Category: Korean movies (Page 24 of 31)

Totally anemic box office this past weekend. Call it the calm before the storm, as SPIDER-MAN 3 is set to be unleashed on Korea in just two hours from now (as of posting time, of course). With the unofficial holiday tomorrow, oodles of theaters around Seoul (and, I would presume, around Korea) will be launching the third webslinger film at 12:30 am.

My prediction? Certainly the film will top 1 million attendance on the Friday-to-Sunday cycle. But as for the week-long “weekend” opening… I would be willing to guess 1.7 million (around what RETURN OF THE KING and TAEGUKGI did). Maybe even 2 million. But I am pretty sure THE HOST’s 2.6 million record opening is safe.

PARADISE MURDERED was the No. 1 for the third week in a row, but it did so with just 80,100 tickets sold in Seoul (figure around $537,000). In nearly three weeks, PARADISE has made about $11.4 million.

SHOOTER (or DOUBLE TARGET as it is known in Korea) was the top new film, in the No. 2 spot. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (I am not about to call it TMNT) had a pretty weak opening, way down in sixth. MY TUTOR FRIEND 2 is definitely a big flop, with just 443,000 tickets sold in 10 days.

Outside of the top 10, Kim Ki-duk’s new film, BREATH, had a pretty tiny opening, with just 2,811 admissions (way down in 21st).

MEMORIES OF MATSUKO has now pulled in 15,765 admissions (and was in 19th last weekend). Not a runaway art-house hit, or a hit at all, I guess. But a reasonable success, which is pretty nice to see for such a quirky little film.

(Source: Film2.0)

Sorry I am late this week, but here is the proper box office listing. Not a whole lot to see… PARADISE MURDERED was No. 1 for another week, but it was hardly an overwhelming victory. Just $8.4 million in ten days.

The Nos. 2 and 3 films are once again a good example of the Seoul/countryside split. Even though THE REAPING won quite handily in Seoul, with 27% better attendance than MY TUTOR FRIEND 2, TUTOR 2 won nationwide by 15%.

Im Kwon-taek’s BEYOND THE YEARS has dropped out of the top-10 already. And 300 is on the verge of doing the same. But for the most part, the industry seems to be treading water until SPIDER-MAN 3 comes out on Tuesday. Oh, and Kim Ki-duk’s BREATH on April 26.

(Source: Film2.0)

Wow. The New York Times (and others, doubtlessly) is linking Cho Seung-hui’s murder spree in Virginia to the Park Chan-wook film OLDBOY. Read about it here (while you still can, anyhow). The pics in question:

Hrm. The photo is not displaying properly here, for some reason. Anyhow here is the OLDBOY picture we are talking about:

[… Okay, so I cannot post pictures at all right now? Is something broken over at Blogger HQ? I have no idea. Will try to fix later. In the meantime, use the links.]

What does it all mean? Sadly, I doubt it means much of anything. Mentally ill people are capable of latching onto just about anything. The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” was, after all, “inspiration” to Charles Manson. OLDBOY was a gripping, violent film, but it certainly was not a cause of anything. Nevertheless, it is a disturbing image, in a story full of disturbing images.

Not a lot to report this week. Things were generally slow, I guess (typical for April).

A new No. 1 film this week, PARADISE MURDERED. Seems like an interesting story, although I have not seen it yet.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON suffered a pretty big second-week decline, plunging 58 percent. I guess people did not like it much.

Nick Cage’s GHOST RIDER opened in third. Was never a fan of the comic book.

Im Kwon-taek’s 100th film, BEYOND THE YEARS, might be an impressive achievement, but it scored a less than impressive opening, way down in seventh. SOPYONGJE (the 1993 prequel) never pulled in anything like 70,000 admissions in Seoul in its opening weekend… but that film ran for a year when it racked up its then record at the box office. That said, I still want to check out the film in the theaters while I can. I had to miss the big preview at the beginning of the month, which was very disappointing.

(Source: Film2.0)

It was not one the Film 2.0 list, but KOBIS says that the No. 10 film was MUG TRAVEL. That animated film has now sold over 120,000 tickets.

French film LES CHEVALIERS DU CIEL is in 11th, with 48,000 admissions.

MEMORIES OF MATSUKO opened down in 13th, with around 4,000 admissions. But it was on just a few screens. Not a huge opening, but I hope it catches on.

Numbers were a little off this week, but March and April are usually slow periods. There were the slowest two months in 2004, and the Nos. 2 and 3 slow months last year (November was even slower).

March’s 9.77 million attendance nationwide, however, was the highest on record (up around 5,000 from last year). Korean films had a pretty bad month, as their 21.6% of the box office was the lowest percentage since December 2004.

Overall, the first quarter’s attendance of 39.56 million represents the second-best total of all time, although down 12% from last year’s 44.99 million.

To no one’s surprise, Song Gang-ho’s THE SHOW MUST GO ON made its debut in the top spot this week. It’s $3.2 million is not bad, but it might be hard for SHOW to maintain, given the torrent of new titles about to be released (not to mention the bittorrent). I really wanted to see this film until I saw the trailer. Now I am less motivated. Might wait for the DVD.

