Korea Pop Wars

From the Kim Sisters to 'Oh Brother'

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:05:00 +0000

I grew all excited when I saw the headline in the Chosun Ilbo this morning: "5 Decades of Korean Girl Bands." It even started promisingly, with an opening graph about the Kim Sisters.

But then came sadness, as the article jumps abruptly from the Kim Sisters of the 1950s to SES in the late 1990s. From there, it merely lists the major girl groups of the past decade -- SES, FinKL, Baby VOX, Jewelry, Wondergirls. Sigh.

Strangely, the article even asks, how did we go from groups like the Kim Sisters to the manufactured eye candy of today? But then it leaves a non-answer by critic Lim Jin-mo and gives a vapid rundown of a few vapid groups. While, of course, posting as much eye candy as possible. Thereby kind of answering their own question.

"Why are today's girl groups just eye candy?"
"I don't know, but here are some pretty pictures."

That Mr. Lim is quite the go-to guy for music analysis these days. He is quoted heavily in this recent Korea Times story about K-pop. Heck, even I interviewed him for that Rain documentary on Discovery Channel that I worked on earlier in the year.

In the KT article, Lim, as usual, presents his argument about pop culture in moral terms, which I rarely like.

"The utmost value of today's music consumers in listening to music is 'fun.' They no longer seek any serious messages or meanings from music as people did back in the 1980s and '90s. I'd bet this fun-oriented appetite of listeners will continue for years to come," he said.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with "fun." We are talking about pop music after all, which is supposed to be popular. "Good" in no way precludes "fun".

Secondly, it is such a middle-aged gripe to complain that culture used to have meaning when I was young, but now it is all shallow and garbage. He similarly complains about the media and the music labels, saying they are all shirking their responsibilities and are only about money. Zzzzzz.

I call them "should" arguments. He should do this. They should do that. Like when he talks about Korean artists learning English to succeed in the West:

"But their ultimate goal there should be standing on stage with Korean-version songs with a very Korean sound, which would be the completion of the Korean wave."

As I have argued several times before, when it comes to big picture issues, I am much more interested in systems than morals. All the "shoulds" in the world will not do much if you have a system that is pushing people toward a "shouldn't".

If you want people to have wider interests, maybe you should make those options more available. I have written before about the importance of live music as the foundation to a more natural, organic music system, and how Korea does not have much of a live scene despite having so many talented, creative young people. But even if someone were to be interested in a Korean indie band, how would you find them? The resources in Korea are very few, poorly organized, and poorly supported. The live music venues have terrible websites that rarely post their schedules more than a few days in advance. Cyrock has stopped updating. Weiv rarely posts about modern Korean music anymore. Lord, I miss MDM magazine.

(Of course, there is always Indieful ROK and the Korea Gig Guide, at least for you foreigners. Oh, and newbie site Pocket of Sky for lyric translations).

Okay, now I am really digressing. I started off talking about girl groups and how they have evolved, then I devolved into a bunch of other issues. But it would be nice if important national publications like the Chosun Ilbo were to address issues like this with a little depth and research instead of just printing pictures of young women in short skirts. (Great, now I'm making a moral argument, too).

(Btw, I think my headline for this post would have been better were there not a Korean band called the "O! Brothers". It confuses the sarcasm. So apologies all any and all who read this hoping for comments about them and surf-rock in Korea.)

North Korea in the New Yorker

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Barbara Demick, one of my favorite journalists, has a book coming soon about life in North Korea, titled NOTHING TO ENVY: ORDINARY LIVES IN NORTH KOREA. And as part of the PR for that book, there is an article (that you have to pay for) and a Q&A session (free!) with her in the New Yorker this week. Totally worth a read.

There is also an excerpt from her book in The Paris Review, also very good.

You can order her new book here.

Pop Is Dead Random Notes - Vol. 4, No. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:56:00 +0000

The "pop" in POP GOES KOREA (and Korea Pop Wars), of course, is a reference to pop culture, or "popular culture". Well, over the weekend, the man who apparently came up with the term "popular culture" passed away. His name was Ray Browne, and he was a professor at Bowling Green State University (in Ohio).

Amusingly, he claimed that his first use of the term in 1967 was a mistake. He was originally using the term "people's culture", as well as terms like "everyday culture" and "democratic culture".

On the other hand, "pop art" was apparently coined in 1954 by John McHale. So maybe that was my real point of reference, I just did not know it.

* * *

In other news, Edward Chun, the guy who wrote about Korean pop music for MTV Iggy a couple of months ago, just turned up on Gawker of all places. Edward is now in journalism school at Columbia, and for a project on journalism ethics, he and some students put together a presentation in the form of hiphop verse, using Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind. I found it quite amusing, in a goofy sort of way. Worth a watch, if you have not see it already. But what would Drunken Tiger think?

Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:10:00 +0000

Well, this is an interesting development. Only three cities have submitted bids for the 2018 Winter Olympics -- Munich, Annecy and ... (wait for it) Pyeongchang.

For the last several years, I have been pained by Pyeongchang's previous bids for previous Olympics. Pyeongchang is a beautiful place, but its bids were simply not very good (yes, it got votes in 2010, but I still think the bid was fundamentally flawed).

