Thought Leaders' Corner: Trends in Korean film

The dialogue around Korean cinema continues to grow worldwide, and I was happy to participate in another edition of Modern Korean Cinema's Though Leaders' Corner. This months edition concerned emerging trends from the industry, and garnered a range of responses from experts around the world. 

This was probably the most interesting entry as it brought to the attention many trends that different people have noticed about the Korean film industry of late, from the style of the films to new forms of marketing, to cultural adjustments and emerging stars. Read on below and thanks again to Pierce Conran at MKR for coordinating it. You can read the full March thoughts here, or my personal mumbling are following the image below.

MKC Thought Leaders' Corner: March 2013

Are you noticing any tends in Korean films these days?

Thought Leaders' Corner: The value of Stars

Another month, another thought leaders corner thanks to the team over at Modern Korean Cinema. The contributors has expanded this month which is great to see, having so many people involved in a discussion around Korean film. 

You can read the full February thoughts here, or my personal mumbling are following the image below. Once again  I invite anyone that has an opinion on the question posed to contribute in the comments section. This also marks the 50th blog post on Tully's Recall, so thanks for reading and I will try and keep the content coming. 

MKC Thought Leaders' Corner: February 2013

How valuable are stars in the Korean film industry?

2012 Year in Review: My Top 10

And now as is the annual tradition, here is my Top 10 Films of 2012. While a number of my favourite films of the year weren't actually new releases, I've gone along with the tradition of only including films released in 2012. 

Some films that I was really looking forward to that were solid but just missed the cut included Kim So-young's For Ellen, Chung Ji-young's National Security and Pen-ek's Headshot. I also saw a good number of excellent docos (as you can see by the top 10), some of my favs included Planet of Snail, The Reason Why I Step, Arirang and Buck. A few surprises that impressed me were Kim Ki-duk's Amen, the Canadian comedy Starbuck, the Korean indie hit Dangerously Excited, the Andy Lau starring A Simple Life and the quasi-doco The Imposter. My guilty pleasure of the year has to go to Spy Kids 4.

My favourite performances of the year have to go to Choi Min-sik in Nameless Gangster. Yoo Jun-sang in In Another Country and Ryoo Seung-ryong in All About My Wife, while I developed big crushes on Choi Yoon-yeong (As One), Kim Byul (Dangerously Excited) and Kang Soo-yeon (Hanji).

My biggest disappointment of the year has to go to The Thieves, not because of the hype but because I thought all the amazing cast were completely wasted. I also thought Yoo Ji-tae's foray into directing was an absolute disaster with the horrible Mai Ratima, a huge disappointment as I love any film about Korea-Thai relations. Maybe I just couldn't get over the fact he cast a Korean as the Thai immigrant. Other honorable mentions for being terrible films include Perfect Number, Miss Conspirator and Prometheus (may as well chuck it in too).

Read on below for mini reviews of my top 10. Agree, Disagree, comment below.

Korean Film Log: December

Well the year is over and so here is my final film log for 2012. Well not quite, this will be the final monthly entry, but I will shortly post a full year round-up, which will also include some top tens and any interesting statistics. Look out for it shortly.

I will aim to continue this in 2013 and hopefully even have time to expand up it by writing mini reviews of the films rather than just posting ratings. Anyway for now check out the final 11 films I watched in 2012.

December

110. Friend (친구)


111. Family Ties (가족의 탄생)

Korean Film Log 2012: March

Another month, another entry on my Korean film log. Managed to pick it up a bit this month and April will surely pick up as programming time approaches. There were some solid entries as I took a look at a few indie dramas and interesting docos.

You can see my ratings in my Film Log section of the blog. I am going to make this a monthly entry as it's a great way to force myself to watch more! Films are numbered in the order that I watched them.

Entries
The 31 Korean films I watched in January (1-31)
The 3 Korean films I watched in February (32-34)

35. Breathless (똥파리)

2011 Year in Review: My Top 10

And now for my Top 10 Films of 2011, and even though this 3 part series has been a look at all the films I saw in the theatre in 2011, I have decided not to include classic films such as "The Terminator" and "Joint Security Area", both of which would have been in this list otherwise.

Overall the quality of films I saw dropped this year. In 2010 I gave 22% of the films I saw an 8 or higher out of 10, that was halved in 2011 with just 11% of films receiving similar ratings. A few close cuts include "Amador" and "Win Win", 2 films that I hated for parts (largely due to the State Theatre audience), but eventually came around to thoroughly enjoying.  

"The King's Speech" was the final film I cut, simply because the ending speech was a let down. Interesting tid-bit: I saw all 10 of the following films at film festivals! (4 @BIFF, 3 @MIFF, 2 @SFF and 1 @JFF)

10. "The Town's Children", Japan, Event George St @JFF - 27/11/11

By no means a masterpiece, just short and sweet. It is kind of pretentious in parts, but it worked for me overall and it was an enjoyable night out in Kobe with the 2 characters. A lot of the dialogue seemed to be filled with exposition, so lucky I don't speak Japanese!

2011 Year in Review: At the Cinema

So continuing on from 2010, where I analysed my cinema going habits, I am taking a look back at what I saw in the cinema once more. All of the references to 'films watched' below refer to 'films watched in the theatre only'. Nothing I saw on DVD, TV, Pay per view, Online etc were included. While anything seen in the theatre, outdoor cinema, at a film festival or special screening are included.

In 2010 I only managed to see half as many films compared to what I saw in 2009, and well in 2011 I've done the exact same thing. To see my reviews of the films check out the film log. While it may just look like numbers, for a Mathematician such as myself, it means so much more than just figures. Here are some of the related posts you may want to check out.

