Not an enormous amount of news this week but The Thieves is still obliterating records at the local box office and there are few festival tidbits in the news.
KOREAN CINEMA NEWS
Korean American Film Festival Commemorates the L.A. Riots
The Korean American Film Festival Los Angeles launches this week, and while it imports several titles from its New York sister festival (including Magic and Loss, with indie star Kiki Sugino, and the portentous-sounding Ultimate Christian Wrestling), its centerpiece is a program of documentaries that focus on the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots. (L.A. Weekly, August 9, 2012)
Renowned actress Ha Ji-won and director Kim Ji-hoon will serve as mentors for the Korea-China youth cultural exchange program “Beijing Toto Laboratory,” scheduled to be held in Beijing’s Kwanggeomun Middle School, Aug. 13 -17. Forty teenagers from Korea and China will participate in making eight films during the five-day program jointly sponsored by CJ CGV and Boys Vanguard of the Chinese Communist Youth Association. (The Korea Herald, August 8, 2012)
After shooting two Hurricane Katrina documentaries in town over the past few years, filmmaker Spike Lee is heading back to New Orleans, but this time for a drama. Lee's adaptation of Chan-wook Park's Korean-made cult favorite Oldboy (2003) is scheduled to shoot in town for seven weeks starting Oct. 1. (nola.com, August 8, 2012)
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Friday night witnessed the closing ceremony of this year's excellent edition of PiFan and along with it, the prize winners of the festival. A few films stood out in the Puchon Choice section, with Space Brothers, King Kelly and Citadel each walking away with a pair of accolades. Korea, which was not featured in the main competition, nevertheless managed to take home a few prizes for low-budget comedy Super Virgin and various shorts (The Fantastic Duo, The Birth of a Hero and Poison Frog), not to mention the four PiFan Youth Film Academy Awards. Other feature winners announced included Lee's Adventure and the popular Vulgaria. (Twitch, July 29, 2012)
INTERVIEW
The Korean heist film The Thieves attracted 2.11 million viewers as of last week, just four days after its release, to knock The Dark Knight Rises off its perch at the local box office. The only other domestic movies that have drawn over 2 million viewers in such a short space of time are the sci-fi slash-monster flicks The Host (2006) and D-War (2007). (The Chosun Ilbo, August 4, 2012)
BOX OFFICE
(Modern Korean Cinema, August 5, 2012)
Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (Korean Standard Time) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site.
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