Korean Box Office Update (10/07-10/09, 2011)

Weekend of October 7-9, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	The Crucible	9/22/11	447,049	3,743,065
2	The Client	9/29/11	395,973	1,456,121
3	Fighting Spirit	10/6/11	90,941	120,802
4	Real Steel (us)	10/12/11	73,738	74,127
5	Countdown	9/29/11	61,010	403,805
6	Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	50,536	7,378,874
7	The Three Musketeers (uk)	10/12/11	41,083	45,537
8	The Debt (us)	10/6/11	31,606	37,922
9	From up on Poppy Hill (jp)	9/29/11	30,082	168,018
10	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	16,337	967,290
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	7/27/11	3,952	2,193,214
-	Punch	10/20/11	3,233	6,350
-	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	2,535	2,362,103
-	Sunny	5/4/11	1,332	7,373,387
-	The Day He Arrives	9/8/11	508	40,451

Box office was down significantly this weekend with a total take of 1.29 million but this was still a strong figure given the time of year. This is now the 11th consecutive weekend that a Korean film has claimed the top spot at the box office. Indeed, Korean films dominated the marquees with 5 of the top 6 spots and an 81% market share. To put this in perpective, the same figures for the comparable weekends of the last 3 years were:

2010: 1.09 million adms. - 50%

2009: 1.06 million adms. - 70%

2008: 1.28 million adms. - 32%

The Crucible aka Silenced, which has inundated Korean media of late as the real-life figures it depicts are now under investigation, held onto its top spot. However, after last weekend's astonishing increase it tumbled 56%, this was still enough for a big 447,049 frame but its lead was much narrower than expected. It currently has 3,743,065 admissions and sits at no.4 on the yearly domestic chart, just after Detective K, which it will pass before long. I'm keen to see how it holds over the coming weeks, it should be the third film to cross 5 million in 2011 but I don't think it will have enough steam to challenge the top two spots.

The Client, which despite being completely overshadowed by The Crucible last weekend, had a strong opening weekend and has held very well in its second weekend of general release with a drop of 26%. This brings its total to 1,456,121 and it it continues to play well throughout October it should become the sixth Korean film of the year to cross 3 million admissions.

The sole local platform release this week was Fighting Spirit, Kim Sang-jin's new baseball comedy, it mustered a weak 90,941 opening weekend. Kim's films, which include Attack the Gas Station (1999), Kick the Moon (2001), Jailbreakers (2002), and Ghost House (2004), used to always wind up in the yearly top 5. 2009's Attack the Gas Station 2 was his first film since before Korean cinema's resurgence which failed to break the 1 million mark but Fighting Spirit, which has garnered decent reviews but sported a relatively tepid marketing campaign, looks to fall well short of the former's 731,426 total. It's sad to see one of Korean cinema's brightest embers start to fade away.

Countdown, which opened to lower than expected figures has suffered a precipitous fall (63%) and attracted a measly 61,010 viewers over the frame. It's total now stands at 403,805 but it will likely drop out of the top 10 very soon, maybe as early as next week. This is a disappointing performance from a well-received film which features two big stars, Jeon Do-yeon and Jeong Jae-yeong. Clearly, name recognition is not the drawing factor it used to be in Korean cinema.

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon dropped 50% for a 50,536 total, this was enough for it to claim the top spot of the year over Sunny but only by 5,000. Despite all the huge blockbusters that held the weight of expectations on their shoulders like Sector 7, Quick, and The Front Line, this late summer entry which debuted with much less buzz than the previously mentioned films, has comfortably outpaced all of them. It has, in fact, more than doubled all of their totals. A great performance from a very well-reviewed film, considering Sector 7's calamitous flop, clearly Korean moviegoers are a discerning audience!

As for foreign releases, Real Steel, The Three Musketeers, and The Debt opened with 73,738, 41,083, and 31,606, respectively. Poor openings across the board as foreign films in recent months have failed to gain a foothold in Korea.

Looking ahead, there are a number of important local release during the rest of October. With the Busan International Film Fest in full swing, films like Always (which opened the event) and Punch are likely to gain extra exposure after their screenings. K-Pop film Mr. Idol will open at the end of the month and I am very curious to see how it performs, the hallyu element could be a significant draw but it may also bomb, we shall see.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

The Cat (Go-hyang-i: Jook-eum-eul Bo-neun Doo Gae-eui Noon) 2011

To be honest, it's not very difficult for a film to give me a scare, or rather a bit of a jolt. However, unlike yesteryear's films like The Shining (1980) and Don't Look Now (1975), which truly inspired terror, the current breed of horror cinema more often than not relies on the juxtaposition of judicious editing and loud noises. It's an effective technique, because it works on me, but it is not honestly earned and therefore results in just a fleeting sensation which leaves no lasting effect. Also, once the string section has made its impact and we see the ghost/killer/weapon, all the tension disappears, therefore any subsequent action leaves no impression until the next build-up of tension. I may not be a huge horror buff but it really bothers me that so few horror films even attempt to do more than repeat this technique throughout a feature’s running time.

