Chosun reported:

Prosecutors are seeking an 18-month jail sentence for actress Ok So-ri, who admits adultery, and six months in jail and two years’ probation for her paramour, a singer identified as Jung. Korea is one of a handful of countries where adultery remains a crime after the Constitutional Court, ruling on a petition from Ok, rallied an insufficient majority to throw out the elderly law.

During trial at the Uijeongbu District Court on Wednesday, prosecutors explained their demand, saying while Ok (40) admitted the charges in court, she denied them during the investigation, and the accuser was seeking strict punishment for the couple. Jung (38), however, cooperated with prosecutors and admitted all charges from the outset, they said. The court rules on Dec. 17.

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Chosun reported:

Supermodel Lee So-ra will host TV show “Project Runway Korea” on cable channel OnStyle in February. Lee will also act as a judge on the program, which was made after the cable channel officially purchased America’s popular reality program, “Project Runway.”

OnStyle said Lee was selected because of her charismatic presence and fashion sense as Korea’s first supermodel.

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In a recent interview with director Shim Hyng Rae for “D-Wars” which was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Rae discussed a few challenges the film faced.  Here is an excerpt from an interview by Ikuko Kitagawa:

The film production system in the United States is different than that of South Korea. While every procedure has to be authorized in the United States, guerrilla filmmaking is sometimes condoned in his home country, Shim said. Of course, Shim was persuaded not to bring real tanks and armor cars into downtown Los Angeles.

“I fired the person [who dissuaded me], and wrote a letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, ‘It’s not fair to control filmmaking–the United States is the country of movies,’” he said.

Shim got the OK from the governor, reportedly becoming the first director after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States to be given permission to film a large-scale battle in central Los Angeles. But Shim also had to apologize to local residents for the noise and vibrations, as he had been authorized to bring arms, not shoot them.

“The residents were complaining directly to me. But since I didn’t understand what they are saying in English, I never thought they were complaining to me…So I just said ‘Thank you,’” he said.

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Mainichi Daily News reported:

Another South Korean actress has been subjected to slandering on the Internet for donating a large amount of money for community service projects.

Numerous messages slandering the actress, 21-year-old Moon Geun-young, have been posted on the Internet since it came to light earlier this month that she has donated a large amount to South Korea’s Community Chest.

The incident came only a month after Choe Jin-sil, another South Korean actress who was subjected to harassment on the Internet, committed suicide.

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Chosun reported, “Rapper Kim Jin-pyo won the Super 1600cc Division of the CJ Super Race Championship, a professional racecar competition in Korea. Kim finished third in the final seventh round at Speed Way in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday, but with a total score of 78 points, he easily beat the 62 points of second-place finisher Lee Dong-hoon.”

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Chosun reported:

The launch ceremony of the new Audi A4, held on Thursday afternoon at the Olympic Hall in Seoul, was marred by the collapse of VIP stands near the stage, leaving a number of celebrities, including top actress Kim Hye-soo, injured. According to witnesses, the VIP seating stand collapsed at 8:10 p.m. when crowds swarmed towards the new Audi car as it appeared center stage.

Celebrities, including actresses Kim Hye-soo and Choi Kang-hee, and actors Jung Woo-sung, Lee Jung-jae and Ryu Seung-bum, were sitting in the VIP area. Some escaped the site unharmed, but others sustained minor bruising.

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Chosun reported:

A game targeting fans of top Korean Wave actor Bae Yong-joon who want to learn Korean will be launched in Japan in January next year.

The Busan Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday that multimedia company Mobilero has developed an educational Korean language game starring Bae with funds from it and the Korea Culture and Content Agency.

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image courtesy of Sankei Sports

Chosun reported:

Tickets to the first solo concert in K-pop sensation Lee Hyo-lee’s career at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium on Dec. 20 sold out in just five minutes on Thursday.

The first 2,000 out of 7,500 tickets for the stadium, which were released at 2 p.m., were gone in five minutes, and the second round, released at 4 p.m., went equally fast as there were 13,000 people on the waiting list. Lee instantly emerged as the dark horse in the year-end concert market, the most hard-fought competition ground for big stars.

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Image courtesy of Chosun

CRIEnglish.com reported:

South Korea’s highly popular 2003 television series “Dae Jang-geum,” or “Jewel in the Palace,” will be made into a feature film, the Chinese web portal 163.com reported.

China’s Xi’an Film Studio will cooperate with a South Korean film company on the project, officials said at the company’s fiftieth anniversary celebration on Saturday in Xi’an.

Lee Yeong-ae, who attained fame through the smash-hit TV series, again will play the heroine, Seo Jang-Geum. South Korean heartthrob Song Seung-hun also will be cast in a role, although the exact one has yet to be determined, the report said.

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Chosun reported:

Ju Hee, 38, has not changed much in 20 years. Many people remember her big, wide eyes and articulate speaking manner. Ju Hee, a teen star in the 1980s, made a comeback as a film festival programmer after finishing her studies in Japan. She is now an executive of a Cinus multiplex and a planner of the 2008 Pink Film Festival, which opened last Saturday.

The Pink Film Festival, which was launched last year, is the only women’s film fest showcasing low-budget Japanese adult movies in Korea. The festival runs from Nov.1 to 28 in four Cinus theaters in Isu, Seoul, Busan, Daejeon and Paju (the one in Seoul ends next Tuesday).

“Last year, we held the festival as a limited test-run, and sold 83 percent of seats,” said Ju.

After she quit acting in 1991, Ju began a graduate film studies program in Nihon University, Japan the following year. While studying for her master’s and doctorate degrees, she won Japanese government scholarships that covered all her tuition fees.

She began to take interest in adult films when preparing for her doctorate dissertation. “My topic for the dissertation was research on the mentality of Japanese people as seen through ‘yakuza’ gangster movies.

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