48th Daejong Film Awards

The Daejong film awards are the oldest and most prestigious film industry awards in Korea.  They are essentially the Korean oscars and they will soon be celebrating their 50th edition.  Just like the Oscars, they feature musical performances, celebrity presenters, and a host of other similarities.

Tonight the ceremony for the 48th Daejong film awards took place in Seoul.  A very even field battled it out this year as many films walked away with multiple awards and there was no outright champion of the event.  That said, while the films represented in this year's nominations were more-or-less all worthy contenders, they did not compare favorably to the stellar lineups of years past.  Last year's big winner was Lee Chang-dong's formidable Poetry,  while Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil and newcomer Jang Cheol-su's Bedevilled were among the other films that ranked high on the nominations list.

This year, the most nominated films were (wins in parentheses):

The Front Line - 12 (4)

The Yellow Sea - 11 (2)

Sunny - 9 (2)

War of the Arrows - 8 (4)

Blind - 7 (2)

The Unjust - 7 (0)

Hindsight - 5 (0)

Late Autumn - 4 (1)

Hello Ghost - 4 (0)

Late Blossom - 4 (0)

Detective K - 3 (1)

Romantic Heaven - 3 (1)

Moby Dick - 3 (0)

Poongsan - 3 (0)

The Last Blossom - 3 (0)

Bleak Night - 2 (2)

The six most nominated films were all big performers at the box office, each scored over two million admissions.  Currently I have only seen seven of the films listed above but it does seem like a poorer than usual roster.  As excited as I am to see The Front Line, War of the Arrows, Sunny, and Blind, I am not expecting them to make significant impressions on me like other Korean films have, but I hope I am wrong!

That said, this year's films are all solid and I am especially happy that Ryoo Seung-wan's brilliant The Unjust wound up with 7 nominations, although it is unfortunate that it wasn't able to bag a single win.  I thought it would pick up Best Screenplay at the very least but this went to Blind.  

I was also happy to see that  Late Blossom score 4 nominations even if it didn't win anything.  Personally I think it should have been nominated for Best Cinematography which  is always a great category for Korean film.  So far I've only seen one of the nominees so I'm exited to how the rest look, including winner The Front Line.

I was surprised that neither Quick nor the much-Ballyhooed Sector 7 managed to score nominations for Best Visual Effects.  The films were not well-received but by all accounts the effects were very impressive. War of the Arrows ended up taking the prize.

The biggest successes of the night were the big blockbusters The Front Line and War of the Arrows with 4 wins each, including Best Film for the former.  That result was not surprising as it is also the Korean selection for next year's Oscars.

In the face of some pretty stiff competition, Kang Hyung-chul won Best Director for the small but wildly popular Sunny, which also won Best Editing.

The acting categories all went to different films this year. Best Actor and Actress went to Park Hae-il for War of the Arrows and Kim Ha-neul for Blind, while Jo Sung-ha and Shim Eun-kyun walked away which the Supporting Actor/Actress prizes for The Yellow Sea and Romantic Heaven.

Bleak Night, which has very well-received critically but failed to draw much of an audience in Korea, was a big success tonight, winning its two nominations for Best New Director (Yoon Sung-hyun) and Best New Actor (Lee Je-hun, also nominated for The Front Line).  Meanwhile, best New Actress went to Moon Chae-won for War of the Arrows.

Best Production and Best Lighting went to The Front Line, Best Song went to Late Autumn, Best Costume Design went to The Yellow Sea, Best Art Design went to Detective K, and Best Sound Effects went to War of the Arrows.

Won Bin, who won last year's Best Actor for his role in The Man From Nowhere, was the recipient of the  Popularity Award.  This year's Lifetime Achievement Award went to actor Lee Dae-Geun.

Special thanks to Asian Media Wiki, which live-tweeted the results.

