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May 12, 2016

'The Wailing' tops box office on day one

By Kim Da-hee The Korea Times

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Poster for "The Wailing" / Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Korea

Director Na Hong-jin's new film "The Wailing" – also known as "Goksung" in Korean - topped the box office on its opening day Wednesday.

The thriller was shown on 891 screens nationwide and garnered over 170,000 moviegoers that day. It beat American superhero film "Captain America: Civil War," which was shown in 1,444 theaters and attracted 80,583 viewers the same day, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Bookings for "Goksung" reached 52 percent as of Thursday morning.

The film features star actors Hwang Jung-min and Kwak Do-won and is Na's first since the 2010 crime thriller "The Yellow Sea."

The story starts with a series of mysterious deaths in the rural village of Gokseong, South Jeolla Province. It follows policeman Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) as he investigates the case.

Viewers said the film grabbed their attention for the whole 156 minutes as the suspense and intensity gradually built up.

The movie will screen in the Out of Competition category at the Cannes Film Festival on May 11-22.

daheestardust71@gmail.com

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Yonhap News Agency

May 12, 2016

'The Wailing' has big box-office debut

SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- "The Wailing," a new Korean crime thriller, had a strong debut in its home country, dethroning the former box office champion American blockbuster "Captain America: Civil War," data showed Thursday.

The latest film by director Na Hong-jin known for "The Yellow Sea" (2010) and "The Chaser" (2008) collected 170,391 viewers over seven hours from 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to the computerized ticket sales tally from the Korean Film Council.

This marks the highest first-day record for all films released on the eve of its official opening day in South Korea.

"The Wailing" outperformed the 2012 Korean action film "The Berlin File," which previously held the title as the most-viewed film on the eve of its official release day with 137,036. Comparable figures for other Korean box office hits are 130,252 for "The Host" (2006) and "The Attorney" (2013).

After staying on top of the daily box office chart for two weeks since it opened on April 27, the Hollywood superhero sequel was knocked down to No. 2, drawing only 80,583 viewers on the same day.

"The Wailing" features a rural village plagued with mysterious murders after the arrival of a stranger. Actors Kwak Do-won and Hwang Jung-min play a police officer and a shaman, respectively, while actress Chun Woo-hee appears as a villager who allegedly witnesses the killings.

The movie also known as "Goksung" has received favorable reviews from critics for the adroit direction by its filmmaker which holds the attention of the viewers all throughout its 156-minute running time and for intense visual elements.

It was invited to the Out of Competition category of the 69th Cannes Film Festival that opened on Wednesday for a 12-day run. According to its local distributor, 21st Century Fox Korea, the film was pre-sold to some 10 countries, including the United States, France and China, as soon as the film festival opened.

sshim@yna.co.kr

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May 13, 2016

Review: Na’s latest mysterious to the end
Cannes-invited thriller ‘The Wailing’ zooms in on killings and gore

Source: INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily

Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin is a skilled director without a doubt. It is always a matter of who agrees with his way of storytelling and who doesn’t. 

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From top: Hwang Jung-min plays a shaman who is brought to the village to remove a spirit possessing an innocent girl; Japanese actor Jun Kunimura plays a suspicious man in the village; Kwak Do-won plays a police officer who tenaciously pursues the case after his daughter falls victim to the mysterious illness. [20TH FOX CENTURY KOREA]

During his career, the 42-year-old has already attended the prestigious Cannes Film Festival twice with his first two features - “The Chaser” (2008) and “The Yellow Sea” (2010) - and will be visiting the French festival for a third time next week with his latest release, “The Wailing,” which was invited to the out-of-competition section.

“The Wailing,” also known as “Gokseong,” which is Na’s comeback to the local film scene after six years, is likely to receive mixed responses. 

First of all, it again includes an excessive amount of blood-splattering scenes as well as a high level of tension that mentally torments the audience.

But veering away from the approach he took in “The Chaser,” which was chasing after the assailant, this time Na focuses on portraying the destruction and sacrifices of the innocent victims. 

For that reason, the sense of nervousness and revulsion have doubled, because while the perpetrator remains veiled until the end, the audience is continuously exposed to mysterious, brutal crime scenes. 

But for the same reason, it is hard to get a clear grasp of the plot. 

Na doesn’t explain why the ruthless killings began in the first place in the isolated village. How the characters cooperate and become enemies with each other remains ambiguous as well. 

