Friday, November 9, 2012

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Reveals Korean-Heavy Program

The Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is coming back for its 16th edition, which will run November 12-28 in Tallinn, Estonia. Originally a showcase for Nordic film, PÖFF has grown to become one of Europe's largest and most varied film festivals, and of late they have been very kind to Korean cinema, with 2012 proving to be no exception.

Jeon Kyu-hwan's The Weight, which won the Queer Lion Award earlier this year at the Venice International Film Festival and has also screened at the Busan International Film Festival and Sitges Film Festival, will take part in PÖFF's 'EurAsia' competition section, which last year awarded its main prize to Ahn Hui's A Simple Life. Jeon's first three films, the trilogy comprising of Mozart Town (2008), Animal Town (2009) and Dance Town (2010), all previously screened at Black Nights.

WKR: LKFF, More BIFF and In Another Country's US Bow (11/03-11/09, 2012)

Reviews are still trickling in from Busan along with a wealth content from the currently underway London Korean Film Festival. Also of note is the release of In Another Country in the US

UPCOMING FILMS


(Film Business Asia, November 7, 2012)

(Variety, November 5, 2012)

(Film Business Asia, November 8, 2012)

(Variety, November 3, 2012)

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A Love Story Abruptly Ended: Eighteen (회오리 바람, Hwiori Baram) 2009


Part I of a special MKC feature on Jang Kun-jae.

By Rex Baylon

The beauty and innocence of young love might be the greatest hoax perpetuated by the mainstream media. A couple walking hand in hand together while surrounded on all sides by a bucolic setting, two lovers sitting in a warm cozy diner with a straw in each of their mouths while they share a milkshake, or the hustle and bustle of a crowded noisy street muted by two lovestruck individuals stealing a kiss or embrace. The young and not so young are fed these cliché images to the point that artists can’t help but regurgitate them back to their respective audiences. The romanticism that was first born from the mind of Goethe has mutated into the “Hallmark moment”, sappy, sentimental, and dangerous. At it’s most idealistic, young love offers a safe haven for youths who’ve experienced the joy and elation of caring and feeling protective over someone other than themselves, but at its worst it can be an easy excuse for self-absorbed and destructive behavior.

In Jang Kun-jae’s debut, Eighteen (Hwioribaram, 2009), these two distinctive poles are examined through a very familiar story of young love that ought not to be. Yet, unlike many Korean romantic melodramas this is not a linear narrative charting a relationship from meet-cute to break-up. In fact, it begins months after the break-up. It is a post-mortem love story told mainly through flashback, blending cinema-verite with splashes of magic realism. The young couple in the film are normal run-of-the mill Korean teenagers: they’re attached to their smartphones, they’ve got school and parents badgering them about college, and their idea of the future doesn’t stretch any further than a few months. There is nothing distinctive about their lives or personality.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

KCN: AFM Sales, London and Paris K-Film Fests and More BO Records (11/01-11/07, 2012)

More box office records broken and films sold at the American Film Market while both Paris and London stage their annual Korean film festivals.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

7th Paris Korean Film Festival Opens
Paris, which had its hottest summer this year, is once again experiencing the heat of Korean films this fall as the 7th Paris Korean Film Festival unfolds. The event opened on October 30th and Masquerade, the opening film, was sold out with other screenings also proving very popular. Q and A sessions following screenings are helping to satisfy the audience's curiosity and the event is fulfilling the role of bridging the cultural gap between the two nations. (KoBiz, November 6, 2012)

Monday, November 5, 2012

A Good Rain Knows (호우시절, Howoo shijeol) 2009


By Rex Baylon

What do you do when a filmmaker you respect and champion begins to make works that you dislike? Do you unabashedly support it and ignore the work’s inherent flaws? Do you ignore the work, pretend to suffer from cinephilic amnesia and hope that the offending film will fall through the cracks of time and be mercifully forgotten? Or do you finally sit down and deal with the fact that people, no less filmmakers, are imperfect artisans and that although our initial response to their work may have been unabashed excitement, it must be tempered and we must attempt to look at each new work free from the distractions of the past.

Having begun life as part of a three-part omnibus film entitled Chengdu, I Love You (2009) with contributions by Chinese filmmaker Cu Jian and Hong Kong auteur Fruit Chan. Hur Jin-ho’s A Good Rain Knows (2009) evolved out of that project and became its own feature. Being a Pan-Asian production Hur cast Korean superstar Jung Woo-sung, fresh off the production of Kim Jee-won’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), to play the poet-turned-businessman Park Dong-ha and Mainland Chinese actress Gao Yuanyuan, who worked on the controversial Lu Chuan picture City of Life and Death (2009) that same year, was cast as May, Dong-ha’s melancholic love interest.

KBO: Werewolf Boy Opens Big, Masquerade All-time No. 5 (11/02-11/04, 2012)

Werewolf Boy Opens Big, Masquerade All-time No. 5


Title Release Date Market Share Weekend Total Screens
1 Werewolf Boy 10/31/12 48.70% 1,030,285 1,294,479 707
2 Skyfall (us/uk) 10/26/12 22.80% 459,005 1,694,359 581
3 Masquerade 9/13/12 13.10% 272,736 11,418,849 404
4 Perfect Number 10/18/12 5.30% 108,248 1,462,108 316
5 Argo (us) 10/31/12 2.70% 56,647 79,989 238
6 Confession of Murder 11/8/12 2.60% 49,809 59,519 214
7 Brave (us) 9/27/12 1.00% 23,145 1,211,560 106
8 Almost Che 10/25/12 1.00% 21,287 215,887 195
9 The Peach Tree 10/31/12 0.70% 13,980 24,048 201
10 Savages (us) 10/31/12 0.40% 8,340 13,278 171

Friday, November 2, 2012

WKR: Im Kwon-taek London Retro and More From Busan (10/27-11/02, 2012)

Though it ended almost three weeks ago, the pace of reviews coming in from this year's Busan International Film Festival has yet to let up. Additionally, a comprehensive Im Kwon-taek retrospective is currently taking place in London with Eastern Kicks leading the charge on the review front.

UPCOMING FILMS


(Variety, October 29, 2012)

(Film Business Asia, October 28, 2012)

(The Hollywood Reporter, October 31, 2012)

(Film Business Asia, October 29, 2012)