The pet store

Sadly The Cat falls into this category of frankly lazy filmmaking, worse it displays no panache with the scares it attempts to conjure. The moments of tension are very brief and don't amount to much. The problem is that they are so clearly foreshadowed that you can nearly anticipate the exact moment that every reveal occurs. I don't think I flinched once during the film, which is both a surprise and a victory for me.

The story is extremely simple, So-hee (Park Min-yeong) works in a pet store, one of whose clients dies in an elevator, leaving behind only a cat, which So-hee takes care of. With this new addition comes visions of a scary little girl with cat-like eyes and a rotted face. Since she is already in therapy, she thinks she is just seeing things but soon it becomes clear that this cat is linked to the deaths of the people around her.

As Tom Giammarco remarked in his review, The Cat successfully held its big reveal until the end, which for baffling reasons many films don't seem to do. Theoretically, this should keep the suspense level up during the film's running time. Unfortunately, in this case there is no real suspense to begin with. There are a number of reasons why this film didn't work and I think that they are readily identifiable.

The animal pound

First and foremost, the story was quite dull. It was very easy to follow but felt very stretched over the 105 minute running time. The world that the plot inhabited felt very limited and was not populated with interesting characters. Secondly, the mise-en-scene was uninspired, especially given the technical skill demonstrated by its Korean contemporaries. The cinematography was functional and coupled with the banal and nearly monochromatic production design, costumes, and color schemes, the whole affair was quite drab. Lastly, I was left cold by Park Min-yeong’s performance, she is very pretty to be sure but I could not care one ounce for her character. I was particularly nonplussed by her ridiculous facial expressions.

Korea’s film history is known, principally, for its effective melodrama. Consequently this means that as a national cinema it is predisposed to the production of horror films, especially the kind that features past trauma that comes back to haunt people. Just like more typical melodramatic fare, Korean horror films tend to visit protagonists’ and antagonists’ traumatic backstories as a means to explain the supernatural and/or violent happenings in the diegetic present of their narratives.

Park Min-yeong as So-hee

The Cat explores both the principal character’s scarred past, which manifests itself in claustrophobia and psychiatry sessions, and the antagonists’ agonizing backstory. Although each is kept secret right until the end, neither are worth the payoff, and though they are somewhat logical, they aren’t very interesting or original. What is more unfortunate is that the film doesn’t really explore its concept. Cats have always had supernatural connotations and as Tom Giammarco articulately pointed out in his article on the history of supernatural cats in Korean cinema, they have been very prominent but of late they seem to have disappeared as a source for K-horror, until this film. Although there are many haunted and possessed cats in The Cat, I felt that they weren’t used as much more than a prop, since the haunted presence in this film is another of the oh-so prevalent little girl ghosts.

For the most part I was very bored when I watched this film, the story was beyond lacklustre, the characters rigid and one-note, and the horror was soporific. I can excuse a good idea that isn’t successfully brought to screen or a talented group of filmmakers who lack a good story, but I cannot abide a film which takes the easy way out at every turn and makes no effort with its mise-en-scene. I felt let down by The Cat and worse, that I wasted my time. I expected a lot more from director Byeon Seung-wook, who previously worked as the assistant director on Lee Chang-dong's sublime Peppermint Candy (1999).


Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (10/01-10/07, 2011)

Another good week for reviews spread over a wide range of films. A number of reviews for I Saw the Devil (not sure why) and trio for BIFF opener Always. I anticipate that next week's edition will feature a lot fo BIFF reviews, until then!

NEW KOREAN RELEASES

Always
(Film Business Asia, October 7, 2011)

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 6, 2011)

(Variety, October 6, 2011 - subscription required)

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon

(Init_Scenes, October 3, 2011)

Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild

(Seen in Jeonju, September 28, 2011)

The Crucible

(Soul's Rebel, October 1, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

A Barefoot Dream

(cut print review, September 15, 2011)

I Saw the Devil

(0.50 Action Express, October 5, 2011)

(Haunted Hell, October 5, 2011)

(moviefilmreview.com, October 5, 2011)

(Movies Onlines, October 7, 2011)

(Redzombie Reviews, October 5, 2011)

(Salient, October 2, 2011)

(The Cove, October 6, 2011) 

(themoviesnob, October 5, 2011)

Midnight FM

(Init_Scenes, October 4, 2011)

Moby Dick

(hancinema.net, October 1, 2011)

Poetry

(examiner.com, October 1, 2011)

The Man From Nowhere

(Radar Redux, October 3, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(collider.com, October 3, 2011)

White: The Curse of the Melody

(Modern Koreaa Cinema, October 6, 2011)

PAST FILMS

200 Pounds Beauty, 2006

(shantalks.wordpress.com, October 2, 2011)

