Books, blog and other blather

Month: October 2006 (Page 2 of 2)

Korea Weekend Box Office – Oct. 13-15

Just because PIFF was going on does not mean the rest of Korea stops going to the movies. But it does mean I am late in updating the charts.

Not much to report this week… except that TAZZA has topped 5 million attendance (around $33 million). Not bad for just 20 days in the theaters.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. Tazza: The High Rollers 9.27 546 189,000 4,955,000
2. Radio Star 9.27 272 81,400 1,228,400
3. World Trade Center 10.12 140 56,000 201,000
4. Lady in the Water 10.12 73 31,000 85,800
5. Marrying the Mafia 3:Gamun-ui Buhwal 9.21 300 30,000 3,349,100
6. Maundy Thursday 9.14 250 23,400 3,120,400
7. Ant Bully 9.27 73 10,100 279,400
8. Rob-B-Hood 9.27 150 7,200 397,400
9. The Banquet 9.21 61 4,400 429,300
10. Jal Salabose 9.27 99 1,600 270,400

(Source: Film2.0)

Asia Film Market Wrap-up

Sorry for not posting for so long. This year was, for me, probably the busiest Pusan International Film Festival I have ever experienced. It was my first year there without my old editor doing the heavy lifting. And on top of it all, I had a feature I was writing for the New York Times. It is great writing for the NYT, but it requires a totally different part of the brain than writing for the trades does. Put it all together, and you get quite a hectic and stressful PIFF… but mostly in a good way.

After seeing a few movies in the opening days, I had to spend most of my time at the Asian Film Market. This was the first official year of the AFM, at least in name. There has always been plenty of industry events at PIFF, under a series of names and acronyms. But this year they put everything together and expanded the market and gave it a name.

AFM is basically four days of industry events and showcases and stuff like that. Four floors of the Grand Hotel were filled with movie companies looking to sell their wares. Down on the lower levels of the hotel, there was a location market and seminars. In the evenings, plenty of parties.

Most of the parties were to build recognition for some movie or another, or else for an entire country’s industry. But for some reason, no one knows how to throw a party because the majority of events were terrible — long (very long), poorly written presentations about some project or another with no care or concern about whether the guests were enjoying themselves. Consider it a metaphor for the entire Korean film industry.

Korean highlights include:
– Showbox had a big bash where they revealed more footage from D-WAR, a ridiculously expensive dragons-in-Los Angeles film. D-WAR will cost an incredibly $60-million (or more). Most of the money comes from private investors (especially director Shim Hyung-rae’s brother), but Showbox is investing a good hunk, too.
– Taewon Entertainment is investing in the $25-million epic THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON, which will star Andy Lau and Maggie Q.
– CJ Entertainment and Nabi Pictures presented THE RESTLESS, some sort of martial-arts/fantasy thing set in some sort of Asian purgatory with some sort of big-name cast.

Terrance Chang was there, not talking about CHRISTMAS CARGO, a big-budget Korean film that will be filmed in New Zealand eventually. If his announcement is as big as is rumored, though, it will be doozy. Since my blog is not anonymous, however, I will not talk about it yet.

I even met a squad of guys from CAA, which was pretty different. Such a different mindset from the more haphazard way the Asian movie biz usually runs. But Ken Slovitz gave me a quote (CAA usually does not talk to the press), so I was quite happy.

PIFF Kicks Off

Well, the latest Pusan International Film Festival (the 11th, if you are keeping track at home) kicked off last night, with the usual heaps of hoopla and spectacle. And, as per my personal tradition, I hung out in the back, drinking beer. PIFF’s opening movie is always screened at the Suyeong Yatching Club, on the big outdoor screen with around 2000 people in the audience. But just behind the screening area, there is a couple of small restaurants, selling udong and beer. I find that environment easier on the senses than the earnestness of the PIFF opening ceremonies. Nothing wrong with PIFF’s opening ceremonies, but it is just not to my taste. Beer is.

