In POP GOES KOREA, I have a chapter about the history of Korean comic books, but sadly I never had the chance to get much into North Korean comics. Fortunately, Geoffrey Cain over at Global Post new has a good article on comic books in North Korea (thanks to Gusts of Popular Feeling for the find).

The books are also designed to instill the father of North Korea, Kim Il-sung’s, philosophy of Juche — radical self-reliance of the state, added Nick Bonner, founder of Koryo Tours, an English-language tour company in Beijing that takes visitors to North Korea several times each year.
“They’re much like the themes I read when I was a kid, on the British Army fighting the ‘Nazis and Japs,’” Bonner reflected, pointing out that some propaganda plots nonetheless resemble our own. “But [in North Korea] their themes are either historic or based on the Anti-Japanese Guerilla War, or the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War [the North Korean name for the Korean War in 1950-53].”

Personally, I find the animal comics of North Korea like The Great General Mighty Wing most interesting, especially in light of such Western comics as Maus. Mighty Wing features bees, wasps, spiders and other creatures, in a tale that was designed to promote national unity following the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994.

The spider stuff in Mighty Wing I found especially fascintating because South Korea used similar imagery in some of its anti-North propaganda over the years — such as in the anti-communist animation that opened the old South Korean animated film General Ttoli.

Bong Joon-ho’s MOTHER gets a limited release in the United States today, and so far the reviews are very good — 87 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 80 metascore on Metacritic (which I find more useful than RT).

Manohla Dargis at the New York Times gives the film a glowing review. And even more interesting, the New York Times has Bong himself describing a scene from the film, talking about how and why he shot it the way he did.

I am not sure how big the release of MOTHER is (I suspect it is rather small), but will update this post once I find out.

I find it remarkable that a quirky film like MOTHER would get such a strong response in the West. MOTHER has almost none of the typical features you see in an Asian film that gets released in the West. No martial arts. No ghosts. No gangsters (well, almost none). It is like audiences in the West are growing much more comfortable with international cinema. Like it is getting normalized. Which I think is a great thing.

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In a completely different vein, I just came across this fascinating little article about cinema in Saudi Arabia. Apparently all theaters there were closed in 1980 and just now some people are trying to bring them back. In general, I find the history of world cinema a great subject in general, and especially so in the Arab world. For instance, how many people remember that Egypt once had a very strong movie industry? I once met a filmmaker from Bahrain (perhaps the only filmmaker from that small island state), Bassam Al-Thawadi and he told me a lot of great stories about what it was like for him trying to make movies in Bahrain.

Maybe the same forces that are making Korean movies more normal in the West are also, in some small way, liberalizing the Arab world? Is this an example of the soft power of culture in globalization? Maybe not, but it is something I like to think about these days.

The long, slow suicide by Hollywood’s trade magazines continues, as Variety just axed their best movie reviewers, including their top Asia reviewer Derek Elley.

Now, I can see getting rid of some expensive reviewers, especially in Hollywood (where, let’s face it, reviewing the latest blockbuster means pretty close to nothing). But for less well known markets, like Asia, having reviewers who know the countries, the creatives and the history is pretty important. And Derek has long been one of the smartest and more important reviewers of Asian films.

Perhaps the modern economics of media just do not include a place for reviewers anymore. Film companies have other ways of getting out word about their movies. And just about anyone can blog their opinions, no matter how facile (hello!). But I still think Variety is losing more than they are saving by getting rid of someone like Derek.

This is just the latest in a long line of moves the movie trade magazines have made to eviscerate their publications. Variety created Variety Asia Online, then shut it down. The Hollywood Reporter had THR-Asia, then shut it down. Screen still has an Asia presence (the strongest of the three), but for how long? Film Business Asia is off to a promising start, but is still just that, a start — and it does not have reviews.

Movies in Asia pull in over $6 billion a year, in theatrical revenue alone. Maybe nearing $7 billion, depending on how you measure these things. I find it hard to believe that there is not room for or need for a decent publication (online or offline) about the Asian film industry.

The long, slow suicide by Hollywood’s trade magazines continues, as Variety just axed their best movie reviewers, including their top Asia reviewer Derek Elley.

Now, I can see getting rid of some expensive reviewers, especially in Hollywood (where, let’s face it, reviewing the latest blockbuster means pretty close to nothing). But for less well known markets, like Asia, having reviewers who know the countries, the creatives and the history is pretty important. And Derek has long been one of the smartest and more important reviewers of Asian films.

Perhaps the modern economics of media just do not include a place for reviewers anymore. Film companies have other ways of getting out word about their movies. And just about anyone can blog their opinions, no matter how facile (hello!). But I still think Variety is losing more than they are saving by getting rid of someone like Derek.

This is just the latest in a long line of moves the movie trade magazines have made to eviscerate their publications. Variety created Variety Asia Online, then shut it down. The Hollywood Reporter had THR-Asia, then shut it down. Screen still has an Asia presence (the strongest of the three), but for how long? Film Business Asia is off to a promising start, but is still just that, a start — and it does not have reviews.

Movies in Asia pull in over $6 billion a year, in theatrical revenue alone. Maybe nearing $7 billion, depending on how you measure these things. I find it hard to believe that there is not room for or need for a decent publication (online or offline) about the Asian film industry.