Mark James Russell

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Month: September 2006 (Page 1 of 2)

Chuseok Is Coming…

September 28, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Well, it looks like Chuseok (Korea’s fall harvest festival) is going to be rather unusual this year. Since it is a holiday determined by the lunar calendar, it moves around each year, and this year it falls on Oct. 5-7. But Oct. 3 is Korea’s National Foundation Day, to celebrate the founding of Korea by Dangun, the son of a god and a bear-woman, in 2333 BC (could have happened).

Anyhow, with Tuesday, Thursday and Friday already holidays, a good chunk of Korea is taking Monday and Wednesday off, too, and basically having a big vacation from Sept. 29 to Oct. 8. A nice eight or nine days off.

The reason I mention this is that Chuseok is also usually the biggest movie-going season in Korea. And they do not just go to any old movie — usually this is one of the strongest seasons for local movies. Last year, when Chuseok was a more normal five days, 3.5 million people went to the movies (assuming no one went more than once). With a big 10 days off, the movie industry is practically giddy at the thought of how many tickets they might be able to sell. 10 million? 11 million? 12? Considering that Korea is on track to sell around 160 million tickets this year, conceivably around 8% of the year’s box office could be decided over this 10-day stretch.

Which is why so many movies are coming out right now. You have RADIO STAR, the new movie by Lee Joon-ik (the guy who made THE KING AND THE CLOWN, the surprise hit of last winter which was until recently the most successful Korean film of all time). This story, starring two of the biggest names from the 1990s, Park Joong-hoon and Ahn Sung-gi, about a washed up rock star becoming a radio deejay out in the countryside, seemed pretty dubious to me. A real retro, Chungmuro story, the kind of thing that the Korean film industry would have made 10 years ago.

However, the film has been getting great buzz from its preview screenings. So who knows?

Another big film will be WAR OF FLOWERS (which I think CJ Entertainment has renamed, but I cannot find the new name, if it exists), a crime-noir thriller sort of thing about some card sharks. WAR OF FLOWERS is based on a popular newspaper comic strip from the 1990s, and it is directed by Choi Dong-hoon, the guy behind THE BIG SWINDLE, a film that did well among critics, even though it kind of flailed at the box office.

WAR OF FLOWERS is getting pretty good buzz, but more importantly, it is being distributed by CJ Entertainment. Why is that important? Because with so many films coming out right now, getting access to screens is incredibly competitive. And since CJE runs the CJ CGV, the biggest multiplex chain in Korea, that gives their movies an instant leg up.

Other films? Well, MARRYING THE MAFIA 3 and MAUNDY THURSDAY are both still doing well, and will fight to keep their screens. And there is some sort of Kim Jung-eun “comedy” called JAL SALABOSE (“Let’s Get Better,” a very famous song from the Saemaeul movement in the 1970s). There is also THE FOX FAMILY, a comedy-horror based on Korea’s folktale of the nine-tailed foxes.

Buena Vista Korea is distributing the new Jackie Chan film ROB-B-HOOD. While I am not a huge fan of Mr. Chan’s recent films, nor of films revolving around cute babies, Jackie often does okay in Korea, and BV has got around 165 screens for the film, so who knows, it could do well (I’m told they are tracking 400,000 or so over this opening weekend).

And believe it or not, there is more. Altogether, around 11 movies make their debuts over this weekend.

Korea Weekend Box Office – Sept. 22-24

September 25, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Wow. Zero Hollywood films in the top-10 this week. None. Nada. Zip. In all my years in Korea, I cannot remember that ever happening before. I would say that I am speechless, but I am always speechless (this is typing after all).

In the top spot was the latest in the MARRYING THE MAFIA series, GAMUN-UI BUHWAL (“Rebirth of the Family”). I found the first MtM to be rather unfunny, but the idea was cute enough — a family of gangsters seek out a “prestigious” marriage for their daughter, basically forcing her on a poor, nerdy academic. Few on that cast made it to the first sequel, about a gangster’s daughter-in-law who is also a star prosecutor, aiming to stamp out the mob. For this sequel, most of the cast from the first sequel is back. With the main family now out of the mob and trying to go straight (as kimchi makers), the story is getting kind of threadbare. But with 1.2 million people going for the opening weekend, I guess the brass Taewon Entertainment know what they are doing.

It looks like Zhang Ziyi, Danny Wu and Feng Xiaogang’s publicity trip to Seoul last week helped out the debut of THE BANQUET, which opened in No. 3. All three were quite smart with the local media, talking about how much they like shopping at Dongdaemun (Zhang) or how much they want a Korean crew for their next movie (Feng).

