SOUTH KOREAN FILM INDUSTRY HEADING RED GOES WEST
August 12th 2008 05:04
With an unusual summer blockbuster, a ‘Kimchi Western’ titled ‘The Good, The Bad and The Weird’ screening throughout South Korean cinemas, its is hoped this story about a bounty hunter, a bandit and a train robber could just be the catalyst they badly need. The story revolves around the three characters battling for possession of a valuable map of Northeastern China known as Manchuria during the Japanese occupation of the 1930’s.
Starring local film heavyweights Jung Woo-sung, Lee Byung-hun and Song Kang-ho, the film revives the western genre so popular in South Korea during the 60’s and 70’s using a imitation of the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns, not only in the mimicking of title the 1966 film ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’, but in the style with Kimchi a customary Korean food dish.
The film screened at Cannes in May receiving many positive reviews, with rights now sold overseas to the USA, Europe, Turkey, Iran, Singapore, Vietnam and Russia.
“It is my desire to broaden the scope of Korean cinema and add to its different colours,”director Kim Jee-woon told Associated Press reporters recently.
In 2006 overseas sales plummeted 70% with Japanese sales tumbling almost 83% to US$10M according to the Korean Film Council. One leading production company CJ Entertainment struggled to return a profit with only 5 of 36 films released in 2007 barely breaking even while the US film ‘Transformers’ was able to draw 2.3 million viewers.
Hollywood’s Variety Magazine stated that although the film lacked the breadth of the 1966 Sergio Leone epic, the films style was definitely ‘100% Korean’.
It is being seen as a critical release for the film industry as a whole – both because it’s such an expensive, risky project and because the there has been so little good news for the industry this year,” stated Darcy Paquet, founder of Koreanfilm.org.
The film has drawn 2.7 million viewers locally so far and it is hoped the final tally will be closer to the 8 -10 million mark.
Paquet holds the belief that.. “Then it may provide some reassurance to nervous investors that local audiences are still interested in Korean Films”.
To view the English website of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Weird’ head over to
The Good, The Bad, The Weird.
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SimonC