The opening film this year was Kim Dae-sung’s TRACES OF LOVE, a melodrama about a guy who loses his girlfriend in the Sampoong Department Store collapse of 10 years ago. Now, I only caught part of the film (thanks to the beer), but I luckily happened to be there when the building fell down. Nicely down, given the film’s budget constraints (although I was a little disappointed that no one sang “My Heart Will Go On”). But what happened right after that really turned me off of the film.

Just before the building collapsed, the lead character, played by Yu Ji-tae, was on his way to meet his girlfriend at the Sampoong. He is walking across the street when he sees the building disintegrate, right in front of his eyes. Dust is everywhere, but all Yu’s character thinks about is finding his girlfriend. “Min-ju! Min-ju!” he shouts, in a daze.


The problem was, as he is shouting this, there are dozens of injured people running past him in the other direction, fleeing for safety. Does Yu’s character ask anyone if they need assitance? Does he try to help anyone? Of course, no. All he does is wander around the site for hours, getting in the way of rescure workers, while doing nothing to help anyone. For some reason, that really ticked me off, and soon after I returned to my hotel room to watch the season finale of LOST.

After LOST, it was time for the big opening night party at the Paradise Hotel. It was a pretty decent event, with all the usual suspects there like every year. Most fortunately for me, I bumped into someone I have been trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with for a couple of weeks now (someone who I need to talk to for a North Korea article I am writing). Then we crashed the actors party on the second floor, which was really amusing because they had oodles of fancy food but no one was touching anything. No carbs! Must stay thin! Hah.

Then came the infamous odeng bar. Each year, the odeng bar behind the Grand Hotel is one of the major late-night spots for everyone to drink and make trouble. It was definitely one bar too many for me. I’m just happy I did not continue with my friends who went to some karaoke room. Sleep was much needed for me.

Today, I checked out the newly restored print on the Shin Sang-ok film ARCH OF CHASTITY. I tend to prefer the older films at these film festivals, and Shin’s 1962 movies about a widow and the man who tries falls in love with her was pretty amusing. Lots of sex and heaving bosoms. Not bad for an old film.


Then I saw the Japanese film MEMORIES OF MATSUKO, which was pretty good. Although if I hear that kitchy theme song one more time I might have to stab myself in the ears. It was a quirky film about a guy discovering an aunt he never knew he had. She has just died, and he must clean out her apartment. It was shot very much in the style of the Thai film CITIZEN DOG (that is colorful and surreal, with the occasional musical number), although it was much darker.

A Little Rain Must Fall

Today at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club we had a press conference featuring the Korean pop star Rain (“Bi” in Korea, and his real name is Jeong Ji-hun, or Chung Jee-hoon, or… sigh). Rain is one the verge of being perhaps Korea’s biggest singing star. His posters fill shopping malls all around South Asia (especially Thailand). His two shows in New York last February received extensive (and mixed) reviews in all the major media. He has an inoffensive R&B style, kind of like American top-40 R&B, without the cussing or crotch-grabbing. All of the edge with none of the cutting.


Anyhow, Rain seemed like a very nice, polite young man. Very sincerely and earnest, if a tad vacuous. Ask him about what music he likes, and you hear Usher and Michael Jackson. Ask him about what he had to learn to be successful in the United States, and he talked about world-renowned choreographers and expert stage show producers. Raised on music industry jargon, he talked about “markets” and storytelling concert concepts far more than songwriting or music.

It was a pleasant-enough event, but it got me thinking, “Why is this all Korea has?” Music is a spectrum, with Justin Timberlake et al. on one end, a bunch of kids in their garage or some local dive on the other end, and a whole wealth of options in between. That is not only true of pop, but rock, jazz, even classical. But for some reason, Korea only latches on to extreme pop, gloss, commercial end of the spectrum.

Actually, the reasons are not that hard to figure out. Korea is not a diverse market for any product. The music industry overwhelmingly focuses on the teen market, recycling the same ideas for over a decade now. Etc. But the No. 1 reason Korea’s music market is so lame is that the government has deliberately made it so with useless, onerous regulations.

