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Korea Weekend Box Office – May 29-31

June 2, 2009 / Mark / 0 Comments

Wow, it was really a two-film weekend, wasn’t it? Bong Joon-ho’s MOTHER (Madeo) and TERMINATOR: SALVATION together accounted for a mammoth 1,400 screens or so (KOFIC tends to double-count a lot, so the screen numbers in the chart below are a little exaggerated, but they are still huge). Two films accounting for 70 percent of a nation’s screens? Really?

On the other hand, those two films accounted for well over 70 percent of the box office, so it is not like the theater owners aren’t being efficient and economical. Sometimes, one of the only things I find more bewildering than the lack of consumer choice in Korea is the lack of demand for choices.

Anyhow, MOTHER (Madeo) opened in No. 1 last weekend, to no one’s surprise. Nearly 6.7 billion won ($5.4 million) over the weekend, or 8.1 billion won ($6.5 million) including Thursday. That’s over 1.2 million tickets sold in just four days. Not bad at all, especially for such a simpler film than Bong’s THE HOST (Goemul). MOTHER may not be epic, but it is totally worth watching. Go see it soon.

The biggest surprise for me was the continuing strength of TERMINATOR 4. I thought it would have plunged like a stone after its opening weekend. But instead it held on for another 5.2 billion won ($4.2 million), bringing its total to 19.3 billion won ($15.4 million). Over 3 million tickets in just 11 days. Proportionately, it is doing so much better here than in the United States. Strange.

After those two films, you get a huge dropoff. ANGELS & DEMONS was in third, with just 1.1 billion won, for a total of 10.8 billion won.

MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7-Geup Gongmuwon) continues to hold on, earning another 909 million won to bring its total to 24.7 billion won ($19.8 million).

Korean films also accounted for the sixth spot (CASTAWAY ON THE MOON), ninth (THIRST) and 10th (BOAT). Half the films in the top 10 Korean during Hollywood’s high season? Not bad at all.

Oh, and Hong Sang-soo’s LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (Jal Aljido Mot Hamyeonseo) was down in 14th, in case you wanted to know. Not huge business, but at least it broke 200 million won.

(Source: KOFIC)

The Mother of All Thrills

June 1, 2009 / Mark / 4 Comments

I saw Bong Joon-ho’s MOTHER over the weekend and quite liked it. I thought perhaps I should write up a little review of sorts, so here you go.

Bong Joon-ho’s latest film, MOTHER, is a departure from his last two films, MEMORIES OF MURDER and THE HOST, lacking much of the humor and scope that made them so memorable. Instead, MOTHER is a much darker and more personal story; but it is without a doubt a Bong tale — smart, powerful and really engrossing.

MOTHER is the story of the mother of a retarded young man (Won Bin) who must save her son when he is arrested for murdering a high school girl. The police jumped the gun, arresting him on some pretty weak evidence, then pressuring the son Do-joon to sign a release he did not understand.

Determined to free her son no matter what, the mother relentlessly (even ruthlessly) pursues any lead she can. After a few false turns and a lot of apathy from the town officials, she begins to uncover a deeper story, involving a troubled young girl who had a really rough life.

Set in a small town and dealing with a murder investigation, MOTHER has some obvious similarities to MEMORIES OF MURDER. But the focus and style of MOTHER is really different.

The first half of MOTHER focuses more on Do-joon, setting up his character and his friend. There is an incident at a golf course that is one of the few light spots in the movie, but it felt a little unnatural and awkward. Only after Do-joon is arrested and the spotlight moves to his mother that the story really begins to get into gear.

But once it gets going, MOTHER is really good. Kim Hye-ja is great as the obsessive mother, and her desperation gives the movie much of its power. You never know quite what she is going to do, even while suspecting she might do anything. It adds up to create a kind of emotional claustrophobia that really hits hard.

Now, while I said this film is not as deep or analytical as some of Bong’s other films, there is evidently a lot going on anyway. There is plenty of psychology happening throughout. The relationship between mother and son especially is anything but normal. The mother’s recurring talk of an injection in the thigh to take away bad memories is quite suggestive.