But this time, they may be in luck. From what I can see on the Internet (dubious research, I know), people are pretty dubious about Annecy's bid. Which leaves it pretty much a two-country race, between Germany and Korea.

* * *
And as long as I am talking about sports, I should point out the Kim Yuna had a great short skate at the opening of the Trophee Bombard tournament in Paris yesterday (part if the ISU's Grand Prix tournament). Yuna scored a 76.08; her nearest competitor, Yukari Nakano, a 59.64

As Philip Hersh wrote on his LA Times sports blog:

One short program does not a season make. But this one made it clear that Kim at her best will be impossible to beat, and Kim at 80% of her best still is better than anyone else. Athlete, artist -- this young woman is breathtaking on the ice. Barring injury or early retirement, she can be the greatest women's skater in history.

HAEUNDAE Floods Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:49:00 +0000

The Korea disaster blockbuster HAEUNDAE washed ashore Canada last weekend. The general verdict -- not bad, for a genre everybody already knows well. The biggest split were between those who considered HAEUNDAE's head-slapping, plentiful-emoting ways to be refreshingly different or just ridiculous.

Here is the Toronto Sun review - 3/5 stars
The Globe and Mail review - 2/4 stars
The Toronto Star review - 2.5/4 stars
And the National Post review - 2 stars (out of 4, I presume, but am not 100% sure)

The averages out to 55.6%. Damn Canadians. I have not seen any information about when and where else HAEUNDAE might be coming, but if I do, I will let you know.

A World of Film

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:22:00 +0000

An interesting survey over at UNESCO's Institute for Statistics about the number of films made around the world (found via Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily).

According to the survey, India is the top filmmaking nation in the world, with 1,091 films made in 2006, followed by Hollywood with 485 "major" productions".

(Note: Nigeria would be second, with 872 films, but those films are all shot on video and designed for home viewing, as there are virtually no cinemas in Nigeria, so Nigeria is not counted in the official survey results. Not unfair, I think... If you were to include all the independent and student and amateur films made in the United States, films of comparable or better quality than most of the Nigerian films, I'm sure the United States would be in the thousands. But, still, it is interesting to realize how much filmmaking goes on in Africa and how even there, movies are not all about Hollywood.)

Very interesting to see how big a presence Asia had in the survey -- an addition to India, Japan was third, China fourth and South Korea was ninth.

Not in the survey but similarly interesting is how much money is spend on movies in those countries, too. China is on track to spend over $700 million in theaters this year, and continues to grow substantially each year. Japan is about $2 billion/year. South Korea is around $1 billion. India is impossible to guess at (I have seen estimates ranging from a few hundred million dollars to well over a billion), but it is notable.

The European box office is still larger than Asia, mostly because of higher ticket prices. But that gap is narrowing every year. And with so many films being made over here, you can see Asia rising in importance. Which is, of course, why Hollywood has been trying to find partners and possibilities in Asia over the past few years.

I do not think this is a zero-sum competition, though. Almost every country has a demand to see films about its own culture in its own language. That is not going to disappear, no matter how many "tentpole" pictures and superheroes Hollywood creates. In fact, I think we are clearly seeing the limits of the Hollywood model. Yes, US major films can be incredibly popular all over the world, but they are not the be-all-and-end-all of moviemaking. Especially now that countries like Korea and Japan have learned from Hollywood and are making entertaining films of their own.

Which is (if I may market myself a moment) one of the major points of POP GOES KOREA. Entertainment globalization is not a one-way street, even if the United States is the biggest dog on the block and has, until now, been fairly dominant. People learn and systems evolve.

We have seen it in Luc Besson and his action film company in France. We have seen it in Korea, then Japan and increasingly in China. And I think in the future, we are going to see more and more examples. Not just in movies, but in all of entertainment.

Don't Mean a Thing If It Don't Have That Zing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:07:00 +0000

After a month of absolutely spiceless food, I went to my first Korean restaurant last night since moving to Spain. It was generally agreed upon by my group (of about eight Koreans and Korean-hyphenates) that it was one of just two decent Korean restaurants in Barcelona. Someone claimed there were only around 12 Korean restaurants in all of Spain... I have no idea, but there are not a lot.

Anyhow, the food. We went to a restaurant called Sangil, in the Gracia part of Barcelona. First of all, the food was basic but quite good. I had the yugaejang, and the ingredients were fresh, the broth reasonably spicy. There was not a lot of banchan, but what they had was pretty good. We even split a little soju (which sported a Jeonju International Film Festival label on the back, giving us some idea how old it was). All in all, a nice refresher in Korean food.

But the prices, yikes. Nearly everything on the menu was 12-15 euros -- that is well over 20,000 won, for a basic Korean lunch, the kind of thing that is usually around 5,000 won in Seoul Even the Jajangmyeon was over 12 euros. Jajangmyeon? Bizarre. And the galbi dishes were much more. I knew I was going to have to pay a premium for Korean food over here, but that was a little surprising.

Oh well, at least the won is getting a little stronger against the euro at the moment...

Random Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:37:00 +0000

Here are a few random pics I found over the last few days that I found amusing/interesting for one reason or another.

