Korea Weekend Box Office - March 27-29

Sorry, no time for comments this week. But here is the latest box office report, courtesy of KOFIC. Congratulations to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE for coming in No. 1... despite the pirated DVD being available everywhere in Korea for months. Not a bad achievement.



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One random note, unrelated to anything: South Korea apparently got a "shout out" in gossip-monger Liz Smith's most recent column. Kind of funny, though:

And if you’re determined to live beyond your means but afraid of being judged, move to South Korea. They love to spend unashamedly there. Time quotes a Seoul graduate student: “Many Korean girls like to have luxury brands. Even if they live in a box, they spend.”

Korea Weekend Box Office - March 20-22

Okay, I'm rather late to the game, but I must say that SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is really great. I saw it last weekend and thought it would be okay; but it wasn't okay, it was great. High recommend.

In Korea, though, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE opened only in the No. 2 spot, with 234,000 admissions and 1.59 billion won ($1.14 million) over the weekend.

In first place was some Hollywood film called PUSH. PUSH had 280,000 admissions and 1.88 billion won ($1.34 million), enough for first place.

Top Korean film was the No. 3 movie MISSING (Siljong), which had 213,000 admissions and 1.49 billion won ($1.06 million). In fourth was A SAD STORY THAN SADNESS (Seulpeum-boda Seulpeun Iyagi, and a bunch of alternative English titles) with 129,000 admissions and 865 million won ($618,000) to bring its total box office to 3.62 billion won.

OLD PARTNER (Wonang Sori) was in sixth, earning another 425 million won to bring its total to 18.3 billion won ($13 million). And that was it for Korean movies, just three in the top-10 again this week.

Actually, no one film particularly dominated last weekend, with the biggest film (SADNESS) on only 355 screens and the smallest (Gran Torino) on 138. Not a big range compared to usual.

Daytime Drinking

Hey, the trailer for DAYTIME DRINKING is now up on the Apple website. That is kind of cool. Check it out here.

DAYTIME DRINKING also has a pretty decent English website here.

K-Music Komes to iTunes

At long last, K-pop comes to iTunes. Fifty acts make their debut on Apple's music service, thanks to DFSB Kollective, starting today.

Actually, most of the acts here are not really K-pop; most of them are more interesting, rock and electronic stuff. Vidulgi OoyoO is there, along with Huckleberry Finn, Sung Kiwan and Cocore, Chang Kiha and the Faces, No Brain, and more. Not a bad selection at all.

On the more pop side, you do have Tasha (aka "T", aka Yoon Mirae) (who is great, btw), Drunken Tiger, Epik High and bands like that. Oh, and g.o.d and Moon Hee Jun, who are definitely big pop names, although more of yesterday.

For a complete list, you can check out this site. More importantly, buy buy buy, buy their music.

Thirsting for Park Chan-wook

Looks like the marketing campaign for Park Chan-wook's THIRST (aka, Bakjui) is getting started at last. Here are a couple of posters from the film (via the Chosun Ilbo):


And here is the movie trailer:



No signs of a subtitles trailer yet. Will post one if I find it.

Marmot Shrugged -- aka Architecture in Korea

In keeping with the architectural theme today over at the Marmot's Hole, I thought I would link to the March issue of Wallpaper magazine, which featured a look at 19 major buildings in and around Seoul, either in the works or recently completed.


Another link is here (almost the same, but also includes a link to a gallery about the Seoul Design Olympiad of last fall). And here is one more story from that issue, but that I could not find on the actual Wallpaper website.


Don't forget, Seoul is on deck to become the World Design Capital in 2010, taking over from Turin, Italy.

Gladness for Sadness -- English subtitles around Korea

Lotte Entertainment is presenting its latest melodrama, A SAD STORY THAN SADNESS (Seulpeum-boda Seulpeun Iyagi) in several locations with English subtitles, at least for the next little while.

Locations include the Lotte Cinemas in Myeongdong (the Emmanuel Cinema in the Lotte Department Store), Goyang, Ansan, Miryang and Busan.


I wish I could provide times and advance ticketing information, but the Lotte website is horrible to navigate. But if you live in one of the above locations, you probably know your theaters already.

(Since it is so nice to get new Korean films with subtitles, I will refrain from taking shots at the grammar in that bizarre title.)