The NYT looks at “D-War” director Shim Hyung-rae and how he’s pulled out all the stops to make his film succeed in the United States, including playing to investor nationalism. Kudos to Shin for doing his film without government money. It doesn’t bode well, however, that reviews have so far been less than stellar and even people involved in the film don’t seem particularly proud of it.
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19 Comments
Shim Hyung Rae is already looking foward to D-War 2 and there are reports that he had signed a deal with Sony Pictures regarding the distrbution of D-War 2.
The guy sure has a huge ego.
“people involved in the movie don’t seem particularly proud of it”
I know the main editor, worked with Shim for the past 3 years on this. He’s super proud
Personally, wild horses could not drag me into the theater where this piece of crap is playing. Shim is an ass and the hype promoting this flick… well, professionally I admire their accomplishment. but, clearly they have nothing without Shim’s fame and connections.
“The film’s $30 million budget, which typically does not buy the kind of special effects that American moviegoers have come to expect, is thought to be the largest ever for a Korean studio.”
Actually, it is the second most expensive Korean production, not that you’ll hear about it in South Korea…not that you’ll ever hear this one ever mentioned in South Korea.
You see, ‘Inchon’, a film staring Laurence Olivier (when he was well past his prime) and a Unification Church production (yeah, it was produced by the Moonies) swept the 1982 Golden Raspberry Awards (the Razzies), winning 4 awards, including the worst movie of the year award. It was also named the ‘worst movie of the year’ by Esquire. It is regarded as being one of the worst movies ever and one of the biggest flops of all time, having cost as much as 105 million dollars to produce in the late 70’s/early 80’s (imagine what that would be in today’s dollars), but only making a couple of million at the box office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inchon_(film)
Don’t mind the cutting and pasting mistake in the second paragraph.
What makes you pathetic: Producing a pile of shit, and profiting from said pile by shamelessly manipulating simpleton nationalistic dumbfucks.
What makes you a sad, pathetic joke: Spewing bullshit like “I am counting the days until D-War amazes the world,” while harboring delusions of grandeur and comparing yourself to George Lucas.
Speaking of the movie, “Inchon,” a Korean extra in that movie was run over and killed by a tank during its filming. Of course, it was not such as big a deal back then, when Korean kids were a dime a dozen.
Even though the movie “Inchon” was a flop, I have always wanted to see that film because I heard that Jacqueline Bisset had a really steamy sex scene in it. I heard that during the filming of her sex scene, there was supposed to be a sheet between her and the black actor that was in the scene with her, but the two actors got so turned on that they just got rid of the sheet and went at it. Anyway, that is what I heard from someone who knew someone that was on the set when they were filming it.
As for “Dragon Wars,” I do not think I could sit through that movie even if a turned-on Jacqueline Bisset were sitting beside me. Just from the previews and reviews I have seen, I think “Dragon Wars” will get ripped apart in the US and will definitely make it into the dialogs of comedians like Jay Leno and Dave Letterman, which, of course, will piss Koreans off. I am curious to see exactly what will happen.
Calm down, blueballs. Why so angry, guy? Shim’s not insulting your creative work, oh wait…lol.
The difference between you and Shim, blueballs, is that Shim is living his dream. He’s making movies and putting them out in theatres for the world to see. You don’t see Shim wasting his time on the blogosphere backbiting others. Shim makes movies. Blueballs makes angry little blog posts. lol.
BTW: Did you remember to pick up your uneployment check?
I still prefer the comparison of D-War to the 1985 Hyundai Elantra.
“BTW: Did you remember to pick up your uneployment check”
YoungRocco, you are not the expat named Mark I previously and erroneously ‘outed’ you as (though there are incredible similarities between your tones, and even catch-phrases eg “You still don’t get it!”)
This line above could only have come from a kyopo!
Where’s the sheriff around here? After a much-ballyhooed introduction, he hasn’t been keeping this site free of junk like post #7.
#3 Actually according to IMDB the budget was over 75 million.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0372873/business
This movie will go down as one of the most expensive turds ever made.
It’s 2001 Yonggary (1999) all over again. I remember the pre-release hype; it was supposed to be Korean cinema’s finest achievement, an achievemnet that would show the world that Korea rivaled Hollywood. It was a flop. The dialogue from the unknown American actors was horrible. Everybody pronounced the name of the monster as “Young Gary.” See it, if you want a good laugh.
He’s been busy, which means it’s up to me, I guess.
Anyway, could we please play nice?
Recall that Hyundai car troubles set back that company’s US reputation for about 15 years. Rain or derivative singers of his ilk probably will never be able to fill more than a high school gym outside of East Asia or maybe Los Angeles.
Will D-War’s epic flop make Korean directors (aside from art house types) “unbankable” for a decade? That would be unfortunate, but this Shim Hyung Rae seems like the kind of clueless asshole to inflict such damage.
#11,
Still less expensive than 45 million (official cost) or 105 million dollars (estimated cost) for ‘Inchon’ when you factor in inflation.
#12,
Minus all the merchandising.
My two cents…
D-War is probably a goose egg in terms of entertainment value, but financially I think it’s already made money. About 7 million admissions at 8 to 10 bucks a ticket, right? So that’s $60-70 million gross right? If it’s like the U.S., then the studio and the movie theater split the gross 50/50. So that means the studio gets $30-35 million. Break-even for Shim. Profits (probably modest) to come via DVD sales and international distribution. So by definition, it’s not a flop.
However, does this film elevate Korean films in general? Hell no. I’d consider Shim part of the old generation. My father’s generation. Who’s idea of entertainment is hokey, 40’s style serial action. This generation is generally not internationally educated so their idea of entertainment doesn’t translate well. Shim’s idea of entertainment probably translates worst then most because of his hyper, almost childlike nationalism.
In contrast, the avant-garde of Korea’s current cinema are guys mostly in their 30’s and 40’s who have an international sophisticated world view, if not an education. We are talking about the Park Chan Wooks and Bong Joon-hos of the world.
Shim and Sun Myung Moon (founder of the Unification Church and “special advisor” to the flop Inchon) seem to have similar personalities. Both have delusions of grandeur, have the nasty habit of overpromising and underdelivering and are embarrassingly nationalistic. However, this breed of Korean ajushi is dying off or getting old enough where you don’t have to seriously listen to them anymore. Thus, D-War doesn’t represent the future of Korean cinema (and thank goodness!). It’s movies like Oldboy, The Host and My Sassy Girl (the remake with the always sexy Elisha Cuthbert coming out later this year) that point to the future of Korean cinema.
#16,
He’s just a movie away of being called the ‘Korean Ed Wood’…which might actually be a good thing since it would make him somewhat of a cult figure.
Oh my gosh…
I saw the “Dragon Wars” TV commerical on Fox FX. Doesn’t look half bad. With smart edits in commericals, may dupe enough people in the states to make a little money. Never underestimate what a little contentless flash bang FX can do for a movie in the states.
i just saw the preview for this stinker. the effects look way too cheesy for a theatrical release. at first glance i thought it was a commercial for a made-for-tv piece of fluff - like the stuff on SciFi Channel.
I’ll be surprised if this movie does more then $4 million on its opening weekend boxoffice gross.