A Look Back: My 1st Interview

As a bit of a celebration of Tully's Recall hitting the milesonte of 10,000 views (thanks for following!), I decided to look back at my first ever radio interview. It was probably the first occassion that made me realise that my journey into the world of Korean cinema was actually happening, and was thus quite daunting!

 Pic from my interview in 2011, but you get the point :)

It was great to get it done though, and made me start to believe that I did actually know something about Korean film! Thanks to the lovely Jenna Yoon at SBS Radio for the file, which you can download here. (4 mins long)

It's interesting even for myself to listen to, hearing how I had no idea how to pronounce the Director's names back in the day, how things have changed (I hope!). Thanks everyone for reading (and listening) and I hope to keep content coming throughout the year. 

Kieran

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Korean Film Downunder 3: Longing for a Ko-production

This piece was included in the White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century. Its more of my musings about Korea and Australian relations through film, though my bias in this clearly comes through! Hope you find it interesting.

The time has come for Australia to look to the powerhouse of the Asia Pacific region in regards to the entertainment industry. No longer can our focus simply be locked on to the lustrous billions of potential opportunities that China seems to hold over us. The real leader in the region, the real leader in the industry, is South Korea. 

We were close ...

Unfortunately Australia still does not have co- production agreements with key nations in Asia with respect to the film industry, namely Japan, Thailand & South Korea. With such a great focus placed on China, these other giants seem to have been left behind. After all this is the “Asian Century” and not the “Chinese Century”, so there is no reason that our focus should lie with the sleeping giant. Now the fact that Screen Australia and the Australian entertainment industry have acknowledged the potential with co-productions and distribution in China is fine, but it cannot be our sole entrance into partnering with the region. (Singapore, our only other partner in Asia, could not be classified as a powerhouse, and to date only 1 feature has resulted from that co-production agreement). There is such great potential for content to be exported in both directions, and Korea is the leader in this case. 

but not close enough

Numerous Korean television shows, movies and TV commercials continue to shoot in the beautiful locations of Australia (for a list check out Brian Yecies and Shim Aegyung’s article Hallyuwood Down Under), but the product is entirely Korean. Our endless lands and wide open golf courses are things Koreans crave, in a country that is mountainous, and space is hard to find. I believe that it needs to become a priority for Screen Australia, the Korean Film Council, and any other parties that could assist the establishment of such a co-production (such as the Australia Korea Foundation) to make a co-production a priority. 

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)

Busan Film Festival 2011: The Reviews

In October 2011, just upon the completion of running a festival in 2 states and working for 75 days in a row for about 15 hours a day, I decided to take a rest. By watching endless films in Busan!!! So no, it wasn't really a rest but it was a great experience and was the first time I have attended the Busan International Film Festival, so I thought I would recap my experience here on the blog.

I am going to be doing 2 entries to cover my experience, 1 in terms of reviewing the films I saw, and 1 of the experience of the festival and country itself. (The 2nd entry will likely be posted post-blogathon). If you are involved with Asian cinema or festivals it is highly recommended to attend, what has become the biggest film festival in Asia, sometime in your lifetime. Read on to see my thoughts on the films, guests and festival happenings! (apologies for my piss poor blackberry photos!)

The BIFF history lines the beach front

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!

Korean Film Log 2012: February

While I managed to watch 31 Korean films in January, that dropped off greatly this month as Cinema on the Park started up again as well as soccer and many other things. I only managed to catch 3, two of which I presented at COTP. I promise to watch more in March, and put up some content for the Korean blogathon!

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!

Entries
The 31 Korean Films I Watched in January  (1-31)

32. Sopyonje (서편제)