The film takes place in a mountainous village called Gokseong. In the village lives a wimpy police officer named Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) who is living with his wife, mother-in-law and a young daughter he loves very much. 

The eerie and spooky ambience of the film is very well delivered through how Na worked with the camera, shooting the landscape of the village mostly from an aerial view. The pouring rain rarely stops throughout, intensifying the unpleasant, gloomy mood.

Then the village is swept by a series of mysterious murder cases, which some say are because of poisonous mushrooms. But the symptoms shown by the killers, who always remain at the crime scene, are far more serious than what a mere vegetable could cause. Their faces and bodies are covered with disgusting rashes and they are unable to speak clearly, almost resembling zombies. 

As a result, rumors start to emerge that a Japanese fisherman who lives deep inside the forest is cursing the villagers. Some witnesses say that they have seen the man wearing nothing but a fabric diaper and eating a dead deer in the mountains. “Devil” is what they like to call him.

The case doesn’t proceed until a strange woman (Chun Woo-hee) tells Jong-gu that she has seen it all and it is the Japanese man who is behind the serial murders. 

Jong-gu doesn’t listen carefully, until his own daughter starts to show similar symptoms to the killers, becoming overly aggressive and with rashes emerging on her skin. He invites a renowned shaman (Hwang Jung-min) from the neighboring village to expel whatever is taking over his little girl. 

This point - 60 minutes into the film - is when things start to speed up and the gradual build-up of tension explodes. Hwang appears for the first time here. The shaman performs an exorcism ritual. The dynamic ritual scene happens in parallel with the Japanese man suffering in pain and finally collapsing. 

But this is merely the beginning, as Jong-gu’s daughter starts to get worse.

Director Na plays a very complex tug-of-war with the audience, hindering them from coming to a conclusion about who the ultimate evil is. 

It may take awhile, even more than a week, to put together the clues that Na has discreetly dropped here and there throughout the film. The pieces may even never come together. 

But as Na has said during a press junket, he was not trying to talk about the murders themselves and how they were carried out, but rather was trying to tell the story of the victims.

He started the film under the premise that murderers don’t choose their victims based on specific motivations. Like the shaman (Hwang) says in the film, murderers are “just throwing out the bait, without knowing who will come up.”

“Unlike my previous movies, I wanted to tell the stories of the victims,” Na said. “I personally think such misfortune doesn’t derive from certain reasons, but just comes to the victims for irrelevant causes, which is why I needed to go beyond the means of the human world to explain that thinking.”

“No logic could explain it,” he added.

The fear and nervousness of Jong-gu as well as other innocent villagers is directly felt by the audience, keeping them on the edge of their seats for the entire 156-minute running time. 

But aside from that fear and exhausting amount of tension, did the film left anything meaningful behind?

The movie seemed flawless right after the screening finished last week. But as the reporter dwelled on it, trying to put together the pieces, inexplicable plot holes began to emerge here and there. The baffled feeling may have been intended by Na or it may be just cinematic flaws.

Na has once again collaborated with the Fox International Production (FIP), the global arm of 21st Century Fox which had partially invested in his previous work “The Yellow Sea.” This time, the Hollywood studio fully financed the movie.

“[Na had a] unique vision and unique way of presenting the movie,” Tomas Jegeus, the president of FIP, said at a Seoul press event May 3. 

“We are increasing productions in every market realm,” he said. “In Korea, from next year onwards, we are developing much bigger slates. We hope to grow from probably two films a year to maybe even up to three to four films a year.”

The film opened nationwide Wednesday, with the highest presale rate of all currently screening films.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]

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May 13, 2015

'The Wailing': Cannes Review

By Jason Bechervaise | ScreenDaily

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Dir/scr: Na Hong-jin. South Korea / U.S. 2016. 156mins

Renowned for his relentless storytelling, Na Hong-jin takes The Wailing to a new level, confirming his place as one of Korea’s leading contemporary filmmakers. Its sheer intensity and ambiguous narrative might put off some viewers, but this latest film - set in a village where people start to mysteriously die when a Japanese stranger appears - could well be regarded as one of the best films to emerge from Korea in recent years.   

