Awards and nominations:
***2002 Venice Film Festival
Premio Marcello Mastroianni - Moon So-ri
Special Director's Award - Lee Chang-dong
FIPRESCI Prize
SIGNIS Award
***2002 Chunsa Film Art Awards
Best Film
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best Actress - Moon So-ri
Best Director - Lee Chang-dong
Best Screenplay - Lee Chang-dong
***2002 Pusan Film Critics Awards
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best Screenplay - Lee Chang-dong
***2002 Blue Dragon Film Awards
Best New Actress - Moon So-ri
***2002 Korean Film Awards
Best Film
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best Actress - Moon So-ri
Best Director - Lee Chang-dong
Best Screenplay - Lee Chang-dong
Best New Actress - Moon So-ri
***2002 Director's Cut Awards
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best New Actress - Moon So-ri
***2003 Baeksang Arts Awards
Best Film
Best Director - Lee Chang-dong
***2003 Seattle International Film Festival
Best Actress - Moon So-ri
As the title suggests, set at the edge of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, with its beautiful scenic views, the film revolves around two women from different backgrounds who develop a friendship, and how they begin to influence and change each other’s lives.
Yoshida Misaki (Hiromi Nagasaku) lives alone in Tokyo, running a roasting coffee shop. Eight years after her father went missing at sea, she inherits the one thing he left her: a derelict boathouse. In need of a new start herself, she drives to the fishing village and finds that it offers little but a convenience store and a closed-down guesthouse. Against all logic, she sets about transforming the boathouse into a modern coffee-shop. The first friend she makes is elementary-school teacher Megumi, who’s worried that the neglected kids from the former guesthouse, Arisa and her little brother Shota, are in trouble. Over time, Misaki gets to know the kids’ single mother, Eriko Yamazaki (Nozomi Sasaki), often away working in a hostess bar in Kanazawa. While hanging around with Eriko and her children, Misaki slowly changes and a new sense of "family" begins to take shape.
Starting her career twenty-some years ago under the best mentors (acting in director's Edward Yang "A Brighter Summer Day" and working as Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s assistant), and after co-directing the critically acclaimed Artemisia, Taiwanese director Chiang Hsiu Chiung is back with her debut film, "The Furthest End Awaits". Although it is only the second feature film has collaborated on, she has taken part in several omnibus projects, made short films, and co-directed to prove her skills as a filmmaker. We can also see the influence of her mentors as she constructs a sensitive portrayal of the value of family in today’s society. A Japanese film by a Taiwanese woman director, The Furthest End Awaits sets a high benchmark for films about female solidarity. Her first fiction feature succeeds in transplanting the spirit of Taiwan’s "new cinema" of the 1980s into the fractured Japanese cinema of the 2010s, and it’s quite an achievement.
Film Festivals:
2014 (33rd) Vancouver International Film Festival - Sept. 25-Oct. 10, 2014 - Dragons and Tigers *North American Premiere
2014 (19th) Busan International Film Festival - October 2-11, 2014 - A Window on Asian Cinema
2014 (58th) BFI London Film Festival - October 8-19, 2014 - Journey Gala
2014 (34th) Hawaii International Film Festival - Oct. 30-Nov. 9, 2014 - Spotlight on Japan *U.S. Premiere
It's unbelievable how much the acting in this drama irks me! I mean I am literally aggravated, frustrated, annoyed, frowning and puffing 90% of each episode. Today while watching I just started thinking and imagining things: a piece of delicious cake covered in cockroaches. That's how I see the characters and actors in MSH. Yoo In Na and Jin Yi Han are that cake: they are tasty, flavored and addictive, but the rest of the cast just pesters them, getting in the way in the worst way possible. Those people's acting makes me cringe, just like it did from the first episode. Nothing got better, on the contrary. Seriously, where did they get these so called "actors" from?
Characters:
The story of a cold-hearted mother, Yoo Sun-Kyung (Park Ji Young) who abandoned her daughter not once but twice, in order to aid her own upward ascent in status, and has never once felt any pangs of conscience for it.
