Small budget films making big impressions

Posted on : 2012-12-04 16:22 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Despite lack of theater space and shaky funding, historical films are finding large audiences

By Song Ho-jin, cinema correspondent

Kim Myeong-hui’s eyes were bloodshot. The 36-year-old afterschool academy teacher had just walked out of the theater where she saw “26 Years.” When she saw the main characters - children of victims of the 1980 Gwangju Massacre - pointing guns at the head of the person responsible for the bloodbath and screaming, she couldn’t hold back her tears, she said.

“If I had those four [the children of Gwangju victims in the movie] beside me, I would hold them tight,” she told the Hankyoreh as she stood outside the Megabox Central theater on Dec. 3 in downtown Seoul. “I would ask them how much it hurt, and I would tell them, ‘I’m sorry for making you bear that pain alone.‘” Her eyes began to well up with tears.

Ha Cheol-min, a 23-year-old university student, said he felt angry to see that even in the film, no apology came from the former president responsible for the slaughter. “It frightened me when they said that those who fail to reckon with the past are doomed to repeat it,” he added.

The citizen-funded “26 Years” is turning into a monster hit.

The film had been seen by 803,187 people as of Dec. 2, and is expected to hit the one million mark by Dec. 4, six days after its release. As soon as it was released, it knocked the blockbuster “A Werewolf Boy” out of the top spot at the box office. It also reached a wider swath of theaters, going from 442 to over 600.

Indeed, some film observers said the number of theaters would have been even larger if it had been funded and distributed by a corporation with a big theater network. “26 Years” was distributed directly by the mid-sized distributor Invent D and the film’s production company, Cheongeoram.

Cheongeoram’s president, Choe Yong-bae, attributed the film’s success to the grief and anger resonating with viewers.

“A lot of people said they felt really sorry for the kids in the movie and angry at [former President Chun Doo-hwan] and the society that shielded him,” Choe explained.

“We kept fighting to finish the film, and now it seems like the audiences are showing their support,” he added gratefully.

“26 Years” ran into a crisis ten days before filming was to start four years ago. One company suddenly pulled its investment, then one investor after another bowed out. The production couldn’t go on and rumors were rife that the government had turned the screws.

But the ball got rolling again when 15,000 citizen donors contributed a total of 700 million won (US$646,000), and singer Lee Seung-hwan another one billion won (US$923,000), toward its 4.6 billion won (US$4,246,000) production cost.

Another investor was television personality Kim Je-dong. “It was too much as a donation, so I changed it to an investment, even though he tried to refuse,” Choe recalled.

The film has benefited from word of mouth, with donors and audience members sharing about it on Twitter and other social media. Industry observers also said the film has succeeded in appealing to a wide audience through its mixture of sensitive subject matter presented in the popular format of an action-revenge thriller, as well as the popularity of stars Han Hye-jin and Jin Goo.

Film critic Jeong Ji-wook said the film was not as tense as its source material, but added, “The very idea of characters taking revenge against a president who’s still alive makes people curious, and the scene of attempted shootings in broad daylight and the final action sequences really get their stomachs in a knot.”

“National Security” [“Namyeong-dong 1985” is the Korean name, which refers to a National Police Agency anti-communist torture room used in the 1980s], another film that looks back on a painful episode in South Korean history, has failed to draw viewers to match its press coverage and critical acclaim, although some have said it has done well to bring 300,000 people to theaters to see a movie that tackles the subject matter of torture so directly.

The film takes an unflinching look at the 22 days of torture endured in the Namyeong-dong torture room by the late activist and political veteran Kim Geun-tae in 1985, examining how violence by the state destroys the human soul.

A source connected with the film said orders have been coming in for group screenings. One group of around 100 readers of Kim’s memoir “Namyeong-dong” and the recently released “Autobiography of the Democrat Kim Geun-tae” applied to rent out theater space, while three Seoul high school classes inquired after students who had seen the film asked their teachers to organize class screenings.

Director Chung Ji-young said, “It’s a low-budget movie, so there wasn’t a lot for publicity and marketing, and I think there are limits to its popular appeal. But I also think those 300,000 people went out of their way to see the movie. That’s truly meaningful number for us.”

 

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