The Housemaid Cleans Up

Happy day today -- I just bought the great new DVD of Kim Ki-young's THE HOUSEMAID.


THE HOUSEMAID (1960), of course, has long been recognized as one of the great films in Korean history. It is a crazy, claustrophobic tale of a family being terrorized by their housemaid. But describing the plot hardly begins to describe just how fun this movie is.

If you have seen THE HOUSEMAID before at one of its retrospective screenings, you know that it really needed some cleaning up. Much of the movie was faded, scratched, or had degraded in any number of ways.

The quality of the image is pristine mostly pristine (save for two reels, which were more damaged and are still rather poor), the sound is clear. It is great to see a Korean film getting such special treatment. If only the English subtitles were prepared as carefully as the rest of the film (they are okay, but the mistakes are careless and unnecessary). The essays in the booklet that accompanies the DVD are not very interesting or helpful... But I fear I am nitpicking. This DVD is a great restoration.

If you want to buy THE HOUSEMAID on DVD, you can get it at Kyobo Books or any number of online bookstores (like this one). It is totally worth it. Or, if you cannot find the DVD, you can always watch it online for free.

Oldboy vs. the Economic Crisis

This is kind of odd (not really funny, but kind of interesting). Someone has taken the most famous fight scene from Park Chan-wook's OLDBOY and redone it so Oh Dae-su fights the evil bankers/businessmen who caused the American/world's economy to tank over the past couple of years.

Korea Weekend Box Office - July 31-Aug. 2

In its second weekend, HAEUNDAE has turned into an official blockbuster -- the silly tsunami film brought in 11.3 billion won ($9.26 million) in its second weekend, to bring its total boxoffice to 34.0 billion won ($27.9 million). Most significantly, its second weekend boxoffice was a tick higher than its first, indicating that people liked what they saw and were spreading the good news.

The ski jumping film TAKE OFF (Gukga Daepyo) did not fare so well, making its debut in second with 5.0 billion won ($4.10 million), or 6.8 billion won including its early Wednesday opening. That is less than half the business of HAEUNDAE, despite appearing on nearly as many screens (886 vs. 762).

Pixar's UP had a typically middling open, at least for a Pixar film in Korea. It opened in third with 2.2 billion won, for a total of 3.0 billion won ($2.5 million). Which I find kind of weird -- whenever I see a Pixar film in Korea, it gets a great audience reaction. Not sure why that does not translate into more tickets.

FYI:
The Incredibles - $6.8 million
Cars - $3.0 million
Ratatouille - $6.9 million
Wall-E - $7.4 million

The latest Detective Conan film (a Japanese anime) had a decent opening, in fourth with 1.2 billion won, or 1.6 billion won since Thursday.

The Korean comic horror film CHAW added another 1.1 billion won to bring its three-week total to 11.0 billion won ($9.0 million).

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE dropped to sixth, adding 984 million won to bring its total to 19.3 billion won ($15.8 million). It looks like the latest HARRY POTTER will cross the 3-million-attendance mark, but barely.

TRANSFORMERS 2 is still on the chart, adding a tiny 246 million won to bring its huge haul to just over 50 billion won (50.4 billion won, or $41.3 million). South Korea is easily the third-biggest market in the world for the latest Transformers, behind only the United States and the United Kingdom.

The only other Korean film in the top 10 was LIFTING KING KONG (aka BRONZE MEDALIST, or Kingkongeul Deulda). It has now made 8.7 billion won.

Jimmy Lee Jones

I was walking through the Yongsan Electronics Market last week when I stumbled across this fun find -- the first album by Jimmy Lee Jones, from 1981.


Jimmy Lee Jones (aka Lee Jeong-myeong) lived in Nashville for many years in the 1980s, where he won a songwriting competition and recorded a couple of albums. In the 1990s, he opened a bar/cafe in Daejeon called Palomino, where he still works pretty much every day. His open-mic nights were a huge hits in the 1990s, before the economic crisis.

