Category: Korean movies (Page 11 of 31)

After three weekends in a row in the No. 1 spot, seems safe to say that OVERSPEED SCANDAL is a solid hit. In fact, it made more money last weekend than it did the opening weekend. Despite a bad trailer, people really like it and are giving it good word of mouth.

I am a little surprised that PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA, the latest animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, did not open better. But with the Christmas holidays, I suppose the film’s distributors are hoping to get a kick from the kiddie crowd over the next couple of weeks.

After that, we have a block of Hollywood dreck, with JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH in third, TWILIGHT in fourth, YES MAN in fifth and AUSTRALIA in sixth.

Winner of the butt-kicking-of-the-week award goes to LOST AND FOUND, which despite opening on 480 screens, could only manage $740,000, or 7th place. Ouch.

I was happy to see David Cronenberg’s latest (abeit from 2007) film EASTERN PROMISES sneak into the top 10 (albeit is a tiny $20,000). A fun little film from one of my favorite directors. And, of course, some quality gore.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

FYI, MAMMA MIA is lurking in Korea still, coming in 11th this week, despite appearing on just seven screens nationwide. Not bad for a movie that opened in the beginning of September.

Despite two big Hollywood openings this week — TWILIGHT and AUSTRALIA — the Korean film OVERSPEED SCANDAL held on to the No. 1 spot last weekend, taking in $2.7 million. Its 10-day total is now at $7.3 million.

TROPIC THUNDER flopped badly, but not unexpectedly, as most comedies of this sort flop in Korea. Animated animals do fine, and romantic comedies are okay, but the Ben Stiller, Jack Black, gross-out, school of modern American comedy just does not travel well at all.

PORTRAIT OF THE BEAUTY is slowing down after a month in release, but still did well enough to land in fourth. It also officially moved ahead of QUANTUM OF SOLACE last week.

Oh, and MAMMA MIA may be down to 15th, but it has now topped 30 billion won (about $22 million), a nice, round achievement.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

A big week ahead, as DALKOMHAN GEOJITMAL, PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA and JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH all square off. I will take the sentimental favorite and guess that Miyazaki’s latest will come out on top.

Ack! Like a monster from a 1950s horror film, MAMMA MIA! just won’t die. Over three months on, and the silly singing showcase has re-emerged on the top 10. Blessedly, way down in 10th (making less than $20,000). But still, kind of scary.

Anyhow, on with the real top-10. For the most part, this was a pretty good week for Korean films, as they accounted for the entire top 4 films. Plus ANTIQUE down in eighth, that gives Korean movies half of the top-10. Not bad.

After a strong preview release last week, OVERSPEED SCANDAL took the top spot with about $2.2 million or so (at about 1,450 won/dollar); that’s about 475,000 admissions. Thanks to its early opening, that brings its total box office to about $3 million.

PORTRAIT OF A BEAUTY continued its strong run, landing in second this week, raising its total to nearly $10 million.

I have no idea what’s up with THE ACCIDENTAL GANGSTER AND THE MISTAKEN COURTESAN (as KOFIC calls it) — or DISTURBANCE IN HER BARROOM (as Darcy calls it). Two very odd English titles.

Down in fourth was HELLO, SCHOOLGIRL, which has not received very good reviews from my friends. As for me, I’ll just re-read the comic book.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

Five out of the top-10 films this week were Korean, including the top two films. That is a surprisingly strong showing for them. Yeah, Korean movies. Who knows, maybe they can creep up over 45% of the box office for year (at the moment they are just under 42%). No, there is nothing super-exciting coming in the way of Korean movies, but the Hollywood competition looks even more underwhelming. In fact, I would not be surprised if Miyazaki’s PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA was the biggest hit of December.

Top film over the weekend was the adaptation of Kang Full‘s CARTOON ROMANCE comic book, retitled by MNFC as HELLO, SCHOOLGIRL. CARTOON ROMANCE was, of course, the online comic strip that made Kang famous (and went a long way to making online comics popular in Korea). Other movies made from his stories have not fared so well (APT, BA:BO), but I think it is safe to say that CARTOON ROMANCE is Kang’s most loved series, so it is not surprising it had a built-in audience.

A strong pre-opening for OVERSPEED SCANDAL, the latest Cha Tae-hyun film. I have only seen the trailer so far, but I was pretty unimpressed. Especially considering how the biggest “joke” in the trailer was a PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES-esque sequence… but involving a potential father-daughter relationship. Two straight guys in bed together — funny. A guy and a girl who might be father-daughter — not funny. Just icky. Or maybe I am just an uptight fuddy-duddy. Who knows?

PORTRAIT OF A LADY is still doing quite well, with nearly $8 million so far. The new Bond film is doing all right, too, although it is definitely flagging. Oh, and ANTIQUE is not over the 1-million admissions point, which is always nice.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

So I saw PORTRAIT OF THE LADY over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised. No, the film is not a classic. And the last hour or so is a hopeless simpa cryfest. But when the film is light and sexual, it is surprisingly fun and engaging. The sex is at once erotic and amusing (for the most part). These scene with the sex book and the dude calling out numbers was pretty daring, too.

The cinematographer needs to learn how to film Kim Min-sun, though. Sometimes she looked quite pretty, but other times she looked dreadful. Someone had no idea how to photograph her correctly.

Anyhow, funny to think how 10 years ago, people were all upset over Jang Sun-woo’s LIES, a sexual film about a man’s relationship with a high school girl. And now the top two films are all about sex and a man’s relationship with a high school girl (although, since I have not seen SCHOOLGIRL yet, I don’t know how much the filmmakers changed the storyline from the graphic novel).

