineup in the coming weeks, Blade Vista noted. Well Go USA Entertainment, a key distributor of Asian cinema in North America, is handling distribution for the film. The Texas-based company has previously introduced a number of Korean titles to US audiences, including this year's "Dark Nuns" and "Yadang: The Snitch." Directed by Min Kyu-dong and starring veteran female actor Lee Hye-young, the film centers on Hornclaw, an aging assassin who crosses paths with a reckless young assassin named Bullfight, played by Kim Sung-cheol. Complications arise when Hornclaw finds herself marked for elimination and drawn into a deadly game of survival and retribution. The 125-minute character-driven fare gained traction on the festival circuit earlier this year. It premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in February and picked up official selections at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and Beijing International Film Festival in April. Released in South Korea on April 30, the film had drawn 419,612 admissions as of Tuesday, according to the Korean Film Council's latest box office data. It has received a generally positive audience reception, with a rating of 8.05 out of 10 on local search platform Naver and a 93 percent approval rating on multiplex chain CGV's website. Following its North American debut, the film is scheduled for release across Europe, Asia and South America in the coming months, according to Next Entertainment World, the film's Korean production company.
Daily Tribune
29-03-2025
- Climate
- Daily Tribune
South Korea firefighters deploy helicopters as wildfires reignite
South Korean firefighters deployed helicopters on Saturday as the country's largest wildfires on record, which had ravaged vast areas in the southeast, reignited in a city in the region, according to officials. More than a dozen fires, fueled by high winds and dry conditions, have killed 30 people and injured many others in southeastern regions, an official from the interior ministry reported on Saturday. The fires flared up again early Saturday in Andong, a city in the hardest-hit North Gyeongsang province. In response, authorities deployed eight helicopters to the area, a spokesperson from the Korea Forest Service told AFP. This occurred a day after the primary fire in the province, where 26 of the 30 victims had died, was extinguished. 'It seems that the remaining embers have flared up a bit,' said the official. 'We plan to deploy more helicopters to the area in Andong.' The fires began on Saturday last week and have continued for days. As of the latest reports, over 2,900 homes in the region have been destroyed. An official reported that more than 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forest have burned, and several historic sites, including the 7th-century Gounsa temple complex in Uiseong, have been destroyed. The scale of the destruction has made this the largest wildfire in South Korea's history. Later on Saturday, a North Gyeongsang provincial official stated that helicopters were still being used in Andong to put out smaller flames and smoke. 'Given the size of the area, it may take some time to complete all operations and fully extinguish the fires,' said Do Gyu-myeong of the North Gyeongsang provincial government. Most of the victims were elderly, according to the Korea Forest Service. Among the fatalities was a 70-year-old pilot whose helicopter crashed on Wednesday while attempting to control the flames. The fires have been exacerbated by high winds and extremely dry conditions, with the region experiencing below-average rainfall after South Korea's hottest year on record in 2024. The interior ministry indicated that the wildfires were accidentally triggered by a visitor at a grave and 'sparks from a brush cutter.' Lee Hye-young, a 65-year-old Andong resident, shared her trauma from the event, saying, 'It was really scary to see the sparks flying around all at once. While living in North Gyeongsang, I never thought such a large disaster would strike us.'
Al Arabiya
29-03-2025
- Climate
- Al Arabiya
South Korea firefighters deploy helicopters as wildfires reignite
South Korean firefighters deployed helicopters Saturday as the country's biggest wildfires on record that ravaged wide areas of its southeast reignited in one of the region's cities, an official said. More than a dozen fires have been fanned by high winds and dry conditions, killing 30 people and injuring dozens more in southeastern regions, an interior ministry official said Saturday. Fires were whipped up again early Saturday in Andong, a city in the worst-hit North Gyeongsang province, forcing authorities to deploy eight helicopters to the area, an official from the Korea Forest Service told AFP. It came a day after the main fire in the province, where 26 of the 30 victims have died, was extinguished. 'It seems that the remaining embers have flared up a bit,' said the official. 'We plan to deploy more helicopters to the area in Andong.' The fires there began last Saturday and rolled on for days. More than 2,900 homes in the region have been completely destroyed, according to the latest figures. An official said earlier this week that more than 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forest have been burned. The fire also destroyed several historic sites, including the Gounsa temple complex in the southeastern city of Uiseong, which is believed to have been built in the 7th century. The extent of the damage makes it South Korea's largest-ever wildfire. Later Saturday, an official from the North Gyeongsang provincial government said helicopters were still being deployed in Andong areas to extinguish mostly small flames and smoke. 'Given the size of the area, it may take some time to complete all operations and fully extinguish the fires,' Do Gyu-myeong told AFP. Most of the victims in the region were elderly, according to the Korea Forest Service. Those killed include a pilot in his 70s whose helicopter crashed Wednesday while he was trying to contain a fire. The flames have been fanned by high winds and ultra-dry conditions, with the area experiencing below-average rains for months after South Korea had its hottest year on record in 2024. The interior ministry said the wildfires were accidentally started by a grave visitor and 'sparks from a brush cutter.' Lee Hye-young, a 65-year-old resident of Andong, said she still remains traumatized by the experience. 'It was really scary to see the sparks flying around all at once,' she told AFP. 'While living in North Gyeongsang, I never thought that such a large disaster would strike us.'
