Korea Pop Wars

Swamped...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:02:00 +0000

Apologies for the lack of updates, but I am really swamped at the moment. I hope to have something interesting up in a couple of days...

Korea Weekend Box Office - July 3-5

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:30:00 +0000

TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN continued its assault on the Korean box office (not to mention on eardrums, sanity, etc.), accounting for a huge 66 percent of all movie ticket sales last weekend. Michael Bay's robot film pulled in another 9.86 billion won ($7.8 million) on the weekend to bring its total to 35.28 billion won ($27.8 million) -- that is ahead of the opening of Bong Joon-ho's THE HOST, depending on how you count these things.

The blockbuster has now had over 5.2 million admissions in 12 days, making it by far the biggest foreign opening ever in Korea. Could TRANSFORMERS 2 be the first foreign film to make it to 10 million admissions? Possibly. I do not see any huge films on the calendar for the next couple of weeks (HARRY POTTER on the 15th, then HAEUNDAE on the 23rd). Although traditionally Hollywood films do not sustain at the box office as well as Korean films do.

After TRANSFORMERS, the next three films on the chart were all Korean, so I guess that is kind of good news. RUNNING TURTLE continues to hold up, landing in No. 2 with 1.84 billion won to bring its total to 16.18 billion won ($12.7 million).

The uplifting tale of some scrappy women overcoming the odds to compete in an unpopular sport ~~FOREVER THE MOMENT~~ BRONZE MEDAL had to be a disappointment -- despite a big advertising push and a big opening on over 500 screens, the weightlifting drama made just 1.78 billion won ($1.4 million) over the weekend (barely 251,000 admissions).

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Revenue (bil. won)	Total Revenue (bil. won)
1.	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	6.24	1076	9.86	35.28
2.	Running Turtle (Geobuki Dallinda- Korean)	6.11	402	1.84	16.18
3.	Bronze Medalist (Kingkongeul Deulda - Korean)	7.01	529	1.78	2.27
4.	Blood Pledge (Yeogo Goedam 5 - Korean)	6.18	352	0.52	3.66
5.	Night at the Museum 2	6.04	254	0.25	12.25
6.	Missing Linx	6.24	204	0.21	0.65
7.	Mother (Madeo - Korean)	5.28	220	0.12	19.79
8.	Terminator: Salvation	5.21	118	0.084	29.60
9.	The Unknown Woman	7.02	21	0.066	0.093
10.	Drag Me to Hell	6.11	23	0.20	1.82

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

Escaping North Korea, on The Daily Show

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:36:00 +0000

Mike Kim, author of ESCAPING NORTH KOREA, was on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show on Wednesday. You can check out the interview below.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Mike Kim

thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jason Jones in Iran

It makes me wonder how North Koreans learn Calculus using dead Americans...

There was also a short but interesting article on Mike Kim in the Japan Times.

Korea Weekend Box Office - June 26-28

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:19:00 +0000

TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN had a huge opening last weekend, the biggest since at least PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3, and pretty close to Bong Joon-ho's 2006 hit THE HOST (Goemul).

The loud, toy robot sequel pulled in 14.1 billion won ($10.9 million) over the weekend, and 19.7 billion won ($15.3 million) since it opened on Wednesday. That equates to 2.1 million admissions over the weekend and 3.0 million since Wednesday.

If it seemed like just about every screen in Korea was playing TRANSFORMERS 2, you were pretty much right -- a record-shattering 1,038 screens. There are just 2,000 screens in all of Korea. (When I came to Korea, there were not even 500 screens in the entire country).

(Btw, the chart below says 1,200 screens for TRANSFORMERS, but remember the KOFIC list double-counts some screens, so tends to be a little exaggerated).

The real question will be staying power. Movies like PIRATES 3 and SPIDER-MAN 3 had openings nearly as big as THE HOST, but they ended up with much smaller totals. TRANSFORMERS (the first) by comparison had 1.3 million admissions in its opening weekend, but went on to pull in 7.4 million admissions, the best foreign film ever in Korea.

The only other movie that anyone went to see last weekend was RUNNING TURTLE (Geobuki Dallinda), which made 1.8 billion won ($1.4 million) to bring its three-week total to 13.0 billion won ($10.1 million). TURTLE is going to top 2 million admissions, making it officially a hit, I guess.

Everything else is sad. The No. 3 film BLOOD PLEDGE (Yeogyo Goedam 5) made just 499 million won ($387,000) over the weekend, bringing its total to 2.8 billion won. That's just 59,000 admissions for it last weekend.

MISSING LYNX from Spain opened in fourth. The only other Korean film was Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER (Madeo), in sixth. MOTHER has now made 19.5 billion won -- slightly less than what TRANSFORMERS 2 did in five days.

Rather amazing to me was that the 8th Mise-en-Scene Genre Film Festival landed in 10th. With just two screens. That's pretty wild. The 11th place film, THE BROTHERS BLOOM, sold fewer tickets, despite being on 110 screens. Wow.

Transforming Cinema

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:27:00 +0000

So I checked out TRANSFORMERS 2: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN over the weekend. And I must say, I agree with popular opinions -- both of them, the critics and the unwashed masses. TRANSFORMERS 2 is definitely stupid and ridiculous, at any level a terrible film. I also quite liked it.

