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Whispering Corridors #5: the new one Print E-mail
Diary
Written by Samuel Jamier   
Tuesday, 02 June 2009
whisp.jpg
Looks like one of them is not gonna make it.
 
Scheduled for release in South Korea on June 18, the fifth instalment of the (mostly) excellent horror film series, Whispering Corridors, 동반자살, Suicide Pact or Blood Pledge is getting some buzz here and there., at a rather awkward juncture, if I may add, considering the piling number of suicides in the good Republic of Korea. To go back to film stuff, it's odd but, but... that title vaguely reminds me of Sion Sono's horror film called... Suicide Club

Here's the official synopsis at any rate:

“Strange rumors start to spread at the Catholic girls’ high school after Unjoo committed suicide one night. Unjoo’s younger sister Jung-un who attends the same school gets suspicious about Unjoo’s death. After persistent investigation, Jung-un finds out that on the night of the incident, Soy [me: ? Soy?] Eugene, Eun-young, Unjoo, the four of them had tried to commit a joint suicide after making a vow on blood. But the three are still alive, and only Unjoo had died. the desire, jealousy, and lies behind the pledge of death between the four girls are revealed, along with the hidden truth behind Unjoo’s suicide.”

(Something tells me we missed konglish by a hair's breadth.)

Unlike your typical, interminable American horror flick franchise (Saw being a rather spectacular instance of this utterly cynical and exploitative phenomenon, but hey, cinema is about making money too, I suppose), Whispering Corridors doesn't involve a continuing plot (or gimmick, one might say) or overlapping character - and therefore doesn't feature recurring cast members. Instead, the series takes its name after its context, in this case the “Girls' High School” (which is the literal translation of (Yeogo goedam, 여고괴담) in which all the  bloody fun is taking place.

The four films released so far have all been above average and enjoyable to varying degress, depending on what you're expecting to get from them. The first three, Whispering Corridors, Memento Mori and Wishing Stairs were released by Tartan as The Ghost School Trilogy in a 4-disc boxset back in late 2007.  The fourth film, Voice, was released in the middle of last year by Genius Entertainment, with a rather misleading cover by the way (my guess is that they were trying to sell it as a gorefest, which it isn't).

voice041808.jpg

Part 1, as is customary for the inaugural film of a franchise, was a strong, well-written horror film that found a twisted way of inserting some scathing criticism of the Korean educational system. It pretty much set the tone and a template for the rest of the series, in the sense that they were all, one way or another, about something more than just creepy girls with long black hair. Part 2 (Memento Mori) got praised to the high heavens, a little excessively, I think. I didn't really buy the lesbian subtext/storyline, but visually, it's certainly the most interesting. I missed Part 3 (Wishing Stairs), so no comments. As for Part 4 (Ghost Voice), I liked it... as far as I can remember: it's been slowly fading from my fallible memory.

Other than that The Whispering Corridors series has been a major launching platform for new actresses. Part 1 featured the debuts of Park Jin-hee and Choi Kang-hie in supporting roles, Part 2 the debut of Kong Hyo-jin Kong, Kim Min-sun, and Park Yeh-jin. Part 3, the debut of Song Ji-hyo and Park Han-byeol. Lastly, Part 4 featured the debuts of Ye-ryeon Cha & Kim Ok-bin. Let's hope the best (and assume the worst?) for the new "batch".
 
"880,000 Won Generation" Cinema: the industry is having a bad hangover Print E-mail
Diary
Written by Samuel Jamier   
Monday, 01 June 2009
daytime_drinking.jpg
Noh Young-seok's Daytime Drinking: one for the road.


Earlier this year, the Sisa Journal, a major weekly news magazine in Korea, published an article entitled “Cinema has a hangover”. Here are a few comments about this article and its author, U Sok-hun (우석훈), an economist who wrote the bestseller 880,000 Won Generation.