Daisy, 2006

(poptastictees.com, October 2, 2011)

Death Bell, 2008

(Hangul Celluloid, October 3, 2011)

Forbidden Floor, 2006

(Init_Scens, September 30, 2011)

Joint Security Area, 2000

(cut print review, September 20, 2011)

Take Care of My Cat, 2011

(10 Mag, September 28, 2011)

Turn It Up to 11, 2009

(Init_Scenes, October 6, 2011)

(Twitch, September 22, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

White: The Melody of the Curse (Hwa-i-teu: Jeo-woo-eui Mel-lo-di) 2011

I don’t frequently get excited about horror films but White: The Melody of the Curse was somewhat of an exception. I had consistently heard good things about its directors, Kim Gok and Kim Sun, a pair who have been churning out low-budget indie horrors since 2003. Sadly, I have not had a chance to see any of them yet. White is their first big budget, commercial film, and it is also fairly ambitious, especially from a technical standpoint despite employing a number of done-to-death (excuse the pun) clichés. The other reason I was curious to see this film was its subject matter, as the narratives takes place within the fiercely competitive K-Pop milieu. While I do not know very much about this global Hallyu phenomenon it does fascinate me and upon hearing about this project, I felt the topic particularly conducive to horror.

K-Pop idols

The story gets underway very succinctly and involves a pop band which has fallen from grace. One of them, Eun-joo (Ham Eun-jeong), a former back-up dancer, serves as the team leader and is ostracized due to her background. Her benefactor arranges for them to record in a new studio, which is fancy and high tech but harbors a mysterious past. Eun-joo discovers a secret compartment behind a mirror in the dance hall and within it an old videocassette featuring an old K-Pop routine. This becomes the group’s new song, which, as the title suggests, is indeed cursed. One by one, each girl who is given the coveted center position is subjected to awful accidents and a bit of haunting for good measure. Eun-joo seeks to uncover the secret of the tape with a little help from her friend before it’s too late.

One thing about horror films is that everyone who watches them is looking for something different: some want a good story; others a few good scares; and others still are in it for the blood and guts. White delivers on all three of these but probably not to an ultimately satisfying degree for any. I appreciated the K-Pop setting with its fan obsession and competition between performers but the story that is set within it features a too-good to be true haunted location, a cursed video, and a long-haired and decomposed ghost seeking revenge. This is very unoriginal stuff and a little disappointing. Next, while there are some good scares, some of the set pieces are borderline ridiculous and have the potential of eliciting an undesired reaction. Finally, there is some slightly gruesome violence but these moments are infrequent and lack cinematic flair, which is odd considering how well made the film is.

Strong use of colours and production design

For me some of the strongest sequences were those in between the scares which were either investigatory, expository, or relationship-based. One reason they worked quite well is that they are so well shot. It is not often with this kind of film that the production values prove a real asset, A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) comes to mind, but that was always designed as a ‘prestige film’. The colors, framing, and especially the use of the locations were at times beautiful, foreboding, and menacing. The set pieces themselves also display strong mise-en-scène but I found it less convincing than the other scenes. This may have been because there was a tendency to overdo it, mostly on the editing side. Rarely, in my opinion, does fancy, hyperkinetic editing add something genuine to a film. As much as I can appreciate its value for horror, which is so often low-budget, quick cuts all too often rob a scene of tension, which needs to be earned.

There isn’t too much to say about the performances, which mostly veer into caricature, but everyone seems to handles themselves relatively well here. A couple of the starlets are also K-Pop singers, I wonder if this added anything to their performances. Arguably, not a great deal is required for these kinds of performances.

Generic staple,  à la ring

Despite the reliance on very generic staples, especially of local Asian horror cinema, in my eyes White was a cut above recent K-Horror entries, a lot of which have been disappointing, save for a a few gems like Possessed (2009) and the brilliant Bedevilled (2010), although the latter probably lends itself more to the revenge thriller categorization. However, given people's very different tastes when it comes to horror, I would suggest that you would do best to approach this one with caution. I enjoyed myself and am looking forward to the next Kim gok and Kim Sun film, hopefully they will give us something a little more ambitious. Perhaps that is why there is something lacking with White, at times it feels like a test run.

Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Cinema News (09/29-10/05, 2011)

Big news week for Korean cinema, a good portion of it for the incoming Busan Film Fest and the controversy surrounding new film The Crucible. A number of trailers this week as well as a brief new section to showcase new posters.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Extreme-Short Film Festival Opens in Seoul
Last Thursday, the 3rd Seoul International Extreme-Short Image and Film Festival opened in Guro, Seoul. 387 short of about three minutes are being featured at this year's edition. 144 films are competing across the six categories . The festival openers were A Pale Purple Bird directed by actor Oh Kwang-rok, The Diner directed by Korean singer Horan, and Curse direct by Korean comedian Park Seong-gwang. (KBS.co.kr, September 29, 2011)

BIFF's Opening Film Sells Out in Seven Seconds

Always, which is opening the 16th edition of the Busan International Film Festival, sold out online in a staggering seven seconds. This marks an improvement over the already impressive 18 seconds achieved by Hawthorne Tree Forever, last year's opener. (enewsworld.net, September 27, 2011)

Busan: Fest Maps New Future

It's been a tough year for the folks running the Busan Intl. Film Festival. Following the retirement of former director Kim Dong-ho it has been a difficult year for those running the Busan International Film Festival. Some critics from within the domestic film industry and the international community wonder whether the fest can continue without Kim's leadership. However, the 16th edition of Asia's largest film festival is gearing up for change, with a new name and new headquarters. (Variety, October 3, 2011)

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon – The Historical Background

Kim Han-min’s Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon historical action flick is set to get the London Korean Film Festival 2011 underway in a few weeks. Director Kim, whose previous features are Paradise Murdered (2006) and Handphone (2009), sought to attempt something more historical with his third film, and chose this interesting period in the early 17th century. Philip Gowan explains the background to the film. (London Korea Links, September 29 2011)

DMZ Docs 2011 Closes With Tiniest Place Top WinnerThe 3rd DMZ Korean International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs 2011) closed with a screening of The Tiniest Place. Directed by Tatiana Huezo, the international competition top award winner. The Mexican film was the recipient of the White Goose Award which comes with KW15 million and the honor of screening as the festival’s Closing Film. The documentary film festival, which ran for seven days, took place around Paju City, led by co-festival directors Cho Jae-hyun and Yoo Ji-tae. (kobiz, September 30, 2011)

Sector 7 and Five Other Korean Films to Screen at Tokyo

Six Korean films have been invited to the upcoming 24th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF)  including the sci-fi film Sector 7 as a Special Screening. The other Korean films include Kong Quee-hyun’s mystery U.F.O. and Na Hong-jin’s thriller The Yellow Sea, which will both feature in the Winds of Asia section. The 3D underwater creature feature Sector 7 is due for release in Japan on Nov. 12, 2011. (kobiz, September 30, 2011)

Worldwide Documentary Network to Launch at Busan

The 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)’s Asian Cinema Fund (ACF) will join the World Documentary Exchange (WDE), a documentary network between Europe, the Americas, and henceforth Asia. The expanded network aims to create more opportunities for documentaries around the world. (kobiz, September 30, 2011)

Stateless Things and The Day He Arrives Continue Fest Rounds
Kim Kyung-mook’s Stateless Things has been invited to the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), which runs in Canada until Oct. 14. Kim’s independent film is in the Dragons and Tigers competition. Stateless Things has also been invited to the upcoming 55th BFI London Film Festival’s World Cinema section, along with Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives. The London Film Festival will run Oct. 12 – 27 this year. (kobiz, September 29, 2011)

New BIFF Venue a City Landmark, Architectural Marvel

The Busan Cinema Center, which features a huge roof shaped in a wavelike pattern, opened Thursday in Busan. It is propped up by a single pillar built to resemble a pair of ice-cream cones. The center will be the main venue of the annual Busan International Film Festival, previously known as the Pusan International Film Festival. With the completion of the center, the southern port city wants to be recognized not only as a regional cinematic hub but also as the home of key architectural landmarks. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 30, 2011)

Film Sparks Call For Revision of Laws

A movie currently running in cinemas is sparking a growing call for the revision of laws governing sexual crimes against the disabled and minors. The Crucible, a film based on the true story about school staff sexually assaulting hearing impaired students, is adding mounting pressure on policymakers and politicians to change the laws on sexual assaults on children and welfare foundations. (The Korea Times, September 29, 2011)

Song Stars as Grieving Documentary Maker
After starring as the famous Joseon gisaeng - female entertainer - Hwang Jin-i and the mysterious daughter of a Korean shaman, Song Hye-kyo is returning to the big screen as a documentary filmmaker mourning the death of her fiance. "When I pick movies, I don't really think about whether the film I'm going to shoot is going to be a commercial one or an art house one," Song told reporters at a press conference promoting the film, A Reason to Live, on Monday. (asiaone.com, September 27, 2011)

Oldboy Star Choi Min-sik Joins The War Against Crime

Fans of Oldboy star Choi Min-sik have had to face rather a lot of downtime for the actor in recent days, Choi first withdrawing from the film industry entirely to protest proposed changes to the screen quota system in 2006 and then working only sparingly since his return. Kim Ji-Woon's 2010 effort I Saw The Devil was just Choi's second lead role since 2005 effort Crying Fist and his only work since that effort was to contribute his voice to an animated feature. But Choi will be back in 2012 in the lead role of Yun Jong-bin's The War Against Crime (aka Nameless Gangster) in which he will play opposite Ha Jung-woo as a government official in Busan during a very public and hard fought war against organized crime in the early 1990s. (Twitch, October 3, 2011)

