"It has been said that a director makes over 15,000 decisions as regards a film, and a producer, some 10,000 decisions. Actors and cinematography, lighting, and other staff have their own share of responsibilities. As such, the making of a film involves hundreds of thousands of ideas and decisions by many people".
Jeong Jin-wan, Executive Director of Eagle Pictures, which produced
The King and the Clown, visited Doksan High School in Seoul on Nov. 10 as a cultural-contents ambassador, in an event sponsored by the Korea Culture and Content Agency (KOCCA, CEO: Suh, Byung-Moon) and Hankyoreh Newspaper.
Jeong met about 40 first-year students of Doksan High School who are interested in film, and explained to them in det...
MoreThe film "
The King and the Clown", which made history in Korean movies by drawing more than 12 million viewers, will be expanded into many forms of licensed entertainment and other products.
The movie's producer Eagle Pictures and distributor Cinema Service have decided to launch a licensing business and signed a trust contract with the licensing company YZOO.
YZOO is seeking contracts with a publisher to publish educational comic books and novels based on the movie and with a character business to use the film's characters for stationery, cosmet...
MoreBy Kim Ki-tae
Staff Reporter
When "The King and the Clown" was released last December, few expected it would be a big hit. Its production cost, around 4.4 billion won ($4.4 million), was around one third of the Korean film "Blue Swallow" and around one fiftieth of "The Chronicles of Narnia", both opening the same day.
Far from being a blockbuster, "The King and the Clown" did not feature any top stars. The film also belongs to the period piece genre, traditionally unpopular among young audiences, and touches on the sensitive issue of homosexuality. Unlike other record-breaking hit films including "Silmido" or "Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War", it does not address the issues of division on the peninsula, either. Considering all these handicaps, its filmmakers hoped it could bring in 3 million if they were "lucky".
The new record of the period piece is viewed as having demolished most of the entertainment industry formulas. With no big star, no big budget, no big promotion, no action scenes, no romance, with a seemingly boring traditional background and with homosexuality, it has rewritten the history of Korea's film industry.
What made one in four Koreans see the film? Here is a rough analysis of the 10 reasons behind its unexpected success.
Comeback of the Middle-aged
In 2004, two Korean films "Silmido" and "TaeGukGi" succeeded in capturing middle-aged audiences, a group not traditionally accustomed to theatergoing. These mega hits are regarded as having created the new culture. However, few Korean films have attracted significantly large audiences since then.
According to
Jeong Jin-wan, head of Eagle Pictures, "The King and the Clown" successfully meets the new demand and has drawn older audiences back to theaters. "Here came finally a film they find worth seeing", he said. Film promoters say 18 percent of the audience is over 40.
Right: Fans of the film voluntarily copy the images of their favorite characters in the film and spread them online. The images made by Internet users are posted on the film...
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By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
In "
The King and the Clown", the hit film set in the Choson Kingdom, a notorious tyrant king falls in love with an effeminate male court jester, causing deep anger and jealousy in his favorite concubine. This jester, who usually plays female roles in performances, in turn shares intimate feelings with another male clown.
The film deals with a homosexual theme, a taboo subject in Korean cinema. However, it is now expected to become one of the most commercially successful films in history.
The reason for its success may lie in its treatment of its homosexual content. The complicated relationship seems founded on an apparent love triangle between the three men, but the film avoids directly referring to it. Instead, the film is filled with ambiguous implications and does not contain intimate love scenes between male characters.
Some critics have pointed to Lee Jun-gi, the actor who plays the effeminate court jester, as a large reason for the film's acceptance, ...
MoreBy Bae Keun-min, Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporters
Theater stages have been seeking revitalization with various schemes, including celebrity marketing. Many film and television stars, including
Yoo Ji-tae,
Moon Seong-geun,
Seol Kyeong-gu and
Yoo Oh-seong, showed up on the stage this year and gave their fans a chance to see them up close and personal.
Having a film star in a play is considered a win-win strategy for both the actor and the play as stars have a chance to show off their ability and to be considered as serious actors.
However, celebrated actors are not alone to crossing back and forth between the two genres. Beloved stage directors such as
Jang Jin and Lee Youn-taek made films and received rave reviews from both critics and audiences.
Moreover, the two genres share not only human resources, but also content and marketing, through which they hope to create synergy and jointly grow.
Plays Give Birth to Hit Films
The upcoming film "
The King and the Clown" was made based on "Yi", an acclaimed play, which was first staged here in 2000. The movie's producer says that the original play's narrative was so attractive that he decided to make it into a movie.
"As the original story was so powerful and well written", said
Jeong Jin-wan, producer of "
The King and the Clown", "we could take a huge advantage of it when we were writing the scenario for the film".
The play deals with the true story of Yonsan, a tyrannical king of the Choson Kingdom, and his favorite court jester Kong-gil with the addition of fictional accounts and characters.
But they modified some parts of the original story to make it suitable for film, and also focusing on the identity issues involved in the relationship between the king and his jester who he envies, Jeong said.
When the film vers...
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