Mark James Russell

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Fantasporto, Day 3

March 4, 2010 / / 0 Comments

The rhythms of Fantasporto are very different from the film festivals I am used to in Asia. At PIFF or PiFan, the first films of the day typically start around 11am, and they run every two hours or so until the last screening around 9pm.

But here, first screenings are at 3pm, and the last screening is around 11, so they whole day is much later. Which is quite nice, actually. It gives you time to sleep in, do some sightseeing, and then make your way to the theater in a very leisurely manner.

Fantasporto - theater
(This is the theater where all the movies are screened)

The oddest thing about this schedule, however, is when the Fantasporto organizers want to have some sort of event. Because the afternoon and evening are filled with movies, we end up having cocktail receptions at 11am. This morning, we gathered at the Porto Town Hall at 11am for some port wine and a little hobnobbing with local dignitaries. All very nice (and the Porto Town Hall is quite majestic), but it is a little odd drinking port before noon. Not that anyone was forcing us to drink, I guess.

Fantasporto - City Hall
(Porto City Hall)

Fantasporto - Beatrice
(Beatrice, one of the festival bosses, speaking at City Hall)

Fantasporto - Mario
(And this is the infamous Mario, also at City Hall)

And then there is Portuguese food, which thus far has been incredibly rich, even compared to the food in Spain that I have gotten used to. Most notably so far has been a chicken-rice stew, with the broth made from red wine and chicken blood. Complete with heady goodness.

Fantasporto - chickenhead

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* I should mention that this is just day 3 of Fantasporto for me. The festival actually runs Feb. 26 to March 6, but I arrived halfway through.

New Beginnings, Portugal and More

March 3, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Now that I am not living in Korea and POP GOES KOREA has been published, I have been wondering how much sense it makes to continue a blog called Korea Pop Wars. So I have been slowly developing a new blog, that is more general and reflects the things I am working these days — www.markjamesrussell.com.

If you are interested, feel free to check it out. If you are only interested in Korea things … Well, I might cross-post Korea-related content here, at least for a while. Or I might not. I am not sure yet.

Many thanks, though, to everyone who lent their eyeballs here over the years. When I started this blog, it was primarily done to work up interest for the book (then titled Pop Wars: The Koreans Strike Back, which is why this blog is called Korea Pop Wars). I thought about talking about the latest Korean celebrity news, but around the same time all those K-Pop blogs got started, and no need to be redundant, so that idea fell by the wayside.

I also thought about talking about some of the more fun things I saw and heard about from the Korean entertainment scene, but I was a journalist back then, and if I talked about all the off-the-record stuff, it would not be long before no one told me anything anymore. So that idea did not go anywhere. So eventually the blog became what it was. Maybe not as dynamic as I hoped for, but judging by the traffic, there were a few of you out there who liked it. Thanks much.

Anyhow, I am currently in Porto, Portugal, at the Fantasporto Film Festival. So far, it has been great fun, and I hope to talk more about it over at the new blog.

Fantasporto, Day 1

March 3, 2010 / / 3 Comments

I just arrived in Porto, Portugal, to attend my first Fantasporto, aka the Oporto International Film Festival. Fantasporto is the biggest film festival held in Portugal, and at 30 years old, it is something of an icon. And because it is a film festival that concentrates on fantasy and science fiction movies, it should be a lot of fun and interesting.

fantas2010_web

Fantasporto founder Mario Dorminsky has been attending the Pucheon International Film Festival (Korea’s main fantasy film festival) for years, which is where I first met him. Mario is a very fun and usually unshaven man, although I suspect that he will be somewhat more cleaned up and a lot more stressed here than he usually is when I meet him in July in Korea (not sure since I have not seen him yet).

Not sure why Fantasporto does not have a higher profile. I have found almost nothing on the Internet about the festival in English (or French or anything but Portuguese and Spanish). It has a great lineup of movies and Porto/Oporto is a beautiful city. Very old and very green. And so far, great food.

Anyhow, I am very happy to be here. And hopefully I can provide some updates and pictures over the rest of my stay.

