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Firebird (1997 film)

Firebird (불새; also translated Fire Bird or Bulsae) is a 1997 South Korean drama film directed by Kim Young-bin and starring Lee Jung-jae, Son Chang-min, Oh Yeon-soo, and Kim Ji-yeon. It was released in South Korea on 1 February 1997 and follows a drifting young man whose life is bound to a wealthy heir after the two conspire to cover up a woman's death.1 • 2

Key factDetail
Korean title불새 (Bulsae), also rendered Fire Bird1
Director / screenwriterKim Young-bin; screenplay by Choi In-ho and Kim Young-bin, based on Choi In-ho's novel3 • 2
Release1 February 1997, South Korea1
Main castLee Jung-jae (Yeong-hoo), Son Chang-min (Min-seop), Oh Yeon-soo (Mi-ran), Kim Ji-yeon (Hyeon-joo)2
Genre and ratingMelodrama/romance; rated for adults only (18세 관람가) in Korea4
Runtime114 minutes per IMDb and the Korean Movie Database; Cine21 lists 107 minutes1 • 4 • 2
ProductionSunick Film (선익필림), producer Im Chung-ryeol4
Admissions22,970 recorded by Cine212

Spoilers

Plot

Yeong-hoo (Lee Jung-jae) is a drifter wandering the night streets of Macau. At a casino he meets the chaebol (large family-owned South Korean business conglomerate) heir Min-seop (Son Chang-min). While using cocaine with Min-seop, Yeong-hoo's friend Yun dies of an overdose, and Yeong-hoo coolly disposes of the body at sea. He returns to Korea a year later, hides his troubled past, and offers himself as Min-seop's loyal subordinate in pursuit of his own ambitions; Min-seop, covering up his own wrongdoing, provides him with an apartment and a job.2 • 3

By chance Yeong-hoo meets Hyeon-joo (Kim Ji-yeon), Min-seop's fiancée, and finds himself drawn to her. Hyeon-joo gradually discovers Min-seop's two-faced character and opens her heart to Yeong-hoo. Min-seop orders Yeong-hoo to watch over Mi-ran (Oh Yeon-soo), his half-sister, who has returned from the United States to claim an inheritance; Mi-ran recklessly seduces Yeong-hoo, who uses her feelings for his own ends, and Min-seop eventually announces that Yeong-hoo and Mi-ran will marry. Only then does Yeong-hoo recognize his love for Hyeon-joo, and the story ends with his destruction.2 • 3

Production and release

The film was the fifth feature directed by Kim Young-bin, whose earlier work had consisted of tough, male-oriented pictures.3 It drew attention before release because it marked Lee Jung-jae's first role after completing his military service, following the television drama Sandglass in which he had played the bodyguard Baek Jae-hee.3 Sunick Film produced it, with Jeon Jo-myoung as cinematographer, Choi Jeong-hwa as art director, Jung Doo-hong handling action and stunts, and music by Jung Won-young.4

The screenplay adapts Choi In-ho's novel of the same name. A contemporary review in the Electronic Times judged that transplanting the novel, whose appeal belonged to the early 1980s, to the 1990s without further apparatus was a hazardous undertaking, and criticized the resulting story's structure and its caricatured portrayal of the chaebol class, while praising Lee Jung-jae's screen presence.3 A note published on Letterboxd describes the film as a big-budgeted flop which, together with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, ended the film division of the conglomerate Daewoo, and lists the 1997 film as a remake of a 1987 version of the same title.5 • 6

Reception

Cine21 records 22,970 admissions and an audience rating of 5.20 out of 10.2 On IMDb the film holds a rating of about 4.9 out of 10 from 41 votes.1 Rotten Tomatoes shows no critic reviews and no audience ratings for the title, and it is not currently available on major streaming services in the United States.7 • 8 The film received the silver prize in cinematography at the 20th Golden Cinematography Awards (황금촬영상), where it was recognized for Jeon Jo-myoung's camerawork.4

Note on the title

Several unrelated films share or translate the title "Firebird," including Peeter Rebane's 2021 queer romance Firebird about Soviet Air Force personnel in occupied Estonia and the 1996/1997 Czech-German fairy-tale feature Der Feuervogel; neither is connected to this Korean production.9 • 10

References

  1. Firebird (1997), IMDb
  2. 불새 Fire Bird (1996), Cine21
  3. 스크린 관람석: 불새, Electronic Times, 10 February 1997
  4. 불새, Korean Movie Database (koreafilm.co.kr)
  5. Firebird (1997), Letterboxd
  6. Latvian Film Researchers' Association special edition on Korean cinema
  7. Fire Bird, Rotten Tomatoes
  8. Firebird (1997) streaming guide, PlayPilot
  9. Firebird official film website
  10. Der Feuervogel, filmportal.de

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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Firebird (1997 film)

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