First of all, from today's Joongang Ilbo and a story about payphones in Korea, the top 10 payphone locations around Seoul:

I have no great insights on these locations. Although I was amused to see a "correctional facility" make the ranking. Otherwise, I see no obvious patterns to these locations.

And to go with that, a chart of payphone usage in Korea since 1997.

I personally find this chart fascinating because I first arrived in Korea in 1996, in the middle of the pager era. Some of my most vivid memories back then are of the huge lineups everywhere, for pretty much any and every payphone in the country. Talking on the payphone in some loud bar, trying to explain to your friends how to get their. Or listening to someone at that same loud bar have a fight with his/her boyfriend/girlfriend (er... not that I never did anything so ridiculous, of course). Good times.

Anyhow, I find it amazing that there are still over 150,000 payphones in Korea. Although, according to the story, 20 percent of payphones have not been used in the past year. Yikes.

And then, just the other day, I checked out Korea's Web Standards website at www.webstandards.or.kr and found this:

"Cannot establish a connection" indeed. Fortunately, the link is working again, but at the time, it struck me as funny. (Actually, it is one of the many sites associated with the Korean web pioneer Channy Yun, a very nice guy).

Finally, here is a pic of Bong Joon-ho from the San Sebastian Film Festival last week, where he was on the jury.

That is him in the middle, looking toward the camera with a funny look on his face. I do not know why, but his expression seemed pretty amusing.

HAEUNDAE Tsunami Floods North Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:46:00 +0000

Channel News Asia is reporting that North Korea is cracking down on foreign films after a university student was caught watching HAEUNDAE on his computer.

The student reportedly downloaded the film while at a relative's house in Chongjin, in northeastern North Korea. He then took the film back to Pyongyang to watch with his dormitory friends.

North Korea has been awash in pop culture from South Korea for several years, something NK authorities have mostly ignored, much as it mostly ignored the many markets that had sprung up around the country. But recently the North's government has started cracking down on those markets, so apparently South Korean pop culture has got to go, too.

Why is South Korean culture so dangerous to the North? Some, like Andrei Lankov, argue that seeing South Korea's material prosperity makes the North look bad by comparison. Others, like Brian Myers, say the danger is in not in seeing the South's material success (which most people in the North already know), but in seeing that South Koreans do not all yearn to be part of one united Korea, under the care of the North and Dear Leader. Whatever the reasoning, the effects are much the same.

On the other hand, this story claimed that South Korean pop culture has been losing its cache in the North for some time now, so maybe the crackdown is not such a big deal. But I suspect that story overstates the situation.

Anyhow, I do find it amusing that an illegal download of the blockbuster HAEUNDAE (now the fourth-biggest film of all time in Korea, with 11.4 million admissions) had the capacity to create so much trouble north of the DMZ.

More AFKN Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Last year, in a post about the history of AFN Korea, I talked about some websites that delve into the history of the American Forces Radio & Television Service. One of those sites I mentioned was Thomas Weston's history of AFRTS.

Well, Mr. Weston has gone on to start a new blog all about the history of AFRTS, which includes a couple of posts about Korea so far. And there was this post of the AFKN newsroom from 1968.

I also ran across this website for the Southwest Museum of Engineering,
Communications and Computation, which features many interesting old AFRTS stories, including many from Korea. My favorite was this first-hand report on AFRS back when it was mobile, driving all over Korea. Great old pics of AFKN here.

iPhone Coming?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Stop me if you have heard this one before, but it is now being reported that the iPhone is going to come to Korea -- really for real this time.

Nothing has been officially announced yet, but speculation is the iPhone will roll out by November, in some sort of partnership with KT. But you will forgive me if I do not hold my breath in anticipation.

First, the positive spin (from the WSJ story):

Industry participants said Wednesday's decision is a big step in changing all that because it will bring more price competition to smartphone handsets and because so much software is available for the iPhone from Apple or developers rather than strictly through phone carriers.

"It basically opens a new world," said Lee Chan-jin, a pioneer of South Korea's software industry and chief executive officer of DreamWiz Inc., a mobile software developer and Web portal. "Korea's cellphone software industry was sick, but I expect it to be reinvigorated with iPhone."

Yes, the Korean telecoms' attempts at creating app stores have been dreadful. So the competition from Apple should be invigorating.

But there is also a negative side to this change. Much like the Blackberry ruling last December, which allowed the Blackberry to be sold in Korea, no regulation or law has been changed to allow for this change in policy; the government bureaucrats just decided to start interpreting the regulations differently.

This, imho, is not a good thing. Doing business should be about following the laws of the land. Transparency. Playing games with government officials is about as opaque and murky as can be. It invites backroom deals, payoffs and all sorts of shenanigans.

So while I appreciate the government regulators taking a step forward, it is frustrating to see just how backward their thinking still is in too many ways.

A Digital Korea Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:25:00 +0000

I just ran across the blog by Kim Chang-won, Web 2.0 Asia, which I quite liked. Chang (as he calls himself) is the co-CEO of the Internet startup TNC (which was acquired by Google Korea a year ago), and he has a real gift for explaining some of the quirkier aspects of Korea's IT industry as well as the future of the web in Asia (although mostly Korea).