Once again running neck-and-neck (er, neck-and-severed-neck) in Seoul is SMALL-TOWN RIVALS and 300. Nationwide, SMALL-TOWN RIVALS again did much better, and is on the verge of 1 million admissions.

The big French action film SKY FIGHTERS (aka LES CHEVALIERS DU CIEL) finally made it to theaters in Korea. I suppose 34,000 admissions are not great numbers, but I remember the French film commission pushing that film hard at last year’s Hong Kong Filmart, so it was kind of interesting to see it finally make it to the theaters.

(Source: Film2.0)

Next week could be quite interesting, with the new Im Kwon-taek film, BEYOND THE YEARS, getting released, along with MEMORIES OF MATSUKO. Both films will most likely do mediocre business, but it is possible either could take off (or both, for that matter). A lot of women I know seem to be interested in MATSUKO, and you never know how the public will react to an Im Kwon-taek movie.

Sorry I am a little late with this week’s box office. The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement and about a hundred other things have me pretty busy these days. Write in to get a full refund if the delay in any way inconvenienced you.

Anyhow, a fun race for the top spot this week. According to Film 2.0, 300 won for the third week in a row in Seoul, by just 100 admissions — 116,100 admissions to 116,000. That works out to about $782,278 for 300 and $781,600 for SMALLTOWN RIVALS.

Nationwide, however, SMALLTOWN RIVALS won quite handily, besting 300 by nearly $1 million ($3.00 million vs. $2.18 million). Or 440,516 admissions to 317,538. (Remembering, as always, that the KOBIS nationwide stats amount to only about 93% of the total box office, so the real difference was probably even greater).

So far in 2007, 300 is the third-biggest film of the year, having earned about $16 million, following VOICE OF A MURDERER and MIRACLE ON FIRST STREET (and it looks pretty certain that 300 will overtake MIRACLE in the next week).

New films BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY and BLACK BOOK had modest openings. Nothing to write home about, though.

(Source: Film2.0)

This week will see the opening of the new Song Gang-ho film THE SHOW MUST GO ON, which looks like it is going to get a massive rollout. The Megabox in my neighborhood is going to have three or four of its eight screens showing that movie. And it has been getting some decent reviews (although the trailers have been leaving me cold).

Kim Ki-duk’s latest, BREATH, comes out in a couple more weeks. The press preview was last Friday, but I promised the production house I would not review it before the release date (apparently The Korea Herald did not get that memo). I do not want to ruin it for you but I will give one big spoiler here. BREATH features something never seen before in any Kim Ki-duk film — smiling.

Not to keep yapping on about THE HOST, but its run in the United States seems to be going surprisingly well. In the 25 days since its release, THE HOST has now made $1.48 million, and it seems to be picking up steam. The number of screens showing the movie has gone up again, to 116 (it opened on 71, and climbed to 94 last week).

Friday I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of Bae Doona‘s travel photography book DOONA’S LONDON PLAY (big thanks to Taste Factory for that). LONDON PLAY was published by Taste Factory together with the entertainment company Yellow Media in summer last year, and features pictures by and about the actress Bae Doona as she traveled in London.

Of course, Bae Doona has been in a lot of TV shows and movies, including THE HOST, LINDA LINDA LINDA, BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE and TAKE CARE OF MY CAT (although the less said about TUBE or SPRING BEARS LOVE the better).

I would never claim to know any celebrities based on their characters or how they appear at press conferences, but I have long liked Ms Bae. Not sure why, but there has always been something appealing and real about her. A little odd, but in a good way.

If you are a big fan of Ms Bae, good news, she has another book coming out soon — BAE DOONA’S TOKYO PLAY.

300 continued its reign of terror this week, accounting for over 38% of all tickets sold and easily taking the No. 1 spot. The $3 million it took in over the weekend brings its 10-day total to around $12.7 million.

The second place film, PERFUME was a big surprise to me. I had barely heard of the movie before, although I have been quite enamored of its poster for the past few weeks…. Hrm, apparently the ignorance was mine. I bit of Googling revealed this was quite a big movie. The $65 million period movie has made over $120 million around the world. Mostly in Europe, though. Just $2.22 million in the United States since its release at the very end of 2006. In only three days in Korea, however, PERFUME pulled in around $2.1 million.

Jim Carrey’s THE NUMBER 23 made about $1.3 million, good enough for third. Better than I might have guessed, considering the movie’s reviews and how Carrey’s films have rarely done well in Korea.

Jennifer Aniston’s THE BREAK-UP opened quite tepidly in fourth.

Much more interesting is the No. 6 debut of MUG TRAVEL. Is this Korea’s first computer 3D animated feature film? I think it is. Clips from MUG TRAVEL have been scattered around the Internet for quite some time now, and I cannot recall how many years I have seen segments at trade fairs. According to the movie website, MUG TRAVEL is the story of little Bebe, who gets a magical pendant one Christmas, then travels to magical lands in a big magic mug. Or something like that. The movie also features a bear named Backkom, but I do not know his relationship with Bebe. It looks well rendered, but I don’t know about the story. I might check it out this weekend if it is still around. I am rather curious about it.

You can check out stills here. And clips of animation here. From the website, it looks like its creators, Aaron Lim and RG Animation, will be making more.

(Source: Film2.0)