Author: Mark (Page 83 of 90)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 79th Academy Awards a few hours ago. In general, I am not a fan of the Oscars and think it is a big mistake to put much stock into the awards; however, I must say I am fairly pleased with this year’s nominees. All five Best Picture films seem quite solid (even THE DEPARTED, despite my griping).

Two favorites, PAN’S LABYRINTH and CHILDREN OF MEN, both received several nominations. Hopefully these awards will spur local distributors here in South Korea to release some of those movies a little quicker (I’m talking to you Warner Bros, and I’m talking about LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA). FYI, THE QUEEN comes out Feb. 15, BABEL on Feb. 22, and LAST KING OF SCOTLAND on March 8.

No big surprises that Korea’s nominee, THE KING AND THE CLOWN, did not get a nod for Best Foreign Language Film. I thought that was an incredibly weak selection that had no chance (it did not even make the short list, announced a few weeks ago). Not sure if THE HOST would have done any better… could not have done worse, I guess. In general, I thought 2006 a pretty weak year for Korean movies (artistically, anyhow).

But as I indicated in the beginning of this post, I am not a big Oscar fan, especially for the Best Foreign Language Film category, and I think we would be far better off if we ignored the whole silly thing.

Nikki Finke, as always, has all of the political and box office analyses, while completely ignoring any thought of art or quality (worse, she actively campaigns against such considerations, as in the middle of that link when she says that UNITED 93 did not deserve a nomination, despite being well-directed and having a great script, just because it had no A-list actors in it).
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Oh, nearly forgot, if I am going to mention Korean movies getting the love from foreign critics (as I did here), then it seems only fair to mention when they get the raspberries, too. Japan’s Bunshin Raspberry Awards named one Korean movie to their list of the 10-worst films of 2006 — Choi Ji-woo’s silly melodrama NOW AND FOREVER, which was ranked No. 7 among the most rank. TALES OF EARTHSEA was the runaway winner (loser?) of this year’s Raspberries.

A remarkably stable weekend at the box office. Despite having a new No. 1 film, many films in the top-10 experienced very little drop-off from last week. 200 POUND BEAUTY took in just 200 fewer viewers last weekend in Seoul compared to the previous weekend. Not bad for a movie that has been out for a month and a half.

DEJA VU and BLOOD DIAMOND also experienced only small declines, BLOOD DIAMOND so much so that it rose from seventh to sixth. ERAGON, on the other hand, did have a pretty substantial drop, falling from first to fifth.

The new No. 1 movie is MAPADO 2. Did not see it. But it is interesting to see how its Seoul weekend box office was only a little more than ERAGON did last week, but its national attendance since Thursday was more than 200,000 bigger. Just another sign of how tastes differ between Seoul and the countryside in Korea.

The restored print of ROBOT TAEKWON V made its debut in eighth (well, almost debut, since it was first screened at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2005). Not great, but not bad for a 30-year-old movie that most people already now. In fact, if you look at the nationwide numbers, it opened in fifth (same effect as MAPADO 2). Incidentally, the nice people at RTV’s production company rediscovered the English subtitles for the movie, so the next time it comes out on DVD, it should include them.

Michel Gondry’s SCIENCE OF SLEEP may be all the way down at No. 17 last weekend, but the film has now sold just over 40,000 tickets, or a little over $425,000. Not bad for an odd little film on so few screens. And the Japanese film HONEY AND CLOVER has now sold over 32,000 tickets.

(Source: Film2.0)

Local journalists (even myself) were invited on Thursday to the set of Kim Ki-duk’s latest film, BREATH (숨), to get an early glimpse at the movie, talk to the actors, and see how Korea’s arthouse bad boy is doing these days. Around 50 of us press types showed up, despite the-less-than-stellar commercial appeal of Kim these days, confirming my general belief that it is a lot easier to be famous than successful in Korea.

Anyhow, filming is taking place at Seodaemun Prison, nestled in the narrow valley between Mount Inwang (Inwangsan) and Mount An (Ansan). The former prison closed in 1987 and has been a museum since 1992 or so, so it is a convenient site to shoot a prison story.