Na’s The Chaser and The Yellow Sea are riveting thrillers, but what the director accomplishes here is quite different
The film premiered in Korea on May 11, a day earlier than planned owing to favourable critical reaction following the press screening in Seoul. Its fiercely dark tone could potentially limit a wide box office appeal, but positive word-of-mouth will give the film legs, while publicity regarding its Cannes international premiere and the star power of Hwang Jung-min (Veteran) should help internationally. (The Wailing is set for a North American release on May 27 through Well Go USA.) Produced by Fox International Productions as opposed to a major local studio, The Wailing could provoke discussion about the studio system in Korea, which has changed considerably since the peak of contemporary Korean cinema in the early 2000s.

The film is set in a rural village in the area of Goksung (the film’s local title), which also means ‘wailing’ in Korean. It starts out with a string of unusual deaths, all preceeded by red boils and aggressive behaviour. Local officers including Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) are perplexed by the outbreak, initially suspecting that mushrooms might be the cause. But as more people succumb to the mysterious disease, suspicions about the cause of the virus fixate on a Japanese stranger (Kunimura Jun) who never seems far away from events.

Once Jong-gu’s daughter begins showing symptoms by lashing out at her father, his hunt becomes more urgent and he sets out to find this strange Japanese man. As her condition worsens, the family also seeks the help of a shaman, played by Hwang Jung-min.

To say any more would spoil the show, but suffice to say that Na’s screenplay takes viewers to the root of evil in a manner that subverts expectations and cleverly manipulates cause and effect at almost every turn.

Na’s The Chaser and The Yellow Sea are riveting thrillers, but what the director accomplishes here is quite different. The Wailing is initially set up as a thriller and the supernatural setting also helps deliver moments akin to a horror feature, particularly when a strange woman (Chun Woo-hee) first appears. But the film’s gradual progression into something more sinister puts a different spin on Na’s masterful use of pacing.

As he takes the audience in one direction, only then to swerve in another, he still manages to include a scene more associated with a zombie feature as violent behaviour takes hold of the town – a lighter touch to an otherwise bleak film, especially in the second half. In another scene involving a shamanistic ritual, the intensity reaches extraordinary levels, yet Na never makes it jarring.

The film’s lack of resolution and perplexing characters, especially the young woman who is never really explained despite a lengthy 156-minute running time, may frustrate some viewers, but Na seems to be deliberately defying expectations - no doubt sparking much post-viewing debate.

Production values are exemplary and it’s quickly evident why it took close to six months to shoot and spent over a year in post-production. Hong Kyung-pyo’s (Snowpiercer) cinematography is outstanding, expertly capturing the gloomy atmosphere of the town and the vast rural landscape that encircles. Jang Young-gyu and Dalpalan’s score adds to the film’s powerful atmospherics.

Again playing with audience’s expectations, Na turns the casting on its head, putting a leading star as a supporting role and vice versa. Hwang Jung-min is at the peak of his commercial career following a string of hits (A Violent Prosecutor, Veteran, Ode to My Father), but he isn’t the star of this show, despite playing a crucial role. It’s the excellent Kwak Do-won (The Attorney), normally a supporting actor, who takes the lead as the policeman, providing able ballast for the story to take hold around.

Kunimura Jun (Kill Bill: Volume 1) is likewise excellent as the Japanese stranger, despite not having much dialogue. Chun Woo-hee doesn’t have much screen time, but hers is another pivotal part.

This film was reviewed from a press screening in Seoul on May 3.

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May 15, 2016

‘The Wailing’ set to cross 2 million viewers

Homegrown thriller movie “The Wailing” gas surpassed the 1 million-viewer mark in the Korean box office just three days after its release and is set to draw more than 2 million filmgoers by Sunday.

The shamanism-themed movie drew 759,830 viewers on Saturday, racking in some 6.4 billion won ($5.46 million) on the same day. The total number of viewers in Korea reached 1.65 million. 

The film starring actors Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, and Jun Kunimura and actress Chun Woo-hee, centers on a serial murder case followed by a skin disease at a remote hamlet. Haunted, the hamlet’s residents -- including a policeman (Kwak Do-won) -- spread rumors that a newcomer (Jun Kunimura) is behind these mysterious occurrences. 

The policeman’s daughter contracts the same illness, leading him and his family to bring in a shaman (Hwang Jung-min) to ward off evil in the town. Hostility toward the foreigner grows. 

“The Wailing” is set to screen at the Cannes Film Festival in the Out of Competition section on Wednesday. It will be released in North America on May 27.

By Son Ji-hyoung (json@heraldcorp.com)

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May 16, 2016

'The Wailing' tops weekend box office

By Chung Joo-won

SEOUL, May 16 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean film "The Wailing" snagged the No. 1 spot in this weekend's box-office chart, seen by more than 2.3 million viewers here, data showed Monday.