Sorry for the lack of updates last week. I was in Spain and did not have access to my computer. Had a very good time, though. If you are tempted to go, I highly recommend November (at least for the south) — clear skies and 20 degrees every day, not so many tourists around, plenty of hotel rooms to be found.

Anyhow, as for movies, the sexy Kim Min-sun film PORTRAIT OF A BEAUTY was the top film for a second week in a row, taking in 2.8 billion won (or about $1.9 million… thanks to the every more depressing exchange rate). After two weeks, it has now made about $6 million, or a decent 1.3 million admissions.

By the way, isn’t it amazing that it has been about nine years since Kim starred in MEMENTO MORI? Definitely one of the most interesting films from the heyday of the Korean film boom.

Second also went to a Korean film, ANTIQUE, an adaption from a Japanese comic book.

The latest James Bond film continued to do okay, but nothing overwhelming — around $8.2 million after three weeks. (I miss the great Bond riots of 2002, when DIE ANOTHER DAY was in the theaters).

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

Will try to think of something interesting or useful to say this week, once I have re-adjusted to the Korean time zone.

I had a nice little surprise today when I went browsing through Kyobo Books downtown — I discovered a new volume of THE PAST UNEARTHED, the Korean Film Archive’s collection of colonial era Korean films.

If you recall, I wrote about the first box set of colonial era films here. This set has three films in it — SWEET DREAM (1936), MILITARY TRAIN (1938) and FISHERMAN’S FIRE (1939). Sadly, I have not had time to watch them yet, but I hope to write about them fairly soon.

SWEET DREAM in particular looks interesting, as it is the oldest surviving Korean film (at least that we know of). The set also has a few bits of pieces from other films that have survived.

As usual, the packaging is superb (except perhaps for being too tight… hard to get the booklet and DVDs out the first time). Most interesting to me was the inner DVD box, which had a reproduction of a newspaper page from the colonial era.

You can buy your own copy of THE PAST UNEARTHED from Kyobo Books. You can even order it online.

James Bond has a pretty good opening last weekend. Not record-breaking or anything amazing, but pretty good — almost 900,000 admissions and $4.3 million. Personally, I thought it was a noisy, annoying film. Exceptionally well done… but so well done technically that it was pretty empty. Also, it gave me a headache.

Kind of cool, though, that it was released a week before the US market.

Otherwise, not a lot of insights to add. Yet another film with a ONCE UPON A TIME English title opened, but no one seemed to care. Really, that title should be retired, like Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan’s jersey.

Not sure what I think of the manga adaptation ANTIQUE. Very middling advertising campaign. Love that food pr0n, but this was not a great example of the genre.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

PS: Forget to mention — Zach Snyder was in town on Monday, shilling for THE WATCHMEN. And like a total idiot, I forgot to go. I am really hating myself right now. THE WATCHMEN is looking great and it is one of my favorite comic books ever. Sigh.

A boring weekend at the box office, with no films doing terribly well. MY WIFE GOT MARRIED was No. 1 for the second week in a row and how now topped the 1-million-admissions mark. EAGLE EYE has topped 2 million. Only two Korean films in the top 10 (albeit one is the No. 1 movie).

Hopefully James Bond can shake things up next weekend, when QUANTUM OF SOLACE is released early.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

In other box office news… the Joy Division movie CONTROL opened way down in 25th, with less than $5,000. Bong Joon-ho’s TOKYO! was 15th, and how now made $136,000 since opening a couple of weeks ago. Moon So-ri’s SAGWA/APOLOGY was in 21, and has now made $283,000. Kim Ki-duk’s BIMONG is nearly finished, with $455,000.

(Note: currently using 1,260 won/dollar. But I am sure that will keep changing, hour by hour).

A top-11 this week, in honor of Bong Joon-ho’s latest film, one-third of the triptych TOKYO!, which opened in eleventh.

But the top film this week was a Korean film, MY WIFE GOT MARRIED, pulling in just over 500,000 admissions since its release on Thursday. I think I am too depressed by the dollar-won exchange rate to convert its revenues into US dollars… suffice it to say, though, 3.42 billion won is worth a fair bit less than the $3.42 million it would have been worth a couple of months ago (fine, it converts to about $2.36 million at the current exchange rate).

Then you have a bunch of Hollywood films. Followed by CRUSH & BLUSH, and then the opening of a Korean film that I do not know much about, HEARTBREAK LIBRARY. And, way down in eleventh, TOKYO!

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

It must a strange week when the most interesting movie is a 9th place debut. But that is what we have this weekend, when the coolest film in the top-10 is a stunning four years old.

I am talking about APOLOGY/APPLE, the Moon So-ri film that was ready way back in December 2004, but finally made it to the theater last Friday. Nearly four years. Bizarre. I saw the film in November 2005 at the Tokyo FilmEx and quite liked it. APOLOGY opened in just No. 9 (No. 11 by attendance), but it is probably the most interesting film in the Korean box office at the moment. Go see it, you’ll be happy you did.

Wish I had more to say, But Shia LaBouef is No. 1 for a second week, so I am less than pleased. Go see APOLOGY or rent something good.

(Source: KOBIS – Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

If you like old films, you will have another chance to see a long-delayed film beginning Thursday, when the two-year-old ONCE UPON A TIME IN SEOUL opens.

Btw, we are now about 10 days away from the Joy Division song, CONTROL from being released. Everyone should check it out. Great band. Very good film.