48th Daejong Film Awards Winners and Nominees:

Best Film
Winner:The Front Line
Nominees:
The Front Line
The Unjust
Sunny
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Director

Winner: 

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Nominees:

Jang Hun (The Front Line)

Kim Tae-yong (Late Autumn)

Ryoo Seung-wan (The Unjust)

Kang Hyung-chul (Sunny)

Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea)

Best Actor

Winner: 

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Nominees:

Kim Yun-seok (The Yellow Sea)

Ryoo Seung-beom (The Unjust)

Park Hae-il (War of the Arrows)

Yoon Kye-sang (Poongsan)

Lee Soon-jae (Late Blossom)

Cha Tae-hyun (Hello Ghost)

Best Actress

Winner: 

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Nominees:

Kim Ha-neul (Blind)

Kim Hye-soo (Villain and Widow)

Bae Jong-ok (The Last Blossom)

Yun So-jeong (Late Blossom)

Choi Gang-hee (Petty Romance)

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: 

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Nominees:

Ko Chang-seok (The Showdown)

Kim Sang-ho (Moby Dick)

Ryoo Seung-ryong (The Front Line)

Yu Hae-jin (The Unjust)

Jo Sung-ha (The Yellow Sea)

Jo Hie-bong (Blind)

Best Supporting Actress

Winner: 

Shim Eun-kyung (Romantic Heaven)

Nominees:

Kim Soo-mi (Late Blossom)

Kim Ji-young (The Last Blossom)

Seo Young-hee (The Last Blossom)

Shim Eun-kyung (Romantic Heaven)

Jang Yeong-nam (Hello Ghost)

Cheon Woo-hee (Sunny)

Best New Director

Winner: 

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Nominees:

Kim Sung-hoon (Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!)

Kim Young-tak (Hello Ghost)

Min Yong-keun (Re-encounter)

Park In-je (Moby Dick)

Yoon Sung-hyun (Bleak Night)

Best New Actor

Winner: 

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Nominees:

Kim Hwan-young (Ryang-kang-do: Merry Christmas, North!)

Yoo Yeon-seok (Re-encounter)

Lee Je-hoon (The Front Line)

Lee Je-hoon (Bleak Night)

Jang Ki-beom (GLove)

Best New Actress

Winner: 

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Nominees:

Kang So-ra (Sunny)

Moon Chae-won (War of the Arrows)

Baek Jin-hee (Foxy Festival)

Shin Se-kyung (Hindsight)

You Da-in (Re-encounter)

Best Screenplay
Winner:
Choi Min-suk (Blind)
Nominees:
The Unjust
Blind
Sunny
The Front Line
Hello Ghost

Best Cinematography
Winner:
The Front Line (Joo Woo-hyung)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Late Autumn
War of the Arrows
Hindsight
The Yellow Sea

Best Lighting
Winner:
The Front Line (Kim Min-jae)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Blind
Hindsight
Poongsan
The Yellow Sea

Best Production
Winner:
The Front Line (Lee Woo-jung)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Moby Dick
The Unjust
Sunny
Poongsan

Best Editing
Winner:
Sunny (Nam Na-young)
Nominees:
The Front Line
The Unjust
Blind
Sunny
The Yellow Sea

Best Music
Winner: Late Autumn (Woo & Choi Young-rak)
Nominees:
Late Blossom
Romantic Heaven
Late Autumn
Sunny
Hindsight

Best Art Design
Winner:
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow (Chae Gyung-sun)
Nominees:
Late Autumn
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
Hindsight
The Yellow Sea

Best Costume Design
Winner:
The Yellow Sea (Chae Kyung-hwa)
Nominees:The Front Line
Sunny
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Visual Effects
Winner:
War of the Arrows (Han Young-woo)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Romantic Heaven
Blind
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Best Sound Effects
Winner:
War of the Arrows (Choi Tae-young)
Nominees:
The Front Line
Blind
Detective K: Secret Of Virtuous Widow
War of the Arrows
The Yellow Sea

Popularity Award

Winner: 

Won Bin

Lifetime Achievement Award

Winner: 

Lee Dae-geun (actor)

Korean Box Office Update (10/14-10/16, 2011)

Weekend of October 14-16, 2011:

