Kim Yong-ok (김용옥)

Producers heed online responses to movie names

2006/12/06 | Source | Permalink |

Working titles frequently replaced if many Internet users reject them

What's in a name? For cars and designer clothes, it seems almost everything. But the correct name may be just as important for films as well. Sometimes producers end up spending years torn between what they want and what the public want ― although the latter usually wins for the chance of gaining a larger audience.
That's what happened to director and writer Byeon Seung-wook, who took five years to decide on the title of his new film, roughly translated as, "Stuff You Talk about When You Love". The movie ("Solace") opened in Korean cinemas last week.
Originally titled "Miyeol", meaning "Slight Fever", the story is about a petty bourgeois couple who go through the typical ups and downs of dating. They are an ordinary pair of the contemporary times, who are both rather skeptical and cynical about being in love.
According to the director, he wanted to focus on the wounded minds of young and modern souls. So ...| More

A DVD set as hefty as the flick itself

2006/06/13 | Source | Permalink |

The film "Th King and the Clown" has been reviewed so extensively by critics that even those reviews were reviewed. Months after the film's release, whatever one says about the film is likely to make readers irritated by the time they finish the headline.
That's the curse waiting for any writer destined to once again write about the film that will be released next week on DVD, because it's too big of a deal not to write anything.
After all, this is a film that attracted over 10 million viewers to theaters across the country, breaking the record for the highest grossing Korean film.
As everybody therefore already knows, the film is a social parody about a group of royal clowns who conveys the movie's theme, which is that "the world's nothing but stage".
Yet the film dips into other subject matters: The story is a romance; it involves martial arts, and it's possibly about being gay. It features a ruthless king (played by Jeong Jin-yeong) lusting after a male court jester, who is plot...| More

Lee Joon-ki to Visit Taiwan to Promote "The King and The Clown"

2006/05/03 | Source | Permalink |

Actor Lee Joon-ki, who played the lead role in the recent hit movie "The King and The Clown", will visit Taiwan to promote the film ahead of its release there on May 12.

CJ Entertainment, the distributor of the movie, said Tuesday that Lee will make a two-day trip to Taiwan during the weekend. He will give interviews with local media outlets and attend the preview of the movie on Sunday, where he will hold a session to express his gratitude to local fans.

Lee was invited to the country by Group Power, the Taiwanese distributor of the movie. Gam Woo-sung and Chung Jae-young, the other two protagonists of the movie, were also invited, but they reportedly could not accept the invitation for personal reasons.

CJ said that Group Power is a medium-sized film distributor that has distributed a number of Korean movies so far and has a good reputation for marketing films, so expectations are high that the movie will draw much attention there. "Since Lee is already quite popular in Taiw...| More

King & the Clown Tops Korean Film of All Time

2006/03/10 | Source | Permalink |

By Nigel DSa
Contributing Writer

As of March 5th, 2006 local box-office winner The King and the Clown broke all previous records and surged past the 11.74 million admissions mark held by Taegugki, to become the most successful Korean film of all time.

The gay-themed film is being called Korea's Brokeback Mountain, and has remained in the top three at the box office since its release on Dec. 29, 2005.

The King and the Clown is to get the royal treatment as the English international version of the film is underway and is being translated by one of Korea's foremost scholars and public philosophers, Kim Yong-Ok, whose pen-name is Do-ol (meaning 'stone').

Dr. Kim is professor emeritus at Sunchon National University and the author of numerous books on philosophy, religion and art. He has translated English philosophy into Korean and has also published a three-volume account of his interview with the Dalai Lama.

Dr. Kim saw The King and the Clown in January and was impressed e...| More

Korean Blockbuster "The King and the Clown" to Debut in US

2006/03/05 | Source | Permalink |

Lee Joon-ik's film "The The King and the Clown", loved by millions of Koreans including President Roh Moo-hyun, is about to break the all-time Korean record of 11.7 million viewers, set by Kang Je-gyu's film "Taegukgi – The Brotherhood in War" in 2004. 219 theatres are still playing "The King and the Clown", so the record will likely be broken sometime on Sunday, March 5th.

Many film critics predicted a run-away hit when the "The King and the Clown" since it reached the 10 millionth viewer on February 2nd. Unlike the other blockbusters that depend on massive marketing efforts to attract people and set box-office records, "The King and the Clown" maintained its No.1 box-office ticketing rate even after the 10 million viewer.

The surprise ruse and steady success of the film "The King and the Clown" is worthy of notice especially granted its low production cost of around $4.3 million. There were no big stars cast and the genre is that of a historical drama make the film's success mo...| More