When Cha-Young (Hong Ah-Reum) learns that she was abandoned, she now seeks out her mother while harboring plans of revenge. The two of them have no choice but to violently point swords at each other. It’s practically an emotional take about mother-daughter relationship with many betrayals, fights and tears.
Jin Hyun-Woong (In Gyo Jin) is a well-educated and well-off young man who finds no end of women interested in him, but who has never loved before. A chance encounter with the heroine develops into more, and spurs a change in him. His father, Jin Hyun-Tae (Yun Da-Hun) - Yoo Sun-Kyung's husband, is the son of a wealthy family which owns a department store. He's soft-hearted, sympathetic, and accused of being a womaniser, but in fact, he says he merely has an infinite weakness for women, the excuse of a free spirit of a complete romancist.
On the other hand, Lee Ki-Hyun (Seo Joon Young) was raised with Cha-Young in the same orphanage, where he first fell for her. He then is adopted into a wealthy family and seems like a privileged prince on the outside, but his roots keep him warm and simple-hearted.
Lee Do-Yeob (Lee Jong Won) is the adoptive father of Lee Ki-Hyun and and an old high school friend of Jin Hyun-Tae. A poker face 2nd generation chaebol, he's usually well-mannered, but if anyone were to harm his family, he changes 180 degrees.
Ban Hye-Jung (Kim Yeo Jin) is Lee Do Yeob's wife and the adoptive mother of Lee Ki-Hyun. Although she's admired for being an elegant figure and for having a refined air, underneath, she's a person who's marked by obsession and jealousy. Behind the warm smile that you see, is the hidden viciousness that is her true colours.
"There is no light without the shadow!" "No one can give you a future, because you are the future" and many many other great lines... I see we are on the same page, told you it was gonna be a 10 ;)
South Korea’s Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Award for the 87th Academy Awards
Commentary on selected 2014 Academy Awards Film Entries
Each film submitted for selection for The Academy Awards has its own distinct color. To pick out 10 that can represent the works of major South Korean domestic film distributors was not easy.
The judges picked out four to five films that attracted their attention the most. <Haemoo>, <A Hard Day>, <A Girl At My Door> and <Han Gong Ju> are the films that have the highest potential to win awards. <A Hard Day> achieved commercial success and rave reviews in Cannes Film Festival. <A Girl At My Door> was also invited to Cannes and got good reviews from audiences oversea. <Han Gong Ju> is a widely known 2014 film for its cinematic quality and got a lot of love in various film festivals.
However, the judges selected <Haemoo> at the end. <Haemoo> was invited to gala presentation at Toronto International Film Festival, where it received rave review and became very popular among audiences. In addition, the film appealed as it was based on a real life event, which can be a main factor to score big in the Academy Awards.
So far, Korean films have not yet made to the official 5 nominations, nor the shortlist of 9 for Foreign Language Film Award in The Academy Awards, even though they succeeded in many prestigious European Film Festivals like Cannes, Venice, Berlin. Considering this problems, the judges tried to chose films that appeal to Academy committee members rather than choosing based on personal preference and individual taste.
Finally, we hope for a lot of support and attention for all the potential nominations for Best Foreign Language Film category in The Academy Awards.
2015 Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category – Korea Film Selection Judge Panel
KIM Ki-duk won the FEDEORA (Best Film award) with ONE ON ONE at the 11th Venice Days section of the 71st Venice International Film Festival, which closed on September 6. ONE ON ONE was screened as the opener of the Venice Days and earned favorable comments from viewers of the world. It is a meaningful result especially because European Auteurism films have overwhelmed in the ‘Venice Days’ so far.
KIM Ki-duk has history of connection with Venice. PIETA made him win the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival and he was invited to the non-competition section of the 70th edition of the festival with MOEBIUS in the following year. This year, he visited the ‘Venice Days’ of the 71st Venice International Film Festival, where he grabbed the Best Film award with ONE ON ONE, so he has been invited to the festival 3 years in a row and had the honor to win awards twice.