	Title	Release Date	Weekend	Total
1	Real Steel (us)	10/12/11	590,043	789,230
2	The Client	9/29/11	282,910	2,013,874
3	The Three Musketeers (uk)	10/12/11	258,299	376,220
4	Silenced	9/22/11	235,977	4,331,176
5	Punch	10/20/11	56,116	65,408
6	Always	10/20/11	45,687	46,606
7	Fighting Spirit	10/6/11	29,617	192,831
8	Hit	10/13/11	21,284	29,041
9	War of the Arrows	8/10/11	19,810	7,430,360
10	Countdown	9/29/11	10,324	461,704
-	Leafie, A Hen Into the Wild	27/7/11	1,300	2,195,700
-	The Day He Arrives	8/9/11	510	42,983
-	Ordinary Days	29/9/11	98	1,517
-	Scars	13/10/11	81	132

After 11 weekends with a Korean release claiming the top spot at the box office, this week's usurper is Real Steel, Hollywood's new blockbuster which played well in previews last week.  This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise as there was no major Korean release this week and also given the fact that the year's other robot themed tentpole release is Korea's top grosser of the year (Transformers 3 with 7,790,426).

The Client clung to the number two spot for its third straight week with a 282,910 take.  This represents a drop slightly over 40% and puts into doubt whether it can join the 3 million club as it has only just cracked the two million mark.

Silenced (aka The Crucible) took another big tumble (52%) as its mass media exposure begins to fade.  It took 235,977 this weekend and dropped three places.  It had already crossed the four million mark before the weekend but its chances of cracking five look precarious, especially if it keeps suffering such steep falls.

Punch and Always were next at 56,116 and 45,687 respectively as they played in previews.  These are both strong figures for the recent Busan Film Fest features.  They open wide next week and will likely battle it out for first place.  Kim Sang-jin's Fighting Spirit took a big 70% dive after its lackluster opening.  It added 29,617 for a 192,831 total, a disappointing result and this may drop out of the top 10 as early as next week.

Hit, a new film starring Han Jae-suk also had a limited opening this past weekend but its 21,284 admissions does not bode well for its chances.  War of the Arrows added 19,810 admissions to its massive total which now stands at 7,430,360.  Finally Countdown crumbled again with 10,324 tickets sold.

This weekend's take amounted to 1.58 million tickets, a healthy increase over both last weekend (22.5%) and last year's comparable frame (50%).  The bad news is that that increase benefited a major Hollywood release.  Despite having 8 of the top 10 spots, this weekend's Korean market share was only 45%, down a little from last years's 55% but a lot from the last two weekend's 87% and 81%.  Somewhat ironic given that Busan just wrapped up. However the festival's releases will soon be inundating theaters and will likely post strong numbers.


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 (10/08-10/14, 2011)

A number of reviews covering a wide array of films coming in from the just wrapped-up Busan International Film Festival, although not quite as many as I would have thought. I imagine that given how Asia-centric the festival was this year, not too many English-language publications sent a critic. Also a few reviews from this year's Sitges Film Festival this week.

RECENT RELEASES

Always

(Blog About Everything, October 6, 2011)

Amen

(Busan Haps, October 8, 2011)

(You'll Never Be Hungry Again, October 8, 2011)

A Reason to Live

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 8, 2011)

Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2011)

Black Dove

(Variety, October 13, 2011 - Subscription Required)

Blades of Blood

(Pop Matters, October 6, 2011)

Choked

(Screen Daily, October 12, 2011)

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2011)

Dangerously Excited

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2011)

End of Animal

(Twitch, October 10, 2011)

(Wildgrounds, October 13, 2011)

Hanji

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2011)

I Am a Dad

(Modern Korean Cinema, October 12, 2011)

Metamorpheses

(Hangul Celluloid, October 10, 2011)

My Black Mini Dress

(hancinema.net, October 8, 2011)

Pink

(Screen Daily, October 10, 2011)

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2011)

Poetry

(Twitch, October 12, 2011)

Punch

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 10, 2011)

The Cat

(Modern Korean Cinema, October 9, 2011)

The Day He Arrives

(East Asia, October 3, 2011 - French)