Which seems to be how people in general are perceiving the film. Critics hate it, but audiences think it is much better than the first TRANSFORMERS.

That article I linked to points out that it is Michael Bay's worst film ever on Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator. But what I find really interesting is that is is also Bay's second-best reviewed film ever on Metacritic (behind THE ROCK). Rotten Tomatoes, of course, merely looks at whether reviewers liked a film, then averages the number of positive votes. Metacritic, on the other hand, assigns a value to each vote, then takes that average.

So what does that mean? It means that most critics on balance dislike TRANSFORMERS 2, but they do not dislike it that much. But for Bay's previous films, opinions were more divided, with some people liking them more but others hating them more.

Math is so much fun.

Wonderwha?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Hey, the Wondergirls are now launching their English campaign for the West. If you go to Wondergirls World, you can get their international website. Click on "videos" to see their old song Nobody dubbed into English. And there is this announcement for that site on Youtube -- to be honest, a little painful.

In case you have not heard, the Wondergirls are going to be touring with the Jonas Brothers this summer. There is a Seattle Times story about the tour here.

And an article about the English version of Nobody appearing on iTunes here -- the article is okay, but the comments following it are really interesting. It is beginning to sound like Asian pop culture is finally becoming normalized in the United States. Or at least it is becoming a lot closer to normal.

Yu Hyun-mok Passes

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:23:00 +0000

I just read that the great Korean director Yu Hyun-mok passed away Sunday night, at 85 years old (or 83, depending on what you read). Very sad news.

Yu was the last of the "three great filmmakers" of the 1950s and 1960s (the other two being Kim Ki-young and Shin Sang-ok). Yu was most famous for OBALTAN: THE AIMLESS BULLET, a neorealist film about the hard life of the downtrodden after the Korean War.

But for me, my favorite Yu film was EMPTY DREAM, a remake of Tetsuji Takeji's DAYDREAM. Yu was arrested for EMPTY DREAM, even though the actress Park Su-jeong did not really appear naked (good summary at the link above). Anyhow, I saw EMPTY DREAM at the Puchon Fantastic Film Festival in 2004, when they played it with a restored soundtrack. Very interesting, surreal film, and completely different than OBALTAN.

Yu's SCHOOL EXCURSION is pretty fun, too, and it used to be available on DVD (although I have not seen it in stores for ages... maybe the Yongsan black market still stocks it).

Sadly, I am no expert of Yu's films. I only met him briefly a couple of times, when he was obviously of fading health, and I never really talked to him at all. But I am happy that I did at least meet him (and Shin Sang-ok). You can read about Yu in the Korea Times. Darcy's page on Yu is here. And of course you can always read Wikipedia.

You can also briefly see Yu Hyun-mok in these old news videos from the 1960s, here, here, and here (that last one is from the 2nd Grand Bell Awards, back in 1963, with Yu winning Best Director for his film TO GIVE FREELY).

Weird. Wikipedia says Yu was born July 2, 1925. But my book The History of the Korean Cinema says he was born May 17, 1924. Quite a difference. Maybe the date is just a lunar/solar calendar thing. But I don't know about the year difference.

(Btw, I swiped that pic from Darcy's website. I hope that is okay).

Rock'n'Roll World -- And Some Random Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 05:42:00 +0000

As much as I love old Korean rock music, it is important to remember that the trends and forces affecting Korea were not occurring in a vaccuum. Rock music was shaping many societies around Asia around the same time, sometime in similar ways as it did to Korea, sometimes in different ways.

Surprisingly (at least for me), one of the most exciting places in Asia for rock music back in the 1960s and '70s was Cambodia (pre-Khmer Rouge, obviously). Thanks to exposure to rock music from Americans fighting in the Vietnam War, right next door, a real garage-rock/psychedelic sound emerged in the period, featuring both new bands and classic Cambodia crooners (like Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, and Pan Ron) who switched to take up the new rock'n'roll style.

You can download the music from the Cambodia Rocks compilation here. There is also a documentary being made about the music from that period; you can see a trailer for that film here.

The Philippines, with its history so entwined with the United States, also had a lot of rock music. Including the group Rocky Fellers, whose song "Killer Joe" made it onto US music charts back in 1963. India, too, had plenty of rock music (after all, even The Beatles went there for a while to hang out in 1968).

Japanese rock music is more well known, in particular the "group sound" movement. This website had a lot of great information about psychedelic rock music from all over the world, especially Japan (but, damn, it was also one of the saddest sites I have ever read).

And of course there is also Tuvulan throat singing. Who can ever get enough of someone gargling Love Will Tear Us Apart Again or Orgasmatron? Great stuff.

For psych rock, as always Gerald Van Waes's website about psychedelic music around the world is the most complete and interesting site around, with plenty of amazing information and links about the old rock music of Korea, Japan, India, and plenty more.

Anyhow, my point is that too often people think of music, movies and the culture of countries (especially in Asia) in too much isolation. How can one really talk about trends in movies in Japan without knowing about trends in movies in the countries around Japan? How can one talk about the Korean Wave in music without knowing what domestic trends are affecting music in countries around Asia?