Among the posts I really like of his are this great take-down of SK's terrible apps store, Samsung's attempts to join the app store market, the lack of iPhone in Korea, and even an escort business map of Gangnam.

All of which remind me, if you are interested in Korea tech issues, you should also check out Channy Yun's Korea Crunch (including an interesting post about Twitter and its Korean competitor Me2Day) and
Techno Kimchi (although this is not being updated much these days). And there is a nice overview of the top Asia tech blogs at OpenWeb.

Btw, I thought this was amusing -- when I went to check out Web Standards Korea, I found this:

Billboard and Charts in Korea

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:37:00 +0000

I was surprised to read today that my former magazine BILLBOARD is at last coming to Korea, having signed up a local partner.

BILLBOARD is teaming up with some company called ViewLife and the Korea Entertainment Producer's Association to produce Korea music charts and a Korean-language magazine. Good luck to them.

Has anyone ever heard of ViewLife Inc.? I have not and was unable to find any information about the company. A dubious beginning. But who knows what that really means?

KEPA, on the other hand, does have a website.

Will BILLBOARD really be able to put together a chart for Korea? When I worked for the magazine, I was always impressed at how countries like Malaysia could have a chart, but somehow this was beyond Korea (no offense to Malaysia, which is a fine place).

(Hrm... Looking at the BILLBOARD.biz website now, I see not Malaysia there anymore, but it used to be in the magazine for a while.)

Anyhow, the point is the dubious nature of the Korean music charts. Several TV stations used to keep charts, but there were so many scandals related to how they compiled their figures that most of those charts were disbanded for several year.

With the rise of digital music sales, the telecoms and Internet portals have offered a wide array of charts, but they are all so disorganized and spread out that none really offers an accurate overview of the nation's music tastes (although I do like Bugs' Indie New Music Chart)

For several years, the Music Industry Association of Korea (nee the Recording Industry Association of Korea) used to keep track of album sales. But with album sales declining by around 80-90 percent from 2000 to today, that became an increasingly fruitless activity.

Life became more complicated in 2002 when collecting the monies for online and digital music was taken over by the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers. This went poorly, though, as much of Korea's music industry thought the KAPP was useless, so refused to join, and instead several private collection groups were started (ironically, one collection agency for digital revenues was bought by Soribada, the group most responsible for the rise of online file-sharing in Korea).

MIAK was finally disbanded earlier this year, replaced by the Korea Music Content Industry Association. The KMCIA is supposed to keep track of both physical and online sales in the future, but at the moment their website appears to be under construction. I have not heard from people in the Korean industry what they think of KMCIA, but hopefully it will be more successful and useful than its predecessors.

Suffice it to say, I am skeptical about anyone's ability to put together a decent music chart any time soon. And more importantly, in this age of digital downloads, file-sharing, Myspace, background music, and more, how can we really measure the "top songs" anymore? Music has become such an abstract and amorphous idea, I do not see the benefit and need for such charts, not like there used to be in the 1980s or so. And with so much information available at everyone's fingertips, people no longer really need the charts to find out about new music or trends. The power is (increasingly) out of the music labels hands, so what do charts matter?

iPhone? Aigo!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:25:00 +0000

I really want to complain about the latest stumbling blocks facing Apple's iPhone in Korea. Now that the iPhone appears to be squeaking past the Korea Communications Commission's first hurdle (the WIPI non-standard), the KCC found another bureaucratic roadblock. Which leads KT journalist Kim Tong-hyung to write this great line:

The country claims itself as the mobile capital of the world, and yet it has managed to fall behind nations such as Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea in securing the planet's hottest mobile device.

I want to complain... except I live in Spain and find myself equally unable to procure an iPhone. Very different problem over here, though. Here, Apple has a local operator (Movistar). But Movistar does not appear to have any iPhones in stock anywhere in the country. In fact, according to the comments at blogs like this one, it seems like the iPhone is out of stock around much of Europe.

I assume it has something to do with the Apple's iPhone contracts around Europe about to end in the coming months (as mentioned in the WSJ the other day). But it is still pretty annoying.

I Want My MTV (aka, "Getting Iggy With It")

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:20:00 +0000

The very gracious and insightful Edward Chun just posted a series of articles over at MTV Iggy (MTV's Asia culture site) about the state of Korean pop music. All are very interesting and fun. You can check out the main page here.

And best of all (from my selfish perspective), he happened to use me and POP GOES KOREA as a major source for several of his articles. Not only that, but Stone Bridge agreed to let Iggy use a few excerpts from my book, like this short chapter on the singer Rain, and this one on Shin Joong-hyun.

I appear mostly in Edward's introductory article, but if you read all his stuff, you'll hear my voice scattered here and there (along with a lot cooler people than myself, but I still happy to be included).

And there is this very cool interview with In Sooni (it has nothing to do with my book or me, but I thought it was great).

Just so you know that Edward is no slouch, I should let you know that he has a real music background (heck, he even has a Wikipedia page). So when he is talking about the musical elements of K-Pop or whatever, he is not just yammering on; in fact, he knows what he is talking about.

Anyhow... Edward, thanks much for the kind words and the great stories.