ONE ON ONE is a film about a high school girl being cruelly murdered. 7 suspects and 7 shadow characters fight each other in the film. Among people who have surrendered to and compromised with corruption and lived as cowards, the protagonist fights for justice and tragically dies in the end. Critics said it is an impressive film plainly showing the painful aspect of Korea that all grudgingly ignored.
After winning the award, KIM Ki-duk said, “ONE ON ONE is story about ordinary people standing up against corruption of power. I hope this film gives viewers in the world a chance to look back themselves and to empathize the agony of the times through an incident that symbolizes the end of democracy and the death of the main character who tried to dig the truth behind the incident.”
2 
Full with English, French, Italian and Spanish subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vou-7ehLTuU
***2002 Venice Film Festival
Premio Marcello Mastroianni - Moon So-ri
Special Director's Award - Lee Chang-dong
FIPRESCI Prize
SIGNIS Award
***2002 Chunsa Film Art Awards
Best Film
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best Actress - Moon So-ri
Best Director - Lee Chang-dong
Best Screenplay - Lee Chang-dong
***2002 Pusan Film Critics Awards
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best Screenplay - Lee Chang-dong
***2002 Blue Dragon Film Awards
Best New Actress - Moon So-ri
***2002 Korean Film Awards
Best Film
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best Actress - Moon So-ri
Best Director - Lee Chang-dong
Best Screenplay - Lee Chang-dong
Best New Actress - Moon So-ri
***2002 Director's Cut Awards
Best Actor - Sol Kyung-gu
Best New Actress - Moon So-ri
***2003 Baeksang Arts Awards
Best Film
Best Director - Lee Chang-dong
***2003 Seattle International Film Festival
Best Actress - Moon So-ri
Yoshida Misaki (Hiromi Nagasaku) lives alone in Tokyo, running a roasting coffee shop. Eight years after her father went missing at sea, she inherits the one thing he left her: a derelict boathouse. In need of a new start herself, she drives to the fishing village and finds that it offers little but a convenience store and a closed-down guesthouse. Against all logic, she sets about transforming the boathouse into a modern coffee-shop. The first friend she makes is elementary-school teacher Megumi, who’s worried that the neglected kids from the former guesthouse, Arisa and her little brother Shota, are in trouble. Over time, Misaki gets to know the kids’ single mother, Eriko Yamazaki (Nozomi Sasaki), often away working in a hostess bar in Kanazawa. While hanging around with Eriko and her children, Misaki slowly changes and a new sense of "family" begins to take shape.
Starting her career twenty-some years ago under the best mentors (acting in director's Edward Yang "A Brighter Summer Day" and working as Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s assistant), and after co-directing the critically acclaimed Artemisia, Taiwanese director Chiang Hsiu Chiung is back with her debut film, "The Furthest End Awaits". Although it is only the second feature film has collaborated on, she has taken part in several omnibus projects, made short films, and co-directed to prove her skills as a filmmaker. We can also see the influence of her mentors as she constructs a sensitive portrayal of the value of family in today’s society. A Japanese film by a Taiwanese woman director, The Furthest End Awaits sets a high benchmark for films about female solidarity. Her first fiction feature succeeds in transplanting the spirit of Taiwan’s "new cinema" of the 1980s into the fractured Japanese cinema of the 2010s, and it’s quite an achievement.
Film Festivals:
2014 (33rd) Vancouver International Film Festival - Sept. 25-Oct. 10, 2014 - Dragons and Tigers *North American Premiere
2014 (19th) Busan International Film Festival - October 2-11, 2014 - A Window on Asian Cinema
2014 (58th) BFI London Film Festival - October 8-19, 2014 - Journey Gala
2014 (34th) Hawaii International Film Festival - Oct. 30-Nov. 9, 2014 - Spotlight on Japan *U.S. Premiere
The story of a cold-hearted mother, Yoo Sun-Kyung (Park Ji Young) who abandoned her daughter not once but twice, in order to aid her own upward ascent in status, and has never once felt any pangs of conscience for it.