Pan-Asian Youth Film School Opens in Busan

A film academy inviting young aspiring filmmakers from across Asia began last week ahead of the opening Thursday of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF). The Asian Film Academy (AFA) opened for the seventh time Thursday as part of the country’s largest cinema event. This year’s installment has invited 24 men and women from 17 countries to take part in workshops, master classes, mentoring sessions and other educational initiatives. (The Korea Times, October 3, 2011)

How a New Cinema Center Could Change the Busan Film Festival
Organizers hope the $15 million Busan Cinema Center, designed by Coop Himmelblau, will dazzle festgoers arriving for one of Asia's most important film events. Destination architecture is hitting the film festival world with the opening of the Busan Cinema Center. Designed by influential contemporary architects Coop Himmelblau of Austria, the building will serve as the home of Asia's largest cinema event, the Busan International Film Festival, which opens Oct. 6 in South Korea's second-largest city after Seoul. (The Hollywood Reporter, Ocotber 1, 2011)

Korean Film Archive Showcases 'Radio Days'
Throughout October, the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) is holding a free VOD retrospective on films from the golden era of the 60s that were originally based on popular radio programs called “Radio Days”. The program will feature 10 films. In Korea, the 1950s and 60s were the heyday of not just films but of radio, too, and a lot of radio programs that were popular hits were then adapted into films and plays. The classic films A Romantic Papa, directed by Shin Sang-ok in 1960, and The Sea Knows (a.k.a. Hyunhaetan Knows), directed by Kim Kee-duk in 1961, were both based on radio serial shows. (kobiz, October 4, 2011)

Busan International Film Festival to Amuse Movie Fans With 307 Films
Busan is set to thrill movie lovers from around the world when the 16th Busan International Film Festival gets underway on October 6 for nine days. Over 300 films from 70 countries, as well as a plethora of famous movie stars from both Korea and overseas, will be featured at the festival this year. A number of films have already sold out their screenings in record times. (korea.net, October 5, 2011)

6 Years After Rapes, Gov’t Forces Closure

In the aftermath of the box-office hit Dogani (aka The Crucible/Silenced), depicting the true tale of sexual abuse in a school for hearing-impaired students, the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education determined Monday that it would force the Inhwa School to shut down. Gwangju officials convened an emergency meeting to discuss measures against the school for disabled students and will require all 22 students to be transferred to another establishment soon. (Joong Ang Daily, October 5, 2011)

Actress Kang to Judge Film Festival

Actress Kang Soo-yeon has been chosen as one of the judges of this year’s Asiana International Short Film Festival. Along with the actress, four other prominent film industry names, including Japanese director Isshin Inudo, chief director of the festival Seigo Tono, director of Guanajuato International Film Festival Sara Hoch and director Kim Tae-yong, have been selected as judges this year, according to the festival organizers. (Joong Ang Daily, October 5, 2011)

The 2011 Gwacheon International SF Festival Opens With 3D Ghost in the Shell

The 2nd Gwacheon International SF Festival in Korea opens today (Sept. 30) with the Japanese animation Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – Solid State Society 3D directed by Kenji Kamiyama. The festival will run until Oct 16 at the Gwacheon National Science Museum. It aims to encourage creativity and imagination in children by combining "scientific imagination and filmic imagination". (kobiz, September 29, 2011)

Korean High-Schooler Wins Int'l Animation Award 

A Korean high school senior has won a prize at the 2011 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Kim Bo-won of Korea Animation High School in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province was given the 2011 Adobe Prize for Best High School Animation for her work titled I'm Sorry, beating about 2,000 entries from around the world. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 30, 2011)

Another Film Shows Sexual Abuse of the Disabled in N. Jeolla Area
With the hit Korean movie The Crucible fueling public outrage against sexual abuse of the disabled, another film about sexual violence against the disabled in Gimje, North Jeolla Province, is drawing keen attention. The Crucible, a 125-minute commercial feature, includes descriptions of sexual assault in Gwangju, but Sum, an 89-minute independent film, describes the pain and love of the heroine and the rape victims. Park Ji-won, a 30-year-old disabled woman, played the heroine in Sum and more than 20 other people with disabilities also performed as supporting cast. (The Dong-a Ilbo, October 1, 2011)

Korean Animation Waddles Into China
The first Korean animated film to play at Chinese theaters opened at 3,000 screens yesterday and is about the adventures of a hen who escapes a chicken farm to realize her dream of hatching her own egg. Leafie, A Hen Into The Wild is based on the hit teenage novel of the same name and has a running time of 93 minutes. The 3-billion-won ($2.5-million) film is currently showing nationwide in China with dubbing in mandarin. It earlier became the first Korean animation to draw 1 million viewers domestically, experts said, where it posted box-office receipts in excess of 2.2 million after it was released in July on 350 screens. (Joong Ang Daily, October 1, 2011)