Over the May 13-15 weekend, the mystery thriller starring Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min and Chun Woo-hee attracted 1.83 million in attendance, which was 64.1 percent of the box-office sales at local theaters, according to the computerized figures from the Korean Film Council.

The 156-minute film has sold 2.3 million tickets overall since its release on May 12 on 1,481 screens here.

The film features a rural village plagued with mysterious deaths after the arrival of a stranger. Villagers are terrified of the alleged existence of a supernatural being and are too scared to find out exactly what's behind the tragic incidents.

Since its launch, "The Wailing" has raked in US$16,232,919 accumulatively from ticket sales.

The official poster of the new Korean thriller "The Wailing" (Yonhap) The official poster of the new Korean thriller "The Wailing" (Yonhap)

The Hollywood superhero film "Captain America: Civil War" came in second with 527,647 admissions locally, taking up 19.2 percent of the weekend ticket sales.

The comic book-inspired fantasy sequel starring Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. has attracted 8.24 million in total attendance since its launch on April 27.

In the third installment of the Captain America series, the Avengers are divided over the Superhero Registration Act. A team of heroes led by Iron Man and another by Captain America fight each other.

The next five on the chart came from multiple genres and countries, including "Phantom Detective" (226,183), "The Divergent Series: Allegiant" (59,703) and "Hello Jadoo" (43,200).

jwc@yna.co.kr

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May 17, 2016

Mystery thriller ‘The Wailing’ screams into first

Source: INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily

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Na Hong-jin’s thriller “The Wailing” topped box-office rankings during its opening weekend, dominating 64 percent of ticket sales. [20TH CENTURY FOX KOREA]

Na Hong-jin’s “The Wailing,” also known as “Gokseong,” toppled “Captain America” during its debut weekend, soaring to first place with 1.8 million tickets sold across nearly 1,500 screens nationwide. 

The much-anticipated comeback from Na earned 19.1 billion won ($16.2 million) over the weekend, accounting for 64 percent of ticket sales. 

“The Wailing,” which marks acclaimed director Na’s return to the film scene after six years, is a spine-chilling thriller about a series of mysterious murders taking place in a mountainous village called Gokseong. 

Actor Kwak Do-won plays a village police officer who tenaciously tracks down the mysterious evil force orchestrating the serial killings after his beloved daughter falls victim to it, showing severe rashes and aggressive behavior. Hwang Jung-min plays a shaman who is called to Gokseong to expel the villainous force. 

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” sold 527,643 tickets during its third weekend, bringing its three-week total to 8.2 million tickets. It has grossed 69.1 billion won in Korean theaters so far. 

Jo Sung-hee’s “Phantom Detective” stepped down a notch to third, attracting 226,183 moviegoers in its second weekend.

The quasi-fantasy, quasi-thriller stars Lee Je-hoon as a reinterpreted version of Hong Gil-dong, a heroic figure from Korean folklore. 

“The Divergent Series: Allegiant,” the third installment in the young-adult sci-fi series, debuted in fourth place with 59,703 admissions.

“My New Sassy Girl,” a sequel to the 2001 smash hit romantic comedy “My Sassy Girl,” wasn’t able to spark much interest. It attracted 38,589 moviegoers, opening in sixth place. 

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]

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May 17, 2016

Korean Thriller Invited to Cannes Heats Up Interest

Source: The Chosun Ilbo

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The film "The Wailing," directed by Na Hong-jin has attracted more than 2.3 million viewers in just five days since its release, according to the Korean Film Council. 

At this pace it could be the first film of the year to attract over 10 million spectators. 

The thriller was produced and distributed by major Hollywood studio Fox International Productions and was invited to this year's Cannes Film Festival which is currently under way. 

The film revolves around a village that experiences a string of mysterious murders after a stranger arrives there.

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May 20, 2016

[North America] "The Wailing" at CGV Begins May 20, 2016, Nationwide & Throughout Los Angeles June 3, 2016

Source: WellGoUSA via Hancinema.net

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Starring Hwang Jung-min, Cheon Woo-hee, Kwak Do-won and Jun Kunimura
 
In this unbelievably tense supernatural thriller, a foreigner's mysterious appearance in a quiet, rural village causes suspicion among the locals -- suspicion which quickly turns to hysteria as the townspeople begin killing each other in brutal outbursts for seemingly no reason. As the investigating officer watches his daughter fall under the same savage spell, he agrees to consult a shaman for answers - unknowingly escalating the situation into something far more dangerous.

