Wednesday night was an advanced screening of the much anticipated movie, “Thirst,” followed by a Q&A with the director himself, Park Chan Wook at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood. Much to my surprise, the crowd was very diverse and in retrospect, a lot industry types when I had expected a lot of Koreans to be in the audience. However, the audience was not my only surprise. My friend and I went to the screening with much anticipated fear, in acceptance that we would only be able to watch half the film since we’re both woosies when it comes to scary movies. As we stared into the bleek and ominous background of the opening scene, we had our hands ready over our eyes peeking through our fingers waiting for some grotesque and horrifying action to take place. Yet as the film continued to roll, the small but quaint theater was filled with bouts of laughter throughout the entire film. Not what you expected was it? Just as “Thirst,” is not a direct translation from the Korean title, “박쥐.” Whoever decided to title it ”Thirst” is simply brilliant for there could not be a better title for this dark and witty comedy with a twist of the perverse that explores the basic animalistic and indulgent nature of humans without any social constraints. As “Thirst” is a basic need we all have and need for survival, the film touches upon the variety of thirsts that we all experience in our lives. What’s your thirst?
The movie is out in selected theaters. I highly recommend everyone to go watch with an open mind. I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised as much as I was.
The Hollywood Reporter published a very interesting article this morning about the Korean wave (“hallyu” in Korean) of actors finding their way into big hollywood studio films. Coincidentally, we published a similar article yesterday about this occurrence. Very interesting. Coincidence? Perhaps.
They beg the question, what’s with the interest in South Korean actors when they can barely speak English? Someone once said, “don’t think it’s just about the money, it’s ALWAYS about the money.” Hollywood used to view Asia as a region of incremental dollars for their films, but with the significant rise of South Korean films, dramas, and their talent pool, Hollywood has taken notice of its big potential. For example, the Hollywood Reporter article starts off by noting that South Korean actor Lee Byung-hun was the most anticipated sighting for the fans waiting at the hotel, and not Sienna Miller and the other actors in G.I. Joe.
“For Hollywood, it [hallyu] is a sign that Korean actors hold major ticket power in Asia,” said Choi Min-soo, the head of marketing at CJ Entertainment, the importer of “G.I. Joe.” “It’s also a sign that the Asian market is no longer just ‘one of them.’”
Hollywood may have almost exhausted what it can do domestically, and the last few years we’ve seen Hollywood look to remake dozens of films that were first produced overseas and the subsequent trend is to import the actors and actresses that have a strong following. In the business world, it’s about scale and Hollywood is finally realizing that the scale is much bigger when you start weaving and integrating pieces together from outside the U.S. borders.
For Paramount Pictures, the film’s distributor, this was a promising sign — one that suggests the potential benefit of casting an Asian superstar to attract regional ticket buyers when marketing a quintessentially American film.
The strategy seems to be on the rise with major Hollywood productions that once had limited roles for Asian actors. Aside from Lee, who plays the film’s charismatic Storm Shadow, other Korean actors are also participating in the trend.
Similar to the Korean wave of singers i.e., Wonder Girls, BoA, etc. entering the U.S. market, it’s these supporting roles that are paving the wave for greater acceptance of Koreans in the biggest media and entertainment market. For those doubters, did you really think America would have a black president 2 years ago? Believe in the Korean wave!
The movie “Thirst” opens on Friday in the U.S. from famed South Korean director Park Chan-Wook, a former winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes. “Thirst” is a vampire movie and you should expect a bloody good time. “Thirst” is loosely based on Émile Zola’s 1867 novel Thérèse Raquin: Beloved and devoted priest from a small town volunteers for a medical experiment which fails and turns him into a vampire. Physical and psychological changes lead to his affair with a wife of his childhood friend who is repressed and tired of her mundane life. The one-time priest falls deeper in despair and depravity. As things turn for worse, he struggles to maintain what’s left of his humanity.