Pres. Lee Calls for Measures to Prevent Sexual Crimes Against Disabled & Minors

President Lee Myung-bak recently got to watch the much-talked about Korean movie The Crucible which is based on a true story about school staff sexually assaulting hearing impaired students. After watching it, the President said that our society needs to be more conscious of sexual crimes against the disabled, and that he will work to better protect people with disabilities and minors from becoming victims of such crimes. (arirang.co.kr, October 4, 2011)

Film Picks for 2011 Busan Film Fest
The 16th annual Busan International Film festival, one of the world’s most prestigious, will once again kick off on the 1st Thursday of October. The sheer amount of film options can seem a bit overwhelming. Approximately 300 movies from 70 different countries with 135 world premiers will be screened in Haeundae, Centum City, and Namp-dong. Here is a "lockdown" list of picks. (The Vanguard Element, October 5, 2011)

IMAX Signs Revenue Share Deal in China With CJ CGV Holdings, Ltd
IMAX Corporation today announced that CJ CGV Holdings, LTD, a subsidiary of Korean media conglomerate CJ CGV Co. Ltd., has signed a revenue share agreement to add 15 new IMAX(R) digital theatre systems in the People's Republic of China. Under the terms of the agreement, CJ CGV Holdings, LTD is scheduled to install the first IMAX systems in 2011, with all remaining installations expected to be completed between 2013 and 2017. (Market Watch, October 4, 2011)

Rooney Mara Wanted For Oldboy Female Lead?

Spike Lee is set to direct an American version of the South Korean favorite Oldboy, withJosh Brolin looking like the guy to play the lead role. Brolin would be a man who is kidnapped one night and imprisoned for fifteen years for reasons unknown to him. Released back into society just as abruptly as he was snatched, he begins to look for the person or persons responsible for his incarceration. Along the way he meets a young chef who becomes his partner in the search. And now there’s a report that Rooney Mara, of The Social Network (2010) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011), is the choice to play that role. (/Film, September 28, 2011)

INTERVIEW

Metamorpheses Director Oh In-chun
Inchun Oh is a Korean filmmaker, director and screenwriter. Born on August 30, 1980, he studied filmmaking at Korea National University of Arts, where he wrote and directed A Moment - a collaboration between Korea National University of Arts and Beijing Film Academy, filmed entirely in Beijing. His latest short film Metamorphoses (2011) has been screened internationally at a number of film festivals. (Hangul Celluloid, October 3, 2011)

TRAILERS

A Reason to Live

A Thousand Days' Promise

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BOX OFFICE

Korean Box Office Update (09/30-10/02, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, October 3, 2011)

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 (GMT+1) 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. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (09/30-10/02, 2011)

Weekend of September 30 - October 2, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	The Crucible	9/22/11	911,179	2,501,300
2	The Client	9/29/11	480,049	640,454
3	Countdown	9/29/11	145,775	219,271
4	Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	91,886	7,245,651
5	Abduction (us)	9/29/11	64,972	82,045
6	From up on Poppy Hill (jp)	9/29/11	61,370	65,924
7	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	30,086	916,939
8	Contagion (us)	9/22/11	21,501	207,766
9	The Killer Elite (us)	9/22/11	12,828	147,049
10	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	11,227	2,345,076
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	7/27/11	4,435	2,183,191
-	Pained	7/9/11	3,658	696,117
-	Champ	7/9/11	1,215	530,801
-	The Day He Arrives	8/9/11	1,013	37,169

Business picked up a little this week over the last two with nearly 1.9 million admissions counted over the weekend. Two big Korean film opened wide and while only five films in the top 10, four of those led the marketplace and took a hefty 87.2% of business. Of the other five films, three were American holdovers (Mr. Popper's Penguins, Contagion and The Killer Elite), and the two midlevel openers were Abduction from Hollywood and the new Studio Ghibli film From Up on Poppy Hill from Japan.

Once again The Crucible (aka Silenced) dominated the marketplace with a staggering 911,179 tickets sold, this represents a huge 33% increase over last week's already impressive opening. With 2.5 million already tucked away (which puts it at No.7 on the yearly domestic chart), The Crucible should well in the coming weeks and may finds itself very high up the chart before long.

Last week yielded some solid preview figures for The Client, and it looked like a good bet to come in first this week. It managed 480,049, a strong number for this kind of film and this time of year but it barely managed to earn half of The Crucible's second weekend, which clearly ate into its potential earnings. However the buzz has been building on this film due in large part to an agressive marketing campaign so it may yet conjure up some big numbers.

The other wide Korean release this week was Countdown, the new thriller starring Jeon Do-yeon and Jang Jae-yeong. Reviews have been good but the film only managed a disappointing 145,755 admissions in its first frame despite the strong pedigree attached. This kind of figure seems to reinforce the notion that star wattage is dwindling at the Korean box office in favor of strong ensemble cast. Last month's Hindsight seemed to suffer a similar fate.