The worst regulations are the cabaret laws. Korea is full of byzantine regulations about how live music can be played. If you have live music and alcohol, then you need a cabaret license, which is expensive and generally only for sleazy clubs catering to older, trot-loving clientel. It is pretty much impossible for a small, underground bar to afford a cabaret license. Without a license to serve alcohol, how many college kids are you going to get? Young adults who want to blow off steam and have a good time are going to regular bars before they are going to go to hole-in-the-wall playing live music (and without the alcohol income, who can afford to make a place look nice?).

The regulations are capricious in a whole host of other ways (I’m sure I know just a fraction of the problems). For example, getting a foreign act for a small club is all but impossible. And bringing in the best from around the region is a great way to get young people excited about musical possibilities, to raise the standard here.

Regulators also make it pretty much impossible to have genre-specific radio stations. So radio in Korea is all over the place, with each station doing a little of everything and a whole lot of nothing. As a result, it is that much harder to cultivate an audience and a depth of knowledge about any genre.

Which then got me thinking about how government regulation in Korea cripples and kills so many areas, especially in entertainment and culture. Television suffers from the ridiculous Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation and Korea Broadcasting Commission. Movies have the screen quota (although not as badly as they did until recently) — just one more example of the government doing something to be “fair,” and in the process destroying creativity, art and all the good stuff in favor of ugly, stupid corporations (see this earlier post). I should put together a rant on the whole mess, but I am not quite ready yet. To come… soon, perhaps.

Korea Weekend Box Office – Oct. 6-8

Not a lot time for me to talk about this week’s chart (deadlines, deadlines). My quick tally of the 10-day Chuseok box office was about 8 million tickets — not bad, but far from the 12 million some were predicting.

TAZZA: THE HIGH ROLLERS (the new and improved title of WAR OF FLOWERS) easily took the top spot, with nearly 4 million tickets sold since Sept. 27.

ANT BULLY (which was No. 7 the previous weekend, but was not on Film 2.0’s chart when I wrote my post) rose two spots to No. 5 last weekend, while the Kim Jeong-eun comedy JAL SALABOSE fell two spots to No. 8. I’m guessing word of mouth was responsible for much of that movement, along with the additional kids going to the cinema (thanks to parents desperate to get their tykes out of their hair after several days of holiday fun). While not exactly a hit, ANT BULLY is not doing bad for a film on just 94 screens.

The Sponge-distributed VOLVER still ekes out of spot at the bottom of the chart. Nice to see something by Almodovar there, even if it is not tearing up the box office. Hopefully, we’ll see more stuff like that in the weeks and months ahead.

THE HOST is almost toast. Now playing in just 10 theaters around Korea, it looks like Bong Joong-ho’s monster movie has reached the end of its run, with just over 12.97 million tickets sold. So close to the magical 13 million, but just short.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. Tazza: The High Rollers 9.27 620 363,000 3,835,000
2. Marrying the Mafia 3:Gamun-ui Buhwal 9.21 420 134,700 3,094,400
3. Radio Star 9.27 291 115,600 856,000
4. Maundy Thursday 9.14 250 67,500 2,969,900
5. Ant Bully 9.27 94 35,500 241,900
6. The Fox Family 9.27 200 31,400 280,900
7. Rob-B-Hood 9.27 174 30,800 315,700
8. Jal Salabose 9.27 230 15,800 261,100
9. The Banquet 9.21 90 14,100 403,500
10. Volver 9.21 5 2,100 16,600

(source: Film 2.0)

Scorsese and Cronenberg – What the Hell Happened?

I just finished watching the DVD of HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, the last David Cronenberg movie. And despite my deep love of Mr. Cronenberg’s works, this one had me really scratching my head.