The story of BREATHE, as I understand it, is about a woman who falls in love with a death-row inmate. Or an inmate who falls in love with a woman at the prison. Or something like that. Said inmate is being played by the Taiwanese actor Chen Chang, known for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and THREE TIMES. Even though this is a fairly low-budget project, Kim apparently wrote the role with Chang in mind and, I was told, referred to the character in the script as “Chen” from the beginning.

These set visits are an odd bit of artifice in Korea. A horde of media types gather to watch a staged bit of fake film making, followed by a press conference where the director and actors tell you how great it is to work together, how much they have all admired each other’s works, etc.

For the most part, the BREATH event followed the usual script. We crowded into the prison’s narrow corridor to watch a couple of scenes. Usually the chaos of having so many journalists around means that the filming is faked, but I was told that Kim put film in the camera and wanted to use the stuff we saw. Given how Kim only has 10 days to shoot this movie (he usually really rushes his shoots), I would not be surprised.

The biggest “news” (such as it was) was watching how Kim Ki-duk interacted with the press. The man has had some well known spats with the Korean press over the years, especially last year when he bashed THE HOST (or sounded like it, anyhow), complained about how his movies are treated in Korea and threatened to stop releasing his films in Korea altogether. Kim received quite the smackdown for his little tirade (which, I am told, really chastened and upset him). For our event, though, Kim was quite polite, if a little passive-aggressive, talking repeatedly about how he considered this movie to be like an “export” into Korea (because his films tend to do better in France and Italy than here in their homeland).

Oh, and the press conference was held outside, where it was pretty darn cold, especially when you were just sitting around, not moving. My camera’s batteries died before the conference began, but you can see the site below. Note, the Taegukgi flag was already hanging there, for reasons unrelated to the press conference or the movie.

On a few occasions, I have been lucky enough to actually visit actual sets when they were actually filming, which is much more interesting. I shared a bento lunch once with Kim Jee-woon and Lee Byung-hun (and producer Eugene Lee, who was kind enough to allow me to visit) on the set of A BITTERSWEET LIFE, in the basement of a well known hotel in the Cheongdam-dong area. It was remarkable for its laid-back atmosphere. The stars had side rooms set aside for them if they wanted, but for the most part, people just hung out, watching, talking. No big, private trailers for the stars to hide in.

Anyhow, big thanks to Sponge House, Cineclick Asia, Kim Ki-duk and everyone else for inviting me (us) aboard. I guess the aim is to have the movie ready for the film festivals in the spring or summer. I will save my comments/criticisms about Kim Ki-duk for then. But I hope this movie works out well for him.

A remarkably weekend for parity, as the top six movies all sold over 340,000 tickets from Thursday night to Sunday night. I cannot remember the last time so many films did that well (well, over Christmas was pretty strong, but they had an extra holiday to add to the box office that weekend).

The dragon fantasy film ERAGON was the No. 1 film this weekend, selling 504,600 tickets since opening Thursday (about $3.4 million). Not a bad opening for a silly little B-picture.

200 POUND BEAUTY shot over the 5-million-attendance mark over the weekend, and is still doing quite well a month after its release. I think it is going to top 5.5 million… but I fear it will not match the 6.1 million of MY BOSS, MY TEACHER. Sigh. Would have been nice to depose that film from its perch as the top comedy of all time in Korea.

No. 3 went to HERB, with a decent 442,000. Kind of in the middle to be considered a success or disappointment. We will have to wait to see if the film has any legs. It if keeps chugging along, then I could see it doing quite well. Or it could drop like a stone.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM topped the 4-million line, a fairly impressive feat, too. MUSEUM is the biggest foreign movie in Korea since PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 last summer.

Even though DEATHNOTE 2: THE LAST NAME opened in No. 6, it sold 347,600 tickets, which is nearly 20% better than the first DEATHNOTE did back in early November.