A more interesting and surprising debut this week comes from Pedro Almodovar’s VOLVER at No. 9 — not bad for a film on just eight screens (six of which are in Seoul). I’m pretty sure VOLVER is being distributed in Korea by Sponge House, a small, independent distributor that is doing a lot of interesting things, despite its size (or maybe because of it).

Looks like I was wrong about THE HOST. Which did not make it to 13 million last week, and now that it is down to 71 theaters, I guess it will not make it. Well, not until Showbox (its distributor) finds some “uncounted” admissions or sends all of its staff to see it or whatever. It is pretty close now to 13 million, so it would not take much to push it over the top.

Also looks like THE SINKING OF JAPAN will not make it to 1 million admissions. The film has done quite well in Korea, but I am not sure if it has beaten LOVE LETTER yet. The two are pretty close.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. Marrying the Mafia 3: Gamun-ui Buhwal 9.21 500 249,600 1,252,200
2. Maundy Thursday 9.14 471 140,500 2,055,600
3. The Banquet 9.21 254 58,800 223,600
4. Between Love and Hate 9.07 165 15,000 645,000
5. Puzzle 9.14 196 12,500 258,800
6. Mudori 9.21 163 10,000 51,000
7. Like a Virgin 8.31 59 6,500 663,000
8. The Host 7.27 71 4,700 12,965,700
9. Volver 9.21 8 4,100 5,400
10. Sinking of Japan 8.31 37 800 939,500

(source: Film 2.0)

The strange thing is, this Hollywood-less condition could conceivably last. Next week, the only Western films on the schedule are the animated film ANT BULLY and MRS. DALLOWAY. ANT BULLY did very poorly in the United States, and who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?

(Sorry, there was no excuse for that…)

Oscar Time – No Clowning Around

September 22, 2006 / / 0 Comments

KOFIC announced yesterday that THE KING AND THE CLOWN is Korea’s nomination this year for Best Foreign Language Award at the Academy Awards. Oh joy.

THE KING AND THE CLOWN was the big surprise hit of the year. It came out at the very end of 2005 and little was expected of it. TYPHOON, BLUE SWALLOW and DAISY were the heavyweights. Even Hollywood was keeping its distance. But surprise, surprise — Typhoon turned out to be a faint gust, and Blue Swallow was a dead parrot. And Daisy was not even released until some time later. That left THE KING AND THE CLOWN with very little competition.

Even though TKatC opened on just 200 screens (pretty small these days in Korea), it got some amazing word of mouth. It just took off, and by the end of March, it had become the biggest film ever in Korea, selling over 12.3 million tickets.

That success was doubly surprising considering CLOWN had some strong homosexual themes in it. In case you do not know, TKatC is the story of two entertainers back in the early Joseon (Chosun) Dynasty who get in trouble for mocking the king. But after they are able to make the king himself laugh, they become entertainers in the royal court. The king takes quite a fancy to one of the guys, who is quite effeminate and known to turn tricks to help feed the two of them. Both of them then get drawn into the palace’s politics, and bad stuff happens.

Anyhow, KING AND THE CLOWN beat out Kim Ki-duk’s TIME and Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST, so it is not like the competition was overwhelming. But still, I wish Korea could have done better. Just becoming Korea’s pick is no guarantee that it will become one of the five Oscar finalists. And considering how clueless the Academy is each year (doubly so in the foreign language category), is this a prize you really want to win?

Season of Our Dis-Contents

September 22, 2006 / / 0 Comments

This week, on Monday and Tuesday, saw the latest DICON held in Seoul, at the Convention Center. The fact that DICON stands for “International Digital Content Conference” gives you a pretty good idea how sensible this event is (i.e., not much). My puny brain would call that IDCC, but what do I know? Or IDCon2 or something.

Anyhow, despite being in its sixth year, DICON was a bit of a mess. Interpretations were very random, when they existed at all. The most potentially interesting presentation was canceled (Orion Ross was supposed to talk about What is Hot Around Asia). And the organizers managed to annoy more than a few of the guests by changing around plans and schedules at a whim. Which led to more than a few annoyed guests. I was told that Terrance Chang and Bong Joon-ho were both severaly displeased by how the whole event went.

And what is the POINT of DICON anyway? I know it is accepted industry jargon these days, but any time a bunch of bureaucrats start jabbering on about “content”, I am usually pretty skeptical. Does anyone get excited about the thought of Content? Literature, sure. Movies, you bet. Music, games, stories, ideas — all great. But “content”? Ugh.

Korean Music Charts – August

September 20, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Well, as long as I am posting the movie charts, maybe I should try doing the music charts, too. Fortunately, the Music Industry Association of Korea only publishes this information once a month.