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon dropped 38% this week for a 91,886 weekend. Its total, which stands at 7,245,651 is within 130,000 of Sunny's chart-topping performance. It should pass it within the next two weeks unless it crashes out very quickly but will not go any further.

Marrying the Mafia IV all but disappeared from the marketplace with a minuscule 11,227 as it finished out its run. Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild, Pained and Champ are still hanging around with very small takes while Hong Sang-soo's The Day He Arrives added another 1,013 to brings its total to 37,169.

The Crucible is all but guaranteed to stay up top next week as there will be no significant openings. The only wide Korean release will be Kim Sang-jin's new film Fighting Spirit, a baseball-themed comedy-drama.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Weekly Review Round-up (09/24-09/30, 2011)

An enormous amount of reviews this week (53!) due in part to Austin's Fantasia Fest and the release of Poetry in Toronto. I'm sure I've missed a couple though but if you can point me towards any more I will gladly include them!

NEW KOREAN RELEASES

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon

(koreanfilm.org, September 2011)

Blind

(Ain't It Cool News, September 29, 2011)

(andrewmccants.com, September 24, 2011)

(austin360.com, September 23, 2011)

(austinist.com, September 26, 2011)

(cinemablend.com, September 23, 2011)

(fangoria.com, September 22, 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 26, 2011)

(Film School Rejects, September 25, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 23, 2011)

(Twitch, September 22, 2011)

Countdown

(Seongyong's Private Place, September 25, 2011)

(The Korea Times, September 29, 2011)

RECENT RELEASES

GLove

(hancinema.net, September 24, 2011)

Hanji

(Twitch, September 24, 2011)

Haunters

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 26, 2011)

(indieWIRE, September 26, 2011)

(insidepulse.com, September 25, 2011)

(The Austin Chronicle, September 29, 2011)

(Twitch, September 25, 2011)

Invasion of Alien Bikini

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(feelist.blogspot.com, September 27, 2011)

(klownsasesinos.com, September 26, 2011) - Spanish

(slashfilm.com, September 24, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 23, 2011)

(Twitch, September 23, 2011)

Moby Dick

(Modern Korean Cinema, September 30, 2011)

Poetry

(cynicritics.com, September 15, 2011)

(exclaim.ca, September 29, 2011)

(kdvr.com, September 23, 2011)

(nowtoronto.com, September 29, 2011)

(The Globe and Mail, September 30, 2011)

(The Grid, September 28, 2011)

(Toronto.com, September 30, 2011)

(Toronto Sun, September 30, 2011)

The Servant

(Init_Scenes, September 29, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(Ain't It Cool News, September 24, 2011)

(fantasticfest.festivalgenius.com, September 2011)

(Film School Rejects, September 26, 2011)

(Film Threat, September 24, 2011)

(geekscape.net, September 28, 2011)

(hancinema.net, September 24, 2011)

(ifc.com, September 24, 2011)

(indieWIRE, September 26, 2011)

(klownsasesinos.com, September 26, 2011) - Spanish

(Sound on Sight, September 26, 2011)

(The 72 Pins, September 24, 2011)

(The Film Stage, September 25, 2011)

(Twitch, September 23, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Summer Time, 2001

(Hangul Celluloid, September 16, 2011)

The Sword With No Name, 2009

(buzzfocus.com, September 28, 2011)

Woman on the Beach, 2005

(The New Yorker, September 28, 2011)

The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Cinema News (09/22-09/28, 2011)

Another light week for Korean cinema news but in my searching I did uncover a large amount of Fantastic Fest korean film reviews which will be features in Friday's WEEKLY REVIEW ROUND-UP, maybe that explains it.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Online Smiles for Sunny
CJ E&M Pictures has scored strongly with the multiple online releases of its hit film Sunny. Sunny was released for download via portals and cloud services on 8 Sep, shortly before the Chuseok public holidays, and achieved $597,000 after 10 days. Separately it earned $511,000 on Korea Telecom's IPTV service. Taken together with revenues from other IPTV outlets, CJ estimates that Sunny earned $1.28 million over the Chuseok period and is on course for total ancillary revenues of $2.56 million. (Film Business Asia, September 23, 2011)

Bae Doo-na Ice Cool Ahead of Hollywood Debut

All it took was a video call and a short home movie, and the Wachowski brothers -- the brains behind The Matrix trilogy -- were sold on actress Bae Doo-na. The Wachowskis had been looking around for someone to fill a role in their upcoming movie, Cloud Atlas. (The Chosun Ilbo, September 24, 2011)

LKFF: Festival News from Mayfair, First Impressions & a Salute to Curatorial Ambition
A preview of the London Korean Film Festival courtesy of Ian London over on the New Korean Cinema site. (New Korean Cinema, September 25, 2011)

