Toys at The Korea Society, CG test footage of 'Robot Taekwon V'

Just as The Korea Society opens a new exhibit on 70′s and 80′s toys from Korea with the Taekwondo-style butt-kicking giant robot Taekwon V as its centerpiece today, there’s news that the animated feature film will be made into a live-action/CG film to be released in August, 2009 (Test CG footage looks awesome! read on).

First, straight from The Korea Society’s website:

“Toys – always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be – can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood includes a veritable toy box of over 90 flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls from 1970′s and 1980′s Korea.”

So the exhibit will have more than just action figures and robots for boys, but also girls’ toys and dolls too. Being that Korea’s growing industrialization made new things possible in the country for the first time during that period, it would be interesting to see just what got kids excited back when there was no Guitar Hero or PlayStation. Here’s some key proceedings tied to the show:

• The opening reception for the exhibit is today at 5:30 PM
• Exhibit runs through April 18
• “Gallery Talk” (lecture): “Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity” on February 7
• Film screening of animated feature Robot Taekwon V (2007, Digitally restored from original 1976 prints) on March 18

The film was the first Korean animated feature – ever. While original prints were long thought to have been destroyed by fire, a print was later found in one of KOFIC’s (Korean Film Council) off-site storage warehouses, was digitally restored in a 3-year-long process and re-released in 2007 to theaters across the nation in a very successful run.

Second, the live-action/CG adaptation. With Shin Cine(씬씨네) pouring 20 billion Korean Won (more than $20 million US) into the production, and CG/visuals done by (count ‘em!) 5 Korean VFX companies they’re going all-out on this one. Twitch does remind us that releasing in 2009 means it will “go head-to-head with The Transformers 2 in the Korean market.” YTN (Korea’s CNN) cites the movie will be based on the webcomic series “V” but will be a completely separate(different) work, and that the screenplay is in its final drafts. Won Shin-yeon of A Bloody Aria and Seven Days will direct, and in the YTN newscast, Won says

“Though it’s hard to be moved to awe or tears with technology, robots, I want to try doing that with Taekwon V, and I’m confident it will be possible with this.”

V webcomic. The top text reads, "I haven't lost yet."

In the webcomic, Hoon, who at the time of the original animation in 1976 was a young man, is now a 50-something years-old powerless paper-pusher that joins forces with Robot Taekwon V when it (he?) resurrects to fight off an impending evil. The series was produced by comic artist Jaepigaru and Robot Taekwon V, Inc. (yes, amazingly there’s a whole company just for one animated character).

You can watch test CG-render footage in the video below (or click here if it doesn’t work). Let’s hope its historical significance and national-fanbase backing culminates in something much less cringe-inducing than the cg-craptastic flop that was D-War.

• Toy Stories Exhibit, Korea Society
• YTN news video
• Joynews24 article with test footage
• webcomic series “V”
• Twitch

Parties for the 7th and final book release

Summer of ’07 is turning out to be quite the party for Harry Potter fans — as I write this, the 5th movie, Order of the Phoenix, opened today just a few minutes before  across theaters nationwide, and now it’s only a week more until the 7th and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is unleashed and children of all ages stay up past bed-time for yet another night. By that I mean just like the movie, booksellers are having wild midnight events for the book’s release and the big apple has a handful of ‘em.

US publisher of the series, Scholastic, is turning their headquarters in New York City (Mercer St. between Prince and Spring) into Harry Potter Place where fans will be able to see a 20 ft. Whomping Willow and the Knightbus along with magicians, street-performers, joining in the unveiling of the first author J.K Rowling-signed U.S. edition of the book and the countdown to July 21, 12:01 AM.

Barnes and Noble has Jim Dale, narrator of the audiobooks in Union Square, and children’s bookstore Books of Wonders has real live owls(!) mixed in with the usual magicians and jugglers.

New York Magazine pointed out one certain bookshop in Greenpoint for their “adult-only” book release party, and apparently there’s much more of that flavor elsewhere too.

Looking back, you realize that the first book was released in 1997, and that for some kids who’ve been following the series loyally, they are now adults — some of them are over 18, 21 and the like.

So, it all begs the question, are you one of them? And if so, which one will you be at? I intend to check out at least two of these parties that crazy Friday night. We’ll see. Me, I only started reading the books five years ago, when I was in college. Still pretty weird to think it’s been that long since, and now it’s almost RLY over. sad.

• via Gothamist

The Arrival, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Shortcomings

My picks from tomorrow’s Times’ Sunday Book Review with a bent for the other, miscellaneous and alternative. Hopefully this will be a recurring linkroll that I can keep up with each week. This week of November 11 (11/11!), I choose you, Pikachu! I mean, the Children’s Book section reviews of Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” — graphic novel, a wordless, timeless meditation on “not an immigrant’s story, but the immigrant’s story,” and Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, his first young-adult title. Also Adrian Tomine’s “Shortcomings,” another graphic novel, about 30-year-old “anti-hero” Ben Tanaka, dealing with his career-driven girlfriend that leaves Cali for NY, a lesbian Korean graduate friend, sprinkled with his penchant for blondes. “The Arrival” has also been picked as one of the Times’ ten Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2007. Link to slideshow gallery

And finally, despite all the other notable books written about in this weeks section including a Picasso biography, an elaborate Star Wars pop-up book, a new translation of Dante’s “Paradiso”… just for kicks… get ready for it… I would like to write about a book review I read today in the review section, of a book written about “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read”, and want you to keep in mind that I haven’t read the actual book, but rather only the book review. Translated from French, psychoanalyst and professor of lit Pierre Bayard gives reason and thought to why he “doesn’t blame us for fudging [about books we haven't read], and he doesn’t want us to blame ourselves.” He apparently says it’s okay!

