Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
'The Man Standing Next' wins best picture at Blue Dragon Awards
The winners of the 41st Blue Dragon Awards pose with their trophies during the ceremony held at Paradise City in Incheon, Tuesday. / Yonhap
By Kwak Yeon-soo
By Kwak Yeon-soo
“The Man Standing Next,” a political thriller about the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, won the Best Picture award at the 41st annual Blue Dragon Awards, Tuesday. Park was assassinated by his right-hand man Kim Jae-gyu, who was the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).
The film received a total of 10 Blue Dragon nominations, but ended up winning only one award. This is director Woo Min-ho's second Best Picture award following the 2016 political crime-action film “Inside Men.” “The Man Standing Next,” the national contender for the 93rd Academy Awards, failed to make the shortlist of 15 films.
Yoo Ah-in won the Best Actor award and the Most Popular Actor award for his role as the mute Tae-in in the crime drama “Voice of Silence.” This is Yoo's second Best Actor award from the Blue Dragon Awards following his feat in 2015 with the period drama “The Throne.” Ra Mi-ran was named Best Actress for her performance in the political comedy “Honest Candidate.”
“I was grateful for just being nominated because Honest Candidate is a comedy movie. When I received the Best Supporting Actress award at the 34th Blue Dragon Awards, I jokingly said 'I'll return for the Best Actress award.' I didn't expect to receive the award right after being nominated for the first time,” Ra said after receiving the award.
Ra Mi-ran, left, and Yoo Ah-in pose with their trophies at the 41st Blue Dragon Awards held at Paradise City in Incheon, Tuesday. / Yonhap
Lim Dae-hyung, director of the romantic drama film “Moonlit Winter,” received awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay. He made a rare public remark on stage about LGBTQ.
While giving his acceptance speech for the Best Director award, Lim told the audience, “Moonlit Winter is a queer film. I say this because some viewers might not know what kind of film it is. There is nothing strange about a film in 2021 containing LGBTQ content, and I'm really happy for that.”
The Best Supporting Actor and Actress awards went to Park Jung-min who played a transgender role in “Deliver Us from Evil” and Esom who played a confident, down-to-earth 1990s woman in “Samjin Company English Class.”
Park paid a heartfelt tribute to late comedian Park Ji-sun after receiving the trophy, saying, “When I was filming this movie, there was a friend who always asked me if I'm okay. I still cannot let go of her, but I'd like to take this time to apologize to her for not asking her if she was okay.”
Esom, left, and Park Jung-min pose with their trophies at the 41st Blue Dragon Awards held at Paradise City in Incheon, Tuesday. / Yonhap
Yoo Teo of the romance drama “Vertigo” and Kang Mal-geum of the indie film “Lucky Chan-sil” were named best new actor and actress, respectively.
The best new director award went to Hong Eui-jung for “Voice of Silence.” The most popular actress award went to Jung Yu-mi, who starred in “Kim Ji-Young: Born 1982.”
The award for the most popular film went to the disaster blockbuster “Ashfall,” which starred Lee Byung-hun and Ha Jung-woo. The award for the best short film went to the 30-minute film “The Thread.”
The Blue Dragon Awards, one of the country's top two film honors along with Grand Bell Awards, was originally scheduled to take place in December but were postponed for about two months due to COVID-19.