[HanCinema's Digest] Cinema Snippets

Christopher Weatherspoon tracks popular Korean franchises on KoBiz, Clarence Tsui reviews Kim Ki-duk's "Human, Space, Time and Human" for the Hollywood Reporter, Korea's animation industry still has a long way to go, and KOFIC releases its annual report on the state of Korea's film industry.

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"Stories Too Big for One Movie"

KoBiz's Christopher Weatherspoon discusses some of Korea's most successful franchise films in recent years. "The Korean film industry has had a number of popular franchises over the years, covering nearly every genre, from horror to comedy", writes Christopher, who goes on to mention perhaps the most popular series: Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance Trilogy". However, Christopher notes that "Korea has had several other popular series worthy of attention". Here you'll discover a number of popular Korean franchises (including the recent blockbuster "Along With the Gods: The Two Worlds") that have made an impact on modern Korean cinema.

...READ ON KOBIZ

""Human, Space, Time and Human" ('Inkan, gongkan, sikan grigo inkan'): Film Review | Berlin 2018"

"Kim Ki-duk's latest feature is sensationalistic, simplistic and sadistic", writes Clarence Tsui. In this hard-hitting review on the Hollywood Reporter, Clarence holds no punches in describing the failure of Kim's 23rd feature in the wake of a recent accusation of abuse. The film, a claustrophobic sci-fi drama about the human condition, "is simply one whopping, misanthropic mistake", writes Clarence. "Human, Space, Time and Human", stars Mina Fujii, Jang Keun-suk, Ahn Sung-ki, Lee Sung-jae, and Ryoo Seung-bum.

...READ ON THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"Long Way To Go"

How is South Korea's animation industry faring? According to Yoon Yung Sil, writing for Business Korea, the Land of the Morning Calm still has a long way to go to bring its animation scene up to speed: "The South Korean animated film ecosystem is poor itself. Its market is so small that it is hard to collect billions of won of production costs and it also shows a limit with an abnormal form based on the toy business rather than a qualitative improvement of animated films". Yoon concludes by revealing that, over the past three years, only 5 or 6 animated films have made it into the top 50 film produced by the local industry. Would you like to see more South Korean animations? If so, what type of stories would you look forward to? Let us know in the comment section below...

...READ ON BUSINESS KOREA

"KOFIC Releases 2017 Report on Korean Film Industry"

According to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), in a recently released annual report on the state of Korea's film industry, there was an overall increase in movie admissions across the board last year, although local admissions dipped slightly. The 110-page white paper is currently only available in Korean, with the English version coming in May, but here Christopher Weatherspoon provides us with a succinct overview of industry's performance in 2017.

...READ ON KOBIZ