Korea Not Going “Brokeback”
The Hollywood movie Brokeback Mountain has been released in Korea and like the US is not bringing in huge audiences:
Ang Lee’s beautiful portrayal of love between two cowboys had brought 330,000 Koreans into the theaters as of last weekend, while some 210,000 saw Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biopic.
That suggests the influence of the Oscars on the Korean box office is not quite what it used to be. At least when compared to films that have ridden their Oscar success into Korean cinemas like “Million Dollar Baby” (2004, 1 million tickets sold), ”Chicago” (2002, 1.2 million) and “A Beautiful Mind” (2001, 1,16 million), this year’s winners are no great shakes.
Walk the Line is the best movie I think out of all the Oscar winners this year but I can understand why it is not a big box office seller in Korea because the movie is about the country music singer Johnny Cash which probably very few people in Korea have ever heard of.
This is was a bad year for Hollywood movies IMHO and they just continue to get worse and worse. That is why I think Korean movies will be able to stand up against Hollywood movies due to their improving quality and interesting story lines.
