RYU SEUNG-WAN KICKS

Ryu Seung-Wan, the director of ARAHAN and the recently-released CRYING FIST, was in New York over the weekend for the North American premiere of CRYING FIST. The movie went down well with the audience although it does lapse into a bit of occasional sentimentality that could send some folks' eyes rolling. Choi Min-Shik is, as always, just fine as a grizzled hunk of middle-aged gristle, but Ryu Seung-Beom (the director's brother, and star of ARAHAN) proves that he can actually act. Finally. Once you realize his mugging in ARAHAN is a conscious choice it makes it much more palatable.

Director Ryu looks like he's about 19 years old, and what he likes to talk about is martial arts movies. Dinner table conversation revolved around obscure Hong Kong actors from the 70's, Sonny Chiba's lineage, super-kicker Hwang Jang-Lee, and the fact that Rikidozan Mitsuhiro, the Korean wrestler who lived in Japan (and was assumed to be Japanese for a long time) was so mistrustful of people that he kept a lock on his refrigerator.

Fun fact for anyone hosting Director Ryu: at the end of a night out, if you're of a persuasive nature, he'll do a truly impressive tae kwon do demonstration wherever you happen to be. Invite this guy to your film festival and buy him a few meals. The price you pay is worth it to see his kicking skills.

Read an interview with Ryu Seung-Wan here, or a more recent one here.

Director Ryu will be at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 7 to present CRYING FIST.