Here is some good news for the South Korean film industry:
Bong Joon-ho’s sensation “Parasite” earned six nominations, including best picture, for the upcoming Academy Awards on Monday, becoming the first South Korean movie to compete at the world’s biggest film event.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its final list of nominations for the 2020 Oscars Awards, to be held on Feb. 9.
“Parasite” was up for best picture, best directing, best original screenplay, best international feature film, production design and film editing.
It is the first time that a South Korean-made film has made it to the final nominees list of the Academy Awards.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The Korean movie Parasite continues to win accolades:
Bong Joon-ho’s black comedy “Parasite” was named best foreign language film at the U.S. Golden Globe Awards on Monday (Korean time).
In a ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, “Parasite” won the honor, outclassing “The Farewell” by Lulu Wang, “Pain and Glory” by Pedro Almodovar, “Les Miserables” by Ladj Ly and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” by Celine Sciamma.
It is the first time that a Korean-made film has won a prize at the accolades given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
It was also nominated for best screenplay and best director at the Golden Globe Awards but failed to win either.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Warner Bros. tried to create a Korean blockbuster film and failed miserably:
When Warner Bros. Korea’s “V.I.P.” was criticized by the internet last year over its inappropriate depiction of its female characters, the film company thought things could not get any worse. But its latest release, “Illang: The Wolf Brigade,” proved that it had yet to hit rock bottom.
Featuring high profile actors, including Gang Dong-won, Han Hyo-joo and Jung Woo-sung, joined by the award-winning director Kim Jee-woon, “Illang” is an adaptation of the 1999 Japanese animated film “Jin-Roh,” which is known as a seminal sci-fi movie. With a star-studded cast and a massive production budget that exceeded its first locally-produced hit, “The Age of Shadows” (2016), which sold 7.5 million tickets, Warner Bros. Korea had high hopes for “Illang.”
However, “Illang” sold merely 897,000 tickets and was forced out of theaters in three weeks – a shockingly poor performance for a film that cost 19 billion won (＄17.04 million) to make. The film needed to sell six million tickets to break even. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
So why did this movie fail? I would start with the stupid plot:
The Korean adaptation relocates the story from post-World War II Japan to South Korea in 2029, a period after the two Koreas have declared a five-year preparation for unification. Fearing rapid growth in Korea following the planned unification, the world’s superpowers impose economic sanctions against the country. The economic difficulties lead to public outrage and result in the emergence of an armed terrorist group named Sect, which opposes the formation of a joint government between South and North Korea. In response, the government launches a special police unit to quell Sect. Feeling threatened by the growing influence of the special police unit, the national intelligence agency plots to bring the unit down.
Got all that? Is it any wonder the audience ratings for this movie were bad especially when it involves significantly changing the plot of a high respected classic Japanese anime.