The Unjust

(Twitch, October 7, 2011)

The Yellow Sea

(Eye For Film, October 12, 2011)

(Row Three, October 10, 2011)

(Twitch, October 13, 2011)

White: The Melody of the Curse

(Japan Cinema, October 5, 2011)

PAST FILMS

Black Hair, 1964

(New Korean Cinema, October 8, 2011)

Castaway on the Moon, 2009

(Kim Bong Park, October 13, 2011 0 French)

My Sassy Girl, 2001

(dramabeans, October 11, 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 (10/06-10/12, 2011)

Lots of news stemming from the Busan International Film Festival, which is currently underway and will wrap up on Friday.  Also a number of great features and analyses peppered throughout. 

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

In Review: 2011 Busan International Film Festival
The 2011 Busan International Film Festival (now known as BIFF) began last Thursday and continues until this Friday.  I was able to attend 12 films over the course of the weekend, catching many of the movies I most wanted to see.  Overall the quality was quite strong, with a number of great films that will certainly be among my favorites in what has already been a very good year in world cinema.  (The One One Four, October 12, 2011)

Han Ga-in Returns After Seven Years With Architectural Theory
Actress Han Ga-in, who hasn't starred in a film since Once Upon a Time in High School (2004), will make her comeback with Architectural Theory, the new film from the director of Possessed (2009), Lee Yong-joo-I.  (hancinema.net, October 11, 2011)

Asia’s Directors Embracing 3-D

A 3-D horror movie set in a public toilet block is part of a revolution underway in the Asian film industry as low-budget 3-D productions take on the big studios at their own game.  At the 16th Busan International Film Festival, audiences have been lining up to see the likes of multimillion dollar 3-D productions The Three Musketeers and the reimaged version of the local monster hit The Host (2006).  (Joong Ang Daily, October 12, 2011)

What's Missing from Busan This Year? Hollywood

Notice anything different about the Busan International Film Festival this year?  Actually, there are many changes.  There's a new festival director, Lee Yong-kwan; there's a new venue, the Busan Cinema Center; and the Asian Film Market has moved to the Busan Exhibition and Convention Centre.  But amid all the changes, something's missing: Hollywood.  (The Hollywood Reporter, October 9, 2011)

Korea Contents Fund Showcase at Busan
At the 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) and the 6th Asian Film Market, fund managers presented a variety of options for filmmakers at the Korea Contents Fund Showcase yesterday.  BIFF Festival Director LEE Yong Kwan opened the event with a message of welcome and thanks.  “It’s a wonderful thing to have these leading investment funds presenting here at the Busan International Film Festival today.  It is one of our goals to support filmmakers to find financing and distribution means, in addition to screening their films in our festival.”  (KOBIZ, October 12, 2011)

BIFF Closing Ceremony Selects Hosts
Director Jang Jin and actress Ryu Hyun-kyung will host the closing ceremony for this year’s Busan International Film Festival.  The ceremony will begin at 8 p.m. on Friday and will signal the end of the nine-day event, now Asia’s largest film festival.  The festival’s opening ceremony was hosted by two actresses, Ye Ji-won and Um Ji-won - representing the first time in history two women had hosted the opening event.  (Joong Ang Daily, October 12, 2011)

Smartphone Shorts Shine in Busan

Ordinary people presented iPhone-made shorts on the sidelines of the Busan International Film Festival over the weekend, demonstrating even a 12-year-old can venture into filmmaking as the high-tech handset lowers the age threshold.  Despite featuring no film luminaries and drawing much smaller audiences than the festival’s official selections, these smartphone flicks show how amateurs can take advantage of technology to turn their mundane life into cinematic art.  (Joong Ang Daily, October 12, 2011)

Chapman University Presents The Busan West Asian Film Festival Nov. 11-13, 2011 in Orange, CA

Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, recognized as one of the premiere film schools in the United States, in continued partnership with South Korea's Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Asia's largest film festival, is proud to announce the Busan West Asian Film Festival, November 11-13 in Orange, Calif.  Busan West presents a unique filmmaker showcase that brings select Asian films and filmmakers from BIFF to the U.S. to create a new platform for heightened recognition outside of Asia.  This year the festival organizers are excited to welcome internationally acclaimed writer/director Bong Joon-ho (Mother, 2009; The Host, 2006; Memories of Murder, 2003), as the Busan West Icon Award recipient.  (hancinema.net, October 10, 2011)

Busan’s Asian Film Market Opens at New Venue
The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF)’s Asian Film Market opened yesterday for the first time in its new venue at the Busan Exhibition Convention Center (BEXCO). The market has reported a 67% increase in sales booths and a 24% increase in participant registration since last year.  (KOBIZ, October 11, 2011)

Little Wonders - The Child Actors of South Korea

The way people perceive of child actors can be guessed by the term itself. "Child actor" instead of "actor", as it is for everyone else.  Whether the world likes it or not, Western cinema, and mainly Hollywood, is the one that is available everywhere and so in our faces that we are often having trouble finding anything else.  So the usual idea people have about child actors as well, comes from Hollywood.  (Orion 21, October 9, 2011)

Showbox Sells Busan Opening Film Always to Japan

Major Korean distributor Showbox/Mediaplex has sold Song Il-gon’s melodrama Always, the 16th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) opening film, to Japan’s Pony Canyon.  The film tells the fatal story of a former boxer and a blind girl who fall in love. It stars heartthrob So Ji-sub, who has built a fan-base in Asia after the hit TV series I Am Sorry, I Love You and Jang Hun’s debut feature Rough Cut (2008).  Opposite him stars Han Hyo-joo who swept up drama awards last year for her performance in the TV series Dong-Yi.  (KOBIZ, October 9, 2011)

Actress’ August Suicide Discovered

Two months after the fact, it has been revealed that actress Han Chae-won killed herself on Aug. 25 at her home in Yeonhui-dong, central Seoul. Han was 31 years old.  The Seoul Seodaemun Police Station announced Saturday that Han appeared to have committed suicide since they discovered no signs of murder at the scene.  They did, however, report a suicide note, which said, “I want to die. I’m really sorry for my parents.”   (Joong Ang Daily, October 10, 2011)

Netflix Expanding Asian Movie Selection in Deal with Korea's Top Studio CJ E&M
CJ E&M today announced an agreement to feature twenty of its acclaimed Asian movies on Netflix, the world's leading Internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV shows.  Beginning in October 2011, Netflix members in the US will be able to instantly watch the twenty titles multiple platforms, including TVs, popular tablets, key gaming consoles, computers and mobile phones.  (hancinema.net, October 7, 2011)

Local Heroes Heed the Call
Films from South Korea had a quietly successful year in the first eight months of 2011, despite a lack of high-profile titles on the international stage.  The industry is set to finish the last quarter in strength with a series of high profile releases.  For the first eight months of the year, local films enjoyed a 49% market share by admissions (47% by box office), a steady increase on the 42% (and 39%) achieved in the first eight months of 2010.  Overall admissions during the period were fractionally up at 107 million with box office at W838 million ($735m).  (Film Business Asia, October 10, 2011)

Korea's Busan Stakes Claim as Asian Film Hub

With a new name, a new venue and an emphasis on actors and directors from lesser-known parts of Asia, this South Korean port city is moving decisively to assert its status as the region's pre-eminent film industry destination.  (Reuters, October 10, 2011)

Kim Kee-duk Back in Director’s Chair
Kim Kee-duk, the 1960s cineaste who is not to be confused with the younger film maverick Kim Ki-duk (Arirang), was honored with a special award from Hermes Korea, Friday.  Kim appeared thoroughly moved as he received the Hermes Director’s Chair, a handsome piece of luxurious leather furniture monogrammed with his name.  (The Hollywood Reporter, October 8, 2011)

