south korea Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Michael Bay's Korean Damage Control
Filed under: Action », New Releases », Paramount », Celebrities and Controversy », Fandom », Dreamworks », Summer Movies »
Never keep hundreds of people waiting in the rain for hours. Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, and Megan Fox did just that in South Korea on June 9. An estimated crowd of 600 fans and press lined up in Seoul early to see the red-carpet premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, according to Screen Daily, and were then disappointed when the Transformers entourage arrived 80 minutes late, spending only a few minutes with the crowd. Members of the press were further distressed when the group arrived 30 minutes late to a scheduled news conference the next day, and some staged a walk-out.
Bay has now issued a written apology, explaining that "traveling from another country, and not allowing enough time for airport delays, city traffic and hotel check-in," and that the press conference delay was due to the "serious pain" he was experiencing from a pulled back muscle. (The group traveled directly from the premiere in Tokyo, Japan.) Damage control was necessary, not only because it's the right thing to do, but because bloggers had started a campaign to boycott the film in theaters, while local distributor CJ Entertainment insists that interest in the film remains high.
As in the U.S., Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opens in Korea on June 24. The first Transformers made even more money outside the U.S. than within, so it makes sense to court international audiences, but this incident demonstrates once again that no one likes to be shortchanged or taken for granted.
Fantastic Fest Review: Aachi and Ssipak
Filed under: Animation », Foreign Language », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Theatrical Reviews », Fantastic Fest », Cinematical Indie »
Nothing makes me feel at home at Fantastic Fest like a cute Korean animated movie about a futuristic world powered by excrement, where tiny blue mutants with diapers on their heads are threatening to take over the world in pursuit of addictive popsicles. I looked forward to seeing Aachi and Ssipak just for the weirdness factor, and I wasn't disappointed.
Aachi and Ssipak is set in a world where the source of energy is poop -- from humans -- and citizens are encouraged to contribute as much as possible, to the point where everyone has a chip installed in the pertinent location. People who give most are rewarded with Juicy Bars, a drug in popsicle form that turns out to be addictive -- those who consume too many turn into the child-sized blue mutants of The Diaper Gang. The government "Chief" has commissioned a super-cyborg cop to thwart the Diaper Gang's attempts to steal as many Juicy Bars as possible.
The Host Slated for U.S. Remake?
Filed under: Action », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Universal », Remakes and Sequels »
The South Korean monster movie The Host (aka Gwoemul) has been one of the biggest box-office smash hits ever in its home country. Naturally, you know what happens when a foreign film makes tons of money -- an American company decides it's a great idea to remake the film in English. After all, anything in another language is going to be even better in English, right? Look at Point of No Return (remake of La Femme Nikita), The Ring (remake of Ringu) and City of Angels (remake of Wings of Desire) ... yeah, I don't understand why they do it, either. Once in a while it does work: I liked The Departed just fine, although I haven't seen its source, Infernal Affairs, so I don't know if the original is superior. And of course there's always the granddaddy of Americanizations of foreign films, The Magnificent Seven.It should therefore be no surprise at all to learn that Universal has picked up the remake rights to The Host. The Korean film won't be released in the U.S. until January 27 of next year, but apparently the studio feels certain that we'll love an Americanized version of the film. I saw The Host at Fantastic Fest and I did in fact like the movie a lot -- but I'm not at all sure how it could be adapted for a U.S. setting and still retain its charm. For one thing, the U.S. Army has a moderately bad-guy role in the film. And without giving anything away, I can't see a Hollywood studio-produced film, designed to draw a large audience, with the same ending as the Korean film. On the other hand, American filmmakers are top-notch at depicting hilariously dysfunctional families like the one that faces the creature in The Host ... so perhaps that could work.
If you've seen The Host, do you think an American remake could be successful? (Don't give away the ending when you answer that.) Are there any American remakes that you think are better than their source materials from other countries?
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China Bans Korean Hit
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Newsstand », Politics », Cinematical Indie »
A movie about a 16th-century king and his two court jesters has earned more at the domestic box office than any film in South Korean history. The King and the Clown has thus far made over $85 million, and has sold so many tickets that nearlyh one quarter of the entire population has seen the movie during its theatrical run (assuming, of course, that no one has seen in more than once, which I realize is unlikely). As you might expect for a good foreign movie that features neither horror nor big names, the film has no US distribution. It also, however, will not be seen on Chinese screens -- censors have banned it for "subtle gay themes," despite the fact that the gay lovin' in the movie consists entirely of longing looks exchanged during a puppet show.For those Chinese citizens interested in seeing the film, however, there are options: Those trusty pirates already have DVDs available in the country's major cities.
RIP: Shin Sang-ok
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Newsstand », Obits », Cinematical Indie »
Little-known in the West, Korean director Shin Sang-ok was one of the driving forces behind the rise of the now-thriving Korean film industry. Trained in Japan, Shin returned to Korea after World War II, when the national industry was in its fledging stages, and started his own wildly prolific production company just a few years later, leading Korean film into its Golden Age. Though none of his work is available in the US, it is held in high regard at home, where he is "one of those rare ... directors [receiving both] popular and critical acclaim."
If Shin's name is known abroad at all, it's for what happened later in his career when, while working in Hong Kong in 1978, he was kidnapped by representatives of North Korean president (and massive movie fan) Kim Jong-Il, who wanted the director to revitalize hid own country's flagging film industry. Shin escaped eight years later while on a trip abroad, and actually spent some time in Hollywood (producing forgettable fare under the name Simon Sheen) before returning to South Korea in 2000.
Shin was 80 when he died, and had been suffering from liver problems.
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