This album, like his others, is a mix of English and Korean. Basically the same songs twice, in English on side A and in Korean on side B. Although Jimmy always called himself a country singer, the country on this album is in more of a 1980s easy-listening style... a bit like Leonard Cohen's album Various Positions or Recent Songs (think Coming Back to You).

I remember Jimmy because I used to attend the open-mic nights at Palomino with some regularity back in the day (although I never performed... just there to listen). The old part of Daejeon is pretty forgotten these days, but back in the 1990s, before Dunsan-dong was finished, it was a pretty happening part of town. Jimmy was very nice about hanging out with a noob like myself, taking me around with his friends to some great little restaurants around town.

There is an interview with Jimmy (although very poor quality) on a local TV show here. You can also see him perform on that program (also low quality) here.

Oh, and here is another I found.

Anyhow, to find Jimmy's old album (in near-mint condition, too) was a really fun little accident. I am pretty sure none of his albums were ever issued on CD, but if that ever changes, I will be sure to update this post.

UPDATE: Well, that did not take long. Two minutes after I post this, I discover Jimmy has a blog (mostly just Korean). Lots of good stuff there, including a pretty good timelime of his life here (English and Korean).

Korea Weekend Box Office - July 24-26

The disaster epic HAEUNDAE opened strong last weekend, with 1.5 million admissions over the weekend, and 2 million including its Thursday opening. Not record-breaking numbers, but not bad.

HAEUNDAE is playing at the CGV Yongsan with English subtitles, incidentally.

Otherwise, nothing too amazing to report. HARRY POTTER is doing okay, with 2.5 million admissions over the past couple of weeks. Like the last few Potter films in Korea, it will top 3 million but not 4.

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN is poised to become the biggest foreign film ever in Korea, beating the first TRANSFORMERS. But not by much. Like most Hollywood blockbusters here, it just cannot sustain as long as the local hits do. Looks like the film should top 7.5 million admissions, but not 8 million.



UPDATE: The box office chart should get interesting for the next few weeks. Pixar's UP opened already, on Wednesday. I'm interested in how it will do, as Pixar films usually struggle to pull in 1 million admissions in Korea.

And the week after UP is released, GI JOE hits the theaters, starring Korea's own Lee Byung-hun.

Btw, also opening this weekend is the Japanese film FISH STORY. I saw it in Udine in April and quite enjoyed it. I doubt it will have English subtitles in the theaters, but if I hear otherwise, I will let you know.

Also, Cine 21's website is saying NEW MOON, the Twilight sequel, will open in Korea on Dec. 10. This is apropo of nothing... I just thought some random Twilight comment might help boost my hits.

Korea Weekend Box Office - July 17-19

This Week	Title............................................	Release Date	Screens Nationwide	Weekend Revenue (bil. won)	Total Revenue (bil. won)
1.	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	7.15	829	8.21	11.47
2.	Chaw	7.15	531	3.64	4.85
3.	Transformers 2	6.24	571	2.19	48.17
4.	Bronze Medalist (Kingkongeul Deulda - Korean)	7.01	390	1.24	7.29
5.	Running Turtle (Geobuki Dallinda - Korean)	6.11	357	0.68	20.20
6.	Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006	7.15	179	0.48	0.51
7.	Juon	7.09	208	0.27	1.96
8.	Five Senses of Eros (Ogamdo - Korean)	7.09	353	0.26	2.72
9.	Arthur and the Invisibles	7.09	192	0.068	0.77
10.	Haeundae - Korean (preview)	7.23	19	0.046	0.071

(Source: KOBIS - Figures represent 98% of nationwide box office)

From a Nappeun Namja to a Nappeun Gajok

Okay, this is one of the stranger things I have read about in some time -- the Chosun Ilbo is reporting that when Rain performed a concert in Macau at the end of June, in the audience was Kim Jong-il's grandson.

That makes me wonder if he was also on-hand for the filming of BOYS OVER FLOWERS, when they had those Macau episodes. Maybe Kim Jong-il's grandson was an extra? Oh Korean Wave, is there anything you can't do?