Over six years in the making, director Na Hong-jin's meticulously crafted follow-up to the globally acclaimed "The Yellow Sea" and "The Chaser" (his third to premiere at the Festival de Cannes) smashed box office records upon its debut in South Korea, where fans are already making return viewings to catch new clues and debate what's sure to be the most talked-about ending of 2016

More information : wellgousa.com/theatrical/the-wailing

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May 13, 2016

Cannes 2016 Review:

THE WAILING, A Bone-Chilling, Thunderous Descent Into Hell

TwitchFilm Related excerpt only

As a mystery, The Wailing is deeply unsettling and resists obvious solutions or twists as it allows evil to swallow the narrative whole. As much as it is a result of the intricate mise-en-scene and hypnotic performances, the film's effect is also a result of its unusually long editing process. Na spent over a year fine-tuning the film, and it shows. From the minute attention to color grading that results in the most beautiful and terrifying images of the Korean countryside ever put to film, to breathtaking parallel-edited sequences that should probably come with a warning to anyone with a heart condition, editing is a tool of paramount importance to Na, and in his hands, it is a fearsome beast.

In the lead role, Kwak Do-won (The Attorney) takes the hapless local cop we've seen so many times in Korean films and turns him into a helpless man whose life crumbles around him in the face of pure madness. The humor and pathos we expect is there but he also adds a darker tint to the role, drawing us in with his portrayal of utter desperation. Though he gets second billing, Hwang Jung-min only appears very late in the narrative as the shaman, yet the pure physicality of his performance leaves a deep impression. Introduced with a cacophonous musical interlude, he is commanding in his hypnotic ritual scenes. Chun Woo-hee (Han Gong-ju) and Japanese star Kunimura Jun (Outrage) also provide great support as mysterious fringe figures.

출처 : '곡성' 포스터

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May 24, 2016

Chilling ‘The Wailing’ rules as temperatures rise

Source: INSIDE Korea JoongAng Daily

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Na Hong-jin’s spine-chilling thriller “The Wailing” again topped the local box office, while mobile game-based animation “The Angry Birds Movie” debuted in second. 

“The Wailing” saw 1.3 million admissions during the weekend, accounting for 58 percent of the box office sales. Its two-week total stands at 4.5 million tickets sold, which roughly translates to 37.2 billion won ($31.5 million). 

Sony Pictures’ 3-D animation “The Angry Birds Movie” landed in second place in its debut weekend, attracting 248,152 moviegoers and becoming the top opener among films released in the same week. 

Better known as the simple, repetitive but highly addictive mobile game made by Rovio, the film version of “Angry Birds” focuses on providing the backstory for why these birds became angry in the first place, following three iconic birds named, Red, Chuck and Bomb.

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It made approximately 2 billion won here.

In the meantime, Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” stepped down to third place, adding another 182,661 tickets sold to bring its four-week total to 8.6 million admissions. It has made 71.7 billion won in Korean theaters so far. 

“Canola,” a tear-jerking family drama starring Youn Yuh-jung and Kim Go-eun as a reunited grandmother and granddaughter, opened in fourth place with 168,775 admissions.

Directed by Chang of “The Target” (2004), the film delves into a heart-wrenching story where the younger one realizes too late that familial love, which can feel bothersome at times, is in fact the greatest source of strength and support in one’s life. The movie made 1.7 billion won in its opening weekend. 

John Carney’s musical drama “Sing Street,” which is filled with the retro vibe of Dublin in the 1980s, enjoyed 136,696 admissions. 

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]

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May 23, 2016

‘The Wailing’ Brought to Cannes

Source: KOFICE

‘The Wailing,’ Na Hong Jin’s thriller, which has been continuing its sweeping upturn by attracting almost 2.6 million audience since its release on the 11th, is finally brought to Cannes. Expectations for the movie were already high even before the movie was officially showcased in the said prestigious film festival. On the 17th, the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, the production company for ‘The Wailing,’ said that FINECUT, the movie’s overseas distributor, is receiving numerous inquiries about the movie from buyers and movie officials from all around the world. It is said that Director Na Hong-jin received enthusiastic responses for his third movie following ‘The Chaser’ and ‘The Yellow Sea,’ and that many people wondered if the movie’s official premiere is already scheduled.