Korea Weekend Box Office - Aug. 21-23-- Final Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:20:00 +0000

Plenty of new films this week, but none of them did very good business, as the top four films were unchanged from last weekend.

TAKE OFF continues its strong run, pulling in another 5.79 billion won ($4.6 million), for a total of 38.06 billion won ($30.4 million). That is over 800,000 additional admissions, taking it well past the 5-million-attendance mark (5.35 million, actually), and making 6-million a certainty. The question is, how long will it last?

HAEUNDAE also passed a big milestone over the weekend, but in its case it was the 10-million mark -- just the fifth film ever to do so in Korea. HAEUNDAE made 3.74 billion won last weekend to bring its total to 71.1 billion won ($56.9 million).

Even GI JOE is doing well still, adding another 1.86 billion won to lift its total to 16.66 billion won ($13.3 million). That makes Korea far and away the strongest international territory for GI JOE outside of the United States -- the next-closest territory is Russia with $7.9 million.

The top new film this week was the Korean horror film YOGA HAGWON, opening in fifth with just 957 million won, or 1.34 billion won ($1.1 million) including Thursday.

PERFECT GETAWAY opened just in sixth. But I thought the film was a lot of fun. Totally recommend if you are looking for a good summer thriller.

Pixar's UP fell to 12th, just nosing past the 1-million-attendance mark for 7.3 billion won -- just about the same as RATATOUILLE and WALL-E.

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Revenue (bil. won)	Total Revenue (bil. won)
1.	Take Off (Gukga Daepyo - Korean)	7.29	615	5.79	38.06
2.	Haeundae (Korean)	7.23	513	3.74	71.08
3.	GI Joe	8.06	372	1.86	16.66
4.	Ice Age 3	8.12	380	1.18	5.06
5.	Yoga Hagwon (Korean)	8.20	329	0.96	1.34
6.	Perfect Getaway	8.20	293	0.96	1.22
7.	Orphan	8.20	223	0.76	0.93
8.	Sophie's Revenge	8.20	235	0.45	0.59
9.	Public Enemy	8.12	294	0.34	3.06
10.	Largo Winch	8.20	220	0.28	0.40

(Source: KOBIS - Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

It somehow seems appropriate that, as I sign off on my last box office report, Korean films are currently sitting at 49.7 percent of the box office for the year. Pretty close to half. After all the downs and ups the Korean movie business has been through over the 13 years I have been here, it seems kind of cool to be leaving with things right in the middle.

Seulpeun Annyeong, Hanyang...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:14:00 +0000

Okay, it is about time I said a few things about my life and what has been going on for the last while. Obviously I have not been updating this blog as often as I should, nor have I been able to share with you as much fun news from the Korean entertainment industry as I would like. These bits of personal news are are not really secrets -- all my friends know about this stuff already, but for various reasons I did not feel like posting about it online.

Main news #1 is that I am not The Hollywood Reporter's correspondent in Korea anymore. Nor Billboard's. Nor anyone's. In fact, I have not been much of a reporter in over a year. Last year, Bang Productions, a rather cool documentary company based in Singapore, hired me to help them develop several Korea projects. We produced those two HIP KOREA programs (on Rain and Lee Byung-hun) and we have several other fun things in the works.

Main news #2 is that I will not be in Korea much longer. In a few days, I will be moving to Spain. Why? Who knows. But after so many years in Korea, it is exciting to be beginning a whole new phase in my life.

So, what does that mean for KOREA POP WARS? Well, first of all, tomorrow's box office update will be my last. When I started writing the box office three years ago, it was actually pretty tough getting that information. I had to slog through a bunch of sources to fit together something decent. But these days, thanks to KOFIC and KOBIS, box office numbers are fairly readily available. You can link to here (although I imagine KOFIC will probably change that link one or twice each year, so no guarantees how long it will last).

It also means that this blog will not be around much longer. For now, I will keep using it, perhaps turning it into a Spain version of London Korean Links. But some time soon, I will be introducing a new blog at www.markjamesrussell.com (for now, it just redirects here).

In the meantime, I should thank everyone who checked out KOREA POP WARS, whether regularly or just once in a while. And a huge thanks to everyone who bought a copy of POP GOES KOREA. That was the main impetus for starting this blog, and for all the book's faults and shortcomings, I am proud of it (and, once again, big big thanks to everyone who helped me with it). The nice reviews and kind words have only been a bonus.

I suppose I will give some sort of Farewell Address in the coming days, just to sum up my thoughts and feelings after so long living in Korea. And there will be periodic updates, as different things occur to me. Most importantly, I think there will be some fun news coming from www.markjamesrussell.com, as my new life in Europe begins to take shape.

Sweet Cats Need a Sweet Owner (The most random topic yet, at least for a Korean entertainment blog)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Okay, for reasons I shall explain soon, I need to find a new home for my two cats, Miroo and Jiroo. I have been posting all over the place, in English and Korean websites, but so far come up empty*. And now that I am days away from moving, I thought I would try posting about my cats on my blog.

Miroo is 8 years old male (neutered), slightly overweight, and quite nice, without being clingy. When he was young, he took a bad fall outside and broke both of his front legs. It took a lot of surgery and care to nurse him back to strength, but today, he is healthy and fine (although he walks with a slight limp). But he does like to sit with people, especially when it is cold out.

