Calling all readers! I could use your help. I am trying to put together a list of the biggest flops in Korean movie history (well, in the last 10 years or so, anyhow), but I am worried about forgetting something obvious (or even not-so-obvious but important). So if you feel like taking a moment to write in your suggestions, I would appreciate it very much.
Of course there is RESURRECTION OF THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL, NATURAL CITY and WONDERFUL DAYS. I have a list of other ideas, but I would be more interested in hearing what you all think. And it does not have to be just financial flops. Films that did so-so commercially but that you think were total dogs could count, too. Whatever you think fits.
Many thanks for your help.
City of Violence
Antartic Journal
Restless
running Wild
That’s it for the moment !)
Elena
I think Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance can be considered a flop, especially it opened to high expectations but low grosses after the success of J.S.A..
Of course, I think it’s a brilliant film, though.
Duelist
I found these two films pretty bad:
Lost Memories 2009
Hmm.. maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if Japan had kept Korea. At least it wouldn’t be split up and have 22MM living under a crazy dictator. Actually I’m Korean-American, and Japan having kept Korea is the last thing I would have wanted. But Japan ISN’T that evil nation plotting to get Korea again. Seriously, would they want 70MM Koreans? ROK doesn’t even want 22MM DPRKs.
Taegukki Hwinalimyun
WAY too emotional and over the top. Korean film makers must watch Flag of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, or even just JSA, and appreciate the subtlety of moviemaking =b.
That being said I LOVED JSA, GwaeMul, Yupki Girl, that four seasons movie, etc. etc. Korea films are great! Some just suck.
-Bobby
Blue Swallow- a huge cost and died at the b.o. because Koreans thought it was pro-japan.
Shark Bait- I have no idea what this cartoon is still about.
Finding Mr. perfect- he spoke English and she spoke only Korean. what a mess.
Rikidozan- huge cost little return
Fly Daddy fly- what a turd this one was at the box office.
Typhoon-huge cost and still not made back $ yet.
the show must go on- what a joke this film was this year..
rikidozan
i’m a cyborg but that’s ok
2006 gave plentiful pickings. i vaguely remember it was well over half of the productions ending up in the red. if not more.
the lavish ones probably flopped the most: The Restless, South Of the Border (Over the Border).
Martial arts fantasy is usually big investment and small return, except the early ones like Musa (?)
Others audience just couldn’t love: Antarctic Journal, Double Agent, Dasepo Naughty Girls, practically everything starring Ko So-young.
ed
+1: the old garden
이재수의 난 The Uprising, 1998
I seem to remember Are You Ready and Yesterday as being part of the ‘big flop triumvirate’ of 2002 (along with Match Girl).
to me, flop is a wide gap between production costs, promotion cost, and studio-production company expectations, and audience (lack of) response, both in terms of numbers and opinion on the other. in this sense, it is hard for me not to consider ‘i’m a cyborg but that’s okay’ as a flop.
Mind you, some of the movies I love best have been neglected here. Some people I edit wrote an article about that recently, how great films sometimes flop (or at least “fail
“) here:
-Save the Green Planet (but I loved it)
-Please Take Care of My Cat (but I loved it)
-Blue Swallow (which I loved, and was mostly killed at the b.o. not because it was pro-Japanese but because it wasn’t anti-Japanese enough for netizens’ liking, and was eclipsed by The King’s Man (or whatever they called that one in English)).
-Twaemarok — I can’t remember what the English title was, but it’s roundly ridiculed. (The Soul Guardians, maybe it was called?) Expectations were higher than what was delivered, as the book was apparently famous. I don’t know how it did, but the movie was apparently *horrible*.
– Did Hwasango (Volcano High) do well? I LOVED the film, but every Korean I tell this thinks I’m batsh*t crazy.
Hi Gord. Thanks for the comments.
Not sure what you mean by “here”. In this comment section? In Korea? As I said in the original post, there are many ways to classify a film a flop.
SAVE THE GREEN PLANET and TAKE CARE OF MY CAT both got great reviews in Korea and beyond (and I quite liked them, too, especially CAT). CAT was actually released in the theaters twice, as critics begged people to go, but the public was not interested.
You’re not going to get much sympathy from me for BLUE SWALLOW, though. I found it one of the most disappointing films ever. I really wanted to love it, but found it deathly dull and silly.
VOLCANO HIGH did okay.
Thanks to everyone else for your help, too.