Park Chan-Wook’s work is always dark and he could be considered South Korea’s Stephen King with his ability to take the audience to the edge, raise their nerves and make you blink twice. Take a look at his previous work and how he shows the depraved side of humans: dentistry by hammer (Oldboy), underwater surgery on a character’s Achilles tendon (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), and disturbing images of terrorized children and revenge-obsessed parents (Lady Vengeance). It appears “Thirst” derived from his frustrations growing up from his religious upbringing and the temptations of the world.
“I didn’t set out to make a vampire film,” Park says somewhat sheepishly, sitting in an uptown hotel suite with a translator in tow. “As a boy, I disliked horror films; they were too scary. Thirst isn’t really a monster movie; it’s a story about a hero falling into the most serious of dilemmas, where he’s doubting God and his own beliefs. Because he had no choice in becoming what he becomes, you have to wonder, Should what he’s doing be considered a sin?”
It’s a question that Park takes seriously. Raised Roman Catholic in Jecheon, South Korea, the director found himself torn between his religious upbringing and his desire to make provocative art and experience worldly pleasures. The breaking point arrived in high school. “The local priest came to see my father and said, ‘This boy, you need to put him in a seminary. He’ll make a great priest.’_” Park says. “But I had no desire to live a life of celibacy. I got scared and stopped going to church.” Seeing it from a philosophical point of view, you might say the movie is partially autobiographical, with Song’s fallen holy man trying to reconcile the spiritual aspects of his former life with the temptations of an extremely exaggerated secular world. Park just smiles at the idea. “That’s why I like the symbolic nature of vampires,” he says. “They can be bent to suit almost all purposes.”
Critics appear to like Park Chan-Wook’s latest work, and so does the folks at Rotten Tomatoes with an 85% on the Tomatometer.
The financial crisis or recession has finally curtailed the lofty living of many Americans and the household savings rate has increased through the U.S. However, across the Pacific Ocean in South Korea, Koreans are buying and spending like it was 1999, right before the Internet bubble. According to the Washington Post, The household savings rate in South Korea will have plummeted from a world-beating 25.2 percent in 1988 to a projected world low of 3.2 percent in 2010, according to the OECD. Government policies have encouraged borrowing, while Korea’s aggressive culture has supercharged spending on signifiers of success, whether they be Ivy League degrees or Louis Vuitton handbags.
Based on interviews, it seems the culture of status has raised the stakes and depleted the savings of a lot of South Koreans. In the past decade, average savings per household have plunged from about $3,300 to $525. On a percentage basis, it is the steepest savings decline in the developed world. Meanwhile, household debt as a percentage of individual disposable income has risen to 140 percent, higher than in the United States (136 percent), according to the Bank of Korea.
So what’s all the fuss? Well, such behavior undercuts South Korea’s ability to grow and develop the economy. However, the OECD study interestingly notes that South Koreans work more, sleep less and kill themselves at a higher rate than citizens of any other developed country. Maybe overworking and being sleep deprived leads to such poor decision making?
Why can’t Korean actors be cast as lovers, not fighters? Three South Korean entertainers have been cast in three big American films, which is pretty impressive but interestingly they’re cast as fighters. Rain is in the principal role of Ninja Assassins – you guessed it, as the Ninja. Lee Byeong-Heon has been cast as Storm Shadow in GI Joe – you guessed it, as a Ninja. And due out next summer, Kwon Sang-Woo has been cast as Kato in The Green Hornet, which was portrayed by Bruce Lee, but not a Ninja. Kato is a driver and an enforcer (aka fighter). Now let’s give Hollywood some credit because that’s three South Korean men who don’t speak English that well that have found big roles in big studio films. Now do they talk much? No but at least they’re paving the way for greater acceptance of Asian-American men in big studio films. Does anybody have a script for a Korean man that doesn’t require putting on a hood or throwing a thousand punches? Take a look at the previews of Ninja Assassin, GI Joe and an old clip of Kato (Bruce Lee) in The Green Hornet TV series.
Funny article in the New York Times about a Korean-American man who’s real name is John Doe. His name upon entering the U.S. was Jang Do, but like many Korean immigrants, they acquired an English name.
