Showing posts with label spy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spy. Show all posts

Friday, August 22, 2014

Review: RED FAMILY's High Concept Suffers From Stilted Delivery


By Pierce Conran

Though as a theme it has spawned some of Korean cinema's biggest hits, including Shiri (1999), Joint Security Area (2000), Silmido (2003), Taegugki (2004) and Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005), the representation of North Korea on screen has always been a thorny one. It's a sensitive topic that is consistently affected by ebbing political tides. Though many different styles of narrative crop up relating to the Korean republic's Northern neighbor, those that have been most palatable to the public have featured themes of camaraderie across the demilitarized zone, films that stripped characters (mostly soldiers) of their ideologies and showed them for what they really were, which is of course people that are not all that dissimilar from one another.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

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

Sunday, October 7, 2012

KBO: Masquerade Still Top After Enormous Holiday Week (10/05-10/07, 2012)

Masquerade Still Top After Enormous Holiday Week


Title Release Date Market Share Weekend Total Screens
1 Masquerade 9/13/12 48.00% 849,999 8,220,479 867
2 Taken 2 (us) 9/27/12 16.20% 271,598 2,094,497 507
3 Ghost Sweepers 10/3/12 14.80% 264,961 617,456 479
4 Brave (us) 9/27/12 10.40% 188,398 963,115 478
5 Spy 9/20/12 4.10% 73,413 1,255,749 296
6 Ted (us) 9/27/12 3.00% 49,642 217,239 204
7 Wolf Children (jp) 9/13/12 1.30% 24,286 297,537 124
8 Tad the Lost Explorer (us) 9/20/12 0.50% 10,432 202,045 96
9 Take This Waltz (ca) 9/27/12 0.40% 6,291 19,412 22
10 13 (us) 10/3/12 0.30% 5,760 8,670 108

Monday, October 1, 2012

KBO: Masquerade Lords Over Chuseok Holiday (09/28-09/30, 2012)

Masquerade Lords Over Chuseok Holiday


Title Release Date Market Share Weekend Total Screens
1 Masquerade 9/13/12 47.70% 1,379,364 5,234,423 935
2 Taken 2 (us) 9/27/12 27.80% 776,843 962,350 682
3 Spy 9/20/12 9.30% 275,007 840,498 454
4 Brave (us) 9/27/12 7.40% 208,613 223,901 435
5 Ted (us) 9/27/12 2.40% 66,326 83,150 248
6 Ghost Sweepers 10/3/12 1.60% 48,271 53,628 176
7 Wolf Children (jp) 9/13/12 0.90% 28,266 217,147 145
8 Tad the Lost Explorer (us) 9/20/12 0.70% 20,515 127,868 194
9 Pieta 9/6/12 0.60% 18,365 570,949 142
10 Resident Evil 5 (us) 9/13/12 0.40% 10,870 550,480 132

Monday, September 24, 2012

KBO: Masquerade Still King (09/21-09/23, 2012)

Masquerade Still King


Title Release Date Market Share Weekend Total Screens
1 Masquerade 9/13/12 60.50% 1,192,689 3,227,946 922
2 Spy 9/20/12 16.80% 341,696 415,422 576
3 Resident Evil 5 (us) 9/13/12 5.70% 101,271 501,391 331
4 Ted (us) 9/20/12 3.90% 81,313 100,920 301
5 Pieta 9/6/12 3.50% 69,518 505,744 292
6 Wolf Children (jp) 9/13/12 2.90% 61,269 169,760 220
7 The Bourne Legacy (us) 9/6/12 2.10% 39,773 998,212 262
8 Traffickers 8/29/12 1.90% 36,518 1,618,528 192
9 The Thieves 7/25/12 0.40% 6,969 12,944,840 86
10 London Boulevard (uk) 9/20/12 0.30% 6,735 11,617 131

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

KCN: Oscar Shortlist, Festival News and Trailers (08/23-08/29, 2012)

Oscar news this week and a number of festival items, not to mention posters and trailers.


KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

KOFIC Announces Shortlist for 2013 Oscars
A team is being assembled by the Korean Film Council to deliberate over the merits of five recent Korean features hoping to become to next selection to represent the nation in the Foreign-Language Oscar race. This year's contenders include Im Sang-soo's Taste of Money, Hong Sang-soo's In Another Country, Kim Ki-duk's Pieta (which is having its world premiere next month at Venice, the gangster pic Nameless Gangster and Lee Byung-hyun period drama Masquerade, which opens next month in Korea.

Over the past few years there has been some consternation regarding the eventual picks, which have included Crossing (2008), A Barefoot Dream (2010) and The Front Line (2011). Films that seemed to have far better potential have been passed over, such as Lee Chang-dong's Poetry or the popular hit Sunny. This year's crop does not inspire a great deal of confidence (though few have seen the latter two yet) and imagine that 2013 will be another year without a Korean Oscar nominee. To date not a single Korean film has ever been selected. (Modern Korean Cinema, August 29, 2012)