(Source: Film2.0)

The weird thing that confuses/amazes me is that MAPADO 2 apparently came in at No. 11, with around 40,000 tickets sold nationwide — despite that fact it will not be released until Thursday. Over 40,000 tickets sold just in advanced previews? There certainly does seem to be a buzz for the film, currently at No. 1 on Interpark’s advance reservation site, accounting for 38% of reservations (ROBOT TAEKWON V is second with 31%, then you drop all the way down to 4.3% for the third-place film, 200 POUND BEAUTY).

MAPADO was most notable, to me, for having a poster campaign that in no way resembled the actual movie:

It appears that the same marketing team is responsible for MAPADO 2:

UPDATE: More analysis and a link added in the text

There was a real photo-finish this week for the top spot, but by a hair, 200 POUND BEAUTY finished back on top, just edging out NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM by 1,000 tickets. It was the fourth weekend out for BEAUTY, and the third for MUSEUM, surprisingly strong runs considering how strong the competition was. Or how strong the competition appeared, anyhow. Each year, heading into the holiday season, it looks like there will be a mad crush of films trodding all over each other, but each year one or two films rise above the fray, letting the other sink in the muck.

Even MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER 3 hung on to its No. 3 spot from last week, proving the comedy to be a medium hit with some legs.

No real surprise on Im Sang-soo’s THE OLD GARDEN, which opened in fifth. Well, I am a little surprised that Lotte Entertainment put the movie on 212 screens: that is one dull movie.

Really bad news for Go So-young, whose new film PROJECT MAKEOVER opened way down in eighth place. Eighth, despite opening on 304 screens. Her last film, the horror movie APT, did pretty poorly, too. Hopefully this will inspire Go and her management team to take radical measures before choosing her next film role… like, maybe finding a movie that is not terrible. Too outlandish a suggestion? Right, she will probably just star in a TV drama instead.

THE RESTLESS is still in the top-10, but barely. Seems like a good time to point out a Korea Herald story about this season’s flops. (Like most Korea Herald stories, the link will only work for a week. After that, you’ll have to pay for it, or else do a Google search and click the cached version). THE RESTLESS was certainly a Christmas turkey, along with I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY, SEDUCING MR. PERFECT and ONCE IN A SUMMER. But like a lot of stories about blockbusters and bombs and things, the writer does not really talk about movie quality. Sure those films did not do well at the box office. But none of them were very good (actually, I am guessing at ONCE IN A SUMMER, but I feel safe in that guess). And judging by their opening weekends’ box office, none did a good job of convincing audiences that they might be good.

The headline says it all: “Blockbusters flop as star marketing fails”. I would argue that star marketing almost never works. The right actor can make a good film better, but they can barely ever stop a film from tanking. Korean audiences, in my humble opinion, have become pretty good at smelling crap coming from quite a ways away, and it has become increasingly difficult to fool them with marketing campaigns.

Look at the top films of 2006: THE HOST, THE KING AND THE CLOWN and TAZZA. What do each of those films have in common? All three are completely unlike each other, and very unlike any other films released over the past year. You can make market a so-so film into a middling hit, but “a big hit is always a surprise” (as a local producer likes to say). Television relies on familiarity. Movies require mystery — they need surprise and a sense of expectations. At 7-8,000 won per ticket, the well runs dry a lot faster in the cinema than it does for free at home.

Good news from THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP, even though it is no longer on the top-10. The Michel Gondry movie topped 30,000 admissions last week… not bad for a little film on just six screens.

(Source: Film2.0)

FYI, if you are in Korea and waiting to see some Clint Eastwood, you will not have to wait much longer. FLAG OF OUR FATHERS has finally gotten a release date: Feb. 15. No date chosen yet for LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. Hopefully a couple of Academy Award nominations will inspire Warner to get it into the theaters.

Oh, and the latest Frank Miller comic book to become a movie, 300, has a release date, too. March 15. Mark your calendars, because that looks like it should be a pretty crazy film.

(Note: I am not promising a good movie. Just a crazy one. See the trailer to see what I mean. Or check out the comic book. Or some sample art from the comic. Here for more.)