* * *

I seem to have been appearing in the Korean media a bunch recently. If you can read Korean and would care to check it out, there is a profile of me and my book at the Joongang Ilbo here, an article in the Joongang about how Korean movie titles change when going abroad here (which quotes me a bit). And this month's Esquire Korea mentions my book as well... I will link to it if I can ever find a link to the story.

Korea Weekend Box Office - June 19-21

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:35:00 +0000

Another week at the top of the box office for RUNNING TURTLE (Geobuki Dallinda), which added another 3.9 billion won ($3.0 million) to its coffers, to bring its total revenue to 9.6 billion won ($7.5 million) since June 11. Not a runaway hit, but 1.4 million admissions is not bad.

The latest film in the Whispering Corridors horror series, A BLOOD PLEDGE, landed in No. 2, with 1.6 billion won ($1.25 million), or 1.8 billion won including Thursday.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2 was the top foreign film, earning 1.3 billion won to bring its total to 11.4 billion won ($8.9 million). TERMINATOR SALVATION added 1.1 billion won for a total of 29.0 billion won ($22.6 million).

Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER (Madeo) added 801 million won ($625,000) over the weekend to bring its total to 18.9 billion won ($14.8 million). With 2.8 million admissions thus far, MOTHER should make it over 3 million admissions, but it will be a lot closer than I originally thought.

There were no other Korean films in the top 10 last weekend, but we did have a Hong Kong film (THE SHINJUKU INCIDENT) in ninth and a French film (ASTERIX AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES) in 10th.

Btw, as I write this, two days before it opens TRANSFORMERS 2 is accounting for 89.7 percent of all ticket reservations. Yikes.

Korea Weekend Box Office - June 12-14

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:19:00 +0000

A new Korean film took the top spot at the box office last weekend, the crime thriller RUNNING TURTLE (Geobuki Dallinda) with 3.3 billion won ($2.6 million), or 3.7 billion won including Thursday and other previews.

Second went to NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2, with 2.7 billion won ($2.1 million) to bring its total to 9.6 billion won ($7.6 million).

TERMINATOR SALVATION continues to do strong business in Korea, coming in third with 1.7 billion won ($1.3 million), for an impressive 27.2 billion won ($21.6 million) since it was released May 21.

Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER (Madeo) also is doing well, with another 1.4 billion won ($1.1 million) to bring its total to 17.4 billion won ($13.8 million). Now with 2.6 million admissions, MOTHER looks like it will top 3 million admissions, but not make it to 4 million. Still, 3 million is a pretty solid number for a Korean film, so good for Bong.

Only one other Korean film in the top 10, MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT, way down in ninth. GIRLFRIEND added another 100 million won last weekend to bring its total to 26.1 billion won ($20.7 million) since April 22.

BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE may not be a Korean film, but it did star Jun Ji-hyun. Unfortunately, Jun was not enough, and BLOOD opened to just 378 million won ($300,000).

(Courtesy of KOFIC)

Random Notes - Vol. 4, No. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:08:00 +0000

I just stumbled across this old Harvey Kurtzman comic from 1952 called A CORPSE ON THE IMJIN. Yes, the Harvey Kurtzman who later founded Mad magazine.

IMJIN, however, is much more serious than Kurtzman's later work. It is a dark story set in the Korean War, of a soldier sitting at the shore of the Imjin River, watching a body floating by, wondering how the man died. Then the story takes a grim turn. A short but fascinating read.

Matt at Popular Gusts beat me to writing about the comic book exhibition over in the National Museum of Contemporary Art, down in the Seoul Grand Park (by Gwacheon). The exhibition runs until Aug. 23 (and, who know, maybe the museum will have updated its English website by then... but for now, you can see the Korean website about the exhibit here).

As long as I am on the subject of comic books, I just found out about Kim San-ho a Korean comic artist who used to draw for Charlton Comics back in the 1960s and 70s (and even Marvel a little). He returned to Korea later and made several Korean comic books and wrote a lot about Korean history, too. You can see a gallery of some of his comic book covers here.

I watched Jun Ji-hyun's BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE last night. No surprise that it was not very good. The first half felt exactly like the original anime, and was borderline interesting -- basically BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER will all the humor and wit taken out, and several bathtubs of blood put in.

About halfway through the film, the mood shifts, and it begins to feel like a Hong Kong movie like CHINESE GHOST STORY, with a lot of really frenetic action sequences and cheap special effects. One of the biggest action sequences is really poorly done, and looks like the producers ran out of money. The story changes from the original anime, too, acquiring a ridiculous backstory that is unnecessary and really, really cheesy.

It's too bad -- Jun Ji-hyun looks exactly right for the part of Saya, the Vampire hunter. Unfortunately, the director and writer were quite terrible and uncreative.

I loved this story about our favorite cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk getting a science award recently. I do not know anything about the loonies who give out the Jang Young Shil Award of Science, Technology and Culture, but you have to love this line from the KT story:

Hwang was unable to participate in the awards ceremony at the Press Center in downtown Seoul, due to a previously scheduled court appearance.

Hip Korea on Discovery II: Even Hipper

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Back in February, I mentioned the HIP KOREA documentary on Discovery Channel, a program about the singer Rain and modern Korean culture in which I was involved.