On the 12th at 06:00 p.m., a special preview was scheduled to be held at Lerins 1, with only buyers invited. The seats had been sold out in the blink of an eye, proving tremendous interests and expectations for the movie. Afterward, the movie was sold to approximately 10 countries, including the United States, France, China, and more, as soon as the Cannes market was opened.

‘The Wailing’ was expected to elevate the status of Korean films at the 69th Cannes International Film Festival, along with ‘Bound for Busan’ and ‘The Handmaiden.’ As official schedules for ‘Bound for Busan’ and ‘The Handmaiden’ were successfully finished in the heated attention of the Korean audience, people are paying attention to the kind of response ‘The Wailing’ would be receiving. Among ‘The Wailing’ team members, Director Na Hong-jin will leave for Cannes first on the 16th, and Kwak Do-won, Cheon Woo-hee, and Jang So-yeon will join the trip on the 17th to complete the official schedules for the movie.

The bait has been thrown. Will the bait thrown by Director Na to Cannes capture the hearts of the Korean audience?
‘The Wailing’ has finished its preparations to put on finishing touches on Korean movies, which already made a strong presence in Cannes with ‘Bound for Busan’ and ‘The Handmaiden.’
 

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May 26, 2016

‘The Wailing’ expected to surpass 5 million viewers

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(20th Century Fox Korea)

Korean thriller “The Wailing” is expected to cross the 5-million-viewer mark Thursday.

The shamanism-themed thriller drew 136,306 filmgoers Wednesday to earn 4,954,258 viewers since its release on May 12, according to Korea Film Council data.

However, the rise of “X-Men: Apocalypse” has caused “The Wailing” to drop a notch from the top spot in the local box office. The American action movie drew 298,179 admissions Wednesday, more than double the homegrown movie. 

In “The Wailing,” a series of mysterious serial murder cases take place in a rural village after the arrival of a stranger. 

By Son Ji-hyoung (json@heraldcorp.com)

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Yonhap News Agency

May 27, 2016

'The Wailing' surpasses 5 million in attendance

SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- A Korean supernatural thriller about a rural village plagued with mysterious murders has topped 5 million in attendance in local theaters, data showed Friday.

Released on May 12, "The Wailing" was seen by a total of 5,047,732 viewers through Thursday, according to the computerized box-office tally from the Korean Film Council.

It took 16 days, including those who saw the film on the eve of the official release day, for the latest Na Hong-jin movie to reach the milestone, the fastest pace ever of all films that opened in May in South Korea.

The pace is faster than 17 days and 18 days for two of the nation's films seen by more than 10 million viewers -- "Miracle in Cell No. 7" and "Gwanghae: the Man Who Became the King."

Starring Kwak Do-won, Chun Woo-hee and Hwang Jung-min, "The Wailing," also known as "Goksung" and "The Strangers," features a tranquil rural village embroiled in mysterious serial murders after the arrival of a stranger.

sshim@yna.co.kr

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May 30, 2016

Hwang Jung-min Continues String of Box-Office Successes

Source: The Chosun Ilbo

Hwang Jung-min

Actor Hwang Jung-min attracted some 50 million moviegoers over the last 18 months, as most of his recent films became huge box-office hits or were praised by critics while achieving some minor commercial success. 

Hwang played diverse characters in films such as "Ode to My Father" (2014), "Veteran" (2015), "The Himalayas" (2015), "A Violent Prosecutor" (2015) and "The Wailing" (2016). 

His most recent film, "The Wailing," is a thriller set in a village where the arrival of a stranger is followed by a string of mysterious murders. The film attracted more than 5 million viewers in its first two weeks. 

"I'm always nervous when shooting begins, but I immerse myself in roles quickly," Hwang said. "I put all my energy into a character, so it's easy to get carried away after shooting is done."

Asked what makes him keep working, Hwang said, "Portraying a new character can be agonizing, but it's energizing and makes me feel alive. I'm happiest when I'm working."

The prolific actor is already working on a couple of new projects, including Ryu Seung-wan's film "Battleship Island" set to be released later this year.

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June 8, 2016

'Ode to My Father' screened for OECD officials, diplomats

PARIS, June 8 (Yonhap) -- "Ode to My Father," a major South Korean box-office hit, was screened at the Paris headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday (local time) for its officials and diplomats there.

Some 80 people, including OECD Deputy Secretary-General Rintaro Tamaki, attended the screening event held during lunch time.

