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the REPORT
APM
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U.S.-based Iranian director
Naghmeh Shirkhan,
whose debut The Neighbour
was screened at New York’s
Museum of Modern Art
and the Venice Biennale.
Touching on the issue of exile,
Tokyo, NY revolves around
a young Japanese woman
who finds herself alone and
pregnant in New York’s shady
immigrant underworld.
I LOVE YOU ARIRANG
Director: Wang Xiaoshuai, China
Status: Development
Total Budget/Budget in place:
$1.2 million/$600,000
After touring the festival
circuit with his semi-autobiographical
rhapsody of teenage
angst, 11 Flowers (2011),
Wang Xiaoshuai returns to
his forte of sharp social critique
with I Love You Arirang.
The story revolves around
the fortunes of a North
Korean girl whose dreams of
consummating a clandestine
romance dissipate as the émigré
runs for her life after an
accident at her workplace.
THE MOVIETELLER (working title)
Director: Kim Tae-yong,
South Korea
Status: Development
Total budget/Budget in place:
$6 million/figure not available
Boasting the highest proposedbudget
among the entries this
year, the pitch by Kim (Late
Autumn) resembles The Artist
set in 1930s Seoul: The Movieteller
chronicles the romance
between a silent-film narrator
and an actress nearing her big
breakthrough, just as their
careers reach a crisis point with
the arrival of the talkies.
– Karen Chu contributed
to this report.
THR .com
To download a PDF of the
The Hollywood Reporter’s
Busan Film Festival Daily,
go to: THR.com/Busan.
The 2012 Busan Poster Awards
THR pays tribute to the most amusing
and over-the-top promotional materials
from the first day of the Asian Film Market
BEST USE OF EVERY
CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE
Freddy Frogface: How to
Outsmart the Bully
Freddy Frogface is the simple
story of a cross-eyed boy, his
dog, his strong man, his pet
alligator, his tightrope-walking
uncle, his old man friend who
gets shot out of a cannon, his
other hat-wearing dog who
also happens to ride bikes,
and his two pals who run the
traveling circus in town. Oh,
and apparently he also has
to outsmart a bully at some
point. In 3D.
BEST MISNOMER
Sawney
That guy isn’t even holding a
saw so his name makes absolutely
no sense. To be honest, he’s
more of a Macheteney. And then
you’ve got his two cousins, Sickleney
and Unarmedney, hanging
out in the foggy background.
But where are all the saws in
Sawney? To be honest, when we
first read this title we thought
it was about a crazed killer who
had saw blades for knees.
4
BEST USE OF AN EMMY
WINNER’S DOWNTIME
Il N’y a Pas de
Rapport Sexuel
(There is no Sexual Rapport)
Apparently, when he’s not busy
being Walter White on AMC’s
Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston
likes to get naked and appear in
French sex documentaries. Of
course, he keeps his participation
in these films extremely
quiet and will probably deny being
involved in them, but we’ve
seen enough of Cranston in his
underpants over the last few
years to know it when we see it.
BEST ACCIDENTAL
PRODUCT PLACEMENT
V8
Finally, someone had the radishes
to make a documentary that
looks at the seedy underbelly of
America’s favorite vegetable/fruit
beverage. Every ingredient is here.
Beets! Watercress! Spinach! Cele
... wait a minute, what’s that? It’s
a movie about a fire-breathing
hot rod that looks like something
Bowser would ride in Mario Kart?
No! Once again, V8 gets the shaft!
Film Report
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start by securing 533 screens.
“Even without discussing
film quality, it’s hard to deny
that the backing of major
multiplex theaters was an
absolute factor of the films’
success,” Chun said.
Lim Seong-kyu, a spokesman
at Lotte Entertainment,
declined to comment
specifically on the government
survey, but added that the
company has been collaborating
with film bodies like the
Korea Film Council to achieve
“shared growth” with local film
professionals by strengthening
copyright issues of screenwriters
and properly insuring its
production staffs. Elsewhere,
CJ Entertainment operates
“Movie Collage,” or special
screenings of art house films.
But in a country with less
than 30 art house theaters,
the survey result sums up
the complaints Korean film
directors and producers have
about theater owners.
“There are no rules to the
market competition at the
moment,” Korean director
Kim Ki-duk told THR. “In
many countries outside of
Korea, theater owners are
banned from producing or
investing in a film for a good
reason. When I went to a
theater in France, they had 13
screens and they still played 13
different films, and The Dark
Knight was only one of them.”
Pieta, Kim’s latest film
opened in 153 screens locally,
and closed after 27 days.
“Pieta filled 46% of seats on
average,” Kim said. “By the
general market rule, theaters
would have expanded screen
numbers, but films [produced
by affiliates of theaters] with
less than 15% of seating were
given more screens instead.
This attitude of major distributors
shows the market
trend. Clearly, they don’t
want to screen films like Pieta,
because it challenges their
system of filmmaking.” THR