Bong Joon-ho’s The Host Gets Converted Into 3D, Sequel Still In The Works

While it’s never been a better time for the crossover of Asian cinema to audiences on this side of the ocean, none have been quite as big as Bong Joon-ho‘s The Host.  The 2006 film became a sensation, not only smashing box office records at home in South Korea, but becoming a must see film stateside, breaking out of its genre niche and finding a larger audience than this kind of flick normally would.  It seems that producers around the world all share the common trait of milking a hit movie for all it’s worth, as not only is there a long gestating sequel to the movie still on the table, until that arrives, The Host has gotten a brand new 3D makeover.  (indieWIRE, October 11, 2011)

Actors Buy 1,000 BIFF Tickets for Underprivileged

Actress Kong Hyo-jin and actor Cha Seung-won purchased 1,000 tickets to the Busan International Film Festival and donated them to organizers to hand out to socially marginalized groups.  (The Chosun Ilbo, October 12, 2011)

Korean WWII Film Promises Big Action, Bigger Drama
A new World War II action drama with an Asian perspective promises never before-seen battle scenes rife with humanist messages.  After holding a large-scale press junket at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the makers of My Way held the first Asian media showcase in Busan on Saturday.  Footages of the 28 billion-won Korea-China co-production were revealed during the event, featuring exquisite period details of 1930s Seoul to bloody battle sequences on European battlegrounds.  (The Hollywood Reporter, October 8, 2011)

Korean Animators Face Screen, Financing Barriers
Leafie, A Hen into the Wild was nicknamed “the emperor of the matinee” in Korea when the film first hit theaters this summer.  An animated film directed by Oh Seong-yoon with the budget of 3 billion won ($2.5 million), it is one of the few Korean animated films that broke 2.5 million admissions domestically. Still, theater owners refused to screen the film during the evening hours.  And when it did, the film was given screens left over by 3D Korean blockbusters such as Sector 7.  (The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2011)

Korean Summer Box Office Analysis
It was a summer of higher expectations than ever before.  People wondered if this year might be one that produced another film that clocked up the watershed number of 10 million admissions.  This year, an impressive number of big-scale Korean films were making their debut, including Quick and Sector 7, produced by Haeundae director J.K. Youn; The Front Line directed by Jang Hun, who had shot to stardom with popular films Rough Cut (2008) and Secret Reunion (2010), and War of the Arrows (a.k.a. Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon) by Kim Han-min (Paradise Murdered, 2007;  Handphone, 2009).  (Korean Cinema Today, October 7, 2011)

INTERVIEWS

Actor Song Kang-ho

Not many would dispute the statement that actor Song Kang-ho is one of the best, if not the best actor currently working in the Korean film industry.  He’s always met our expectations and Hindsight is no exception.  Du-heon (Song) has left a gang to start a new life by opening a restaurant when a girl comes into his life.  (Korean Cinema Today, October 7, 2011)

Always Busan Q&A
Press conference took place after a press screening of Always at the 2011 Busan International Film Festival on October 6, 2011.  Appearing as speakers are the movie's director Song Il-Gon, lead actress Han Hyo-Joo and lead actor So Ji-Sub.  AsianMediaWiki editor Ki Mun was there and transcribed/translated the session.  (asianmediawiki, October 6, 2011)

TRAILERS

Chilling Romance

Couples

Special Investigation Bureau

Wie-do

You Pet

POSTERS

Couples

You Pet

BOX OFFICE

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

(Modern Korean Cinema, October 10, 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.

I Am a Dad (Na-neun Abba-da) 2011

Different films come with different expectations. Depending on the pedigree attached, the budget afforded, or the genre/subjects mined, our preconceptions vary accordingly. B-movies have been popular since the early days of cinema, they have entertained us with their cheap thrills and delighted us with their far-fetched plots. Due to the nature of the production of these films, low budgets and short shoot times are a necessity, and consequently nuance and high production values are ill-afforded extravagances. Things tend to be exaggerated and excessively stylized, since when the actions on screen deliberately eschew realism, it is much easier to get away with things. Hence our expectations are very different for a glossy film with a high-budget, which we tend scrutizine, and a dime-a-dozen B-movie, which we are more likely to accept for what it is, cheap and simple entertainment.