It also had me thinking of the parallels between Cronenberg and Martin Scorsese. Think about it.
– Both were astounding, groundbreaking directors in the 1970s
– Both moved into more sophisticated fare in the 1980s
– Both turned to recycled, half-assed self-imitations in the 1990s

Okay, maybe I am being over-critical, but really… Since NAKED LUNCH, Cronenberg has not been at the top of his game. XISTENZ was a warmed-over VIDEODROME. SPIDER was a lot of cheap psychobabble (albeit with some great acting). And HISTORY OF VIOLENCE?

Okay, it was neat seeing Cronenbery trying to film normal life for the first half of the movie — I think it was the first time he ever tackled such mundanity. Totally a round-peg, square-hole kind of thing, but it was great to see him try. But once he moved to the more action-ish second half, the film became totally cartoony. Especially the climax at William Hurt’s mansion, where Joey/Tom goes all Jason-Bourne on the gangsters. Ugh.

(Loved the sex scenes, though, especially the contrast between the innocent fooling around in the beginning and the harsh stairwell romp later on.)

I find it incredibly interesting watching how non-Hollywood-mainstream directors put together their films. I find that a lot of alternative directors don’t do Hollywood as much out of inability as choice. Don’t get me wrong… often I enjoy that visual cacophony. But I think it is clear that these different styles are not only about choice.

Similar to Cronenberg’s recent mediocrities, look at Scorsese since GOODFELLAS (or AGE OF INNOCENSE or KUNDUN, depending on how you would like to measure such things). BRINGING OUT THE DEAD was a total joke… A director wallowing in technique at the complete expense of the story. GANGS OF NEW YORK was so close to excellence, but ended up being so dull. And the less said about THE AVIATOR the better.

I think Cronenberg and Scorsese are not the only directors guilty of sliding into mediocrity in their later years. Terry Gilliam has been pretty unimpressive for some time. There are plenty more. And all of them have accomplished far more than I ever will. But, still, the decline in their work is disappointing. Failure is one thing, but torpid is much worse.

….

On a somewhat different note, I am interested to read the Scorsese is next going to tackle SILENCE, Endo Shusaku’s book about Portuguese missionaries to Japan in the 17th century. I had heard plenty of rumors about various Japanese projects Scorsese allegedly wanted to do (including a biopic of Rikidozan and some random thing about Japanese gangsters), but this sounds a lot more interesting and organic.

A Japanese friend of mine who has helped out on this project a little tells me that Scorsese intends to follow up on the themes he explored in LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (my favorite book) and KUNDUN (also underrated), which pleases me immensely.

….

On a completely different note, I think Sam Mendes’ JARHEAD was really underrated. Yes, most of the film was dull and/or derivative. But once the war starts, it was just one amazing shot after another. A total “holy shit” kind of movie. A problematic film, but the best of it was brilliant.

Fresh Tomatoes for Hong

Just a follow-up to my earlier post on Hong Sang-soo’s latest film, WOMAN ON THE BEACH. It looks like the film is getting quite a good reception in the West. A little surprising considering how often critics do not “get” his movies, even the good ones. But so far, Rotten Tomatoes has a 100% Fresh rating (based on just five reviews, but still not bad). And I’ll also link to the Variety review (not sure how long people can access it for free, though).

UPDATE: Looks like Hong’s good luck has run out. As of Oct. 23, his rating is down to 86%, thanks to a negative review from The Hollywood Reporter.

Korean Weekend Box Office – Sept. 29-Oct. 1

We are still a few days away from the Chuseok holiday, but all the big films were already released on Thursday, so the weekend box office gives us a good insight on what the big holiday films are going to be. And the winner is — WAR OF FLOWERS. Resoundingly, so.

Congratulations to Choi Dong-hoon, whose popular appeal has finally matched his critical appeal. His last film, THE BIG SWINDLE, never caught on with the public, but this time, I guess Choi done good. Something I had not considered until a friend pointed it out today was the comparison between Matt Damon’s ROUNDERS and WAR OF FLOWERS. WoF is based on the Korean card game hwa-tu, which I never learned how to play, but is apparently full of bluffing and mind-games, much like poker. Rather than display my ignorance too brilliantly, I will refrain from more dubious analogies until I learn the game.

