Korea Weekend Box Office - Oct. 19-21

Score another one for Jang Jin. The prolific filmmaker has another hit with the No. 1 opening of GOING BY THE BOOK. Actually, Jang only wrote the initial screenplay for the film, which was directed by Ra Hee-chan. But since Ra got his start as Jang's Assistant Director and has pretty much said he considers this to be a Jang film, let's give Jang the credit.

I was a little surprised that SHADOWS IN THE PALACE opened only in the No. 2 spot. I guess I should not have been, but I was. SHADOWS was the debut by Kim Mi-jeong, who also was an AD on some high-profile films.

RESIDENT EVIL 3 opened in third. No way was I going to spend money to see that film in the theaters, but I suspect once it hits cable TV, I will be watching it endlessly (probably whenever I discover it during some late night flicking).

LOVE EXPOSURE opened in fourth. Is it my imagination, or has there been a minor flood of uninspired movies about relationships, sex, love and cheating over the past few months?

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Attendance	Total Attendance
1.	Going by the Book (Bareuge Salja - Korean)	10.18	438	458,834	538,352
2.	Shadows in the Palace (Gungneo - Korean)	10.18	427	416,551	511,308
3.	Resident Evil 3	10.18	281	183,376	217,021
4.	Love Exposure (Eokkae Neomeo-ui Yeonin - Korean)	10.18	236	107,882	138,332
5.	Happiness (Haengbok - Korean)	10.03	288	72,477	1,126,482
6.	Rush Hour 3	10.03	245	59,709	735,390
7.	Copying Beethoven	10.11	174	50,601	189,149
8.	Becoming Jane	10.11	223	36,570	184,148
9.	Nanny Diaries	10.03	143	28,193	467,462
10.	Brave One	10.11	159	22,363	147,801

(Source: KOBIS - Figures represent 94% of nationwide box office)

Up next week -- Lee Myung-se's M.

Kind of a weird year this year. Chuseok came and went with barely a ripple, but some much more interesting films seem to be coming out now. Kind of playing havoc with people's forecasts.