After all the domestic movies featuring gangster jokes, pretty couples' romances and violent and rebellious teenagers' school lives, you may be craving for a healthier diet of more diversified films.If all these reproductions of the same old stories in similar genres have decreased your appetite for Korean films, at first glance, the new movie "Lump sugar" (Kaksoltang) may seem to be what you have been longing for.

"Lump sugar" is the first domestic film that features a dynamic horse race, and its main theme _ a friendship between a female jockey and her horse _ seems to promise a touching story.Directed by Lee Hwan-gyeong and starring actress Im Soo-jeong, the film revolves around Si-eun (played by Lim), who dreams of becoming a famous jockey.

"When I first saw you, you were a little girl wearing a violet in your hair?"

As this lyric of "Violet" sung by Cho Dong-jin goes, a horse saw a girl and the girl saw the horse. The horse was the other self of the girl. They grew up together. "Lump sugar", is the first Korean movie to show the friendship between a human and a horse. The movie is a Korean-style horse movie, which is typically Hollywood material.

Si-eun (Im Soo-jeong) who was born at a ranch in Jeju Island, had a special friendship with a horse named Janggun (or "General" in English). Janggun died when she gave birth to Cheondung (or "Thunder" in English), who grows up with Si-eun like real brother and sister. Lump sugar is the horse's favorite snack and a special medium of love between them. Since Cheondung is sold abroad, they are separated. Two years later, Si-eun, who hopes to become a jockey, meets Cheondung again.

She loves a horse named Changgun, but it dies while giving birth. As she lives with a single father, she feels sympathy for the foal and she takes a good care of her, naming her Chundung, which means thunder in Korean.But her father doesn't want his daughter to become a jockey and sells Chundung without telling her.

Two years pass and Si-eun becomes a jockey, but she experiences discrimination because she is a woman. One day, she encounters Chundung on a street where she pulls a wagon to promote a dance club.

The role was challenging for the actress who has played cute characters in hits such as the television drama "Mianhada Saranghanda" (Sorry, I Love You) (2005), an omnibus film about various couples Sad Movie (2005) and the horror film "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003).For months she had to take an intensive training course in horse riding, and sometimes encountered dangerous moments including accidents in which she was on the verge of being kicked or bitten by her partner.

As Chundung is not a "professional" horse actor trained for movies but a race horse chosen from some 1,000 horses for a more realistic portrayal of the horse races in the film, the acting was more difficult than she expected.But Lim said that she learned more about how to express her inner feelings tactfully thanks to the film.

"Even if you're ready, you can't shoot if the horse is not ready. It's very tricky. But the experiences from the film gave me a chance to develop my acting skills especially in the control and expression of my inner feelings at the right moment", Lim said.After "Kaksoltang", Im will star in director Park Chan-wook's new film "Ssaibogusiman Kwanchana" along with singer Rain. In the romantic drama, whose title is roughly translated "I am a Cyborg, But it's OK", she plays a peculiar and wacky girl who thinks she is a combat cyborg.