Well, now it is time for episode 2 of HIP KOREA -- SEOUL SAVVY, featuring the actor Lee Byung-hun. In many ways, HIP KOREA 2 is the prequel to the Rain episode, as this episode goes back and examines the changes Korea went through during the 1990s and into the 21st century. Rain is about where Korea is now, but Lee Byung-hun looks at how Korea got here.

It turns out that Lee Byung-hun is a pretty good conduit for that story -- he first made it big in 1992/3, around the time Korea got its first civilian president. He made JSA in 2000, at the same time as the North-South Summit between the Koreas. He starred in a couple of huge TV dramas that helped spark the boom of Korean TV dramas around Asia (aka Hallyu). And he starred in a couple of really big movies (A BITTERSWEET LIFE and THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD) that showcased how far Korean movies and society have come along.

HIP KOREA -- SEOUL SAVVY makes its debut on NHK in Japan on June 13 at 12:55am (technically June 14), in a two-hour, back-to-back showing with HIP KOREA -- SEOUL VIBES (the Rain episode). It then encores on NHK BS (satellite) on June 19 at 8pm and June 20 at 4:30pm.

It airs in Discovery at the following times in the following locations:
Korea - Thursday, June 18 at 8pm. Encores on June 20 at 2pm, June 21 at 1am in the morning and June 23 at 12am midnight.
Singapore/HK/Malaysia - Thursday, June 18 at 7pm. Encores on June 20 at 1pm and 12am midnight and June 23 at 11pm.
Taiwan - Sunday, August 16 at 10pm. (Rain's episode will be bundled and aired at 11pm.) Encores on August 23 at 3am and 3pm.

I am quite excited to finally have this going on the air -- it was a lot of work and took nearly a year to make. Actually, considering how Lee Byung-hun is a fairly substantial chapter in my book, POP GOES KOREA, you could say I have been working on this episode for years. So I hope you have the time to check it out.

Korea Weekend Box Office - June 5-7

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:09:00 +0000

A new week, a new No. 1 at the box office. This time it was NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2, with a healthy 5.4 billion won ($4.3 million) over the weekend, or 6.0 billion won ($4.7 million) including Thursday. The original NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM did quite well in Korea a couple of years ago, so the sequel's success was not really a surprise.

Fighting it out for No. 2 was TERMINATOR SALVATION and Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER (Madeo). TERMINATOR edged out MOTHER in terms of admissions -- 538,000 to 533,000 -- but MOTHER was slightly stronger at the box office -- 3.7 billion won ($2.9 million) to 3.6 billion won. But I like to rank the film's by revenue, so let's give the victory to MOTHER (unfortunately, KOFIC ranks by admissions, so the chart below does not reflect my opinion).

Since it was released May 21, TERMINATOR has made an impressive 24.6 billion won ($19.4 million) -- that is 3.7 million admissions and the film will certainly top 4 million soon. Easily the most successful TERMINATOR film here in Korea.

Since MOTHER was released May 28, it has made 14.7 billion won ($11.6 million), or nearly 2.2 million admissions. I think it will make it to 3 million, which is not bad, especially considering the subject matter of the film.

Otherwise, not much exciting happening in the top-10. MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon) is still doing business at No. 5, earning another 660 million won to bring its total to 25.8 billion won ($20.3 million). It has just topped 4 million admissions, but it will not make it to 5 million.

CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (Gimssi Pyoryugi) and THIRST (Bakjwi) are the two other Korean films on the chart, in seventh and eighth. But really, this is barely a top-10 list. Only the top eight films were on over 100 screens and only the five films had over 100,000 admissions over the weekend.

(Courtesy of KOFIC, of course)

Btw, CJ CGV's monthly box office report came out a few days ago, and it was quite encouraging. Last month was the strongest May on record with 16.3 million admissions, way up from May 2008's 12.8 million. But more importantly, Korean movies made up 49.1 percent of the box office, which was the strongest showing in year (maybe ever).

Usually Hollywood's summer blockbusters start coming out in May and completely dominate Korea until July or August. Last year was the most extreme example, when Korean movies accounted for a humiliating 7.8 percent.

So far in 2009, Korea movies have 46.9 percent of the local box office.

Low Moments in Jurisprudence - Actress Sued for Being Beaten

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Here is a story that I simply could not believe -- the estate of late-actress Choi Jin-sil was successfully sued by an advertiser because Choi was beaten by her former husband.

The unnamed construction company hired Choi in early 2004 to advertise their apartments. But in August, Choi was badly beaten by her then-husband, and instead of hiding the scandal, she went public. It was huge news at the time.

(You'll have to trust me about how big that story was, though, since none of the English-language newspapers' archives seem to go back that far, and none of the Korean gossip sites were in operations back then... But there is this Hani story).

The court's judgment?

Models who failed to maintain appropriate dignity as representatives of the products they represent should compensate for the damages caused to their advertiser, the top court ruled.

Okay, technically, she was probably sued because she went public with the scandal instead of hiding it. But regardless, not a great moment for the Korean courts. Most of the time I think the Korean courts get overly criticized by the expat community in Korea, but this story really bothered me.