Just one more reason I think a recap on books we haven’t read yet could become a nice record and incentive to do just that — read more.

All right. Now, choice quotes from each of the above New York times reviews after the jump, plus pretty books covers for you to judge by(!) And just how to talk about that book you haven’t read.

New York Times Online free registration may be required. Click the book covers below to see user reviews/buy online from Amazon.

• “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan – “By placing photorealistic human figures in abstract, surreal environments, Tan evokes the intimacy of an individual immigrant experience without ever settling on a specific person, time or place. [...] Inside [the book's pages], borderless sepia panels are arranged in careful grids. Creases and unidentifiable splotches elegantly blemish many of the pages. [...]
  The effect is mesmerizing. Reading “The Arrival” feels like paging through a family treasure newly discovered up in the attic.” – Gene Luen Yang, author of “American Born Chinese”
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie, illustrated by Ellen Forney – “[...] is Alexie’s first foray into the young adult genre, and it took him only one book to master the form. Recently nominated for a National Book Award, this is a gem of a book. I keep flipping back to re-read the best scenes and linger over Ellen Forney’s cartoons. [...] For 15 years now, Sherman Alexie has explored the struggle to survive between the grinding plates of the Indian and white worlds. He’s done it through various characters and genres, but [this] may be his best work yet. Working in the voice of a 14-year-old forces Alexie to strip everything down to action and emotion, so that reading becomes more like listening to your smart, funny best friend recount his day while waiting after school for a ride home.” – Bruce Barcott, contributing editor at Outside magazine
• “Shortcomings” by Adrian Tomine – “Ben is a fascinating, maddening character, [...] Tomine takes voyeuristic delight in capturing every gruesome facial expression of a couple in midargument. The author is an expert at hooking the reader without tricks or obvious effort, and you’ll be tempted to buzz through “Shortcomings” in an hour. But you’ll want to slow down to take in the detailed black-and-white panels that casually document the way we live now. [...] his latest investigation into matters of the heart has gently led him to the stuff of more obvious social relevance. In its mood and its analysis of how male sexuality is tied up with ethnicity and social status, “Shortcomings” finds itself somewhere between “Goodbye, Columbus” and “Portnoy’s Complaint.” Eventually, Tomine may have his “American Pastoral.” – Jim Windolf, contributing editor at Vanity Fair
• “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” by Pierre Bayard, translated by Jeffery Mehlman – “He proposes, and employs, a new set of scholarly abbreviations to go along with op. cit. and ibid.: UB: book unknown to me; SB: book I have skimmed; HB: book I have heard about; and FB: book I have forgotten. [...] After anatomizing the different types of nonreading, Bayard addresses the social implications in a section called “Literary Confrontations.” I commend his advice for meeting an author and being forced to say something about his or her new book: “Praise it without going into detail.” [...] Bayard finally reveals his diabolical intent: he claims that talking about books you haven’t read is “an authentic creative activity.” As a teacher of literature, he seems to believe that his ultimate goal is to encourage creativity. “All education,” he writes, “should strive to help those receiving it to gain enough freedom in relation to works of art to themselves become writers and artists.” – Jay McInerney, author of “A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine” and others

The 45th New York Film Festival at Lincon Center debuts The Darjeeling Limited, No Country for Old Men, and more

The schedule for the 45th New York Film Festival was up on Monday, and the biggest titles are already being sold out. A high profile selection of films from all over the world once again converge at Lincoln Center. It runs from September 28 to October 14, 2007

Opening night: Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s ‘Final Cut’ after 25 years. Centerpiece Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men.  Closing night, the animated Persepolis, based on the acclaimed graphic novel. A complete retrospective of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, “father of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement.”

While those are obvious picks for any avid film fan, sold out at no tickets means looking elsewhere. Other personal picks of mine would be: The Orphanage, produced by director Guillermo Del Toro of last year’s fantastic closing night film Pan’s Labyrinth. Hou Hsiao-hsien directing Juliette Binoche in Flight of the Red Balloon. Nicole Kidman and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding. Song Kang-ho and Jeon Do-yeon (in her Cannes Best Actress award winning role) in Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine. Claude Chabrol’s A Girl Cut in Two. Béla Tarr’s The Man from London. Palme D’Or winner <4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days…

There’s just too many interesting films. Enough reading, just go watch something before more tickets are gone.

