Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

Random Notes — Vol 5, No. 1

January 17, 2010 / / 1 Comment
  • The Film Society of the Lincoln Center has posted its top 100 films of the past decade. Bong Joon-ho’s THE HOST was the top Korean film, at No. 71 (eh). His (much better) MEMORIES OF MURDER landed in 84th. Hong Sangsoo had two films on the list, WOMAN ON THE BEACH at No. 83, and TURNING GATE at No. 97.
  • Other thoughts on the FSLC list… Very cool to see IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE at No. 2. And two films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul in the top 10 (and another at No. 39). But I think I was most amazed that Tsai Ming-liang’s GOODBYE DRAGON INN made it to No. 23; I loved the film, but I had no idea so many other people liked it, too).
  • AVATAR is officially the biggest foreign film ever in Korea. As of Jan. 17, it has about 9.3 million admissions and 80 billion won ($71 million). Definitely it will be the first foreign film to top 10 million admissions. TRANSFORMERS 2 was the previous record-holder, with 7.4 million admissions. Years ago, James Cameron’s TITANIC was the foreign record holder (heck, it was the biggest film ever in Korea before SHIRI came along), with 4.5 million admissions.
  • Harper’s Index is now online and searchable. Here are the results you get for “Korea”. Sadly, no results for “kimchi“; the search engine must be broken or something. (Nothing under “Mongolia” either).
  • Sounds like a pretty big shipment of counterfeit DVD‘s caught by the United States, having come via Korea. I wonder if they were Yongsan specials…
  • How completely shocked am I that this is the fifth year I have been doing this blog? Incredible how quickly the time passes. But hopefully I will get off my butt and open the new website soon.
  • Okay, this is totally random… But over on the Predictably Irrational blog (found via Andrew Sullivan), the author compares the Google prediction for “How do I get my girlfriend to” versus “How do I get my boyfriend to”.

    Inspired, I decided to type into Google “Why does my husband”, which brings up the predictable (“…look at other women”, “ignore me”, “lie to me”, etc.). Interesting, if a little depressing.


    And then I typed “Why does my wife”, and I found a rather surprising suggestion.

    • Random Korea stuff

    1 Comment

    1. John from Daejeon

      “but I had no idea so many other people liked it, too”

      The odd critic and filmmaker…yes, your average person…not when compared to the likes of “Spider-Man” or “The Lord of the Rings.”

      This list doesn’t even include input/rankings by popular filmmakers like Sam Raimi, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Werner Herzog, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan, or even Peter Jackson whose film, “Lovely Bones” is featured on the very same webpage.

      How can anyone take this list seriously when the best known filmmaker on it is John Waters and isn’t exactly known for mainstream work?

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