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 more unusual.
Because audiences are revisiting theaters to watch this movie for the second time or more, some politicians held their campaigns around the theaters.
The movie, "The The King and the Clown", deals with both standard and controversial issues in Korean society. Like the United States' pop-culture phenomenon of "Brokeback Mountain", this Korean movie with a gay angle movie has found a place in the mainstream.
The movie describes the love triangle between a tyrant King, his court jester and the jester's companion. It is a rare mainstream movie to treat the issue of homosexuality, set in 16th Century Korean Dynasty.
Due to this movie's creative content and story line, Korea's leading public philosopher Dr. Kim Yong-ok, best known by his pen-name "Do-ol", volunteered to assist in the English translation for the film.
Last January, astonished by the movie, Dr. Kim personally asked director Lee if he could undertake the English translation of the film, telling him how important it is to show the world the real Korea by the proper translation.
This will be the second time Dr. Kim translates the script for a Korean film; the first one was director Im Kwon-taek's "Chihwaseaon" ("Strokes of fire") which won the Best Director Award at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Dr. Kim also stressed the importance of introducing genuine Korean culture throughout the world by finding the appropriate English equivalents. He pointed out that people should understand the importance and power of the cinema as a mean of worldwide public relations.
In the international version of "The King and the Clown", Dr. Kim intends to make the title, "The Royal Jester". The title of "The Royal Jester", according to Dr. Kim, will convey the significant connotations of the movie better than its former title.
Currently, Dr. Kim has finished a first draft of the translation, and now he is working with few English native speakers for further perfection of the final translation. Since the movie is set in historical Korea, Director Lee and Dr. Kim are being very careful in selecting the words. They have even tried to employ some vocabulary from Shakespeare's works, and even some Greek archaic words, as well as some other modern expressions. Such efforts indicate director Lee and Dr. Kim passion for this project targeting the audiences of the world.
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