3rd Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA) Preview

MKC is a proud Media Partner of the 3rd Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA).

The premiere showcase for Korean cinema down under is returning for its third edition next week with what promises to be an even bigger event following last year's already very impressive gains. The 3rd KOFFIA will showcase 20 features and 13 shorts in three different cities. It begins on August 22-28 in Sydney before moving on to Melbourne (September 8-12) and will finish up in Brisbane (September 27-30).

Opening the festival will the hugely popular and critically-acclaimed period blockbuster War of the Arrows. In the same vein, the heartwarming runaway hit Sunny will close out the proceedings with director Kang Hyeong-cheol in attendance.

Both of those are featured in the 'Panorama' section which also includes recents commercial and critical hits such as the wonderful geriatric romance Late Blossom, Im Sang-soo's blistering The Taste of Money, Jang Hoon's Korean War epic The Front Line, Hong Sang-soo's Isabelle Huppert vehicle In Another Country and Hong's The Day He Arrives. Besides 'Panorama', there are another 5 sections to choose from this year: 'Modern Classics', 'Animation', 'Documentary', 'K'Mystery' and 'K-Comedy'.

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August 2012 Korean Releases

This monthly features previews the coming month's attractions in Korean cinema. All of these monthly posts are available in an archive on the Upcoming Releases page.

August 2

Plump Revolution

August 8

I Am a King
Tears in the Antarctic
The Grand Heist

August 15

R2B: Return to Base

August 23

90 Minutes
Myselves
Neighbors

August 30

577 Project
The Traffickers
The Ugly Duckling
Wedding Scandal
Young Gun in the Time

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KCN: Korean Films to TIFF, Thieves Still King (08/09-08/15, 2012)

Not an enormous amount of news this week. Toronto has announced some Korean films in its lineup, The Thieves continues its extraordinary box office run and a number of trailers and posters this week.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Three Korean Films Set for Toronto

The Toronto International Film Festival, arguably the world's biggest film event (if not quite as glitzy as Cannes), returns next month and this year a trio of Korean films have been invited. The sophomore effort from Jo Sung-hee (End of Animal; 2010), A Werewolf Boy will screen in the Contemporary World Cinema section along with Juvenile Offender by Kang Ji-kwan and current blockbuster The Thieves from Choi Dong-hun. (Modern Korean Cinema, August 15, 2012)

R2B Presells to 30 Markets

The Rain-starring aviation blockbuster R2B: Return to Base, has presold to 30 territories, including: England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Canada, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Monaco, India, Turkey & Mongolia. The film is a remake of the Korean classic Red Scarf (1964) but by all accounts it seems to fall far more in line with Top Gun (1986). (Modern Korean Cinema, August 15, 2012)

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PiFan 2012: The Crucible (시련, Silyeon) 2012

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

Among the Korean independent fare at this year’s PiFan there were some wonderful works that will likely enjoy healthy festival runs and should find wider audiences but along with the good there is inevitably going to be some bad. One film that will quickly be forgotten is a low-budget take on Arthur Miller’s famed play ‘The Crucible’. However, please don’t confuse this film with last year’s much-ballyhooed and far more worthwhile Silenced, which was originally known as The Crucible In English.

Though not particularly familiar with Miller’s play, it’s easy to see that the filmmakers behind this work got themselves a little too caught up in the mechanics of putting on a theater piece as well as their attempt at forging a meta-narrative around the staging of a play which begins to take on the story and themes of the work in question. The story is as follows: a student theater troupe preparing to perform their rendition of Miller’s play following the mysterious death of one of their cast members. One night during rehearsals things take a turn for the worse and the events that begin to unfold mirror those of the play.

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JIMFF 2012: The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis, Argentina) 2012

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

Whether it be gods, sovereigns, athletes or rock stars, idolatry is something that has pervaded human society at the very least since our civilization’s records began. What leads to the fanatical worship that we are almost all guilty of? Among other things, jealousy could be to blame. Be we lacking in riches or power, we often look to others who have acquired them. We may hate these people but just as easily our ire could turn to love, perhaps even devotion. However, this love is akin to self-love as we begin to live vicariously through other people’s achievements.

So where does this jealousy come from? We could throw out a few reasons but I think the main culprits are dissatisfaction and disillusionment. The sad fact is that the majority of us may never feel that we have accomplished what we set out to do in our lives. Even those that have achieved what we desire seem to be dissatisfied with their lot. This is an eternal human predicament: we’re never happy with what we have. The grass is always greener so to speak. A bold generalization to be sure and while I won’t say that it affects us all (though it may very well), the majority of us feel this to some extent.

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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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