Gritty B-movie

B-movies are mainly considered an American form of filmmaking but in other countries the rules of engagement are necessarily different. In Korea there has been a small number of 'authentic' B-movies including this year's Invasion of Alien Bikini and The Neighbor Zombie (2010), both from the same group of filmmakers. There are, however, a great many low-budget, generic studio features churned out in Chungmuro every year. I Am a Dad is not quite a B-movie, but it comes close and for me, before watching it, I had similar preconceptions. That is to say it looked cheap, gritty, exaggerated, generic, and featured a second-tier Korean star.

The story is simple and deliberately channels popular Korean exports of the 'Asia Extreme' variety. It features a revenge plotline, a very violent and corrupt detective, and illegal organ donors. Kim Seung-woo plays Detective Han Jong-sik, the corrupt investigator who has framed people for crimes to further his own ends. One of these victims exacted his revenge by killing his wife and injuring his daughter (Kim Sae-ron), who is now in desperate need of a new heart. In order to pay for his daughter’s condition, he goes on the take for some gangsters. Meanwhile another innocent man, Na Sang-man (Son Byeong-ho), that he put away from murder, is released, but not before his daughter dies and his wife winds up in a coma. Just like this year’s Heartbeat, it turns out that Na’s wife, who is considered clinically dead, is the only heart transplant available that could save Han’s daughter.

Kim Sae-ron, in need of a heart

The concept isn’t bad, even if it is quite contrived, but it loses its impact as a result of its excessive foreshadowing. Detective Han and Sang-man are tied via their parrallel fates, or rather that of their wives and daughters. Indeed, most of the narrative is played off of repetition, which inevitably means that a lot of time is wasted over the development of story and characters that has already been presaged. Having the ability to see ahead of time how the broad strokes will play out takes away much of the fun and leaves little to the imagination.

Kim Seung-woo, who is known mostly for starring in lesser Korean films like Spring Breeze (2003) and The Unbearable Lightness of Dating (2006) and has recently taken co-starring roles in more significant works like the K-Drama Iris (2009) and John H. Lee’s war epic 71: Into the Fire (2010), works best in measured, stoic parts, playing military or law enforcement figures. In I Am a Dad, he hams it up as an investigator prone to excessive bouts of violence. Kim plays Detective Han with a straight face, his portrayal of Detective Han is humorless and unironic. Normally I would take issue with a performance such as this one but given my expectations, which I have already outlined, it fits quite well with the style of the film.

Son Byeong-ho as the innocent family man

Son Byeong-ho does his best in the role he inhabits, but his best scenes are early on as clown/family man. For the rest of the film he displays two emotions: rage; and uncertainty. Unfortunately, child star Kim Sae-ron isn’t given much to do but I find it extraordinary that, in what seems like a pernicious bit of typecasting, for the third time in a row, following A Brand New Life (2009) and The Man From Nowhere (2010), she plays a girl who has lost her mother.

Im Ha-ryong, as the over-the-hill Detective Kim, is the standout performance, an affable. He is a positive presence on screen, it is unfortunate that some of the lines he is fed do not do him justice. Im has toiled away in minor roles in major films for years, such as Arahan (2003), Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005), Insadong Scandal (2009), and Good Morning President (2009) and is familiar to most who have an even limited exposure to Korean cinema.

Kim Seung-woo as Detective Han

The main indicators of the film’s lowly standing are its production values, sadly they are also one of its weakest assets. The camera is constantly shaking, the colours are washed out, the editing is fast-paced and slapdash, and even the sound tends to spike in the film’s loudest moments. There is no visual flair and the framing is all easy to set-up mid-shots. It seems to me that the haphazard manner of the production is a by-product of its meager finances and quick schedule.

The final sequences are a bit of a departure from what is an otherwise standard and unstylized narrative. I’m not quite sure they worked but I appreciated the effort nonetheless. The filmmakers took a little poetic license and were more florid in their mise-en-scene. Despite all its flaws I Am a Dad is never less than watchable and as long as you don’t expect much from it, it amounts to a pleasant enough way to distract oneself for 100 minutes.


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).

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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. 

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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.