There are many Korean films getting released this week in theaters and this is due to The Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) making some of their students’ films available through limited screenings. Four of the seven movies opening are courtesy of KAFA.. Let’ start with them…
First is the animation The Dearest which starts its trailer with the brief sentence “Eun-shil is Dead”
The next is Choked and this trailer has English subtitles to make it easier to follow along
Mirage, the third offering from KAFA, one a prize at the 5th Seoul Digital Film Festival.
Sympathy for Us– which looks at the lives of characters the trailer calls ‘losers’ (and which seems like it might be pretty funny) is not on Youtube. However, you can see the trailer here: http://movie.naver.com/movie/bi/mi/mediaView.nhn?mid=17351
Helpless is getting a wider release. It stars Lee Seon-gyun and Kim Min-hee. Based on a Japanese novel, a man begins to realizes that he did not know everything about the woman he was going to marry before her sudden and mysterious disappearance. Whoever uploaded it to Youtube, listed it as Train, but the official name is Helpless
Romance Joe stars Kim Yeong-pil and Shin Dong-mi.. this trailer also has English subs. (Frankly though, I don’t think this trailer was well put together… you’ll see what I mean)
Finally there is a documentary called Talking Architect.
These films are going up against the following films: Stanley’s Tiffin Box (India), John Carter (USA) and Genya, Chained Girl (Japan)
I am combining the list of new DVDs of Korean movies with the post I usually do on Tuesday, trailers of Korean movies opening in theaters. As I said in my last post, I was away this weekend for a radio broadcast and I did not prepare the list. So I will rectify that right now.
There are two, possibly three, Korean films being released on DVD this week. The first is the documentary of Kim Jong-il’s life, Kim Jong-il: Forbidden Biography. Number of discs: 1/ Subtitles: Korean and English/ Rating: all ages/ Format: 16:9 widescreen/ Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0/ Running Time: 52 minutes/ Suggested Retail Price: 16,500 KRW/ Available: February 27
The second movie pictured there is Invasion of the Alien Bikini directed by Oh Yeong-doo and starring Hong Yeong-geun and Ha Eun-jeong. Number of discs: 1/ Subtitles: Korean and English/ Rating: for ages 18+/ Format: 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen/ Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0/ Running Time: 75 minutes/ Suggested Retail Price: 25,300 KRW/ Available: February 29
I mentioned that there might be three films being released on DVD.. the other one is The Magicians which had been delayed from its original December 2011 date. The reason it is in doubt is that I have seen two other dates given since then and it is continuously being pushed back. Information about that film is here.
New movies this week.
There are a total of 12 new movies being released in Korean theaters this week and five of these are Korean films.
First, we have the trailer for Stateless Things, directed by Kim Kyeong-mok and starring Lee Ba-wool and Yeom Hyeon-joon. Being a “queer”-themed film, it will no doubt have a limited release.
Also getting a limited release is the documentary, Welcome Back to Beast Airline 3D. As the title suggests, it features the singing group, Beast, in an encore concert.
Probably the most mainstream release this week is Love Fiction, a romance starring Ha Jeong-woo and Kong Hyo-jin.
Eighteen, Nineteen is another romance being released in theaters this week. It stars Yoo Yeon-seok and Baek Jin-hee and is directed by Bae Gwang-soo.
The last film does not have a trailer available that I have seen or a website. It is a sex-comedy called Man Hwa Bang directed by Heo Jae-hyeong and starring Lee Eun-mi and Im Ah-yeong.
Before I begin this review, I want to say that I am using the title, Mist, with the greatest reluctance. While making the index plates I have been posting, I have found that a fair number of Korean films of the 60s and 70s had English names at the time of their release. Often these names appear on the advertisements and posters but when KOFA built its website, it did not have access to most of these (many posters were donated sometime around 2005 by a collector) so the Film Archives simply provided literal translations of the titles. In this case, 안개 became Mist. However, there was no need to do this. I do not know if they had the poster on hand when they added the this movie to the website, but they certainly had the film. As we can see on the image above, the movie was to be called Foggy Town in English and this title is also written on the title card during the opening credits of the film. But as this DVD of this film is sold as Mist in English, that is what I must call it. But Wwy the change? I can understand if the title is awkward or grammatically incorrect..and I have even seen some that were spelled wrong in English… but there is nothing wrong with Foggy Town and it is certainly descriptive of the film’s location, Mujin.
Mujin appears to be a fictional city. Judging from how long it takes to get there from Seoul, the fact that it is on the coast, and the fact that it has salt marshes and no crashing waves, it must be meant to be located on the south or southwest shore. One person on the bus mentions that it has a fairly large population but we learn that most people in the town looks down on his or her neighbor as, at best, mediocre examples of humanity. It seems to be many of the citizens’ dream to escape the boredom and loneliness of Mujin and go to Seoul or risk losing their minds.
