KBO: The Tower Rises to First in Powerful Xmas Weekend (12/28-12/30, 2013)

The Tower Rises to First in Powerful Xmas Weekend

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Tower	12/25/12	30.70%	873,155	1,694,650	617
2	Les Miserables (uk/us)	12/19/12	26.70%	751,684	2,955,910	621
3	Love 911	12/19/12	13.00%	370,787	1,596,902	427
4	The Hobbit (us)	12/13/12	8.40%	204,958	2,533,231	383
5	Marrying the Mafia 5	12/19/12	5.00%	144,316	961,275	338
6	Wreck-It Ralph (us)	12/13/12	3.90%	113,083	570,142	320
7	Niko 2: Little Brother (de)	12/25/12	3.20%	95,513	207,057	284
8	Zambezi (us)	12/25/12	3.00%	86,922	205,150	273
9	My P.S. Partner	12/6/12	2.20%	57,345	1,767,310	157
10	Pokemon (jp)	12/19/12	0.70%	38,781	316,515	164

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500 Articles + Holiday Posting Schedule

Xmas at MKC's HQ ;)

I hope everyone's been enjoying the holidays and as 2012 winds down I just wanted to let you know what to expect on the site during the festivities.

We'll be taking a break on regular posting until shortly after New Year's but in the meantime you can expect some end-of-year wrap-ups such as the year's Top 10 films and news stories. Perhaps even a brief post of my time in Korea six months in to make up for slacking off on the 'Korea Blog' posts.

Remarkably this is the 500th post to appear on MKC so along with season's greetings I'd also like to extend my sincere thanks for allowing the site the grow and continue for so long. With new contributors and more plans for 2013, there's also plenty more to come.

Here's to the next 500!

KBO: Les Miserables Tunes Into First Place (12/21-12/23, 2012)

Les Miserables Tunes Into First Place

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Les Miserables (uk/us)	12/19/12	30.80%	788,836	1,265,703	670
2	Love 911	12/19/12	16.00%	416,818	703,159	426
3	The Hobbit (us)	12/13/12	17.40%	396,913	1,988,600	585
4	Marrying the Mafia 5	12/19/12	12.00%	312,681	528,802	447
5	Wreck-It Ralph (us)	12/13/12	5.70%	148,804	289,468	361
6	My P.S. Partner	12/6/12	5.70%	134,911	1,584,404	245
7	26 Years	11/29/12	4.20%	110,130	2,874,679	293
8	Pokemon (jp)	12/19/12	1.90%	93,510	191,011	273
9	Pokemon (jp)	12/19/12	1.40%	79,331	159,450	227
10	Rise of the Guardians (us)	11/29/12	1.70%	48,584	1,001,379	175

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WKR: Jiseul, Masquerade and Melo Lead the Pack (12/15-12/21, 2012)

With Christmas upon us things are slowly winding down on the review front but still plenty to check out this week.

UPCOMING FILMS

Melo

(Film Business Asia, December 15, 2012)

Jiseul

(Film Business Asia, December 17, 2012)

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KCN: Korean Cinema to Invade Berlin and Rotterdam (12/13-12/19, 2012)

Numerous festival announcements this week as Korean films pick up more prizes at international film festivals and a number of prestigious events gorge on Korean cinema.

In addition to everything below, a few more fresh festival selections lacking full writeups:

Jiseul, Sleepless Night, The Russian Novel and Sunshine Boys heading to the Rotterdam International

Behind the Camera and Jury to officially take part in Berlin's Panorama section

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Berlin Invites Pluto to Generation Section
Next February’s Berlin International Film Festival is taking shape as a major discovery grounds for Korean cinema as a fourth Korean film has been invited to the prestigious event. Shin Su-won’s Pluto, one of the most talked about films at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, will have its international premiere during Berlin’s Generation programme. (KoBiz, December 18, 2012)

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Whose Lie is it Anyway: Ad-lib Night (아주 특별한 손님, Aju Teukbyeolhan Sonnim) 2006

Part of Rex Baylon's ongoing feature on director Lee Yoon-ki.

The expectations placed upon us by our family can be emotionally and mentally crippling. Parents have no way to predict how there actions, no matter how well intentioned they are, will scar their kids, and children are ultimately at the mercy of circumstances outside their control or understanding. Because of this the relationship between parents and children seem to always suffer from some form of dysfunction. Be it from things said in anger or things left unsaid one doesn’t leave childhood without some scarring.

Opening on a bright summer day in Seoul, Lee Yoon-ki’s third feature Ad–lib Night (Aju Teukbyeolhan Sonnim, 2006) begins with two men arguing over the facial features of a woman standing innocently across from them. Watching them stare at her one can’t help thinking of the innumerable scenes in film of men and boys spying on women. Are they playboys, predators, or harmless peeping Toms? We soon get our answer as the two men corner the woman and begin having a conversation with her media res. They call her Myung-eun and we discover that they knew each other since grade school. She rebuffs their attempts to get close though and corrects their assumption that she is Myung-eun.

