KBO: Masquerade Streak Continues After Tight Finish (10/19-10/21, 2012)

Masquerade Streak Continues After Tight Finish

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Masquerade	9/13/12	32.50%	545,866	10,255,655	619
2	Perfect Number	10/18/12	32.50%	534,306	632,824	553
3	A Company Man	10/11/12	11.20%	176,295	963,201	399
4	Looper (us)	10/11/12	6.70%	104,853	453,391	302
5	Brave (us)	9/27/12	3.20%	57,888	1,139,057	248
6	Ghost Sweepers	10/3/12	2.50%	43,776	935,762	218
7	The Assassins (ch)	10/18/12	2.30%	39,101	49,038	227
8	Dangerous Liaisons	10/11/12	2.40%	38,750	255,172	248
9	Lawless (us)	10/18/12	1.90%	30,803	46,713	275
10	Infinite Concert 3D	10/18/12	2.10%	25,313	31,395	84

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WKR: Busan Winds Up (10/13-10/19, 2012)

Few more pieces come in from Busan as the festival wraps up, not to mention some reviews of brand new films on the Korean marquees.

UPCOMING FILMS

Doctor

(Variety, October 14, 2012)

National Security

(Film Business Asia, October 19, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, October 13, 2012)

Touch

(Word From the ROK, October 13, 2012)

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KCN: Deals Made at BIFF, Masquerade Still King (10/11-10/17, 2012)

BIFF Wraps up while a swath of deals while Masquerade continues to set records.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

17th BIFF Shows Maturity Both as an Event and in Audience Viewing Culture

“As the number of the festival days has gone up, so has the maturity level of the audience.” said Lee Yong-kwan, BIFF Festival Director, about this year's edition. At the closing press conference held on 13th October, LEE said “The Busan Cinema Center has now firmly been established as the main venue of the festival. We need to explore further how to make best use of the Nampo area.” (KoBiz, October 16, 2012)

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KBO: Masquerade Goes for 5-in-a-Row and on Track for 10 Million (10/12-10/14, 2012)

Masquerade Goes for 5-in-a-Row and on Track for 10 Million

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Masquerade	9/13/12	36.80%	683,845	9,344,967	675
2	A Company Man	10/11/12	27.00%	468,300	576,744	549
3	Looper (us)	10/11/12	11.60%	201,278	250,121	386
4	Ghost Sweepers	10/3/12	5.70%	112,637	844,889	316
5	Dangerous Liaisons	10/11/12	6.00%	106,821	139,370	334
6	Brave (us)	9/27/12	4.70%	90,114	1,072,603	325
7	Taken 2 (us)	9/27/12	3.40%	58,376	2,267,568	281
8	Frankenweenie (us)	10/11/12	1.60%	26,638	30,327	226
9	Spy	9/20/12	0.70%	13,311	1,302,020	105
10	Ted (us)	10/3/12	0.70%	11,685	256,849	80

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BIFF 2012: National Security (남영동1985, Namyeong-dong 1985) 2012

Part of MKC's coverage of the 17th Busan International Film Festival.

Corruption, injustice and terror have always been a sad reality of politics. Over the years, many filmmakers have gone to great lengths (sometimes even putting their lives in peril) in a bid to give a voice to the victims of political malfeasance and to shed light on the frequently covered-up truths within the halls of power. Notable examples include Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966) and Costa-Gavras’ Z (1969). Among the pantheon of political works it is true that those that endure are the ones that shock, works that can elicit an audible gasp from audience members. However, a filmmaker must be careful not to go too far and should also pay due consideration to narrative and filmic requirements when presenting a politically charged narrative on screen.

Chung Ji-young made a big comeback following a 13-year absence this time last year when Unbowed debuted at the 16^th edition of the Busan Film Festival. Hot on its heels and proving that it wasn’t a fluke, he has returned with a searing indictment of the brutal Chun Doo-hwan administration that terrorized Korea for the better part of the 1980s.

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BIFF 2012: Closing Press Conference - Awards and What's in Store for 2013

Part of MKC's coverage of the 17th Busan International Film Festival.

The 17th Busan International Film Festival just held its Closing press conference at which the award winners of the event were announced. Festival director Lee Yong-Kwan was in attendance along with the following Jury members: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio; David Gilmour (New Currents Jury); Arturo Ripstein (Flash Forward Head Jury), Mun Jeong-hyun (BIFF Mecenat Jury); Min Yong Keun (Sonje Jury); Melis Behlil (FIPRECI Jury); and Beck Una (NETPAC Jury).

Though not really a competition festival, there are nevertheless many sponsored, audience and press association awards handed out at the festival in addition to BIFF's own short and documentary prizes. However, the most significant prizes are the New Currents and Flashforward awards which are given to the best first or second feature from Asian and non-Asian filmmakers respectively. Those went to 36 and Kayan for the former and Flower Buds for the latter.

36, from Thailand, also picked up the FIPRESCI prize but the big winner at this year's Busan Film Festival was O Muel's Jeju Island massacre pic Jiseul which walked away with four awards, including the CGV Movie Collage Award, the DGK Awards for Best Director (shared with Russian Novel's Shin Young-shick) and the NETPAC Jury Award. Shin Su-won's Pluto, Chung Ji-young's National Security and Lee Dongku's Fatal, three of the most hyped films of the fest, were left empty-handed but again, as this is not a big competition festival, this shouldn't really hurt their prospects.

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WKR: Busan Showcases New Korean Films, The Thieves Opens Stateside (10/06-10/12, 2012)

A raft of Busan reviews as the festival is in full swing! The Thieves also gets a few big broadsheet writeups in the US after opening there on limited release.

UPCOMING FILMS

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