Yoon Gi-joon was one of the lucky few that managed to escape and better his life. Not through his own work though, because he met a rich widow and married her, putting himself in a position to become heir apparent of his father-in-law’s successful pharmaceutical company. In order to ensure this occurs, his wife has arranged a board meeting and is pulling her father’s strings but Gi-joon’s actual ability stand in the way so, to be certain of success, she sent him to visit Mujin, his hometown until she sends for him.
Gi-joon’s relationship with his wife is interesting. It certainly does not seem to be based on love. In his case, he was attracted to her money, the lifestyle it brought, and probably the fact that marriage to her came with a guaranteed job. Why would she marry Gi-joon? He was sickly in his younger days and became a draft-dodger– an important issue in Korea even in these days, but even more so in past decades. Men who evaded their mandatory military duties had a very difficult time securing jobs and interacting successfully with other men in society. Certainly his looks helped in landing Gi-joon his wife, he is after all being played by Shin Seong-il, but I think it was more than that. His wife wanted someone that she could control. She wants to run the company and, although she is already very involved in management, there was a glass ceiling that would have prevented her from easily achieving her goals. She knows that Gi-joon is at heart weak. She states bluntly to her father that Gi-joon is nothing without them and reminds her husband he would not even be in Seoul if it were not for her. Perhaps that is why it was so easy for him to get involved with the pretty new school teacher in Mujin, In-sook.
In-sook was the top of the music department at the university she attended in Seoul, and when she was offered a job immediately after graduating, she jumped at the chance to take it… at least that is what we were told. Supposedly, In-sook studied Korean classical music but the only songs she ever sings are Korean popsongs. She could be lying, or Mr. Park exaggerating her credentials as he is silently in love with her. It is known by some that her family background was not good at all and the only reason she stays in Mujin is because her hometown is worse. She wants more than anything to return to Seoul and she is willing to do anything to get there even when warned that “No city will give you back your college days.”
Gi-joon does not particuarly want to go back to his past, he tried too hard to escape it to want that. He sees a lot of himself in In-sook (sometimes quite literally– when talking to her we sometimes see Gi-joon of the past in her place) and promises to take her to Seoul. She for her part makes a promise. “When I am in Seoul, I will have an affair with you.” It turns out he didn’t have to wait that long for the affair to start. Oddly, soon after it begins, In-sook changes her position and decides that she doesn’t want to go to Seoul anymore, prompting Gi-joon to reply that they have to promise to stop lying to each other. Because she is so much like his former self, Gi-joon realizes that the promise extends to himself and that he has been lying to himself the entire time. We see things in a new light with that realization, and he is then back on the train to Seoul alone.
This movie is interesting for many reasons. The setting of Mujin is one of them. I think it is important that Mujin is not a real city. Most Korean films of this period use existing cities when setting their films. The fog the nighly covers the city is also important. The narration states that it isolates Mujin from the rest of the world and Gi-joon’s journey there seems more like a journey into his subconscious than an actual place.. with a little more strangeness thrown in, it could seem like an old Twilight Zone episode. It is stated the Mujin has no special food, grows no special crop and even though it is a coastal city, there is no port or trade. In fact, it seems like there is little reason for people to be there, yet we are told it is well populated. Why? Could it be that everyone there is a lost Seoul searching for some evasive piece of him or her self?
My only complaint with this film is that some of the flashbacks are not clearly delineated as such. With most, it becomes easy enough for the viewer to realize that we are now in the past, there was one that left me confused as it showed Gi-joon standing by a bus watching an insane prostitute being harrassed by street urchins. Gi-joon’s clothes in that scene are quite good and I thought it was happening in the present but in fact what we saw must have occured as he left Mujin the first time as the scene switches to him still on the bus. It is a confusing moment.
However, don’t let that one point deter you from watching the film when you get the chance. It is part of the Kim Soo-yong Box Set and, while pricey, is well-worth seeking out.
Below, you can hear the title song of this movie, Mist, sung by Jeong Hoon-hee is 1967. Even if you can’t understand it, it has a beautiful, haunting melody and is very relaxing.
There are a lot of new movies coming the theaters this week–14 to be precise. Of them, two are listed as Korean films. The first trailer shown below is for the movie Angel’s Breath directed by and stars Han Ji-won and co-features Kim Yeong-seon. It is the story of a young man who dreams of becoming famous as a star, but has little ability and no idea how to go about making his dream a reality. His mother works hard to support and encourage him, but more often than not has to bail him out of trouble.
The second Korean movie is actually a Korean/Canadian co-produced animation Bolts and Blip. Apparently it is a movie based on a television series, but I know nothing about it. The trailer is English below.
The other 12 movies that are coming to theaters are listed according to region. From Asia we have the animated Legend of a Rabbit (ch), Nintama (jp), Naruto (jp) and The Last Chushingura. From Europe, Amelie (fr), Womb (fr), Turin Horse (hungary), and Iron Lady (uk). And from North America, Underground 4 (us), Big Miracle (us), Man on a Ledge (us) and Nitro (ca)
This week, we have one Korean film opening in theaters and it will be a strong contender for the first place slot on the weekend box office charts despite how strongly Nameless Gangster has been performing. The film is Howling, directed by Yoo Ha and featruing two exceptional stars in the leading roles, Song Kang-ho and Lee Na-yeong. The movie is based on an award-winning Japanese novel with the English title of Hunter written by Asa Nanomi in 1996.