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KBO: The Hobbit Stands Tall at No.1 (12/14-12/16, 2012)

The Hobbit Stands Tall at No.1

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	The Hobbit (us)	12/13/12	45.20%	921,177	1,080,351	1,028
2	26 Years	11/29/12	17.10%	409,708	2,557,122	474
3	My P.S. Partner	12/6/12	15.90%	353,277	1,223,873	420
4	Rise of the Guardians (us)	11/29/12	6.70%	165,984	899,826	361
5	Werewolf Boy	10/31/12	4.10%	102,475	372,017	233
6	One Day (us)	12/13/12	3.50%	79,190	102,936	236
7	Power Rangers (jp)	11/29/12	1.90%	48,317	63,041	229
8	Confession of Murder	11/8/12	1.00%	22,544	2,720,064	114
9	Masquerade	9/13/12	0.90%	20,635	12,274,047	88
10	Wreck-it Ralph (us)	12/13/12	0.80%	19,179	33,623	118

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WKR: Confession of Murder, Pieta and More (12/08-12/14, 2012)

A trove of past Korean films reviewed in this week's roundup, along with a pair of writeups on Kim Ki-duk's Pieta and more.

CURRENT FILMS

Confession of Murder

(Modern Korean Cinema, December 13, 2012)

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Confession of Murder (내가 살인범이다, Naega Salinbeomida) 2012

The sound of torrential rain beating down during a pitch black night can be heard along with the heavy footfalls of boots stamping on the wet ground. The atmosphere is pregnant with a sense of unease; menace and frustration linger in the air. A weary and despondent detective chases after a despicable man: a monster with the blood of young women on his hands. But the lawman’s pursuit will prove fruitless, as this faceless ghost will vanish into thin air and into the forgotten recesses of history.

Such a passage could easily describe any number of narratives that have cropped up in all kinds of mediums across the world. As far as Korean cinema is concerned, it quickly brings to mind a handful of powerful works whose import cannot be dismissed in any serious consideration of the nation’s cinematic output. Chief among them is Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), a transcendent genre piece that captured the anxiety and trauma of an entire nation and which is for many, including myself, the single greatest work that the country has ever produced. Another would be Na Hong-jin’s blistering The Chaser (2008), which deliberately trampled over every generic convention it could find and forged a new direction for one of the world’s most dynamic film industries in the process.

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KCN: New Projects from Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-woon and Hong Sang-soo (12/06-12/12, 2012)

Lots of new projects or details of upcoming films announced this week, including the latest on Park Chan-wook, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Jee-woon's cinematic endeavors. The first teaser for Ryoo Seung-wan hotly anticipated spy thriller The Berlin File was also released today.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Kim Jee-woon Plans Live Action Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade
Get ready for something spectacular. Korea's Kim Jee-woon - soon to make his English language debut with Arnold Schwarzenegger starring The Last Stand - has big plans for his next Korean film and it's something that should leave anime fans very, very happy. (Twitch, December 11, 2012)

Director Hong Sangsoo’s Next Film Gets 19 Rating
Director Hong Sangsoo’s next film, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, was given the 19 or above rating on December 6. The film finished shooting this past spring and is in the post production stage, awaiting a release date. The film stars Lee Sun-kyun who appeared in Hong Lost in the Mountains and Oki’s Movie. This will be the actor’s third collaboration with Hong. (KoBiz, December 11, 2012)

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Love in the Time of Debt: My Dear Enemy (멋진 하루, Meotjin Haru) 2008

Part of Rex Baylon's ongoing feature on director Lee Yoon-ki.

To speak about love in a contemporary real world setting and ignore the logistics of survival has been the bane of the romance genre. In order to sidestep these problems filmmakers in the past have either focused their eye to the upstairs-downstairs drama of the 1% or offered up sentimental stories of shopgirls being wooed by nebbish young suitors. Modern day romantic comedies haven’t fared any better since most are concerned with merely finding one’s true love and quickly fading out once our two lovers are finally together. The romance genre’s evolution through the years has ignored the economics of love in favor of offering up quirky characters in contrived situations.

In Lee Yoon-ki’s My Dear Enemy money is the impetus for the two ex-lovers reuniting and the reason why they spend the entire day together. Instead of cloying attempts to tell a story about two people falling in love again while draped on all sides by a scenic urban backdrop we get tense scenes where petty grudges are rehashed and even the happier moments of the past are remembered through a cloudy veneer of regret and nostalgia. Far from offering up an affected view of modern day relationships My Dear Enemy is a realistic character study of the ways that hate and love are used to mask one’s insecurities, it’s a travelogue, a visual and aural document, of Seoul at the cusp of a worldwide economic recession, and a charming romantic comedy.

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KBO: 26 Years Steady at No.1 (12/07-12/09, 2012)

26 Years Steady at No.1

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	26 Years	11/29/12	31.10%	606,877	1,815,877	610
2	My P.S. Partner	12/6/12	25.40%	473,527	565,557	553
3	Rise of the Guardians (us)	11/29/12	13.60%	258,352	677,900	430
4	Werewolf Boy (Director's Cut)	10/31/12	8.10%	164,554	183,029	278
5	Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (us)	11/15/12	5.20%	104,602	2,578,609	305
6	Confession of Murder	11/8/12	5.10%	95,262	2,648,477	281
7	Tone Deaf Clinic	11/29/12	2.00%	42,000	303,714	212
8	Masquerade	9/13/12	1.60%	32,353	12,227,303	97
9	Don't Cry Mommy	11/22/12	1.30%	26,550	956,740	201
10	Judge Dredd (us)	12/6/12	1.40%	26,402	34,731	184

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