Jiroo is just 4 years old and female (spayed). She is less cuddly than Miroo (definitely not a fan of being picked up), but she quite likes to play, with strings or toys like that.

Both are quite independent of people but close to each other, so they are fairly undemanding pets. Nice company, without being overbearing.

If you are interested, please drop me an email. I am based in Seoul, close to Shinchon (at least for now).

-----------------------
*Okay, not totally empty. A couple of nice people queried, but decided to get other cats. And several really freaky people called who I would never, ever want taking care of any living thing, especially not my cats.

For example, the one guy who likes to keep cats on leashes all day, when he is out at work. He asked "Do you have a bag I can carry them in, or do I need my own?" Then he adds that he has had several cats over the years, but they keep running away. Yikes. Serious freak.

Korea Weekend Box Office - Aug. 14-16 (Penultimate Edition)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:03:00 +0000

Sorry this chart is so late (again). Too much work going on these days, I guess.

Topping the box office last weekend was the ski jump film TAKE OFF, with 6.61 billion won ($5.29 million). Oddly, that is by far the best weekend the film has had since it was released three weeks ago -- it opened to 5.01 billion won, then dropped to 4.98 billion won the next week. I guess people are getting tired of HAEUNDAE, but still want to see something home-grown. Maybe the holiday and the nasty heat helped, too.

Anyhow, TAKE OFF has now made 28.27 billion won ($22.6 million) and pulled in 4.0 million admissions since it was released -- a solid hit, with the potential to grow into something bigger. Topping 5-million admissions (as it seems sure to do) is always impressive.

HAEUNDAE may be slowing down, but it is still doing well -- 7.23 billion won last weekend to bring its total to 64.4 billion won ($51.5 million). With 9.1 million admissions (including 865,000 last weekend), HAEUNDAE is now the fifth-biggest film ever in Korea, and certain to pass the 10-million mark.

GI JOE continues to do surprisingly well, with another 3.4 billion won last weekend, for a total of 13.2 billion won ($10.6 million).

ICE AGE 3 had a rather soft opening, with just 2.39 billion won over the weekend. PUBLIC ENEMY did even worse, with 1.54 billion won.

I do not know anything about the Korean film BULSIN JIOK, which opened in sixth. But there it is.

People must not have liked ONE MILLION at all, as it is dropping like a stone.

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Revenue (bil. won)	Total Revenue (bil. won)
1.	Take Off (Gukga Daepyo - Korean)	7.29	678	6.61	28.27
2.	Haeundae (Korean)	7.23	638	6.26	64.44
3.	GI Joe	8.06	488	3.40	13.20
4.	Ice Age 3	8.12	461	2.39	3.11
5.	Public Enemy	8.12	375	1.54	2.15
6.	Bulsin Jiok (Korean)	8.12	291	0.84	1.20
7.	Up	7.29	251	0.38	7.00
8.	Summer Wars	8.12	118	0.36	0.46
9.	Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser	7.30	133	0.30	3.86
10.	One Million (10 Ok - Korean)	8.06	240	0.31	2.92

(Source: KOBIS - Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

Korea Weekend Box Office - Aug. 7-9

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:42:00 +0000

A great case this weekend of how much stronger hit Korean films still are in Korea, even compared to the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN took about 48 days to become the biggest foreign film ever in Korea, with about 7.4 million admissions. HAEUNDAE beat that mark in just 18 days.

Yes, everybody's favorite tsunami HAEUNDAE is still kicking butt in the theaters, taking in another 9.2 billion won ($7.5 million) over the weekend to bring its total to 53.0 billion won ($43.1 million). That is about 7.46 million admissions, making it the ninth-biggest movie ever in Korea and rising fast.

It looks certain to me that HAEUNDAE has the strength to top 9 million admissions and become the fifth-biggest Korean film ever. Even 10 million is pretty doable. But getting over 11-million and contesting with the big-four (SILMIDO, TAEGUKGI, THE KING AND THE CLOWN and THE HOST)? Possible, but much more difficult.

The Korean ski-jumping film TAKE OFF (Gukga Daepyo) landed in No. 2, with 5.5 billion won, to lift its total so far to 17.2 billion won ($14.0). So TAKE OFF looks like it is also a solid, if more middling, hit.

Very close behind is Lee Byung-hun's Hollywood debut, the action blockbuster GI JOE, with 5.4 billion won over the weekend -- or 7.1 billion won ($5.8 million), including Thursday and previews.

Surprisingly, I thought GI JOE was much less terrible than you might expect. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself (thanks in part to diminished expectations, but still...). A solid popcorn film for the lazy days of August.

The Survivor-meets-Battle-Royale film 10 OK (One Million) did not fare so well, opening only in fourth with 1.5 billion won. Or just 2.0 billion won ($1.6) since Thursday.

Pixar's UP is doing about what you would expect in its second week -- 1.4 billion won more for a total of 6.1 billion won ($5.0 million). It looks like yet another film will squeak past 1 million admissions (it is currently at 833,000), but not do much more.

The only other Korean film on the top-10 was CHAW, with added another 433 million won to bring its boxoffice to 12.3 billion won ($10 million).

