KBO: The Thieves Overcomes The Grand Heist's Grand Opening (08/10-08/12, 2012)

The Thieves Overcomes The Grand Heist's Grand Opening

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	The Thieves	7/25/12	36.60%	1,138,579	9,237,509	801
2	The Grand Heist	8/8/12	30.10%	961,805	1,343,501	694
3	I Am a King	8/8/12	8.30%	271,095	490,594	471
4	The Dark Knight Rises (us)	7/19/12	8.20%	240,450	6,073,570	367
5	Sammy's Adventures 2 (be)	8/1/12	7.10%	218,639	967,254	370
6	Ice Age 5 (us)	7/25/12	3.80%	118,629	1,453,213	271
7	Animals United (ge)	8/8/12	2.50%	86,564	123,247	241
8	Step Up 4 (us)	8/15/12	0.70%	21,029	22,245	90
9	Detective Conan (jp)	7/19/12	0.50%	18,044	499,974	82
10	Horror Stories	7/25/12	0.50%	13,955	315,775	65

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JIMFF 2012 - Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet (USA, 2012)

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

When director Jesse Vile presented his film ahead of its screening he asked how many people were already familiar with legendary guitarist Jason Becker. I was part of the majority that was not and as a longtime axeman myself I am little ashamed of this fact. However, I’m very glad that I now know who he is.

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet follows the life of a young guitarist, a progeny who took the guitar world by storm in the early 1990s but only for the briefest of times. Following his huge break, when he landed the vacant lead guitar spot on the David Lee Roth band following Steve Vai’s exit, which was the most coveted guitar gig in the world at that time, he was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was forced to pull out of the outfit just before his first tour and moved back in with his parents in Richmond, California as he rapidly lost the use of most of his muscles.

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8th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival Preview

Part of MKC's coverage of the Jecheon Intl. Music & Film Festival.

Following last month’s wonderful PiFan I begin August with what will be the first in of a series of film festivals. I made my way to Jecheon, which is a small town about 2 hours East of Seoul, at the crack of dawn to make the most of my brief weekend at the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival.

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Weekly Review Round-up (08/04-08/10, 2012)

Lots of great big broadsheet writeups for a variety of films this week and still more streaming in from PiFan and other festivals around the world, not least Fantasia where Doomsday Book recently walked away with the top prize.

RECENT FILMS

A Muse

(Hangul Celluloid, August 6, 2012)

Arirang

(Global Comment, August 7, 2012)

Couples

(VCinema, August 9, 2012)

Doomsday Book

(Film Threat, July 31, 2012)

(joblo.com, August 2, 2012)

(Variety, August 5, 2012)

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Korean Cinema News (08/02-08/08, 2012)

Finally settling back into the run of things following PiFan. Korean Cinema News is now back to its weekly status.

Not an enormous amount of news this week but The Thieves is still obliterating records at the local box office and there are few festival tidbits in the news.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Korean American Film Festival Commemorates the L.A. Riots
The Korean American Film Festival Los Angeles launches this week, and while it imports several titles from its New York sister festival (including Magic and Loss, with indie star Kiki Sugino, and the portentous-sounding Ultimate Christian Wrestling), its centerpiece is a program of documentaries that focus on the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots. (L.A. Weekly, August 9, 2012)

Actress Ha Becomes Mentor for Future Filmmakers
Renowned actress Ha Ji-won and director Kim Ji-hoon will serve as mentors for the Korea-China youth cultural exchange program “Beijing Toto Laboratory,” scheduled to be held in Beijing’s Kwanggeomun Middle School, Aug. 13 -17. Forty teenagers from Korea and China will participate in making eight films during the five-day program jointly sponsored by CJ CGV and Boys Vanguard of the Chinese Communist Youth Association. (The Korea Herald, August 8, 2012)

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PiFan 2012: The Suicide Shop 3D (Le Magasin des Suicides, France) 2012

Part of MKC's coverage of the 16th Puchon International Film Festival.

Animation was featured quite prominently at this year’s PiFan, with Japanese works such as Gyo, Rainbow Fireflies, Blood C: The Last Dark, not to mention some retrospectives on the Space Battleship Yamamoto series and Czech animation. Sadly, by the end of the festival the only one I was able to see was The Suicide Shop 3D, a French offering from live-action filmmaker Patrice Leconte.

It looked to be a cross between the stylings of Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, 2003; The Illusionist, 2008) and the playfully macabre storytelling of Tim Burton. In many ways the film was a combination of those aesthetics but what it lacked was what makes those filmmakers so successful in their craft: originality and heart. Burton may have lost his edge in recent years but his style, which itself was a combination of horror, vaudevillian and campy influences was fresh and invigorating when he burst onto the scenes 30 years ago.

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KBO: The Thieves Continues to Smash Records (08/03-08/05, 2012)

The Thieves Continues to Smash Records

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	The Thieves	7/25/12	54.50%	2,002,862	6,877,785	1,092
2	The Dark Knight Rises (us)	7/19/12	17.10%	615,196	5,522,967	630
3	Sammy's Asventures 2 (bl)	8/1/12	10.40%	358,903	549,644	486
4	Ice Age 4 (us)	7/25/12	8.50%	301,481	1,194,354	425
5	The Grand Heist	8/8/12	1.60%	58,736	84,095	160
6	Detective Conan (jp)	7/19/12	1.30%	54,623	459,069	146
7	Rock of Ages (us)	8/2/12	1.30%	48,525	67,444	243
8	Horror Stories	7/25/12	1.30%	48,210	267,632	150
9	Piranha 3DD (us)	8/1/12	1.10%	34,938	58,916	266
10	Doraemon (jp)	7/25/12	0.70%	27,769	141,060	109

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