• Official website, New York Film Festival

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdfQI1HJy28

Family Ties, one of the films from the fest, starring Moon So-ri

The 7th New York Korean Film Festival 2007 starts this Tuesday and it’s turning out to be their biggest yet. Everything from romantic comedy to historical drama, the gangster flick and even documentary are represented. That includes 16 of the latest Korean movies from 2006 and 2007, a 4-film retrospective of renowned Mr. “101-films” director Im Kwon-Taek, 8 horror films (or rather 7 horror + 1 moody drama) and an expanded full day of short films for free(!). There will be a number of parties, and 2 special guest directors from Korea this year. Being pretty much the only chance for us to see these films in a theater-setting outside of Korea, I’m definitely looking forward to the fest.

• www.koreanfilmfestival.org
• podcast introducing this year’s festival

Never Forever, written/directed by Gina Kim, starring Vera Farmiga, Jung-woo Ha

+ Highly Recommended +

Yesterday, July 28, was the closing night of the 30th New York Asian American International Film Festival. Among other things, they chose to bookend this year’s run with the Sundance 2007 Grand Jury Prize Nominee, Never Forever.

Vera Farmiga (The Departed) expertly becomes Sophie, the well-to-do wife of a successful Korean American lawyer (David McInnis, The Cut Runs Deep).But even with the big house, the important company of upscale living and everything else, Andrew cannot give her a child, for he is impotent. After Andrew slips into suicidal depression and her in-laws give her stern looks during prayer sessions, Sophie takes on desperate measures to save her marriage. She secretly pays Jiha (Jung-woo Ha, The Fox Family, Kim Ki-duk’s Breath and Time),an undocumented Korean worker, to impregnate her. When business dealings and secrets unravel, Sophie must choose how to carry on.

Writer/Director Gina Kim, on-set.

The second feature-length film from writer and director Gina Kim shows us a strong turn in her storytelling, now that it takes on a much more straightforward narrative approach than her first film from 2003, Invisible Light, which although dealt in a similar theme of woman and body in relation to longing/intimacy, was more experimental in style.

Turning the table on interracial relationships, women’s identity and self-empowerment, Never Forever gives us believable and strong performances that ring painfully true in our lives today, transcending the race divide that it kicks off from.An opportunity of circumstance culminates into the moment of self-discovery as Sophie defines her life beyond those around her –and it stirs the viewer with a chill and a nod.  When I spoke to Kim after the festival closing reception about her turn to narrative, she added to the Q&A that immediately followed the screening by explaining to me that it was only natural in line with the framework of the story — when the film is not a dialogue-heavy one as this is, it’s important that concepts and ideas are conveyed through a straight-forward way of cinematic language, for example showing the isolation of Sophie from the Korean/Korean-American family through the church scenes — not necessarily as a critique on the church culture but rather as an observation and as the most effective way to show iton-screen without bogging them down with much expositional dialogue.

With the help of cinematographer Matthew Clark, Kim makes every shot of the film count, from the clothing to the awkward silences, and the winding streets of New York City is not so unlike the tangle of Sophie’s journey. One thing that I didn’t like so much was the score by Michael Nyman (Gattaca and The Piano) who ironically enough uses mainly solo piano compositions that were often too loud and jarring, putting the speakers in what sounded like they would rip from the ceiling at certain emotionally wrought scenes. But otherwise, Vera Farmiga is indeed perfect at the loaded scenes full of layers of emotions and meaning, as Kim puts it. Jung-woo Ha also surely gained a bunch of new fans with his spot-on portrayal and messy-good looks. (Quoting the girls a row above me as the final credits roll on-screen: “Where is he? Where is he?There! There it is ‘Jiha: Jung Woo-Ha!’ Omigod he’s so hot!”)

In the end, the film raises a lot of questions about family, fidelity, the role of a woman/wife/mother,race — the list goes on — and it only becomes clear by the end of the film that Sophie’s choices, though meandering and rarely fully voiced out loud, are really the only thing that matters — as should be in any person’s own life. Selfish, maybe. Morally ambiguous, maybe even moreso. But as many would agree, “It’s my life” — and that’s exactly what Sophie realizes for herself.

+ Highly Recommended +

Never Forever (2007)

Director/Writer: Gina Kim

starring Vera Farmiga, Jung-woo Ha, David McInnis

• NYAAIFF post
• Interview with Director/Writer Gina Kim by Asian Cinevision/NYAAIFF (actually covers a lot that was retreaded during the post-screening Q&A – though a warning, this interview has a slight spoiler in the middle)
• film info: imdb & official Korean site (strangely enough, the Korean title is “두번째 사랑” meaning “2nd Love”)

Trivial/anecdotal notes:

1. When I introduced myself Kim actually correctly recognized me as one of her uncredited extras from a day of shooting (at the church and funeral), and I was thankful — saidshe has a very photographic memory, especially of people’s faces.
2. As I drove her to the after-party, Kim said she never set foot in Korea during planning nor making the film, even though 100%of the financial support came from there (the film was produced by Chang-dong Lee, director of Peppermint Candy and the recent Secret Sunshine, and by way of Korea’s Now Films of My Mother, the Mermaid).That’s the power of globalization, folks — getting money from people without having to look at them. Just kidding, really goes to show howmuch they believed in the strength of the story, actors and Kim’s directorial ability.