It was hosted by South Korea's Permanent Delegation to the OECD to mark the 20th year of Korea's membership in the organization for economic powers.

Starring Hwang Jung-min, Kim Yun-jin and Oh Dal-soo, the 2014 film depicts the story of an ordinary father who sacrificed himself to support his family through Korea's turbulent modern history from the 1950-53 Korean War till recent times. It was viewed by more than 14 million people in South Korea.

Audiences silently wiped away tears while watching one scene in particular. In the scene, the protagonist Deok-su (played by Hwang) explodes into tears upon discovering his long-lost sister, who was adopted by an American family, while appearing on a TV program that arranged reunions of families separated during the war.

When the light came on after the screening, the audience gave a long ovation.

Tamaki said the film was deeply moving, adding that it well showed Korea's recent history and how life was like in the country after the war.

A Canadian official with the OECD Secretariat said the film reminded him of his own father, whom he has not seen for a long time.

The Korean mission said it picked the film to enhance the OECD's understanding of Korea and its history of economic development.

"Viewers can take a journey to the past after the Korean War through this film," said South Korea's ambassador to the OECD Yoon Jong-won said. "We wanted to show that without the pain, patience and sacrifice endured by Koreans during the past 60 years, there would have been no economic miracle."  

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June 8, 2016

Hwang Jung-min, Ha Ji-won and others to visit Shanghai on June 11th

Source: Sports Donga via Hancinema.net

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Actors Hwang Jung-min, Ha Ji-won, Lee Min-ho, T.O.P (Choi Seung-hyeon) and Kim Ji-won-I are attending the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival on the 11th.

According to sources, Hallyu stars have been invited to step on the 'Greatest Red Carpet in Asia': Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Jet Li, Fan Bingbing, directors Ang Lee and Wong Kar Wai. Hollywood celebrities such as Ian McKellen, Bradley Cooper and other are also going to be there.

The 19th Shanghai International Film Festival will be held for 9 days starting on the 11th.

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June 13, 2016

'Translating subtitles is like translating poetry'
This is the last of a four-part series on the importance of translation in globalizing Korean culture. ― ED. 

By Park Jin-hai The Korea Times

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Na Hong-jin's "The Wailing"

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Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden"

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Darcy Paquet

Darcy Paquet, an American film critic and translator who has worked on English subtitles for over 100 Korean films, says movie subtitles in English have come a long way.

"The situation now is better than, for example, the late 1990s. Some of the films I see are translated quite well. But other times you come across some that don't, which is very frustrating, because the Korean dialogue is interesting but the subtitles are not," said Paquet during a recent interview with The Korea Times.

The Massachusetts native, who has been living in Korea for nearly 20 years, has been introducing Korean films to international movie fans and working on translations of numerous award-winning Korean films.

Most recently he worked on director Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden" and director Na Hong-jin's "The Wailing," both of which were invited to this year's Cannes Film Festival last month.

Paquet says it's not mistakes and grammatical errors that ruin subtitles.

Taking the example of actress Kim Hye-soo's famous line in the movie "Tazza: The High Rollers," whose word-for-word English translation reads like "I'm an Ewha Womans University graduate," he says sometimes he think subtitles are too simple.

"The original dialogue is very specific, but the English subtitles were very abstract. I think abstract is usually boring. You need to try hard to put specifics into the dialogue to make it interesting," he said. "Even if many foreigners watching don't know the school, people understand this must be a prestigious university and you get more of the feeling of the original. It sounds strange if you make it very abstract and easy to understand."

He says translating subtitles is somewhere closer to translating poetry than novels.

"You have such a small space. In translating poetry you try to make it rhyme. You have such restrictions on how you can do it, and if you want to express everything, you have to be really creative on how you do it," said Paquet.

He says most people would feel frustrated translating subtitles, even more so than translating novels, because the translator has to make compromises. "If there are two ideas in the sentence, many translators just cut one idea and translate the other idea. I think what translators need to do is to become better at squeezing more information into a small amount of space," he said.

He mentioned "Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits," a documentary about shamanism directed by Park Chan-kyong, Park Chan-wook's younger brother, which he said is the most daunting job he has done. He adds that his recent translations for "The Handmaiden" and "The Wailing" have been just as painstaking.

With Park's film "The Handmaiden," actor Ha Jung-woo speaks very quickly, he said. "There was a lot of information and the dialogue was really interesting, so we wanted to include as much as possible. We really had to struggle to just to fit everything into the space."

