An Irregular Update - 6/4/2021
Subsistence, SEOBOK, and SupChina
So there hasn’t been much going on with South Korean theaters lately. That on its own may well be cause for concern. F9 released in South Korea this past May 19th. Yes, you read that correctly- five weeks earlier than the June 25th release in the American market. Baffling though the overall decision may be, this is honestly less surprising than the fact that in its third week of availability F9 still hasn’t caught up to the Demon Slayer in terms of box office admissions. Granted, at two million admissions, Demon Slayer is no slouch even for an anime movie. But compared to the 3.6 million viewers the eighth Fast and the Furious movie reeled in, a lethargic performance from the franchise is an apt description of the theatrical situation writ large in South Korea.
At the same time, the decline may not be as relevant as it sounds. The only real South Korean film of note this year to have widespread theatrical distribution was SEOBOK, and CJ ENM took it out of theaters after just three weeks due to contractual obligations with the local streaming service TVING. By traditional metrics, SEOBOK has been a clear failure without even hitting 400,000 admissions. Yet it’s entirely possible that SEOBOK may have served its purpose as an advertisement for TVING if nothing else. Domestic streaming companies are gaining ground on Netflix, even if the worldwide streaming giant had a much bigger headstart.
If you’re curious what SEOBOK is like aesthetically, I reviewed it here. The short version is I found it a fairly powerful metaphor for depression, and how it forces people to question the very purpose of life itself. It’s certainly worth watching if you can get a hold of it. Although on that note, this year at the Jeonju International Film Festival was a fairly strong one. I described the overall semi-pandemic vibe of the festival here at Book and Film Globe.
For other reviews of movies you probably can’t watch, despite English versions being available, Aloners deals with modern detachment, First Child deals with modern motherhood, and NOT OUT deals with stress in the face of the reality of a young baseball player having possibly ruining his chance at living his dream. Plant Cafe, Warmth, in placid comparison, tells a few peaceful stories about tending to plants as a metaphor for life. And I’ll toss a link for my review of I in here too just because, as mentioned previously, that movie is already basically impossible to search for thanks to its terrible title.
Lastly, I’ve started writing for SupChina here. SupChina being, as the name implies, a publication about China, probably nothing I write about there will deal with Korean film directly, although I have been thinking of pitching an article about increasing anti-Chinese xenophobia in the South Korean media market. For now, there’s just an existing piece about a couple of Hong Kong protest documentaries, and an upcoming piece about a documentary about the Chinese health care system during the pandemic. Not about the pandemic mind you, just the experience of one mostly ordinary family dealing with their matriarch’s end of life care.