Another thing that struck me was the age difference between Do-joon and his mom. Although never clearly stated in the film, Do-joon is played by the 27-year-old Won Bin, while the mother is played by the 67-year-old Kim Hye-ja. And while having a baby at 40 years old is not unheard of, it is still a little unusual.

In short, MOTHER is not without flaws, but it is the best Korean movie I have seen in quite some time. Maybe since THE CHASER. It is thrilling, scary, violent and unexpected … really a gripping combination.

Korea Weekend Box Office – May 22-24

May 27, 2009 / Mark / 0 Comments

Oops, I nearly forgot about the box office this week. Sorry about that.

As I predicted, TERMINATOR SALVATION did ridiculously well in Korea last weekend, must as TERMINATOR 3 did a few years ago, making 9.3 billion won ($7.4 million) over Fri-Mon, and a total of 11.1 billion won ($8.8 million) if you include Thursday when it opened. That over 1.4 million admissions (1.7 million including Thursday), easily making it the biggest opening of the year so far in Korea.

Expect a huge drop-off for TERMINATOR next weekend (it was a pretty mediocre film, and there is some big competition looming), but an impressive opening nonetheless.

The top Korean film of the weekend was MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon) in third, earning another 1.8 billion won to bring its five-week total to 23.2 billion won ($18.4 million).

In fourth was CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (Gimssi Pyoryugi), earning 1 billion won to bring its total to 3.7 billion won.

Other Korean films in the top 10 were THIRST (Bakjwi) in seventh, INSADONG SCANDAL in eighth and Hong Sang-soo’s LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (Jal Aljido Mot Hamyeonsa) in ninth.

I saw LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL last weekend and quite liked it. Not as much fun as WOMAN ON THE BEACH, but similar in tone. Maybe a little “deeper.” Maybe a little too long. But fun and full of some amusing perspectives on film festivals and artists. It is playing with English subtitles at the CGV Yongsan in Seoul and is totally worth checking out.

(Stats courtesy of KOFIC, as always)

I have no idea how well Bong Joon-ho’s new film MOTHER (Madeo) will do (although as I write this, it handily has the biggest advance sales on the Internet), but it opens Thursday this week. And it too is playing with English subtitles at Yongsan. Funny, the film had great reviews at Cannes pretty much across the board, but apparently the jury members for the section it was in all hated it.

Oh, the Korean title is Madeo. Does that sound like “Mother” to you? Or more like “Murder”? Probably just a coincidence, but the thought amused me.

Korean History, Live and Online (and some random food notes)

May 21, 2009 / Mark / 1 Comment

For some research I was doing recently, I ran across the most amazing resource online — a huge collection of photos and videos about Korea, dating from the 1950s to the present. Some are old news stories, others are government propaganda videos, and others are, well, I have no idea.

I’m talking about E-History website, run by KTV (Korea Policy Broadcasting?). For the video section especially, you can spend countless hours, just skipping around and browsing. Sadly, the site is only in Korean, but it is pretty easy to navigate, even for beginners.

There are 11 categories running down the left side, for politics, economics, military, society, eduction, culture and more. Below those categories, the site is also organized by decade. And because all the videos have been indexed and described, the search engine works surprising well.

Here is a sampling of some interesting videos related to movies and culture:
– Old movie theaters from 1957.
– Television starts in Korea in 1956, thanks to RCA.
– More about Korea’s first TV station HLKZ, from 1956.
– AFKN from 1959.
– Opening of KBS headquarters in 1976.
– Some movie awards from 1959. Includes clips of Yu Hyun-mok (the famous director) and Choi Eun-hee (the great actress and wife of the late Shin Sang-ok).
– The first Best Korean Movie Awards in 1962. With awards going to Shin Sang-ok (for Romantic Papa) and Kim Ki-young (for The Housemaid) and Choi Eun-hee.
– The first Grand Bell Movie Awards, a few months later in 1962.
– Grand Bell Movie Awards from 1990. Features Kang Su-yeon winning an award, lots of really bad hair and shoulder pads.
– A report on Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee in North Korea from 1984 (with plenty of Bukgoe comments throughout).
– Sadly I could not find much interesting about old rock music. Did find this 1963 video about singer Lee Chun-hee.