Avatar Sets the Record

February 28, 2010 / / 1 Comment

For the first time in 11 years, the biggest movie in Korea is no longer Korean. It looks like AVATAR has finally become the most popular film ever in Korea, topping the admissions for previous record holder THE HOST. 20th Century Fox says that on Sunday, AVATAR reached 13.01 million admissions, making it the biggest selling film ever in Korea.

AVATAR was already the highest-grossing film ever in Korea, due to its higher tickets prices.

My only caveat is that, according to my records, THE HOST had 13.02 million admissions, so it is possible that AVATAR has a few more tickets to sell. But even if that is the case, it is obvious that AVATAR will set the record in a day or two. (UPDATE: My caveat is moot. KOBIS says that AVATAR hit 13.08 million at the end of Sunday).

What is really amazing to me is that AVATAR’s 13 million admissions is so much higher than the next-closest foreign film, TRANSFORMERS 2, which had only 7.4 million admissions. That means AVATAR is over 75 percent higher than the next-biggest foreign movie.

Kind of sad, really. For years, the top foreign film in Korea was RETURN OF THE KING, which had its problems, but was mostly a good, epic movie. But TRANSFORMERS, TRANSFORMERS 2 and AVATAR? Those are three really crappy movies. I hope a new Korean movie can come along to retake the top spot before too long.

Pop Goes Vietnam

February 27, 2010 / / 0 Comments

This is kind of random, but a long interview I did with the BBC Vietnam has just been published. In Vietnamese. So if you can read Vietnamese (and, really, who can’t these days?), check it out.

The reasons for the interview are because of the great popularity that Korean TV, music and pop culture is having in Vietnam these days, and to talk about how the lessons of the Korean entertainment industry might be applicable to a place like Vietnam. That second reason in particular was a big motivator for me to write POP GOES KOREA in the first place.

I really believe that in the future, we are going to see more and more local cultures staking out space in the world pop culture scene, much as Korea has done over the past decade. Vietnam still has a long way to go, but I hope they can make it. What a great sign that would be for other countries that worry about their local cultures in the face of the Western entertainment industry.

Pop Goes Vietnam

February 27, 2010 / / 0 Comments

This is kind of random, but a long interview I did with the BBC Vietnam has just been published. In Vietnamese. So if you can read Vietnamese (and, really, who can’t these days?), check it out.

The reasons for the interview are because of the great popularity that Korean TV, music and pop culture is having in Vietnam these days, and to talk about how the lessons of the Korean entertainment industry might be applicable to a place like Vietnam. That second reason in particular was a big motivator for me to write POP GOES KOREA in the first place.

I really believe that in the future, we are going to see more and more local cultures staking out space in the world pop culture scene, much as Korea has done over the past decade. Vietnam still has a long way to go, but I hope they can make it. What a great sign that would be for other countries that worry about their local cultures in the face of the Western entertainment industry.

Kim Yuna, Olympic Champion

February 26, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Just a few hours ago, South Korean figure skater Kim Yuna won the gold medal in the women’s figure skating at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. And it truly was a dominating win, with a total score of 228.56, more than 23 points higher than her closest competitor. Just amazing.

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Actually, I just did the math. The women’s freeskate is four minutes, versus 4.5 minutes for the men. So assuming Yuna could keep skating at the high level for another 30 seconds, she could have scored a 168.8 on her freeskate, which would have beaten all of the men. Wow.

As a young person who watched Brian Orser in the Winter Olympics in 1984 and 1988, I can remember those competitions to clearly. So it is kind of wild now to be a small part* of that world, having worked with Yuna and Brian (and David Wilson and their whole crew) over the past year on a documentary. Meeting Brian for the first time I was surprised to feel myself geeking out.

95654869MW305_Figure_Skatin

If you are looking for more information about Kim Yuna, the New York Times has a great look at her triple-triple combination, and NBC had this profile of her.

And you can see the opening five minutes of the program I worked on — Hip Korea: Seoul Spirit, for Discovery Asia — at this Youtube link (sorry, no embedding)

Anyhow, a huge congratulations to Kim Yuna, her family and all the people who worked so hard to make that win happen. It was a great achievement.
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* And by “small”, I mean a very, very tiny part of that world

Kim Yuna Wins

February 26, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Kim Yuna blew away the competition with a 228.56 for Olympic gold in the women’s figure skating.