But while this is the only Korean film opening this week, there are other movies including the critically acclaimed US film, The Artist. Other films include Fay Grim (us), Descendants (us), Ghost Rider 3D (us), One For the Money (us), The Grey (us) and Woman in Black (uk/ca).
This week, there is just one Korean film to be released and it is likely to have just a limited screening in the arthouse theaters scattered around the country. The movie is a documentary called Two Lines (formerly known as Must We Get Married?) It follows a couple, one of whom is the director, who have been living together for many years, who now find they have many choices to make when the woman becomes pregnant. At the end of the tagline in Korean at the end of the trailer calls the film the ‘anti-marriage documentary’ which sets it far apart from what most dramas and romances would have us believe is the ideal in Korea. Here is the trailer:
The other movies that are opening this week are from all over the world. From Asia we have Slapstick Brothers and Cut from Japan and Legendary Amazons from China. Films opening this week originating in Europe are Thor (Iceland), Same Same But Different (Germany), Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (France), Mr. Nice (England) and War Horse which is a British and American co-production. From North America we have Star Wars: Episode 1 in 3D.
This Thursday, we have two new Korean movies opening. First up is a gangster film starring two of Korea’s best actors, Choi Min-shik (Oldboy) and Ha Jeong-woo (Yellow Sea). It is directed by Yoon Jong-bin who gave us The Unforgiven. I think sometime in the past I mentioned that I was tired of gangster movies, but I have to admit that they have become much less frequent in Korean cinema than they used to be. That fact, plus the casting, means I will be seeing this film. Here is the trailer for Nameless Gangster: Rules of Time–
The other movie is a drama called Papa. It looks as if it has elements of comedy as well. It stars Park Yong-woo (Children…) as a talent manager whose client has signed with another agency and gone to America to star in a reality series. He follows her but, in order to stay past his visa, he must marry. The woman who marries him dies suddenly leaving him with a large, multi-cultural family to raise. Besides Park Yong-woo, this movie features Ko Ah-ra and Michael MacMillan.
The other new movies that are opening are The Bang Bang Club (ca), Welcome to the Rileys (uk/us), I Don’t Know How She Does It (us), and Happy Feet 2 (au).
This week there are quite a few movies opening however, only one is a Korean film. The movie is Tarbosaurus. It is a 3D animation about a young carnivorous dinosaur who’s entire family is killed by a lost Tyranosaurus Rex named ‘One-Eye.’ Spotty, the young tarbosaur, grows up with the desire to avenge his family and free the area from the interloper. Tarbosaurus is directed by Han Sang-ho and voiced by Lee Hyeong-seok, Shin Yong-woo and Ku Ja-hyeong.
Other movies opening are: Flypaper (us), Oppai Volleyball (jp), Eleanor’s Secret (fr), The Prey (fr), Personal Effects (us), One Piece (jp), Dancing Chaplin (jp), Eternity (th), Carjacked (us)
This coming weekend is going to be very long as it is the Lunar (aka Chinese) New Year! Officially, the holiday runs from Sunday the 22nd to Tuesday but I think many companies will be closing early to give employees time to travel back to their hometowns. Theaters are likely to be packed this weekend and there will be a number of new movies takiing advantage of this.
Pacemaker– starring Kim Myeong-jin, Ahn Seong-gi and Ko Ah-ra. Pacemaker is directed by Kim Dang-joong who over the years has directed many musicals for the live stage. This is his first movie. (no, it’s not a musical…)
Unbowed– starring Ahn Seong-gi (yes, he’s in two films that are opening this week), Park Won-sang and Na Yeong-hee. The director is Jeong Jin-yeong who has not directed a full-length movie since his extremely (overly?) artistic 1998 film Naked Being.
Dancing Queen– starring Hwang Jeong-min, Uhm Jeong-hwa and Lee Han-wi. Directed by Lee Seok-hoon (Two Faces of My Girlfriend)
Neverending Story– starring Uhm Tae-woong, Jeong Fyeo-won and Yoo Seon. Directed by Jeong Yong-joo helming his first feature-length film. He had previously directed the short thriller/fantasy Tea & Poison.
The other movies opening this week are: We Bought a Zoo (us), Lost World 2: Mysterious Island (us), Of Gods and Men (fr), The Kid with the Bike (fr) and Devil’s Playground (uk)
Only two new movies, both fairly minor releases. The first is Too Many Villains starring Kim Joon-bae and Song Ji-eun. It is directed by Kim Hwe-geun.
The second Korean movie opening this week is a documentary called My Barefoot Friend about the rickshaw drivers of India. I selected a trailer that has English subtitles. Enjoy!