And just some random stuff I liked:
– A golf tournament from 1954.
– Namdaemun devastated by a fire in 1954 (wow, deja vu).
– Yonsei’s Severance Hospital back in 1962.
– Yonsei University’s 80th anniversary.
– Korean boxer Yu Jae-du beating Koichi Wajima for the WBA Light Middleweight Champion belt in 1975 (Yuh Jae-doo?).
– A video from 1970 talking about Korea’s next five-year plan and how Korea would develop in the future.
– The opening of the Yanghwa bridge connecting Mapo and Yeongdeungpo in 1965.
– The opening of the Seoul Sanga Apartments in Chungmuro in 1967.
– Namsan Wayne Apartments being destroyed in 1994
– Don’t leave your nasty gum around, from 1990.
– Miss Korea 1957. Includes the swimsuit competition.

Okay, you get the idea. I could do this for days, but those selections should get you started. What a great website.

UPDATE: Given how popular Kim Yuna is these days, I thought people might want to check out these skating videos:
– Skating in 1955. Around 1 minute in, we get some figure skating, too. They could be the ancestors of Kim Yuna (metaphorically, that is).
– Rhee Sungman taking in some skating on the Han River in 1958 (including some more figure skating).
– 1959, more speed skating and figure skating (and the figure skaters are getting a little better). (Oh, love the spelling of “sports” in this one. 스포오쯔… never seen that before).
– Ice fishing and ice hockey from 1961 on this one.
– Skating at Gyeongbok Palace in 1963.
– Skating at the Dongdaemun Ice Rink, which I never knew existed, in 1964.
– Ice Carnival at the Dongdaemun rink in 1964. Including a talented little 6-year-old, Yoon Hyo-jin (who went on to finish 17th at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck).

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A couple of random restaurant notes. Seems like every time I turn around, new Indian restaurants are popping up all over the place. I talked about Manokamana before (which now seems to be doing very well, as I can never get a seat there).

But if you cannot get a seat at Manokamana, there is another option just down the street — Amma. Amma is just as good as Manokamana, if not better (I think the portions are bigger), and it is dead quiet. The furniture is a little odd (like out of a 1995 Korean dabang, but don’t let that throw you). It is right behind the Hyundai Department Store. Map here. Totally worth checking out.

If you are looking for more of a Western bar experience, a new place just opened up in Shinchon that I also recommend called Beer O’Clock. Beer O’Clock has a good selection of beers (including Alley Cat Pale Ale), your basic bar food (which I have not tried yet, but looks good), and a great ambiance. It is on the second floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows that all open up, making almost every seat in the place a window seat.

I have not been there on a weekend yet, so maybe the vibe changes then. Hopefully not, but I do not know. But for a quite, comfortable mid-week place, Beer O’Clock was really good. Easily the best Western bar in Shinchon. Map.

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UPDATE: Random note. As I write this post, my blog is the 10th most popular in the world under the Google search “distressed bondage.” Sometimes I do not understand the Internet at all.

Korea Weekend Box Office – May 15-17

May 19, 2009 / Mark / 0 Comments

No big surprises at the box office last weekend. The new film based on Dan Brown’s “symbology” professor Robert Langdon ANGELS AND DEMONS landed in No. 1 with 4.5 billion won ($3.6 million), or 5.2 billion won ($4.1 million) if you include Thursday. Actually, I heard that they never really made a movie, but the Illuminati conspired to boost its box office and make it No. 1 anyway.

MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon) continues to do well, taking in another 2.8 billion won ($2.22 million) to bring its total to 20.4 billion won ($16.2 million).

New Korean movie CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (Gimssi Pyoryugi) opened in third, earning 1.8 billion won ($1.4 million), or 2.1 billion including Thursday.

STAR TREK dropped to fourth from second, but it is still doing pretty well for a Star Trek movie in Korea. It made 1.8 billion won to bring its total to 5.6 billion won ($4.4 million).