Korea Weekend Box Office - May 29-31

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Wow, it was really a two-film weekend, wasn't it? Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER (Madeo) and TERMINATOR: SALVATION together accounted for a mammoth 1,400 screens or so (KOFIC tends to double-count a lot, so the screen numbers in the chart below are a little exaggerated, but they are still huge). Two films accounting for 70 percent of a nation's screens? Really?

On the other hand, those two films accounted for well over 70 percent of the box office, so it is not like the theater owners aren't being efficient and economical. Sometimes, one of the only things I find more bewildering than the lack of consumer choice in Korea is the lack of demand for choices.

Anyhow, MOTHER (Madeo) opened in No. 1 last weekend, to no one's surprise. Nearly 6.7 billion won ($5.4 million) over the weekend, or 8.1 billion won ($6.5 million) including Thursday. That's over 1.2 million tickets sold in just four days. Not bad at all, especially for such a simpler film than Bong's THE HOST (Goemul). MOTHER may not be epic, but it is totally worth watching. Go see it soon.

The biggest surprise for me was the continuing strength of TERMINATOR 4. I thought it would have plunged like a stone after its opening weekend. But instead it held on for another 5.2 billion won ($4.2 million), bringing its total to 19.3 billion won ($15.4 million). Over 3 million tickets in just 11 days. Proportionately, it is doing so much better here than in the United States. Strange.

After those two films, you get a huge dropoff. ANGELS & DEMONS was in third, with just 1.1 billion won, for a total of 10.8 billion won.

MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7-Geup Gongmuwon) continues to hold on, earning another 909 million won to bring its total to 24.7 billion won ($19.8 million).

Korean films also accounted for the sixth spot (CASTAWAY ON THE MOON), ninth (THIRST) and 10th (BOAT). Half the films in the top 10 Korean during Hollywood's high season? Not bad at all.

Oh, and Hong Sang-soo's LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (Jal Aljido Mot Hamyeonseo) was down in 14th, in case you wanted to know. Not huge business, but at least it broke 200 million won.

(Source: KOFIC)

The Mother of All Thrills

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:53:00 +0000

I saw Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER over the weekend and quite liked it. I thought perhaps I should write up a little review of sorts, so here you go.

Bong Joon-ho's latest film, MOTHER, is a departure from his last two films, MEMORIES OF MURDER and THE HOST, lacking much of the humor and scope that made them so memorable. Instead, MOTHER is a much darker and more personal story; but it is without a doubt a Bong tale -- smart, powerful and really engrossing.

MOTHER is the story of the mother of a retarded young man (Won Bin) who must save her son when he is arrested for murdering a high school girl. The police jumped the gun, arresting him on some pretty weak evidence, then pressuring the son Do-joon to sign a release he did not understand.

Determined to free her son no matter what, the mother relentlessly (even ruthlessly) pursues any lead she can. After a few false turns and a lot of apathy from the town officials, she begins to uncover a deeper story, involving a troubled young girl who had a really rough life.

Set in a small town and dealing with a murder investigation, MOTHER has some obvious similarities to MEMORIES OF MURDER. But the focus and style of MOTHER is really different.

The first half of MOTHER focuses more on Do-joon, setting up his character and his friend. There is an incident at a golf course that is one of the few light spots in the movie, but it felt a little unnatural and awkward. Only after Do-joon is arrested and the spotlight moves to his mother that the story really begins to get into gear.

But once it gets going, MOTHER is really good. Kim Hye-ja is great as the obsessive mother, and her desperation gives the movie much of its power. You never know quite what she is going to do, even while suspecting she might do anything. It adds up to create a kind of emotional claustrophobia that really hits hard.

Now, while I said this film is not as deep or analytical as some of Bong's other films, there is evidently a lot going on anyway. There is plenty of psychology happening throughout. The relationship between mother and son especially is anything but normal. The mother's recurring talk of an injection in the thigh to take away bad memories is quite suggestive.

Another thing that struck me was the age difference between Do-joon and his mom. Although never clearly stated in the film, Do-joon is played by the 27-year-old Won Bin, while the mother is played by the 67-year-old Kim Hye-ja. And while having a baby at 40 years old is not unheard of, it is still a little unusual.

In short, MOTHER is not without flaws, but it is the best Korean movie I have seen in quite some time. Maybe since THE CHASER. It is thrilling, scary, violent and unexpected ... really a gripping combination.

Korea Weekend Box Office - May 22-24

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:50:00 +0000

Oops, I nearly forgot about the box office this week. Sorry about that.

As I predicted, TERMINATOR SALVATION did ridiculously well in Korea last weekend, must as TERMINATOR 3 did a few years ago, making 9.3 billion won ($7.4 million) over Fri-Mon, and a total of 11.1 billion won ($8.8 million) if you include Thursday when it opened. That over 1.4 million admissions (1.7 million including Thursday), easily making it the biggest opening of the year so far in Korea.

Expect a huge drop-off for TERMINATOR next weekend (it was a pretty mediocre film, and there is some big competition looming), but an impressive opening nonetheless.

The top Korean film of the weekend was MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon) in third, earning another 1.8 billion won to bring its five-week total to 23.2 billion won ($18.4 million).

In fourth was CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (Gimssi Pyoryugi), earning 1 billion won to bring its total to 3.7 billion won.