First he turned “Jang” into “John.” Then, he talked his family into adding an “e” to their last name. He was concerned, he said, about razzing and wanted to make sure it would be pronounced like the “do” in “tae kwon do” and not the “do” in “hairdo.”
With a name like that and looking Asian, John Doe always gets an incredulous look. He gets questioned and grilled all the time. Mr. Doe has to make sure he doesn’t marry a Jane.
This morning, the Julliard School, Korean Beacon and other institutions were inundated by communications regarding the health and whereabouts of Eugene Park, a Korean-American violinist. We are posting this to bring attention to Eugene Park, but we do not endorse the comments nor support the accusations made in this editorial. The opinions and views expressed below do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff, Korean Beacon, or other sponsors and partners.
******************
Help for Eugene Park by 하선진
Eugene Park is an US-born, Korean violinist who, by most people’s standards, can be called a genius. Born in the United States in 1976, he entered Julliard at the age of 8, and has been noted as one of the best violinists of the decade. He has released two albums, one in 1997 and the other in 1998. He came to Korea, his home country around 1998 and was called a national hero by the media. However, he has disappeared from media since a few years ago. Recently, Korean fans have found out that he has been exploited and manipulated by his agents in Korea. He has literally been imprisoned for several years and seems to have been forced to take drugs, which worsened his bipolar disorder and light autism. The medication made Park not play by his own will, but by the force of his agents. The CEO of his management company seems to have connections with the police and therefore the Korean police have not reacted in any way regarding this case. There is even talk that the CEO recorded a video of Park without any clothes on. We, as Koreans, feel that this tragic reality must be handled not only by Korean media, but also American media as well.
Most Koreans know Park’s name from his overwhelming popularity in the late 1990s. Park was once a worldwide renowned artist who performed in Super Bowl, and some even regarded him as the next Vanessa Mae. He was invited to play at Michael Jackson’s concert in Seoul and even played at the Presidential Inauguration in 1999. This top performer is now suffering from exploitation, violence and abuse from his agent. His health is seemingly in danger. From the videos of him performing on stage throughout this year, one can see the impact his health condition has made in his performances. The difference between his performances before becoming mentally unstable and after is stark. One example is the clear difference between these two performances of the same song:
In the latter performance, Park seems to have trouble just keeping up with the beat. This performance was right after Park was beaten and locked in a room by his agent. His agents’ abuses have caused Park to become mentally unstable. It is hard for us to find out exactly what state Park is in current because there is no way we can reach him. However, there have been assumptions that Park has been taking medication to help with his instability.
Park’s agents seem to have taken advantage at the fact that Park is an US-born, 2nd-generation Korean who has limited knowledge about Korean culture. They have locked Park in a room, only letting him out to play at small concerts and events. The concerts that he has been playing at are small in scale and usually poorly planned out. The agent, or “manager,” as Koreans call it, is taking advantage of Park’s weak health. From what many Koreans have seen from video clips of his latest performances, Park’s passionate and inspiring performances are nowhere to be seen, and what we can only see is his blank stares and his hitting wrong tunes. This is not because he has suddenly lost his potential, or because he is not a passionate musician anymore; it is because of the current situation he is in, the continuous abuse of his agent and lack of help from outside. We are sending out this message to the world because we do not want this shining star to lose its light. We want him back to the place where he is supposed to be standing–be it Carnegie Hall, Sejong Art Center, a top TV music program–rather than the decrepit stages on which he is forced to play. We hope to publicize Park’s current situation so that more Americans, not to mention the world, will know what is going on with this Korean-American artist. Park came to his home country to find his roots and perform in front of the Korean audiences, and certainly he does not deserve this kind of treatment.
It is impossible to get Park out of this horrible situation without foreign help because of many reasons. First of all, he is a second generation Korean who is not completely fluent in Korean, making him an easy target for his agents to take charge. Also, Park’s father passed away a few years ago and the rest of Park’s family is currently in the United States. His management company is so heavily involved with Korean mafia that it is hard for the police to intervene. Because of these reasons and others we do not yet know of, Park is chained to his management company as he has been for years. He is not even healthy enough to play on stage, yet alone record a new album. It is sad to see such a bright star fade away by outside influence, and as his fans who remember him playing his violin on TV, we want to help in any way we can.