THIRST (Bakjwi) fell to fifth, although it has squeaked past 2 million admissions. It has now made 13.5 billion won ($10.7 million).

Other Korean films this week include INSADONG SCANDAL and CYBORG SHE. Well, depending on whether you consider CYBORG SHE a Korean film. It was written and directed by Kwak Jae-young, but it is a Japanese-language movie with a Japanese cast and was completely financed by Japanese companies. Welcome to globalization… nations coming together to make utter dreck.

Any way you look at it, this May is shaping up to be much, much better than last year, when Korean films dropped to just 7.8 percent of the box office. That was brutal.

It is just too bad that Bong Joon-ho’s MOTHER is not coming out until the 28th. I bet that film is going to do huge business; if it came out a week earlier, it could have helped Korean movies have their strongest Mays in years.

As it is, I am guessing TERMINATOR 4 is going to do some huge business here. TERMINATOR 3, if you recall, had what was then the biggest opening weekend ever in Korea. And that film was terrible. TERMINATOR 4 looks brilliant and plenty of fun, so should be pretty strong.

PGK in the Wall Street Journal

May 19, 2009 / Mark / 0 Comments

Well, that was quite a surprise. A journalist friend of mine just called me to congratulate me. I had to confess, I had no idea what she was talking about, so she said to me “the Wall Street Journal article?” Still no idea. But a few mouse clicks later I discovered that the wonderful Evan Ramstad had written about POP GOES KOREA in today’s issue of the Asian Wall Street Journal. Very nice.

If I may quote “Mr. Ramstad” (got to love that level of formality):

Mr. Russell says the growth of South Korea’s entertainment industries is a function of economic development that has left more Koreans with the time and resources to become pop-culture “consumers.” To a lesser extent, he credits technology changes that reshaped distribution and a receptivity to new cultural products bound up in the globalization of trade over the past two decades. In short, the talent has been there all along and the time finally became ripe for it to flourish as a business.

Mr. Russell’s book is the first by a non-Korean to explain the rise of Korea’s entertainment industries. With lots of pictures, lists (top TV shows, most expensive movies, worst flops) and sidebar articles, the book could hardly be more approachable.

Anyhow, be sure to check out Evan’s story. And if it inspires you to pick up a copy of POP GOES KOREA, you can find it on Amazon.com here.

UPDATE: The Korean newswire Yonhap, which always likes to report on the big-time international papers when they report on Korea, has picked up the story, too.

Cannes and Korea in the Hollywood Reporter

May 15, 2009 / Mark / 1 Comment

Korea is getting plenty of coverage in The Hollywood Reporter at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Not surprising, really, given all the Korean films there this year.

There is a Q&A with Bong Joon-ho here, and another one with Park Chan-wook.

There is also this interesting story about the state of Southeast Asian cinema. And this overview of the Japan film industry. And this Q&A with Ang Lee.

I’ll add more stories as I come across them.

(Note: If you check out some of the following stories, you might notice that none of them are by me. I have been very slow to mention it here, but I actually stopped writing for THR some months ago, and have instead been putting my energies into some other projects. Which I should talk about soon).

Like You Know Thirst — English Subtitles

May 13, 2009 / Mark / 1 Comment

Good news folks — the new Park Chan-wook film THIRST and the new Hong Sang-soo film LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL are both being shown with English subtitles, beginning tomorrow at the CGV Yongsan theater.

If you can maneuver in Korean, you can see them listed on the CGV website. If you don’t know Korean and don’t know anyone who knows Korean, it would probably be easiest just to head on down to the theater and checking out the timetable while you are there. There are plenty of ways to kill time at the Yongsan Mall if you miss your film’s starting time. Sorry, but the films have a different schedule every day, so I cannot list the start times here.

LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL is supposed to be one of Hong’s funnier films, at least according to a couple of people close to Director Hong. And it is long — 126 minutes. But if it is funny, like WOMAN ON THE BEACH, then I am okay with the extra time.

I may not be a big fan of THIRST, but I know a lot of people always want to see Park Chan-wook’s films, so good luck seeing it.

And of course, MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT continues to screen at the Cinus theaters in Seoul with English subtitles (and Japanese).