KOFIC chart to come as soon as the nice people at the Film Council update their website.

UPDATE: Okay, here is the early-release chart up on the KOFIC site. The numbers do not match with my report yet. Hopefully I will be able to fix this is a couple of hours.

Pop Goes the Contract

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:21:00 +0000

There is a fairly decent overview of the contract situation faced by entertainers in Korea over in today's Joongang Ilbo. Using the lawsuit Dong Bang Shin Gi (aka TVXQ) has filed against SM Entertainment as the peg, the article looks at the long and onerous contracts that most entertainers in Korea have to have, especially singers.

As you have probably heard, on July 31, three members of DBSG filed suit against its management company, claiming their contract is unfair. DBSG is one of SME's most popular bands these days, and is doing especially well in Japan, where they recently played two nights in the Tokyo Dome. The band's complaints were mostly the same things we have heard over and over again in Korea over the years -- their contracts are too long, their contracts do not pay enough, the penalties for leaving the management company are too severe, the performers do not have enough control over their own careers, the performers are not paid enough (probably the biggest issue).

I do not want to get into the details of DBSG's particular case. That is something for the Korean courts to decide. But I do think that cases like these bring up a much bigger point.

Arguing about the "fairness" of idol contracts -- how many years should they be, how much should the performers be paid, etc. -- misses the big point. I am tempted to call it "Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic," but that is probably a bit harsh -- after all, the Korean entertainment industry is showing few signs of sinking any time soon. It is more like arguing about what kind of pain reliever is best for a critically ill patient. That is, such talk deals mostly with the symptoms of the disease and misses out entirely on the causes.

Korea's pop idols are not paid poorly and overcontrolled because the management companies are evil. The management companies are just doing their best within the current system. And judging by the long list of big stars who have emerged from Korea's music system over the years, they are apparently doing something right.

The trouble is, Korea's music system itself, which is very resource-intensive and very top-down (like far too much of the Korean economy in general). Because the burden of developing stars and marketing them falls solely on the music companies, it takes a huge amount of money to create new stars. The biggest companies have over 50 performers (mostly young people) in training at a time, taking dance classes, singing classes, learning how to act like stars, and usually living in company housing, eating food paid for by the company, being driven everywhere by the company. All this adds up pretty quickly.

So when a band gets paid pennies for an album sale, you have to remember that the performers spent years in training before they earned any money, and that for each performer earning money and doing well, there are many other aspiring young people who never make it, but who nonetheless burn through company money. How many hopefuls does each company have for each performer who makes it? Five? Ten? I do not know, but it is big enough.

The real problem (as I argue in my book, POP GOES KOREA) is the lack of diversity in Korea's music business, in particular the lack of a live music scene. In most countries, live music is the core, the heart. Young people pick up instruments and play in their parents' garages or wherever. Some get good enough to play in clubs. A few get good enough to put out albums (or MP3s or whatever). A very few make money. Basically, the cost and inconvenience of developing acts falls on the wanna-be performers. By the time they get to the music labels, a lot of the winnowing and development has already happened.

Even in Japan, where J-Pop is big business, you have J-Rock and jazz and a fairly wide range of choices. And choices drive competition, when reduces the stranglehold that music companies otherwise might have.

Strangely, Korea used to have a great live music scene. It was a long time ago, but back in the 1960s and 1970s, most of the big performers had a live music background, whether playing on the US Army bases around the country or playing the live clubs of Myeong-dong or wherever. Even in the 1980s, as Korea's music scene turned more poppy and synthesized (and saccharine), there was still a live foundation most of the acts had -- Cho Yong-pil, Shin Hae-chul, Jo Sung-mo, and the like were all live performers first.

But in the early 1990s, the scene began to change, especially with the coming of Seo Taiji. Even though Seo Taiji wrote his songs (well, mostly) and performed them himself, he typically performed them prerecorded, with The Boyz dancing away furiously beside him. It was the formula that Korea's music companies would use to create their boy- and girl-bands. And soon the manufactured dance bands came fast and furious. Within a few years, they dominated the TV music shows, Mnet, and the like.

For a generation of young people in Korea, being a "star" has meant being a dancer first, a pretty face and perhaps a singer. Very few young people pick up a guitar with dreams of making it big. Sure, plenty of kids play music, for any number of reasons. But few harbor serious dreams of using the guitar (or whatever) to become rock stars.

And as long as the live music scene is not a viable route to becoming a star in Korea, the local music scene will remain dominated by the music labels and manufactured pop music.

The funny thing is, for all the talk of the dominating power of the music companies, the truth is they are actually very weak. They are merely responding to the economics they are given. If young people were to choose different music, the whole system would fall apart. If playing in Hongdae became a route to fame and fortune, then the system would have to change. But as long as Korean young people show no interest in anything but K-Pop, all they will be given is K-Pop. And the system will not really change.

The Housemaid Cleans Up

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:51:00 +0000

Happy day today -- I just bought the great new DVD of Kim Ki-young's THE HOUSEMAID.

THE HOUSEMAID (1960), of course, has long been recognized as one of the great films in Korean history. It is a crazy, claustrophobic tale of a family being terrorized by their housemaid. But describing the plot hardly begins to describe just how fun this movie is.