HK Film Archive's "Restored Treasures" to Feature Korean Director Shin Sang-ok's Masterpieces
An accomplished director and producer, Shin Sang-ok, nicknamed the 'Prince of Korean Cinema', was one of a handful of directors who were instrumental in making the 1950s and '60s a golden age for Korean cinema. The Hong Kong Film Archive (HKFA)'s "Restored Treasures" series in October and November will screen two of his masterpieces. The two selected films were also the first and third restored treasures of the Korean Film Archive (KOFA). (7th Space, September 26, 2011)

Unsettling Dogani Revisits School Horror
A new film based on a true story is stirring up anger and a sense of helplessness among Korean moviegoers. The movie, called Dogani or The Crucible in English, is adopted from the bestselling book of the same name by Gong Ji-young, one of the most prominent and respected female writers in Korea (The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2011)

Top Actor Jang Dong-gun Set to Star in Foreign Film
Top Korean actor Jang Dong-gun is set to star with Zhang Ziyi and Cecilia Cheung in director Hur Jin-ho’s adaptation of the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Jang is fresh off the shoot of Kang Je-kyu’s sweeping WWII film My Way which wrapped recently. (kobiz, September 27, 2011)

5-Day Korean Film Fest in Cebu Starts
A five-day Korean Film Festival in Cebu will be held starting tomorrow September 28 until October 2 with top-grossing films to be shown for free at the SM Cinema. (Philippine Information Agency, September 27, 2011)

American Professor Loves Korean Movies
'Korean movies are humanistic and deal with human existence, and that makes us watch them. I think they are this way because of the huge tragedies of the Japanese occupation and the Korean War.' 53-year-old Earl Jackson, a professor at the Korean National University of Arts, told Yonhap News on the 22nd that Korean movies have unique characteristics compared to the cinema of other nations. (asiancorrespondent.com, September 28, 2011)

INTERVIEW

Interview With Director LIM Woo-seong
Up-and-coming Korean director Lim Woo-seong, whose Scars is screening in the San Sebastian International Film Festival Zabaltegi-New Directors Section, speaks to Cine21’s SHIN Dooyoung about his work. (kobiz, September 23, 2011)

TRAILERS

Hi Dokdo

Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!

BOX OFFICE

Korean Box Office Update (09/23-09/25, 2011)

(Modern Korean Cinema, September 26, 2011)

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 (GMT+1) 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. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Korean Box Office Update (09/23-09/25, 2011)

Weekend of September 23-25, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	The Crucible	9/22/11	685,784	914,369
2	Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon	8/10/11	149,183	7,042,686
3	Contagion (us)	9/22/11	111,932	133,147
4	Mr. Popper's Penguins (us)	9/7/11	85,808	848,949
5	Marrying the Mafia IV	9/7/11	74,487	2,283,806
6	The Killer Elite (us)	9/22/11	70,238	90,591
7	The Client	9/29/11	61,074	61,074
8	Countdown	9/29/11	32,100	39,279
9	Pained	9/7/11	24,591	673,342
10	Champ	9/7/11	17,824	514,194
-	Leafie, A Hen Into The Wild	7/27/11	10,704	2,171,074
-	Hindsight	8/31/11	5,452	761,276
-	Blind	8/10/11	4,798	2,355,927

Business was once again a little slow with 1.4 million tickets sold overall. That's slightly below last year's comparable weekend which had 1.8 million admissions. 7 of the top films were Korean and this is now the 9th weekend in a row where the top place has been occupied by a local film.

After strong previews last week, The Crucible (aka Silenced) has conquered the local box office with a big 685,784 tally on its opening weekend, that accounted for a 48.9% share of the marketplace. With nearly a million admissions tucked away already it will be interesting to see how far this goes although it will come up against some stiff competition next weekend.

Arrow, the Ultimate Weapon took its biggest slide yet as it retreated nearly 50% in its 7th weekend, although its 149,183 admissions were enough to push it over 7 million. While it is unlikely to crack 8 million, Arrow will now challenge for the local number 1 spot currently occupied by Sunny and its 7,369,213 take.

Marrying the Mafia IV took another big dive this weekend, this time over 70%. With 74,487 tickets sold this weekend it remains to be seen whether it has enough to go over its predecessors 2.5 million total.

Pained sold 24,591 tickets after falling nearly 80% and now has 673,342 admissions as it winds up its run. Champ suffered a similar fall and 17,824 for a 514,194 total. Outside of the top 10 Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild, Hindsight, and Blind all posted small numbers.

The Client and Countdown, two hotly anticipated Autumn releases, had their previews this weekend.  They scored 61,074 and 32,100 admissions respectively and all eyes will be on them when they open in earnest next weekend. Also in the mix for the top place will be The Crucible's sophomore frame.


The Korean Box Office Update is a weekly feature which provides detailed analysis of film box office sales over the Friday to Sunday period in Korea. It appears every Monday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.