Mark James Russell

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Korea Weekend Box Office – April 11-13

April 15, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Nothing really notable to say this week. Except that I just realized that last week I wrote FORBIDDEN KINGDOM when I should have written THREE KINGDOMS. I need to change last week’s chart, but in the meantime, sorry about the error.

Otherwise, nothing too exciting. But will be interesting to see how IRON MAN does at tthe end of the month. Less than two weeks away until IRON MAN hits the screens, signifying the start of the summer movie season.

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Revenue (bil. won) Total Revenue (bil. won)
1. Taken 4.09 322 1.95 2.78
2. Three Kingdoms 4.03 332 1.18 4.95
3. The Guard Post 4.03 346 1.00 4.94
4. Empress and the Warriors 4.09 291 0.43 0.77
5. Definitely, Maybe 4.09 171 0.31 0.63
6. The Bucket List 4.09 78 0.29 0.47
7. The Chaser (Chugyeokja – Korean) 2.14 224 0.27 33.07
8. The Air That I Breath 4.09 204 0.26 0.48
9. Do Re Mi Fah So La Ti Do (Korean) 4.03 190 0.17 0.89
10. The Other Boleyn Girl 4.30 164 0.19 4.17

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 97% of nationwide box office)

Hey Ladies, Get Festy

April 11, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Last night was the opening of the WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN SEOUL. I had missed the festival for a couple of years, so it was nice to return… especially since this year’s opener featured several people I know.

The opening film was called TEN TEN, a collection of six shorts made to celebrate the festival’s 10th edition. Most interesting to me personally was HERS AT LAST, which was directed by Helen Lee, produced by Hanna Lee, and starring a couple of friends of mine (including the not-very-Korean So Ron-go). I just hope all the fame and fortune will not go to their heads too quickly.

BLIND DATE by Jang Hee-sun was the best of the short films, about an overweight, 30-year-old woman being pressured by her mother to go on a blind date. That turns into one of the worst blind dates ever, but perhaps not unredeemable. Quite funny and well done.

DRIVING MISS GRANNY and RABBIT had some good moments, too.

This year’s WFFIS opening was held at the National Museum of Korea, which is quite a venue. I had not been there since the huge building was finished and I was rather impressed.

But most of the rest of the film festival will be held at the Art Reon theater in Shinchon, a much more convenient location. Worth checking out. The section on Fantasy and Fantastic Films looks especially interesting.

(Btw, sorry for the terrible headline. All I could think of).

RAIN Returns to the TIME 100

April 10, 2008 / / 0 Comments

What is it with RAIN (aka Jung Ji-hoon) and TIME magazine? For the third year in a row, RAIN is competing in the TIME MAGAZINE DORKY EXCUSE TO BOOST ITS HIT RATE, otherwise known as the TIME 100. Actually, as I write this, he is not just competing — he is dominating.

1. Rain – 87 avg. rating – 208,455 votes
2. Stephen Colbert – 81 rating – 43,206 votes
3. Britney Spears – 80 rating – 84,560 votes

11. Nelson Mandela – 71 rating – 6,729 votes
13. Dali Lama – 70 rating – 7,089 votes
29. Nikki Finke – 56 rating – 4,223 votes

If you want to submit questions for Rain, you can do so here.

TIME’s write up for RAIN is kind of funny:

He’s training his successor? At 25? That’s either the smartest or the saddest thing ever.

Meetings and Forums and Fairs — Oh My

April 10, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I just realized how May is shaping up to be a rather busy season for official events in Seoul (at least for event related to the kind of work I do).

In early May, we have the SEOUL DIGITAL FORUM, which always attracts a lot of big names. This year, Sumner Redstone is going to be speaking, along with a host of other important people. It is an odd event, but there are usually 2-3 forums each year that I find useful to attend.

The follow week is going to be a big one for books in Korea. May 14-17 is this year’s Seoul International Book Fair. But even bigger than that is May 12-15, when Korea’s plays host to this year’s annual congress for the International Publishers Association.

Before the Internet age and Starcraft descended upon us, Koreans were known as voracious readers. Today… not so much. But it looks like it could be an interesting event, at least as far as these stuffy industry events go.

* * *

Funny story from the Seoul Digital Forum of two or three years ago. I attended the big opening dinner thing and ended up sitting at a table right beside the head table. At the head table was one of the major speakers, Lee Soo-man, the founder and head of SM Entertainment, of course. Sitting with Lee was Boa, the singing star (I think she might have performed a song or two).

As you would expect with this kind of event, the hall was filled with dark suited officials… people rather proud of themselves for being so important and influential, most of whom were in their 40s and 50s. Not exactly SM Entertainment’s prime demographic, right?

Well, age and dignity be damned, because the important, dark-suited bigwigs were falling all over themselves to get autographs from Boa. In the middle of some important speech by some important dude, these people would half-crouch (as if hiding, but not really), weave their way through the maze of circular tables, and make their way to Boa’s table, where they would put some ratty piece of paper in front of Boa to be signed. Quite humorous.

Korea Weekend Box Office – April 4-6

April 8, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Showbox’s new supernatural gore-fest THE GUARD POST and the Huayi Brothers’ FORBIDDEN KINGDOM duked it out for top spot at the boxoffice this week. SK Telecom, which distributed FORBIDDEN KINGDOM in Korea, claimed that its film won the battle, with 368,000 admissions.