As for Na's film, the dialect has given him a hard time.

"I love the way actress Chun Woo-hee speaks in that final scene. Her language was very simple but very weird. It's not standard speech. It's part dialect," he says. 

"Sometimes you can do halfway. Dialect is part vocabulary, part intonation and part delivery. But, you can't write down intonation. You only use words."

The solution he came up with was to use older words people don't use so much in speech these days.

"As for dialect, you can hint at it and you can give it kind of a feeling of it, but you can't make the feeling of dialect as strong as in Korean. If you try to do that, then it comes out sounding really awkward and distracting," he explained.

Paquet says it helps to talk with directors.

"When often there are two ideas to translate it, I don't know which one is better," he said. "If the director says which one is better, it is closer to the director's intention. So I like working with directors."

With "The Handmaiden," his first work with Park, he says he went through many drafts for the subtitle translations.

"Park Chan-wook is a perfectionist in terms of film," he said, adding that they started working on it before the film was finished in anticipation of its invitation to Cannes.

"A lot of dialogue was changed at the last minute, so we had to update subtitles a lot. I sat down together with the director and looked at every dialogue line by line. We would try to come up with good solutions together."

Favorite languages of directors

Paquet added that the kind of language director Park likes is different from the language of Hong Sang-soo, another respected director he has worked with.

"You can feel the difference in Korean as well. Park's dialogue is very unusual and I think he does it on purpose. Sometimes he writes sentences in the way that people don't speak," he said. "It sounds unnatural but at the same time surprising and interesting. It's expressive. So the English ends up being similar words. It doesn't sound very natural but it sounds expressive. You have to choose between a more simple and natural feeling line of dialogue and something that is closer to the original but that feels a little bit awkward."

Although Park's movie is an adaptation from the British novel "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters, he says he didn't use the same dialogue.

Most of the time it was better not to do exactly the same, he says because the film was different from the book.

The word "pigeon," used in the original book to symbolize the character's innocence, was changed into "lamb" in Park's movie.

"They appear on the screen in a flash and I don't think that you should make the viewers sit and think about the meaning of the word," he said.

Paquet has been running koreanfilm.org, an English-language website for Korean films, since 1999, posting reviews as well as a number of other international publications. He also teaches a cinema class at Korea University's International Summer Campus (ISC) program.

He says people around the world are still impressed by Korean movies.

"If you think about Korean cinema's place, it is very small compared to dramas and K-pop. It doesn't have that kind of popularity. The last five years have not been especially strong for Korean cinema compared to ten years and fifteen years ago. But, I think there are well-made films," he said. "From international perspectives, Korean movies don't travel very very far but only a few exceptions ― I think The Handmaiden and The Wailing both ― would probably be seen by a lot of people internationally."

Although he says Korea is full of talented movie makers, it is hard to make films in Korea ― the kind of films that could grab attention at international film festivals. Korea is high on technical skills but the business structure is a problem, he says.

"There are some issues with the system. I think it is easier to make films ― the kind of films that are successful at Cannes ― in Europe, because there is support for kind of big-budget art house films. Whereas in Korea, art house films are very low budget and it's only director Park Chan-wook and Bong Jun-ho," he said.

"Few directors have the power to make very cutting-edge films and look beautiful and cinematically very well made. If the government provided more financial support for filmmakers, like Europe does, then they could make films that would be more successful. That is the biggest thing."

jinhai@ktimes.com

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June 13, 2016

'Veteran,' 'Salut D'Amour' sold to China

By Kim Jae-heun The Korea Times

CJ E&M announced Sunday that it will sell the rights to remake the hit movies "Veteran" and "Salut D'Amour" to China. The movies will be remade jointly by Korean and Chinese companies.

For the remake of the Korean action-comedy "Veteran," Korea's third-highest-grossing movie, popular Chinese actor Sun Honglei will take the role of detective Seo Do-cheol, originally portrayed by Hwang Jung-min.

Hong Kong actor-turned-movie director Tsang Chi Wai will produce the Chinese version of "Salut D'Amour."

The two movies are set to screen in China by next year and Korean production teams will participate in production as well as rewriting the scripts to adapt the films for local audiences.

Director Ryoo Seung-wan of Veteran said he expects the remake to have a richer storyline, as China has more territory and a greater population. 

jhkim@ktimes.com

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