In other movie news, MARRYING THE MAFIA 3 and MAUNDY THURSDAY remained surprisingly strong, at No. 2 and No. 4 respectively. Lee Jun-ik’s RADIO STAR had a fairly middling debut, and THE FOX FAMILY was downright poor. And the Chinese film THE BANQUET tumbled all the way down to No. 8.

This Week Title…………………………………. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Attendance (Seoul only) Total Attendance
1. War of Flowers 9.27 513 267,200 1,169,400
2. Marrying the Mafia 3: Gamun-ui Buhwal 9.21 420 92,700 1,923,400
3. Radio Star 9.27 320 70,300 210,400
4. Maundy Thursday 9.14 250 70,200 2,441,900
5. The Fox Family 9.27 202 28,600 101,300
6. Jal Salabose 9.27 256 20,400 105,900
7. Rob-B-Hood 9.27 174 18,600 75,400
8. The Banquet 9.21 100 12,000 223,600

(source: Film 2.0)

Some random thoughts…
– The number of screens listed this week was way up, 2,235 all told. Last week we had 1,924. In fact, there are around 1,700 screens in Korea. What gives? I assume that, due to the huge competition for screens, that a lot of films doubled-up, showing two movies on one screen, just at different times.
– Attendance appears to be up nicely, considering the holidays have not officially started yet. This week, 580,000 tickets were sold in Seoul, up from 502,500 last weekend. Not bad, but hardly overwhelming — 640,000 tickets were sold the week HANBANDO was released around July 14, and a massive 780,000 tickets sold for THE HOST’s debut at the end of July. Attendance will have to pick up massively to reach the 10-12 million ticket estimates that some thought would be sold over the 10-day holiday period this year.
– Once again, Korea’s lack of diversity is showing, with not enough films in the theaters to make a top-10. Only eight significant releases (although I’m sure Sponge House, Dongsoong and the Seoul Art Cinema had alternative titles that did not make the chart).

Diverse Roads to Diversity

There was a surprisingly good profile of the independent movie distributor Sponge House in today’s Korea Times (you can read it here). For people looking for alternatives to the same-old-same-old Hollywood and Korean mainstream, Sponge House is one of the few alternatives around.

But the money quote for me came about halfway through, when Sponge House president Cho Sung-kyu talked about the Korean Screen Quota. As most followers of Korean cinema know, Korea has long had a quota which requires every movie screen in the nation to show local films a minimum number of days per year. Until recently, that number was about 146 days a year, although by showing Korean films at certain peak times, you could get that number down to 106 days a year. But starting July, the quota has been halved to 73 days a year, although with the peak exemptions eliminated.

Although many support the Korean Screen Quota and measures like it in the name of “diversity,” in fact, the quota can actually impede diversity, as Cho notes in the story.

There is a strong debate in Korea about the diversity of Korean cinema and government regulations towards cinema. Cho says, “I disagree with government regulations. They can have good effects too, but they treat all cinemas the same, while there is a big difference between a Sponge House and other smaller film houses, and the big multiplexes. A measure like the screen quota should be flexible towards different kinds of cinemas,” he added. “If the screen quota hadn’t been reduced, we wouldn’t have opened the Sponge Houses. For Sponge Houses it would have been too difficult to show Korean films 146 days a year,” referring to the boom in popular mainstream films in Korea, and the much smaller number of selections from Korean independent cinema.

Cho is skeptical about the suggested “minimum quota,” a regulation that demands Korean independent/art films be shown for a minimum number of days. “Korean independent cinema and its audiences are small. The minimum quota won’t work. People won’t go to see the films.” However, he believes that the Korean independent cinema can grow from its current five percent to 10 percent of the market in the future.

As difficult as it can be for small distributors and films to compete with the mainstream, I really like reading about someone trying to do just that, with minimum government help/interference. Despite its best intentions, government is not the artist’s friend (and quite often the government has intentions that are far from the best). Finding economic solutions to artistic problems is by far the strongest and most sustainable way to preserve that art. Kudos to Cho for trying.

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