But according to KOBIS, THE GUARD POST was the official winner nationwide, with close to 400,000 admissions.

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM was actually co-produced by Korea’s Taewon Entertainment, so it was kind of a Korean film. Not sure how it will be counted by KOBIS when it comes to determining how well Korean films did this year.

(Officially, they are at 55.1 percent of the boxoffice. Down slightly from last week, which makes me think they are calling FORBIDDEN KINGDOM a foreign production).

THE CHASER is getting really close to 5 million admissions. Or maybe it is there already (since the KOBIS chart is just 97% of the nationwide boxoffice, and it is now at 4.84 million tickets sold).

This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Revenue (bil. won) Total Revenue (bil. won)
1. The Guard Post (GP 506 – Korean) 4.03 413 2.20 2.57
2. Forbidden Kingdom (sort of Korean) 4.03 386 2.01 2.34
3. Awake 3.27 242 0.58 2.65
4. The Chaser (Chugyeokja – Korean) 2.14 276 0.54 32.41
5. The Other Boleyn Girl 3.20 150 0.50 3.62
6. Do Ray Mi Fa So La Ti Do (Korean) 4.03 198 0.42 0.47
7. Step Up 2 3.13 232 0.36 6.54
8. Fate (Sukmyeong – Korean) 3.20 274 0.26 5.46
9. Dan in Real Life 3.27 204 0.19 1.00
10. The Ugly Duckling 4.03 78 0.16 0.17

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 97% of nationwide box office)

Random Music Notes 2

April 7, 2008 / / 0 Comments

A couple of music notes…

  • Shin Joong-hyun’s limited edition boxset is officially sold out, according to Pony
    Canyon Korea. But they say a second edition is going to be issued in July.
  • A review of the new VIDULGI OOYOO album over at my other blog.
  • No Neil Young at the Hippy Flower Power Peace Concert. But rumors are suggesting a really off-the-wall possibility (also mentioned at that same post on my other blog).
  • Absolutely great concert at Club Ta over the weekend. KINGSTON RUDIESKA, HONGJA BAND, ORIENTAL LUCY and ORGELTANZ combineD for a while combination of sounds and some first-rate fun. I hope to have a review up at the KOREA GIG GUIDE before too long.

    • Cultural Exchanges with North Korea that Matter

    April 7, 2008 / / 0 Comments

    Hah. Just like Brian in Jeollanam-do, I just did a write-up about Oprah and Korea, only to find out that the Chosun Ilbo story that inspired my post was four years old.

    Fine, I’ll delete my post and move on to something more timely and important — porn. More specifically, porn in North Korea. The Daily NK is reporting that South Korean softcore VCDs are selling in North Korea for $50 a pop.

    Of course, this is hardly a new thing. TIME said that NK was being deluged by South Korean TV dramas and international porn way back in 2003.

    One thing I found really interesting is that the NKs apparently call such films “colored movies.” I could not find the reporter’s original story in Korean, sadly, so was not able to see what the actual Korean was.

    Korea Weekend Box Office – March 25-27

    April 1, 2008 / / 0 Comments

    Another boring week at the theaters in Korea. Most of the Hollywood films were released last year in the United States. Including top film, the surgery thriller AWAKE took the top spot with a rather wimpy $1.4 million. Then came Korean films FATE and THE CHASER.

    STEP UP 2: EVEN STEPPIER and THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL are doing okay, considering the slight competition these days.

    DAN IN REAL LIFE (another 2007 film) opened in seventh, as weakly as you would expect from a small comedy (which rarely travel well to Korea). DEATH DEFYING ACTS (2007) opened in eighth.

    Korean films have 55.9 percent of the box office so far in 2008.

    This Week Title…………………………………….. Release Date Screens Nationwide Weekend Revenue (bil. won) Total Revenue (bil. won)
    1. Awake 3.27 276 1.41 1.59
    2. Fate (Sukmyeong – Korean) 3.20 363 1.11 4.74
    3. The Chaser (Chugyeokja – Korean) 2.14 332 1.07 31.38
    4. Step Up 2 3.13 321 0.85 5.86
    5. The Other Boleyn Girl 3.20 172 0.84 2.26
    6. 10,000 BC 3.13 308 0.66 6.96
    7. Dan in Real Life 3.27 216 0.51 0.60
    8. Death Defying Acts 3.27 280 0.48 0.55
    9. Amazing Grace 3.20 68 0.17 0.59
    10. Water Horse 3.20 56 0.14 0.41

    (Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 97% of nationwide box office)

    Mind the Gap

    March 31, 2008 / / 0 Comments

    Okay, this has nothing to do with Korean entertainment, but I found it wildly entertaining. GAPMINDER is a great website about world health and economics, with amazing tools for graphically displaying those statistics.

    For example, here is a graph comparing North Korean and South Korean incomes-per-person and life expectancy from 1960 to the present.

    It is a big database so it might take a couple of minutes to load, but it is pretty cool stuff. Once it is loaded, you can look at so many things:
    – Comparing the percentage of people in Korea living in cities to income since 1960 here.
    – South Korea’s Internet users per 100 people since 1990 here

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