Even though we are Koreans who are proud to have such a musical genius such as Park in our country, we feel that he needs help, most importantly help from Americans, to get out of this devastating situation. Park is an American citizen who came to Korea because he loved his home country, and it is sad to see him get betrayed by some of his own people. We ask you to help Park become a shining star once again.
Do you cook Korean food? What’s the problem with cooking Korean food? When you were growing up, you learned from your mother that you measured ingredients by a “little bit of this and a little bit of that.” There was really no true calibration of how to meld different ingredients together. Well, the Korean Food Research Institute (KFSI) of South Korea just created a Korean recipe website (http://www.tradifood.net/) for the sake of protecting it’s intellectual property: to protect Korean food as the product of the country’s traditional knowledge.
“As competition intensifies on the global stage to secure various intellectual property rights, companies in many advanced countries muscle into developing countries to occupy their traditional knowledge in order to develop them into lucrative industrial technologies,” KFRI spokesman Lim Seon-kyu said.
We went to the website and unless you read Korean, you’re not going to understand anything. So it looks like you’ll have to rely on mom’s “a little bit of this and a little bit of that” to cook your kimchi jeegae and other Korean dishes.
The Wonder Girls aren’t the only ones penetrating the U.S. market successfully. The Kpop star who’s been getting a lot of ink lately is BoA, the biggest female Asian singer. She’s been covered on MTV, People magazine, Entertainment Weekly, radio stations, NY1, and Extra TV this summer. And don’t forget her collaborations with Akon and other big named artists/producers. Her latest coverage is in a quick interview with Cosmo Girl!
WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING A POP STAR/FAMOUS IN KOREA?
“Well, I definitely feel a difference when I’m here in the States and when I’m back home. It’s a difficult lifestyle and a lot more guarded. That’s why it’s cool to be in L.A. and walk around wherever I want.”
HOW DO YOU LIKE THE UNITED STATES SO FAR?
“Well so far I still haven’t been all over America but I’ve gone to several cities since I moved here for radio promos. I live in L.A. and I kind of enjoy it. But I have to say that I really, really love New York City. Because it feels like my home.”
WHAT AMERICAN ARTISTS OR MUSICIANS DO YOU ASPIRE TO BE LIKE OR LOOK UP TO?
“There’s so many great artists out there like Kanye, T-Pain, Lady Gaga. So I used to really, really love Michael Jackson so my dance moves came from his moves. But these days I’m more focused on pop. To learn more about the American music industry.”
WHAT IS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP ADVICE YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN?
“Be honest. Honesty is the most important part in a relationship because it builds trust, which is just as essential.”
WHO IS YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH?
“The actor from The Hangover. Also in He’s Just Not That into You. Bradley Cooper! I just Googled it!”
It’s the Wonder Girls performing in New York. They’ve been opening up for the Jonas Brothers all summer as they tour together. We can’t say this enough but it’s pretty amazing that a girl band from South Korea is touring with one of the biggest musical acts in the country. The only other tour that would be bigger is U2 so this really makes what the Wonder Girls are doing this summer even more impressive. If you follow the Wonder Girls and watch this video, you’ll notice that they’ve dramatically improved their vocals as well as their English. The only odd thing about their performance is that since they’re being introduced to America, most of the people in attendance don’t know their song so there’s not much singing along. However, they sure put on a great performance live with “Nobody.” They are the pioneers for Kpop’s entry into the good ol’ U S of A!
Sing with me now, “I want nobody nobody but you!” Clap clap clap!
They also relaxed a bit and did an interview with the Power Play Network this week. Interestingly, they took off their makeup for the interview and as you’ll see, their English has really improved. They share a little bit about their musical ambitions when they were younger and how their dreams have come true through the Wonder Girls.
Facebook
Funny article in the New York Times about a Korean-American man who’s real name is John Doe. His name upon entering the U.S. was Jang Do, but like many Korean immigrants, they acquired an English name.