Other Korean films in the top 10 were THIRST (Bakjwi) in seventh, INSADONG SCANDAL in eighth and Hong Sang-soo's LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (Jal Aljido Mot Hamyeonsa) in ninth.

I saw LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL last weekend and quite liked it. Not as much fun as WOMAN ON THE BEACH, but similar in tone. Maybe a little "deeper." Maybe a little too long. But fun and full of some amusing perspectives on film festivals and artists. It is playing with English subtitles at the CGV Yongsan in Seoul and is totally worth checking out.

(Stats courtesy of KOFIC, as always)

I have no idea how well Bong Joon-ho's new film MOTHER (Madeo) will do (although as I write this, it handily has the biggest advance sales on the Internet), but it opens Thursday this week. And it too is playing with English subtitles at Yongsan. Funny, the film had great reviews at Cannes pretty much across the board, but apparently the jury members for the section it was in all hated it.

Oh, the Korean title is Madeo. Does that sound like "Mother" to you? Or more like "Murder"? Probably just a coincidence, but the thought amused me.

Korean History, Live and Online (and some random food notes)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:07:00 +0000

For some research I was doing recently, I ran across the most amazing resource online -- a huge collection of photos and videos about Korea, dating from the 1950s to the present. Some are old news stories, others are government propaganda videos, and others are, well, I have no idea.

I'm talking about E-History website, run by KTV (Korea Policy Broadcasting?). For the video section especially, you can spend countless hours, just skipping around and browsing. Sadly, the site is only in Korean, but it is pretty easy to navigate, even for beginners.

There are 11 categories running down the left side, for politics, economics, military, society, eduction, culture and more. Below those categories, the site is also organized by decade. And because all the videos have been indexed and described, the search engine works surprising well.

Here is a sampling of some interesting videos related to movies and culture:
- Old movie theaters from 1957.
- Television starts in Korea in 1956, thanks to RCA.
- More about Korea's first TV station HLKZ, from 1956.
- AFKN from 1959.
- Opening of KBS headquarters in 1976.
- Some movie awards from 1959. Includes clips of Yu Hyun-mok (the famous director) and Choi Eun-hee (the great actress and wife of the late Shin Sang-ok).
- The first Best Korean Movie Awards in 1962. With awards going to Shin Sang-ok (for Romantic Papa) and Kim Ki-young (for The Housemaid) and Choi Eun-hee.
- The first Grand Bell Movie Awards, a few months later in 1962.
- Grand Bell Movie Awards from 1990. Features Kang Su-yeon winning an award, lots of really bad hair and shoulder pads.
- A report on Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee in North Korea from 1984 (with plenty of Bukgoe comments throughout).
- Sadly I could not find much interesting about old rock music. Did find this 1963 video about singer Lee Chun-hee.

And just some random stuff I liked:
- A golf tournament from 1954.
- Namdaemun devastated by a fire in 1954 (wow, deja vu).
- Yonsei's Severance Hospital back in 1962.
- Yonsei University's 80th anniversary.
- Korean boxer Yu Jae-du beating Koichi Wajima for the WBA Light Middleweight Champion belt in 1975 (Yuh Jae-doo?).
- A video from 1970 talking about Korea's next five-year plan and how Korea would develop in the future.
- The opening of the Yanghwa bridge connecting Mapo and Yeongdeungpo in 1965.
- The opening of the Seoul Sanga Apartments in Chungmuro in 1967.
- Namsan Wayne Apartments being destroyed in 1994
- Don't leave your nasty gum around, from 1990.
- Miss Korea 1957. Includes the swimsuit competition.

Okay, you get the idea. I could do this for days, but those selections should get you started. What a great website.

UPDATE: Given how popular Kim Yuna is these days, I thought people might want to check out these skating videos:
- Skating in 1955. Around 1 minute in, we get some figure skating, too. They could be the ancestors of Kim Yuna (metaphorically, that is).
- Rhee Sungman taking in some skating on the Han River in 1958 (including some more figure skating).
- 1959, more speed skating and figure skating (and the figure skaters are getting a little better). (Oh, love the spelling of "sports" in this one. 스포오쯔... never seen that before).
- Ice fishing and ice hockey from 1961 on this one.
- Skating at Gyeongbok Palace in 1963.
- Skating at the Dongdaemun Ice Rink, which I never knew existed, in 1964.
- Ice Carnival at the Dongdaemun rink in 1964. Including a talented little 6-year-old, Yoon Hyo-jin (who went on to finish 17th at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck).

* * *

A couple of random restaurant notes. Seems like every time I turn around, new Indian restaurants are popping up all over the place. I talked about Manokamana before (which now seems to be doing very well, as I can never get a seat there).

But if you cannot get a seat at Manokamana, there is another option just down the street -- Amma. Amma is just as good as Manokamana, if not better (I think the portions are bigger), and it is dead quiet. The furniture is a little odd (like out of a 1995 Korean dabang, but don't let that throw you). It is right behind the Hyundai Department Store. Map here. Totally worth checking out.

If you are looking for more of a Western bar experience, a new place just opened up in Shinchon that I also recommend called Beer O'Clock. Beer O'Clock has a good selection of beers (including Alley Cat Pale Ale), your basic bar food (which I have not tried yet, but looks good), and a great ambiance. It is on the second floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows that all open up, making almost every seat in the place a window seat.

