I just learned about this today while looking for something else, sorry, but there's a Japanese Independent Film Festival at Gwangju Theater from July 8th through the 22nd. Don't misunderstand "festival," it just means that Japanese films will be shown there. Films being shown are: Tokyo Sonata, Still Walking, Kimi no Tomodachi, Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara, Detroit Metal City, Barber Yoshino, The Magic Hour, and Sword of the Stranger. Showtimes are available here. There are small gifts available to customers, and there's a write-up in Korean from the Gwangju Dream paper. A very inopportune time for my fiance to be back in Japan, because although there are usually two or three English-language films in the theaters at any given time, Japanese movies are here, like, never.
Gwangju Theater (광주극장) is a small theater downtown that dates back to 1934 and is easy enough to get to. If you're at that intersection in front of the McDonald's, cross the street and wander into the older part of town and make that first left. It's on your right. Check the theater's homepage for other foreign-language and independent movies playing.
5 comments:
I don't know what this theater looks like, but if it has a sufficiently "old" look to it, it might make a nice photo blog post, à la Marmot.
I'm not going to any of those movies, but maybe next time they have an English one, or a subtitled Korean one, I'll go. This is where they have the diminuitive "Gwangju Film Festival." The theater is small and has been closed each of the half-dozen times I've walked past. I've seen old pictures of it online, but I'm too tired to dig them up now. I do think it's neat, though, to have a theater like this doing what it does in Gwangju. They have all kinds of foreign movies, but unfortunately they don't get subtitled in English.
Ah, that's too bad.
It is limiting to not have them in English, which is a global standard for movies. While it would certainly make sense to have them subtitled in Korean, both English and Korean could fit into the same movie (English below and Korean on the side — Korean on the side used to be the norm anyway, so it's not like Korean speakers aren't used to it).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not huffing and puffing b/c they're not in English. I fully understand that this is Korea and that the target audience is Koreans. This is pure speculation because, like I said I've never seen the theater open, but I doubt they're filling the house each night, so I wonder how much it'd hurt to have a night or two a month with English subtitles. I have no idea how that works, how movie theaters order subtitled movies, but I'm just saying. Anyway, if I get a free night maybe I will head down and catch a Japanese film . . . it'd be something to do, anyway.
Oh, I didn't take it that way at all.
Your suggestion is a good and practical one, as long as it isn't too much expense to get the English, too (the problem could lie with the Japanese supply chain).
There is a reasonably large, untapped audience that can be reached by doing this, one that might seek new forms of entertainment and therefore might be more likely to check out the movies than, say, the general Korean population.
Post a Comment