Korea Herald
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Killer at sixty-one
Age meets action in 'The Old Woman with the Knife,' a Korean thriller that made an unexpected splash at Berlinale "I got the role because I haven't had Botox," said Lee Hye-young, sending the room into laughter at Thursday's press conference for "The Old Woman with the Knife" at Lotte Cinema Konkuk University. The 61-year-old actor, whose illustrious career spans four decades of Korean cinema, stars as a legendary assassin thrust into one last deadly chase in director Min Kyu-dong's action thriller. "There are plenty of good actresses my age in Korea," she added. "I kept wondering why they picked me. Now that we've wrapped, I'm finally getting those injections." Based on Gu Byeong-mo's bestseller, the film follows Hornclaw (Lee Hye-young), a veteran killer who's spent nearly 50 years taking out "society's worst" for a clandestine outfit. Her carefully ordered existence unravels when she crosses paths with Bullfight (Kim Sung-cheol), a young hitman who dogs her steps with a fixation that goes well beyond personal vendetta. The film's inclusion at last month's Berlin International Film Festival drummed up buzz. Getting picked for Berlinale's Special — one of the festival's most eclectic sections — was unexpected for a Korean action flick. Min reflected on how the festival's embrace of boundary-pushing cinema created the perfect launching pad for the film. "Screening at a festival that values deep perspective and artistic experiment before our Korean release was both thrilling and an honor," Min said. "When foreign viewers called it 'brutal yet poetic' and 'violent yet beautiful,' I felt they really got what we were going for." For Lee, whose relationship with Berlinale spans decades, the premiere was a homecoming of sorts. She first appeared at the festival with "The Blazing Sun" (1985), where she played the female lead in what would become a Korean cinema classic. She returned with "Passage to Buddha" (1993) and more recently in arthouse icon Hong Sang-soo's "The Novelist's Film" (2022) and "A Traveler's Needs" (2024), both of which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. "I read the book first and thought, 'How the heck are they going to turn this into a movie?'" Lee said. "The action scared me — you see, I'm not exactly in my prime anymore." She credited the stunt team for helping her through multiple injuries. "This isn't the kind of action where you bulk up and flex for the camera," she said. "It's just regular-looking people who snap into violence out of nowhere. That made it tough." Kim Sung-cheol recalled the director's exacting standards with a grimace. "I figured my first scene would take maybe five takes. The director wouldn't give me the OK, and we shot the thing 17 times," he said. The cast and director spoke at length about how the film upends expectations for the action thriller genre. Min said he aimed for something deeper than action alone. "The characters don't just fight with their bodies — they're grappling with their lives," he said. "Hornclaw has lived in isolation for nearly 50 years. Her work is clinical. It's almost a form of art." Bullfight, on the other hand, is "flashy, cocky, a showboat," Min said. "He wants to kill her, but he also needs her. It's like they're seeing versions of themselves in each other." When asked what audiences should expect, Lee didn't mince words: "It's Min's best film, honestly. I don't care much for his other stuff, like 'Antique,'" she said, referring to Min's 2008 Berlinale entry. "But this one's definitely Min's triumph." Min responded instantly, saying, "No, this film is Lee Hye-young's triumph." "The Old Woman with the Knife" will hit Korean theaters on May 1.
