Category: Entertainment Files

The Transformers movie has finally opened in Korea and the turn out and reception according to the AP have both been positive:

Steven Spielberg‘s "Transformers" premiered Thursday in theaters in South Korea, after notching up the country’s highest online ticket bookings of any movie this year.  The action film — featuring vehicles that transform into warring robots — will initially be shown on some 530 screens nationwide, rising to around 700 by the weekend, distributor CJ Entertainment said.

Here is a quote from the AP article that I found quite interesting:

"Movies that do well in South Korea tend to do well in other parts of Asia," Kim said, attributing the trend in part to the growing popularity of South Korean movies, TV dramas and music across the region.

"A movie’s popularity in Asia seems to be affected by its popularity in South Korea," she said. "In that sense, South Korea has emerged as an important movie market in Asia in recent years."

Give me a break, the Transformer movie could have been screened in Bhutan and it still will do well world wide.  It is going to do well globally because it is a Steven Spielberg movie with advanced special effects during a time when the theatres are filled with crap movies other than Shrek 3.   

In the Chosun Ilbo today they have an interview with LOST actor Kim Yun-jin who answers a series of questions for the paper.  One of the questions and its answer caught my eye:

 In the first “Lost” advertising poster, the white actors were placed in the front and the actors of other races in the back row, right?

“I was so shocked, I couldn’t speak. I worked in Korea for about six years without being aware of the color of my skin, but I was stunned when it suddenly happened. After that, I object to whatever I feel is discrimination. If I accept it, there will be no change. When I speak out, the other side might think, ‘I never thought about it that way,’ and be more careful.”

It is times like these that I turn to the wisdom of the Party Pooper.  The overwhelming racism Kim feels is even more apparent after I read the answer to this question:

Money and fame follow from Hollywood. Do you earn a lot now?

“I earn a lot. I get US$100,000 per episode, and we shoot 24 episodes a year. ‘Lost’ is televised to 210 countries around the world.”

Yes, only in a racist country like America is a network willing to pay a supporting actress in their drama $100,000 an episode for a total $2.4 million bucks.  I want to be discriminated against like this.

I couldn’t find any similar comments from her in the US media so I have to wonder if Kim Yun-jin doing a Wie Byung-wook and telling the Korean media what they want to hear in order to promote herself and the Korean movie she is currently filming?

Seriously, what is so secret about this “secret weapon”?:

“I’ll seduce Japanese fans with my sexy looks,” promised Lee Hyo-lee, revealing her strategy for cracking the Japan market. Lee was speaking at a press conference on Monday at the Hotel Okura Tokyo in Japan ahead of the launch on Fuji TV CS of her soap “If in Love… Like Them.”

Yes quite the secret weapon. 

I watched Spiderman 3 this weekend which continues to be the leading movie in Korean movie theatres.  In my opinion the movie was quite good, but not as good as the first two movies.  The special effects are in incredible as to be expected and all the main characters give strong performances, but the story line is what makes this the worst of three movies.  There are a variety of story line threads in the movie that just do not come together well in the end.  The story line thread involving Peter Parker turning into the dark Spiderman was just absolutely ridiculous and really took away from the movie. 

The movie has two new villains, the Sandman and Venom along with the old Hobgoblin villain from Spiderman 2.  The two new villains are very poorly developed, especially Venom, which can all be attributed to the poor story line.  One of the villains should have been left out for a future Spiderman movie which would have helped focus the story line.   All in all it is worth seeing just for the special effects alone, however I think Spiderman 2 is still the best Spiderman movie. 

Any bets how long this lasts?

I think it is safe to say that the moral of this story is to not hire gangsters as your manager:

The manager of South Korean movie star Kwon Sang-Woo was sentenced to eight months in jail Wednesday for blackmailing his client, court officials said.

The defendant, a former gangster identified by his family name Paek, was found quilty of threatening Kwon with disclosures about his private life in an attempt to secure a lucrative business contract, they said.

Kwon, 30, who is gaining popularity in Japan and other Asian countries during the Korean pop culture boom, had also faced another case of intimidation.

