JYJ’s Park Yoo-chun’s Top Movies
Haemoo
titled Sea Fog in English, Haemoon is not Park Yoo-chun’s debut on the silver screen, but it is a critically acclaimed project that was screened at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, making it a very high-profile movie. The movie revolves around the tale of a group of fishermen at sea that failed to reach their financial target on their trip. As a result, they take a group of illegal immigrants back to South Korea in order to make up for the loss. Unfortunately for them, they were caught in a storm and heavy fog on their way back, while also being chased by local border patrol that assumed they have illegal immigrants on their ship. Meanwhile, Dong-sik, the crew’s youngest member, played by Park Yoo-chun, has fallen in love with one of the immigrants and vows to protect her whatever comes their way.
The movie was adapted from a theatrical play of the same name, that was heavily inspired by the true story of Chinese-Korean illegal immigrants who had suffocated to death hiding in the storage tank of a fishing boat. Similar events transpired in both the movie and the play. The movie received a warm reception and was praised by major critics at its debut in the Toronto International Film Festival. It was invited to many more movie festivals around the globe and nominated for various awards, including becoming the South Korean pick for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards and the 72nd Golden Globe Awards, although it ultimately didn’t make the final cut for nomination.
Lucid Dream
In this particular movie, we see Park Yoo-chun going back to his roots and going for the genre he prefers to play the most, thrillers. Unlike his previous roles, in this one he plays the villain instead of the righteous protagonist. The movie revolves around Dae-ho, an investigative journalist, seeking to track down the location of his son who was abducted three years ago. With the help of a detective and a psychiatrist friend, he retraces his memory of the incident through the use of lucid dreaming techniques, eventually learning how to travel into the dreams of others. Through the dreams he is able to see details of the day of abduction a more clearly, and sees a man, played by Park Yoo-chun, carrying through with the kidnapping.
The movie was considered a box office flop, despite its interesting take on the whole thriller genre. This could be because it was due to be released right around the time Park Yoo-chun was accused of sexual harassment, and the movie, in itself, failed to rejuvenate the genre by bringing something new to the table. The scandal surrounding Park Yoo-chun earned the movie a bad rep, as the director refused to edit out scenes featuring its main villain. They did push back the release date, however, instead of going with the public opinion of turning against Park Yoo-chun. Despite all its flaws and poor performance at the box office, the movie still scored a deal with the streaming giant, Netflix, as it bought the rights to exclusively distribute the movie through its streaming site after its Korean theatre release.
Latest News
Park Yoo-chun has recently opened his own YouTube channel as a means to connect with fans. Most idols way past their prime struggle to get with the times, but it looks like Park Yoo-chun is seeking to catch up through this social media, and find more interesting ways to communicate and show his other sides. The video below shows his announcement of opening said channel, and only one other video has been posted on his channel so far, which is his cover of a mandarin song. With it, we hope to see more interesting and innovative sides to Park Yoo-chun, as he tries to reconnect with fans worldwide.
So what do you think of Park Yoo-chun’s remarkable body of work? Does this list inspire you to rewatch some of his classic projects? Or maybe catch some of his newer ones through streaming online? Are you looking forward to his future projects now that he has opened up a YouTube channel? Leave your thoughts and opinions below!
