Category: Korean movies (Page 16 of 31)

Not a great weekend for the movie business in general. Even worse for Korean film, with local pics getting just the No. 7 and No. 8 spots (unless you count THREE KINGDOMS, which Taewon Entertainment invested in, but I do not).

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

IRON MAN opens tomorrow. SPEED RACER the week after that. Pretty much some giant Hollywood film opens every weekend for the next month or two. Could be an ugly stretch ahead of Korean movies.

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.

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

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).

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).

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

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.

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

Looks like the March Blahs are in full force once again this year, with pretty lousy box office across the board. Each year we get a lull between the Lunar New Year and the summer movie season (which, of course, begins in May).

Top film was the Kwon Sang-woo film FATE. If you are into looking at Kwon with his shirt off, this could be the film for you. But it does not seem like the kind of film for me.

Otherwise, not a lot of changes from last week. 10,000 BC, then CHASER then STEP UP 2 (even upper and steppier than the first).

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL really sucks, by the way. Avoid it at all costs.

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

Loved the Youtube parody for THERE WILL BE BLOOD, titled THERE WILL BE BUD (it’s not about beer). Yeah, I’m not exactly breaking new ground here, but I was impressed nonetheless.

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

Another good week for THE CHASER, which has now raced past 3.6 million admissions. Four million is a certainty, and I suppose 5 million is looking increasingly possible. Very good news for Showbox (the distributor) and Na Hong-jin (director).

Otherwise, not a lot of note this week. There is a lot of parity in the top-10, with even the No. 10 film on 145 screens.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD opened way down in 17th (which I saw an quite liked, in a great-bad-movie sort of way).

Hong Sang-soo’s NIGHT AND DAY was in 19th, and now has slightly over 7,000 admissions.

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

Na Hong-jin’s THE CHASER is heading to Hollywood. According to a story in today’s HOLLYWOOD REPORTER (by me, hah!), Warner Bros. bought the remake rights for $1 million (plus other considerations).

If you are not a fan of remakes, you should be able to catch the original soon enough … provided you live in Hong Kong, the Benelux, France or Greece. They all bought distribution rights to the original.

Which reminds me — at long, long last, THR’s Asia website is finally up and running. I think it looks pretty nice… although apparently a lot of changes are on their way.