Unfortunately, music charts are not what they once were. Especially in Korea. In 2005, physical music sales (of CDs and cassettes) made up just 113.8 billion won (around $118.5 million). Digital sales (mobile phone ringtones, Internet subscription services, etc.) came to a hearty 248 billion won ($258 million). Impressed? Digital music in Korea is nearly 2.5 times bigger than “regular” music sales (regular to old people like me who like to have something to hold).

This trend is just going to continue, too. Physical music sales once was around 400 billion won a year (416 billion won in 1996). Most people in the industry will tell you that piracy and file sharing destroyed sales. I would tell you that stale, uncreative, juvenile product had at least as much influence, but what do I know? Anyhow, the important thing is that, thanks to the Internet and mobile phones, Koreans are spending more money than ever on music. I read an industry analysis once, made by a local securities company, that predicted the digital music market will top $1 billion by 2010.

Anyhow, I babble. On with the charts. First up – Korean albums sales for August:

This Month Artist Album Name Release Date This Month’s Sales Total Sales
1. Shinhwa Vol. 8 – State of the Art (Special Edition) 5.10 40,440 201,892
2. Psy Vol. 4 7.24 22,926 38,375
3. SG Wannabe Vol 3 – The Third Masterpieces 4.07 19,968 276,773
4. Yoon Do Hyun Band Vol. 7 – Why Be? 8.10 18,041 18,041
5. Big Bang We Belong Together (single) 8.28 17,159 17,159
6. Turtles Vol. 4 7.20 15,554 29,833
7. See Ya Vol. 1 2.24 13,996 78,887
8. Super Junior Vol. 1 – U 6.03 12,097 65,127
9. Park Jung-ah Vol. 1 – Yeah 8.25 10,544 10,544
10. Cherry Filter Vol. 4 – Peace N’ Rock N’ Roll 8.17 9,432 9,432

(source: MIAK)

Foreign pop chart to come soon (when I am in the mood). Since the top-selling foreign acts usually would not make the Korean top-10, I will post them separately. FYI, at the moment, Korean music makes up about 62% of the CD market, with foreign music around 23% and classical around 15%.

UPDATE:

Okay, here is the foreign chart:

This Month Artist Album Name Release Date This Month’s Sales Total Sales
1. Christina Aguilera Back to Basics 8.14 11,514 11,514
2. Dong Bang Sin Gi Sky (Japanese edition) 8.25 10,852 10,852
3. Various Mammo Mia OST 6.04 7,370 25,633
4. Jo Sumi With Love: Best of Jo Sumi 8.25 7,000 7,000
5. Arashi Aojorapedal 8.02 6,451 6,451
6. Various Club Hip Hop 8.10 3,143 3,143
7. Sweetbox Best of 1995-2005 4.21 2,390 86,946
8. Various Diamonds 8.24 2,319 2,319
9. Outkast Idlewild 8.22 1,980 1,980
10. Paris Hilton Paris 8.22 1,785 1,785

(source: MIAK)

Korea Weekend Box Office – Sept. 15-17

September 19, 2006 / / 0 Comments

After a quiet couple of weeks, a new hit opened last weekend, the melodrama MAUNDY THURSDAY, the story of a woman who wants to die and a man on death row who would much rather not. Directed by Song Hae-sung (FAILAN, RIKIDOZAN), MAUNDY was faulted by some film critics for being rather obvious. But for melodramas, obviousness is not always a failing. Anyhow, I have not seen it yet, so I should probably keep my snarky comments to myself.

Other notes… A disappointing opening for PUZZLE. The noir-ish crime drama had a pretty heavy push by Cinema Service, but nevertheless opened weakly. I’m guessing that it was too similar looking to WAR OF FLOWERS (타짜), which comes out next week (and looks to be a more interesting film).

Also, THE HOST is still chugging along. Looks like it will top the 13-million-attendance point in the next week.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. Maundy Thursday 9.14 520 297,800 1,204,400
2. Puzzle 9.14 235 52,600 178,800
3. Between Love and Hate 9.07 228 45,000 552,000
4. Like a Virgin 8.31 169 33,000 628,000
5. The Host 7.27 215 23,600 12,921,000
6. Sinking of Japan 8.31 203 17,000 916,600
7. Three Fellas 9.07 228 16,600 395,300
8. The Sentinel 9.07 90 10,100 154,900
9. United 93 9.07 58 4,000 73,000
10. No Mercy for the Rude 8.24 54 2,100 902,000

(source: Film 2.0)

(Note: Three Fellas was “Ttukbang Jeonseol” in last week’s box office chart)

Pusan International Film Festival

September 13, 2006 / / 0 Comments

Tuesday evening, the nice folks at the Pusan International Film Festival held their festival lineup announcement. Each year, about a month before the festival, the organizers hold a big press event where they talk all about the films and special programs and other events that will be going on at PIFF.

This year’s PIFF (Oct. 12-20) looks like it will be as much fun as ever. With 245 movies screening, there will be no shortage of films from all over the world to see.