Asada Mao was second with 205.50, and Canadian Joannie Rochette was third.

FYI, Yuna’s score would have given her ninth among the Men, which is pretty amazing considering the women’s program is shorter, so has less time to build up points.

More to come. But it is 6am here in Spain and I need to go back to bed.

UPDATE: Okay, it looks like the Olympic Committee is working overtime to prevent people posting videos of the long program. But in the meantime, here is a great video from the New York Times, with Yuna and Brian Orser explaining her Triple-Triple jump combination.

UPDATE 2: Hey, that documentary I worked on — Hip Korea: Seoul Spirit, for Discovery Asia — has a preview up on Youtube (sorry, no embedding).

UPDATE 3: Actually, I just did the math. The women’s freeskate is four minutes, versus 4.5 minutes for the men. So assuming Yuna could keep skating at the high level for another 30 seconds, she could have scored a 168.8 on her freeskate, which would have beaten all of the men. Of course, you cannot compare men’s and women’s programs like that, but it sure is interesting.

Halfway There — Kim Yuna Wins the Short Program

February 24, 2010 / / 2 Comments

So far, so good for Kim Yuna, who is leading the women’s figure skating competition after the short program. In fact, her 78.50 points is a new world record.

Here is her performance (at least for the moment), with English commentary:

Asada Mao is in second, with 73.78 points, and in third is Canadian Joannie Rochette (whose mother passed away just a few nights ago, giving her a backstory that would make overcoming-tragedy-obsessed producers at NBC actually explode).

I thought I should mention something because a small story like this can slip through the cracks.

FYI, you can see the very good NBC short report on Kim Yuna here.

Anyhow, great for Yuna. Now we are just 40 hours away from the long program and seeing if she can pull off the big prize.

Number Won — Korea Gets a Music Chart

February 23, 2010 / / 1 Comment

It is long, long overdue, but at last Korea has its music charts back. The Ministry of Culture has put together GAON, an “official” music chart that is going to measure online and offline music sales and put it all together to form a chart of the most popular music in the land.

Music charts in Korea have long had problems. Most notable were the scandals and problems that plagued the TV music charts, on the terrestrial stations and on music video channels. After so many payola investigations and other legal problems, most channels pulled their countdowns for years.

More serious, imho, was the loss of the “official” sales charts. MIAK (the Music Industry Association of Korea) disbanded in 2009, as part of some larger government reorganizations. But even before MIAK was disbanded, it had stopped keeping track of music sales (and even then, they only tracked physical sales, which have lagged behind digital sales in Korea since 2003).

MIAK is supposed to be replaced by the KMCIA, which will include online as well as physical sales. There are no charts at KMCIA yet, but it looks like they are taking steps toward adding CD and online sales charts.

So why care about music charts? Certainly I am not interested in bragging rights between one K-pop band or another. What is important, though, is transparency. Transparency may not be as sexy as Lee Hyori or as flashy as a 2PM dance move, but it is far more important for having a successful pop industry.

Look at Korea’s movie industry, for example. Ten years ago or so, it was really hard to find good information about how movies were doing in Korea. If you saw a chart, it was most likely only for Seoul. Nationwide data came weeks later, if it all, and was pretty unreliable. Theater owners fought for years that their box office data was proprietary and releasing it would put their business in danger. It was against the interest of each individual to release that data.

But guess what, it was in the overall industry’s interest to have that data. Without reliable data, distributors could not be certain how well their films were doing, and therefore how much money they should be making. Poor numbers increase risk, which makes the whole system work much less efficiently.

The Korean government put a real emphasis on improving the quality of box office data, and it is no coincidence that better box office data happened at the same time as overall box office went up up up. And I think it is also no coincidence that lousy numbers in the music industry have gone along with that industry’s decline over the past eight years.

Hopefully, Gaon will work out, and that more reliable information might lay the foundation for better days for the music industry.

Of course, if you want to know more about Korean music, movies, charts and all that fun stuff, you should pick up a copy of POP GOES KOREA.

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