I just stumbled across these subtitled screenings on the CGV website. There was no official announcement and I cannot find anything about these screenings on Naver, so if I have made a mistake, please let me know.

UPDATE: Paul over at the Hub of Sparkle blog has apparently taken the trouble of listing the screening times and locations of all the English-subtitled films for this weekend. Very nice of him.

Korea Weekend Box Office – May 8-10

May 12, 2009 / Mark / 0 Comments

So, with big-budget Hollywood summer films filling theaters, along with the high-concept, hotly anticipated Park Chan-wook movie, what film takes the top spot last weekend? MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7-Geup Gongmuwon), the silly action-comedy. Not sure if that makes me shudder or if it warms my heart. A bit of both.

AGENT made 2.9 billion won ($2.2 million) over the weekend, bringing its total to 16.2 billion won ($12.5 million). Or 2.47 million admissions, if you prefer. Regardless, it is definitely a hit. Will be interesting how it holds up over the next couple of weeks. I think 3 million admissions should be safe, but 4 million might be asking too much of it.

The JJ Abrams reboot of STAR TREK did fairly well, considering how Trek-averse the Korean market usually is, making 2.6 billion won over the weekend ($2 million), and 2.9 billion won total since Thursday.

Park Chan-wook’s THIRST (Bakjwi) dropped pretty dramatically from last week, making just 1.9 billion won ($1.5 million) over the weekend — that is down from 5.6 billion won last weekend. With 1.75 million admissions so far, it looks like it will pass 2 million, but 3 million will be a reach (unless perhaps it does very well at Cannes).

INSA-DONG SCANDAL keeps chugging along, again in fourth, earning 1.4 billion won to bring its total to 6.0 billion won.

WOLVERINE dropped a lot, too, earning just 1.3 billion won last weekend, after making 3.4 billion won last weekend.

There were no other Korean films in the top-10, but we did have a Japanese film in seventh (the anime KERORO GUNSO THE SUPER MOVIE 4: GEKISHIN DRAGON WARRIORS) and a French film in ninth (also animated, WHITE TUFT, THE LITTLE BEAVER).

Korea Weekend Box Office – May 1-3

May 5, 2009 / Mark / 0 Comments

Park Chan-wook’s THIRST (Bakjwi) opened strong last weekend, easily taking the No. 1 spot with 5.61 billion won ($4.4 million). THIRST had 821,000 admissions over the weekend (and 1 million since Thursday), far surpassing the 472,000 for I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OKAY, and just slightly less than the 870,000 for LADY VENGEANCE.

In second is the second week of MY GIRLFRIEND IS AN AGENT (7 Geup Gongmuwon), which made 3.50 billion won ($2.7 million) to bring its 10-day total to 10.4 billion won ($8.1 million).

WOLVERINE opened only in third, but it was a relatively good opening for the franchise — 3.40 billion won ($2.7 million) for WOLVERINE versus 3.66 billion won for X-MEN 3 ($2.9 million).

INSADONG SCANDAL opened in fourth, with 2.38 billion won over the weekend for a total of 2.89 billion won ().

With Korean films taking in three of the top four spots at the box office, looks like they will not tank as badly as they did last May, when Korean movies accounted for a paltry 8 percent.

Something else I found interesting is how many screens are now available for movies. A few years ago, when THE HOST opened on over 800 screens, a lot of people complained about big movies “monopolizing” the theaters. But this week, even though THIRST was on over 600 screens, AGENT and WOLVERINE had over 500 and INSADONG had over 400. Even the rest of the top-10 films all had plenty of screens.

So how well will THIRST do? Well, it’s biggest competition in the coming weekend is the new STAR TREK film — which, while it looks good, has never been a strong franchise in South Korea. But the following week, the competition will really ramp up. If I were to venture a guess, THIRST might squeak over 3 million admissions, but it is going to be tough.

One interesting sign, though — when I look at the movie ticket reservation chart, as of Tuesday morning, AGENT is ahead of THIRST, 22.64% to 22.63%. Not a lot, but it suggests that AGENT is getting stronger word of mouth and could do better over the long haul.