But what sets off PIFF from all the other films festivals are:
1) The audiences. PIFF gets nearly 200,000 people a year, making it by far the most popular film festival in Asia.
2) The market. Now, there are plenty of film markets all over Asia (Bangkok, Tokyo, Hong Kong), but I would argue that only PIFF and Hong Kong are remotely significant. And since Hong Kong occurs by itself, with no film festival attached, it is much more subdued. But with PIFF and the Asian Film Market (as they are calling it this year) occuring at the same time, you get a real energy. Plus lots of celebrities, parties and all that silliness.

As usual, I expect I will be spending a lot of time in the Korean Cinema Retrospective, enjoying the old stuff. This year, PIFF will be featuring a lot of films from the colonial period, stuff I have seen almost none of before. I am really looking forward to them.

There really is too much screening for me to talk about all the things I want to see, but a few goodies will include:
– CROSSING THE LINE, the latest Daniel Gordon documentary out of North Korea, this time looking at Americans who defected TO North Korea.
– NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE, by Tsukamoto Shinya
– SCREAM OF THE ANTS, the latest by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
– PAPRIKA, the animated film by Kon Satoshi
– BORAT, because I am a bandwagon-jumping idiot

Korea Week Box Office – Sept. 8-10

September 11, 2006 / / 0 Comments

A bit of a quite weekend this week, as the Korean film world recovers from summer and prepares for the coming Chuseok Holiday onslaught. In the No. 1 spot, we have the debut of BETWEEN LOVE AND HATE (연애, 그 참을 수 없는 가벼움). It is nice to see Jang Jin-young back and doing well, after the fiasco that was BLUE SWALLOW.

More interesting, perhaps, is the surprising strength of LIKE A VIRGIN (천하장사 마돈나), which moved up from No. 3 to No. 2 this week. I guess the film has been getting some pretty good word of mouth… not bad for a movie about a boy who wants to get a sex-change operation. I have not seen it, but apparently it is a gentle-spirited film that is uplifting and quite non-judgmental.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. Between Love and Hate 9.07 253 85,000 298,000
2. Like a Virgin 8.31 191 54,000 483,000
3. Sinking of Japan 8.31 220 51,800 796,940
4. The Host 7.27 251 48,500 12,790,800
5. Ttukbang Jeonseol 9.07 245 47,000 248,900
6. The Sentinel 9.07 107 29,200 100,500
7. No Mercy for the Rude 8.24 155 20,400 873,400
8. United 93 9.07 70 16,000 48,000
9. Lake House 8.31 97 12,100 154,700
10. Woman on the Beach 8.31 117 8,400 206,300

(source: Film 2.0)

Korea Week Box Office – Sept. 2-3

September 7, 2006 / / 0 Comments

I guess I should think about adding a weekly box office column, just to be all cool and professional like Ryuganji. Or something like that.

FYI, I am going to use Film 2.0’s stats. Sure, KOFIC is more accurate, but it only looks at 86% of the market. Until they get up closer to 100% (hopefully in a year or so), I will use Film 2.0.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. Sinking of Japan 8.31 256 99,800 479,000
2. The Host 7.27 308 72,900 12,511,500
3. Like a Virgin 8.31 212 66,000 234,000
4. No Mercy for the Rude 8.24 220 56,800 749,200
5. Woman on the Beach 8.31 170 47,600 133,600
6. Lake House 8.31 133 43,400 103,900
7. Lump of Sugar 8.10 139 24,000 1,384,000
8. Ice Bar 8.24 200 16,800 447,300
9. Banlieue 13 8.24 80 15,900 212,700
10. Holy Daddy 8.24 193 11,200 446,900

(source: Film 2.0)

So, what to make of all this? The Japanese disaster movie SINKING OF JAPAN became the film to finally dethrone THE HOST, after a long and amazing run in No. 1 spot. In fact, this looks to be the best opening for a non-anime Japanese film ever in Korea, and the movie could possibly surpass LOVE LETTER as the top Japanese film ever in Korea (again, not including animation). One factor that could hurt its haul, though, is poor word of mouth. Just like in Japan, people do not seem to like SINKING very much (in the words of one friend, “It’s boring… It doesn’t sink”).

I should point out that Japan did not return the favor. THE HOST opened in Japan last weekend, but came in just a wimpy 7th. Kind of disappointing.

It was, however, a very good opening for Hong Sang-soo’s WOMAN ON THE BEACH. In fact, it was his second-best opening, after WOMAN IS THE FUTURE OF MAN (which had its numbers boosted by its star, Yu Ji-tae). Consider this a statement to Kim Ki-duk that a Korean filmmaker can be arthouse and respected abroad and pull in good numbers in Korea.

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