2010 Year in Review: Film Log
2010 Year in Review: At the Cinema
2010 Year in Review: Top 10 

2011 Year in Review: Film Log
2011 Year in Review: At the Cinema
2011 Year in Review: Top 10

My 2011 Cinema Going Analysis

"Blue Valentine", the 1st film I saw in 2011

2011 Year in Review: Film Log

Every feature film (that I can remember) that I watched in 2011 is listed below in the order that I watched them. It totals 125 films which is rather amazingly the exact same amount as I watched in 2010, which you can read here. The percentage of films I saw in the theatre is also the exact same as 2010, rather bizarre!

My Top 10 of 2011 will be up shortly, though below is a good guide to what I enjoyed. This list includes films seen in the theatre or at festivals which are Bolded, as well as those seen on screeners or any other method. Red highlights are for films of ratings of 8 or higher out of 10 and are my highlights of the year. Enjoy!

2010 Stats

Films watched - 125
Films seen in the theatre - 58 (46%)
Films of 8 or higher out of 10 - 27 ( 22%)

2011 Stats

Films watched - 125

Films seen in the theatre - 58 (46%)

Films of 8 or higher out of 10 - 14 (11%)

The History of Korean Cinema .... on screen

The fact of the matter is, outside of Korea, Korean cinema is still a very 'new' thing. Generally most people may have seen your Oldboy's and My Sassy Girl's but outside of that the earliest film that those in the West will have likely seen would probably be JSA (2000) or Shiri (1999). This puts Korean cinema in an interesting position of only being around 14 years old (15 using the Korean birthday system!). For a national cinema so young, it really has come along leaps and bounds, but the more interesting thing to me is what was it like before this point.

Does anyone know who the fuck this chick is and what she 

has to do with Shiri? I still can't figure it out!

We produced a video montage in the lead up to the film festival last year (KOFFIA), which covered a short history of Korean cinema. It proved to be very popular upon release, both with local and international audiences. It was rare to see coverage of films prior to this BH date (BH: Before Hallyuwood). It was beautifully edited by Kevin Park and with an equally delightful score by Samuel Choi, both who were just beginning to ply their trades. I thought I would reproduce it here on the blog as it really deserves to get as much exposure as possible. And yes, even it reflects the state of Korean cinema exposure, given only 6 films featured were released before the BH point, and 10 after it. But it gives a short glimpse into the history and progress the Korean industry has made, and maybe one day an extrapolated version would be produced by others fans around the world. Check it out below!

'The History of Korean Cinema', Thanks Kevin and Sam

Korean Film Downunder 2: Interest & Availability

Oh My God, I am blogging again! 

Well I am finally back on the blog after a single lazy entry 7 months ago which basically entailed watching youtube videos. But enough about that, before I get caught up doing something else I will try and get this blog finished. Funnily enough I have just noticed I have about 20 blogs just sitting in 'drafts' at the moment, which one day I may get around to publishing. Now this entry is not the original Part 2 of my look at Korean Film Downunder, but is what I felt like exploring next. Feel free to read the first part which looks at distribution and genre. This entry tries to link another 2 factors into the analysis, interest and accessibility. 

Following on from my look at distributions link to genre, I had believed the fact that the level of interest in Korean film in Australia was where it was at due to what was available to people. Generally films released and readily talked about fit into the crime thriller or horror genres, and this can of course only have limited appeal as its marginalising the audience. But as stated over at the KOFFIA blog Hungry for Drama, we have seen that comedies and dramas have been some of the favourite films at the festival. So why hasn't there been a crossover between those that love Korean dramas into watching Korean films?

Great image from the great Podcast, "What's Korean Cinema?"

Observing Kim Ki-duk Part 1: Auteur Origin

When I was instructed to choose a figure to analyse for a voice and vision task as part of my Screen Culture course at AFTRS, a few names immediately came to mind. The one that stuck was the enigmatic unique figure of Kim Ki-duk. An anomaly not only in Korean cinema but in world cinema, I applied the same approach of analysis and pattern recognition on his career as I have on many other directors. Tarantino once stated that the thing he enjoyed doing most was analysing the change in style and quality of a film director over their career, and I am no different. One day I may get around to posting those other analyses here, but for now my look at Kim Ki-duk will have to do. 

2010 Year in Review: My Top 10

The final piece in my 2010 Year in Review, which includes my Film Log of every film I saw, and my At the Cinema analysis for films watched .. at the cinema, is my Top 10 Films of 2010.

Even though the analysis post looked at all the films I saw in the theatre, I have decided not to include classic films such as "Small Soldiers", "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "The Blues Brothers", all of which would have been in this list otherwise. Enjoy!

10. "Shutter Island", USA, Event George St - 19/03/10

I am by no means a Scorsese fan, in fact I despised "The Departed", but apart from a slightly poor ending, I thoroughly enjoyed the mood he established here.

2010 Year in Review: At the Cinema

While it may just look like numbers, for a Mathematician such as myself, it means so much more than just figures. All of the references to 'films watched' below refer to 'films watched in the theatre only'. Nothing I saw on DVD, TV, Pay per view, Online etc were included. While anything seen in the theatre, outdoor cinema, at a film festival or special screening are included. 

I hope you find it interesting. 2010 was a crazily busy year for me so I only managed to see half as many films as I did in 2009, but probably saw many more outside of the theatre that are too numerous to even count!

My 2010 Cinema Going Analysis

"Fantastic Mr. Fox", the 1st film I saw in 2010