I have not been there on a weekend yet, so maybe the vibe changes then. Hopefully not, but I do not know. But for a quite, comfortable mid-week place, Beer O'Clock was really good. Easily the best Western bar in Shinchon. Map.

* * *

UPDATE: Random note. As I write this post, my blog is the 10th most popular in the world under the Google search "distressed bondage." Sometimes I do not understand the Internet at all.

Korea Weekend Box Office - May 15-17

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:16:00 +0000

No big surprises at the box office last weekend. The new film based on Dan Brown's "symbology" professor Robert Langdon ANGELS AND DEMONS landed in No. 1 with 4.5 billion won ($3.6 million), or 5.2 billion won ($4.1 million) if you include Thursday. Actually, I heard that they never really made a movie, but the Illuminati conspired to boost its box office and make it No. 1 anyway.

MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon) continues to do well, taking in another 2.8 billion won ($2.22 million) to bring its total to 20.4 billion won ($16.2 million).

New Korean movie CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (Gimssi Pyoryugi) opened in third, earning 1.8 billion won ($1.4 million), or 2.1 billion including Thursday.

STAR TREK dropped to fourth from second, but it is still doing pretty well for a Star Trek movie in Korea. It made 1.8 billion won to bring its total to 5.6 billion won ($4.4 million).

THIRST (Bakjwi) fell to fifth, although it has squeaked past 2 million admissions. It has now made 13.5 billion won ($10.7 million).

Other Korean films this week include INSADONG SCANDAL and CYBORG SHE. Well, depending on whether you consider CYBORG SHE a Korean film. It was written and directed by Kwak Jae-young, but it is a Japanese-language movie with a Japanese cast and was completely financed by Japanese companies. Welcome to globalization... nations coming together to make utter dreck.

Any way you look at it, this May is shaping up to be much, much better than last year, when Korean films dropped to just 7.8 percent of the box office. That was brutal.

It is just too bad that Bong Joon-ho's MOTHER is not coming out until the 28th. I bet that film is going to do huge business; if it came out a week earlier, it could have helped Korean movies have their strongest Mays in years.

As it is, I am guessing TERMINATOR 4 is going to do some huge business here. TERMINATOR 3, if you recall, had what was then the biggest opening weekend ever in Korea. And that film was terrible. TERMINATOR 4 looks brilliant and plenty of fun, so should be pretty strong.

PGK in the Wall Street Journal

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Well, that was quite a surprise. A journalist friend of mine just called me to congratulate me. I had to confess, I had no idea what she was talking about, so she said to me "the Wall Street Journal article?" Still no idea. But a few mouse clicks later I discovered that the wonderful Evan Ramstad had written about POP GOES KOREA in today's issue of the Asian Wall Street Journal. Very nice.

If I may quote "Mr. Ramstad" (got to love that level of formality):

Mr. Russell says the growth of South Korea's entertainment industries is a function of economic development that has left more Koreans with the time and resources to become pop-culture "consumers." To a lesser extent, he credits technology changes that reshaped distribution and a receptivity to new cultural products bound up in the globalization of trade over the past two decades. In short, the talent has been there all along and the time finally became ripe for it to flourish as a business.

Mr. Russell's book is the first by a non-Korean to explain the rise of Korea's entertainment industries. With lots of pictures, lists (top TV shows, most expensive movies, worst flops) and sidebar articles, the book could hardly be more approachable.

Anyhow, be sure to check out Evan's story. And if it inspires you to pick up a copy of POP GOES KOREA, you can find it on Amazon.com here.

UPDATE: The Korean newswire Yonhap, which always likes to report on the big-time international papers when they report on Korea, has picked up the story, too.

Cannes and Korea in the Hollywood Reporter

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:19:00 +0000

Korea is getting plenty of coverage in The Hollywood Reporter at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Not surprising, really, given all the Korean films there this year.

There is a Q&A with Bong Joon-ho here, and another one with Park Chan-wook.

There is also this interesting story about the state of Southeast Asian cinema. And this overview of the Japan film industry. And this Q&A with Ang Lee.

I'll add more stories as I come across them.

(Note: If you check out some of the following stories, you might notice that none of them are by me. I have been very slow to mention it here, but I actually stopped writing for THR some months ago, and have instead been putting my energies into some other projects. Which I should talk about soon).

Like You Know Thirst -- English Subtitles

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Good news folks -- the new Park Chan-wook film THIRST and the new Hong Sang-soo film LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL are both being shown with English subtitles, beginning tomorrow at the CGV Yongsan theater.

If you can maneuver in Korean, you can see them listed on the CGV website. If you don't know Korean and don't know anyone who knows Korean, it would probably be easiest just to head on down to the theater and checking out the timetable while you are there. There are plenty of ways to kill time at the Yongsan Mall if you miss your film's starting time. Sorry, but the films have a different schedule every day, so I cannot list the start times here.

LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL is supposed to be one of Hong's funnier films, at least according to a couple of people close to Director Hong. And it is long -- 126 minutes. But if it is funny, like WOMAN ON THE BEACH, then I am okay with the extra time.