If you have seen THE HOUSEMAID before at one of its retrospective screenings, you know that it really needed some cleaning up. Much of the movie was faded, scratched, or had degraded in any number of ways.

The quality of the image is ~~pristine~~ mostly pristine (save for two reels, which were more damaged and are still rather poor), the sound is clear. It is great to see a Korean film getting such special treatment. If only the English subtitles were prepared as carefully as the rest of the film (they are okay, but the mistakes are careless and unnecessary). The essays in the booklet that accompanies the DVD are not very interesting or helpful... But I fear I am nitpicking. This DVD is a great restoration.

If you want to buy THE HOUSEMAID on DVD, you can get it at Kyobo Books or any number of online bookstores (like this one). It is totally worth it. Or, if you cannot find the DVD, you can always watch it online for free.

Oldboy vs. the Economic Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:05:00 +0000

This is kind of odd (not really funny, but kind of interesting). Someone has taken the most famous fight scene from Park Chan-wook's OLDBOY and redone it so Oh Dae-su fights the evil bankers/businessmen who caused the American/world's economy to tank over the past couple of years.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&from=sp&vid=b80879e8-e96e-44d6-abb6-7340be64d5aa" target="_new" title="Milo Ventimiglia Cinemashes "Oldboy"">Video: Milo Ventimiglia Cinemashes "Oldboy"</a>

Korea Weekend Box Office - July 31-Aug. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:53:00 +0000

In its second weekend, HAEUNDAE has turned into an official blockbuster -- the silly tsunami film brought in 11.3 billion won ($9.26 million) in its second weekend, to bring its total boxoffice to 34.0 billion won ($27.9 million). Most significantly, its second weekend boxoffice was a tick higher than its first, indicating that people liked what they saw and were spreading the good news.

The ski jumping film TAKE OFF (Gukga Daepyo) did not fare so well, making its debut in second with 5.0 billion won ($4.10 million), or 6.8 billion won including its early Wednesday opening. That is less than half the business of HAEUNDAE, despite appearing on nearly as many screens (886 vs. 762).

Pixar's UP had a typically middling open, at least for a Pixar film in Korea. It opened in third with 2.2 billion won, for a total of 3.0 billion won ($2.5 million). Which I find kind of weird -- whenever I see a Pixar film in Korea, it gets a great audience reaction. Not sure why that does not translate into more tickets.

FYI:
The Incredibles - $6.8 million
Cars - $3.0 million
Ratatouille - $6.9 million
Wall-E - $7.4 million

The latest Detective Conan film (a Japanese anime) had a decent opening, in fourth with 1.2 billion won, or 1.6 billion won since Thursday.

The Korean comic horror film CHAW added another 1.1 billion won to bring its three-week total to 11.0 billion won ($9.0 million).

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE dropped to sixth, adding 984 million won to bring its total to 19.3 billion won ($15.8 million). It looks like the latest HARRY POTTER will cross the 3-million-attendance mark, but barely.

TRANSFORMERS 2 is still on the chart, adding a tiny 246 million won to bring its huge haul to just over 50 billion won (50.4 billion won, or $41.3 million). South Korea is easily the third-biggest market in the world for the latest Transformers, behind only the United States and the United Kingdom.

The only other Korean film in the top 10 was LIFTING KING KONG (aka BRONZE MEDALIST, or Kingkongeul Deulda). It has now made 8.7 billion won.

Jimmy Lee Jones

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:32:00 +0000

I was walking through the Yongsan Electronics Market last week when I stumbled across this fun find -- the first album by Jimmy Lee Jones, from 1981.

Jimmy Lee Jones (aka Lee Jeong-myeong) lived in Nashville for many years in the 1980s, where he won a songwriting competition and recorded a couple of albums. In the 1990s, he opened a bar/cafe in Daejeon called Palomino, where he still works pretty much every day. His open-mic nights were a huge hits in the 1990s, before the economic crisis.

This album, like his others, is a mix of English and Korean. Basically the same songs twice, in English on side A and in Korean on side B. Although Jimmy always called himself a country singer, the country on this album is in more of a 1980s easy-listening style... a bit like Leonard Cohen's album Various Positions or Recent Songs (think Coming Back to You).

I remember Jimmy because I used to attend the open-mic nights at Palomino with some regularity back in the day (although I never performed... just there to listen). The old part of Daejeon is pretty forgotten these days, but back in the 1990s, before Dunsan-dong was finished, it was a pretty happening part of town. Jimmy was very nice about hanging out with a noob like myself, taking me around with his friends to some great little restaurants around town.

There is an interview with Jimmy (although very poor quality) on a local TV show here. You can also see him perform on that program (also low quality) here.

Oh, and here is another I found.

Anyhow, to find Jimmy's old album (in near-mint condition, too) was a really fun little accident. I am pretty sure none of his albums were ever issued on CD, but if that ever changes, I will be sure to update this post.

UPDATE: Well, that did not take long. Two minutes after I post this, I discover Jimmy has a blog (mostly just Korean). Lots of good stuff there, including a pretty good timelime of his life here (English and Korean).