The “880,000 Won Generation” is a popular coinage that refers to low-paid non-regular workers who earn about $650 (net pay) a month, a new lost generation in South Korea as it were. What it means for a lot of young people is the complete failure of an educational system in which graduating from a good university was as good as getting a blank check for a well-paid career in one of the big local corporations.

For U Sok-sun, it is clear that this general job insecurity is also affecting the film industry:  South Korean movies saw their worst sales figures in eight years in 2008, which fell by more than 20 percent from the previous year. Only eight films topped the 2 million mark in ticket sales last year compared to 16 in 2006 and 10 in 2007.

His article is quite the buckshot attack against the Korean financiers and filmmakers who he pretty much accuses of incompetence: according to him, they were unable to endow the industry with adequate structures, conducive to the formation of new talents and funding of new productions. Instead, the professionals of Korean cinema have maintained the “mirage of the so-called Korean Wave, and have been demanding more and more flexibility, or indulgence, from their collaborators and business partners.

Nothing really earth-shattering there, but the debate took a new dimension in March with the unexpected success of an ultra low-budget indie film, Daytime Drinking, which costs the trifling sum of 10 million wons ($8,000) was shot in 13 days but raked in about 170 millions wons ($135,000 ). This shows that it is actually possible to make quality films without inordinate (Hollywood-style) amounts of money at hand (which Chungmuro doesn’t have anyway) and still draw a large audience.

In the light of the recent commercial performances of the documentary Old Partner and Daytime Drinking, one is tempted to think that South Korean audiences have changed and are ready for something else (better). An artistically ambitious cinema with more modest financial means, perhaps that is the future of Korean cinema?

 
Korean cinema in Cannes Print E-mail
Diary
Written by Samuel Jamier   
Thursday, 28 May 2009

Another blog freeze: I was taking a much need break in Morocco, away from all things Korean, so to speak.

Meanwhile... no less than 9 films were shown at the 62th Cannes Film Festival, and some of the major figures of the industry were present, not to mention the fact that director Lee Chang-dong was a member of the jury this year. Impressive, considering the seemingless endless crisis that Korean cinema has been facing. 

Faithful to their annual custom, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has published a preamble to their Korean Cinema 2009: Korean Film Guide 2009 - Cannes Special Edition, a sort of guidebook that lists the theatrical releases of the first half of the year as well as upcoming films.

korean_films_in_cannes.jpg

 

Here are the 9 films presented in Cannes this year:

Read more...
 
Yim Soon-rye at The Korea Society Print E-mail
Featured Events
Written by Samuel Jamier   
Thursday, 23 April 2009

Yunah Hong and Yim Soon-rye

From woman filmmaker to woman filmmaker: Yunah Hong and Yim soon-rye

Director Yim Soon-rye was here at The Korea Society last night for a screening of her documentary Keeping the Vision Alive (on the role that she and her fellow women directors play in the industry) and her short film The "Weight" of Her (a satire of the expectations Korean society places on women). She discussed the role of women filmmakers in Korea today in a no-nonsense conversation moderated by Yunah Hong. An interesting discussion overall, except that I was hoping for more comments on her first two feature films, Three Friends and the brilliant Waikiki Brothers... Regardless, some very insightful remarks on the women, filmmaking, and the Korean film industry in general.

 

Samuel Jamier & Yim Soon-rye
 
With Yim Soon-rye. I didn't have much of a chance to speak with her... too bad.
 
On my watchlist: "Marine Boy" Print E-mail
Diary
Written by Samuel Jamier   
Thursday, 23 April 2009

Marine Boy poster

 It's easy to tell what the marketing tean had in mind on this one.

Despite its less than original title, Yoon Jong-seok's Marine Boy has caught my (usually very divided) attention recently. Described as a "steamy" crime thriller involving drug-smuggling across the sea (as in: between Japan and Korea), this big-budget CJ production performed honorably at the South Korean box office earlier this year. Park Si-yeon's charms might have had something to do with it. And maybe Kim Kang-woo's six-pack and sweaty back did.

Park Si-yeon

The cast

Park Si-yeon, again

 

 
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