I may not be a big fan of THIRST, but I know a lot of people always want to see Park Chan-wook's films, so good luck seeing it.

And of course, MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT continues to screen at the Cinus theaters in Seoul with English subtitles (and Japanese).

I just stumbled across these subtitled screenings on the CGV website. There was no official announcement and I cannot find anything about these screenings on Naver, so if I have made a mistake, please let me know.

UPDATE: Paul over at the Hub of Sparkle blog has apparently taken the trouble of listing the screening times and locations of all the English-subtitled films for this weekend. Very nice of him.

Korea Weekend Box Office - May 8-10

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:49:00 +0000

So, with big-budget Hollywood summer films filling theaters, along with the high-concept, hotly anticipated Park Chan-wook movie, what film takes the top spot last weekend? MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7-Geup Gongmuwon), the silly action-comedy. Not sure if that makes me shudder or if it warms my heart. A bit of both.

AGENT made 2.9 billion won ($2.2 million) over the weekend, bringing its total to 16.2 billion won ($12.5 million). Or 2.47 million admissions, if you prefer. Regardless, it is definitely a hit. Will be interesting how it holds up over the next couple of weeks. I think 3 million admissions should be safe, but 4 million might be asking too much of it.

The JJ Abrams reboot of STAR TREK did fairly well, considering how Trek-averse the Korean market usually is, making 2.6 billion won over the weekend ($2 million), and 2.9 billion won total since Thursday.

Park Chan-wook's THIRST (Bakjwi) dropped pretty dramatically from last week, making just 1.9 billion won ($1.5 million) over the weekend -- that is down from 5.6 billion won last weekend. With 1.75 million admissions so far, it looks like it will pass 2 million, but 3 million will be a reach (unless perhaps it does very well at Cannes).

INSA-DONG SCANDAL keeps chugging along, again in fourth, earning 1.4 billion won to bring its total to 6.0 billion won.

WOLVERINE dropped a lot, too, earning just 1.3 billion won last weekend, after making 3.4 billion won last weekend.

There were no other Korean films in the top-10, but we did have a Japanese film in seventh (the anime KERORO GUNSO THE SUPER MOVIE 4: GEKISHIN DRAGON WARRIORS) and a French film in ninth (also animated, WHITE TUFT, THE LITTLE BEAVER).

Korea Weekend Box Office - May 1-3

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:36:00 +0000

Park Chan-wook's THIRST (Bakjwi) opened strong last weekend, easily taking the No. 1 spot with 5.61 billion won ($4.4 million). THIRST had 821,000 admissions over the weekend (and 1 million since Thursday), far surpassing the 472,000 for I'M A CYBORG BUT THAT'S OKAY, and just slightly less than the 870,000 for LADY VENGEANCE.

In second is the second week of MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon), which made 3.50 billion won ($2.7 million) to bring its 10-day total to 10.4 billion won ($8.1 million).

WOLVERINE opened only in third, but it was a relatively good opening for the franchise -- 3.40 billion won ($2.7 million) for WOLVERINE versus 3.66 billion won for X-MEN 3 ($2.9 million).

INSADONG SCANDAL opened in fourth, with 2.38 billion won over the weekend for a total of 2.89 billion won ().

With Korean films taking in three of the top four spots at the box office, looks like they will not tank as badly as they did last May, when Korean movies accounted for a paltry 8 percent.

Something else I found interesting is how many screens are now available for movies. A few years ago, when THE HOST opened on over 800 screens, a lot of people complained about big movies "monopolizing" the theaters. But this week, even though THIRST was on over 600 screens, AGENT and WOLVERINE had over 500 and INSADONG had over 400. Even the rest of the top-10 films all had plenty of screens.

So how well will THIRST do? Well, it's biggest competition in the coming weekend is the new STAR TREK film -- which, while it looks good, has never been a strong franchise in South Korea. But the following week, the competition will really ramp up. If I were to venture a guess, THIRST might squeak over 3 million admissions, but it is going to be tough.

One interesting sign, though -- when I look at the movie ticket reservation chart, as of Tuesday morning, AGENT is ahead of THIRST, 22.64% to 22.63%. Not a lot, but it suggests that AGENT is getting stronger word of mouth and could do better over the long haul.

No IP Piracy Here, Ye' Scurvy Dogs

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Russell) — Sun, 03 May 2009 14:23:00 +0000

Intellectual Property is a weird issue. On one hand, I believe that information wants to be free and that, given convenient and appropriately priced options, people will pay for digital content. On the other hand, having pirated DVDs and software for sale on every major corner and subway station, right out in the open, is just nuts. I mean, many of the guys take requests, for pete's sake. So I guess I kind of feel like Korea is at once too harsh with its digital IP enforcement and way too lenient.

Which is why I do not at all understand the United States Trade Representative removing South Korea from its Piracy Watch List for the first time since 1989. (Taiwan was removed, too). You can read the full report here (see page 10 in particular). At least the report says that Korea could return to the list if progress does not continue.

Meanwhile, Canada is on the Priority Watch List? Really?

Btw, if you scan down to page 35, the USTR gives a list of the world's most Notorious Markets. So if you plan to do any traveling, check out that section to find out all the best places to do your shopping.