When Cha-Young (Hong Ah-Reum) learns that she was abandoned, she now seeks out her mother while harboring plans of revenge. The two of them have no choice but to violently point swords at each other. It’s practically an emotional take about mother-daughter relationship with many betrayals, fights and tears.
Jin Hyun-Woong (In Gyo Jin) is a well-educated and well-off young man who finds no end of women interested in him, but who has never loved before. A chance encounter with the heroine develops into more, and spurs a change in him. His father, Jin Hyun-Tae (Yun Da-Hun) - Yoo Sun-Kyung's husband, is the son of a wealthy family which owns a department store. He's soft-hearted, sympathetic, and accused of being a womaniser, but in fact, he says he merely has an infinite weakness for women, the excuse of a free spirit of a complete romancist.
On the other hand, Lee Ki-Hyun (Seo Joon Young) was raised with Cha-Young in the same orphanage, where he first fell for her. He then is adopted into a wealthy family and seems like a privileged prince on the outside, but his roots keep him warm and simple-hearted.
Lee Do-Yeob (Lee Jong Won) is the adoptive father of Lee Ki-Hyun and and an old high school friend of Jin Hyun-Tae. A poker face 2nd generation chaebol, he's usually well-mannered, but if anyone were to harm his family, he changes 180 degrees.
Ban Hye-Jung (Kim Yeo Jin) is Lee Do Yeob's wife and the adoptive mother of Lee Ki-Hyun. Although she's admired for being an elegant figure and for having a refined air, underneath, she's a person who's marked by obsession and jealousy. Behind the warm smile that you see, is the hidden viciousness that is her true colours.
Commentary on selected 2014 Academy Awards Film Entries
Each film submitted for selection for The Academy Awards has its own distinct color. To pick out 10 that can represent the works of major South Korean domestic film distributors was not easy.
The judges picked out four to five films that attracted their attention the most. <Haemoo>, <A Hard Day>, <A Girl At My Door> and <Han Gong Ju> are the films that have the highest potential to win awards. <A Hard Day> achieved commercial success and rave reviews in Cannes Film Festival. <A Girl At My Door> was also invited to Cannes and got good reviews from audiences oversea. <Han Gong Ju> is a widely known 2014 film for its cinematic quality and got a lot of love in various film festivals.
However, the judges selected <Haemoo> at the end. <Haemoo> was invited to gala presentation at Toronto International Film Festival, where it received rave review and became very popular among audiences. In addition, the film appealed as it was based on a real life event, which can be a main factor to score big in the Academy Awards.
So far, Korean films have not yet made to the official 5 nominations, nor the shortlist of 9 for Foreign Language Film Award in The Academy Awards, even though they succeeded in many prestigious European Film Festivals like Cannes, Venice, Berlin. Considering this problems, the judges tried to chose films that appeal to Academy committee members rather than choosing based on personal preference and individual taste.
Finally, we hope for a lot of support and attention for all the potential nominations for Best Foreign Language Film category in The Academy Awards.
2015 Academy Awards Foreign Language Film category – Korea Film Selection Judge Panel
Credit: KOFIC; translation: 6002Sky
KIM Ki-duk has history of connection with Venice. PIETA made him win the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival and he was invited to the non-competition section of the 70th edition of the festival with MOEBIUS in the following year. This year, he visited the ‘Venice Days’ of the 71st Venice International Film Festival, where he grabbed the Best Film award with ONE ON ONE, so he has been invited to the festival 3 years in a row and had the honor to win awards twice.
ONE ON ONE is a film about a high school girl being cruelly murdered. 7 suspects and 7 shadow characters fight each other in the film. Among people who have surrendered to and compromised with corruption and lived as cowards, the protagonist fights for justice and tragically dies in the end. Critics said it is an impressive film plainly showing the painful aspect of Korea that all grudgingly ignored.
After winning the award, KIM Ki-duk said, “ONE ON ONE is story about ordinary people standing up against corruption of power. I hope this film gives viewers in the world a chance to look back themselves and to empathize the agony of the times through an incident that symbolizes the end of democracy and the death of the main character who tried to dig the truth behind the incident.”