In February prosecutors indicted Kim Tae-Chon, a gang leader already serving a prison term for bribery, for trying to force Kwon to attend a fans’ meeting in Japan organised by Kim’s friend.

The Korean netizens are at again criticizing the depicting of bridge in a recent episode of the television drama LOST:

A rather poor substitute for Korea’s historic Hangang Grand Bridge shown in the American television series "Lost" has provoked intense feelings among some Korean watchers.

In the 18th episode of the third season of "Lost" which aired a week ago, a bridge labeled as the Hangang Grand Bridge appears briefly in the background of one scene.

(…)

Some Koreans discussing the episode on Internet message boards called the production sloppy and criticized the show makers for their apparent ignorance of Korea.

"It was so absurd I couldn’t even laugh," wrote somebody called "ion***" on the Naver portal. "How could they film a scene like that? What does the U.S. think of Korea?"

Another poster wrote, "The producers of Lost have gone too far. They don’t have to know everything about Korea, but this is ridiculous."

This is really idiotic criticism because the show is filmed in Hawaii where the bridge depicted is located at.  I’m sure the shows creators added the Korean lettering to the bridge thinking it would give the scene more of a Korean atmosphere since they were filming in Hawaii, but the childish Korean netizens are once again using this as to create a perception of Americans slapping Koreans in the face once again. 

You would think they would have learned their lesson when they criticized LOST during season one because the two Korean characters were initially portrayed negatively in the series.  However, as the story line progressed these two characters became some of the main heroes in the series and it became clear why the characters acted the way they did at the beginning of the series. 

The LOST series has done more for Korea actors and film industry than any others movie or series in the US.  Yet the netizens think it is anti-Korean because the producer won’t pay to fly the entire cast and crew to Seoul to film a brief scene of Kim Yun-jin walking across a bridge.  I’m sure they wouldn’t have been complaining if in the background of the same scene there was a USFK soldier dumping toxic waste into the river.  These netizens really need to get a life. 

You can read more on this over at Lost Nomad and the Marmot’s Hole.

The new Korean drama is winning over viewers and making cultural waves in Korea:

A new TV soap opera is gaining popularity in South Korea with the tear-jerking tale of an eight-year-old girl infected by the virus that causes AIDS – a disease that still invites more ostracism than sympathy here.

The MBC network show "Thank You" has been winning top ratings in its time slot with the story of a young HIV carrier – a rare topic for South Korean dramas that typically focus on forbidden love or secret love affairs.

Here are some stats on HIV in Korea:

South Korea has a relatively low number of people living with HIV – 3,891 as of March, according to government statistics. But experts say the actual number could be at least three or four times higher – some 13,000 by a U.N. estimate – with many reluctant to take HIV tests due to the social stigma of the disease.

The number of new infections is on the rise, reaching a record 751 last year – more than double the figure recorded in 2001 when 327 new cases were found.

I would say the rise in HIV numbers has probably more to do with increased awareness of the virus and more people getting treated for it compared to in the past than because of any new epidemic.  Hopefuly this drama can continue the increase awareness of HIV and help those stigamatized by it.

Kim Yun-jin is ranked only one spot ahead of Lindsay Lohan?

Stories like this just go to show that not all things are bad between Korea and Japan:

Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko appeared to be emotionally affected at the screening on Friday of a new film about a South Korean student who was killed by an oncoming train in 2001 as he tried to rescue a drunken stranger at a Tokyo station.At a preview in Tokyo on the sixth anniversary of the death of 26-year-old Lee Su Hyon, the imperial couple both seemed to be moved as the film reached its finale where the main character is killed.

Lee’s parents also attended the screening.

“Anata wo Wasurenai” (We Will Not Forget You), the latest Japan-South Korean film collaboration which will premier across Japan on Saturday, depicts a young South Korean man and his love for a Japanese girl in Tokyo and is interlaced with the complex feelings South Koreans have about Japan, their former colonial occupier.

Empress Michiko has a personal involvement in the real story. In November 2001, she happened to meet with Lee’s parents at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo while they were on a tour.