When We Were Kings

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

I remember as a kid of about 10 or 11 years old and visiting a local boxing gym in the town (née shithole) I grew up in. At the time, it was in a community centre and it didn’t have much in the way of equipment, bags, or a ring for that matter. It was mostly improvised. There were plenty of jump ropes, a few guys were being shown how to spar, and there were 2 boys going toe-to-toe in the makeshift ring.

The guy who was running the club was an ex-boxer himself and came across as tough as nails (as you’d expect). I remember him telling us that boxing wasn’t for everyone and that it took a huge amount of dedication, practice, discipline and self-sacrifice to get anywhere in the game. He sensed that most of us wouldn’t be back to the club after we’d had a sparring session later that night on our first visit. He wasn’t wrong.

All I remember (and I don’t mean that as a pun) was that I didn’t really like getting smacked around by my opponent who seemed to make a lot better use of the big gloves. Nor did I enjoy all the ducking, diving, weaving and constant movement that’s required when you’re in the ring. I was, to put it mildly, shit. Totally clueless, an uncoordinated mess, and definitely destined for a career outside the world of pugilism.

That said, I’d always followed the sport with some interest and to this day prefer it to the more popular MMA or UFC fights that are frequently on in my local bars of an evening. I don’t know, there was just something about the big fights that always got you going. I remember watching Muhammad Ali fight Larry Holmes and (Ali’s last fight I think?) and listening to my old man and uncle say how sad it was to see him take a whopping like that. Or Jim Watt’s World Title fights (he was from about 4 or 5 miles from where I grew up) and was the palest man I’d ever seen, even for a Scot, but he was a really gutsy, lightweight fighter. Barry McGuigan was another one who was a smashing wee fighter. There were also some local guys from Condorrat who fought professionally, Drew and Wilson Docherty and did very well. You were probably more than likely to see these guys fight on free-to-air channels where they usually brought in big audience figures.

Then there was Tyson. His fights from the US were always on at mad hours, usually in the middle of the night. Or you saw highlights the following day(which in the early Mike Tyson era were always very, very short) as he was nonchalantly pummeling his way to fame and fortune. As we all saw his subsequent fall from grace, and the shady shenanigans of Don King (the promoter) who turned the whole ‘event’ into nothing more than a pantomime (for cheap crooks and gangsters was what it really looked like), boxing never really seemed the same to me after that.

Today, however, I’m reading my way through the news from the last day or so and I come across a Youtube clip highlighting last night’s WBC heavyweight title fight between Dereck Chisora who lost to Ukrainian Vitali Klitschko on points. Not a huge surprise he lost, but in fact he’s being credited as having put up much more of a fight than fellow-Brit, show pony, and all-round gobshite, David Haye did against Klitschko last year.

The first clip was disgusting enough when Chisora (who?) spits water in the face of his opponents brother, Wladimir. What a charmer, eh?

It was then followed by this, what can only be described as a piece of surreal theatre, where Haye (who, remember wasn’t fighting) and Chisora start a huge brawl with punches being thrown, cameras, bottles, it was all kicking off.

Then, 3:41 minutes into the clip came the knockout punch – “I swear to God I’m going to shoot you. I’m going to shoot David Haye”, proclaims Chisora to a packed (and somewhat shocked and stunned) audience. There then follows scenes of sheer pandemonium where (it has to be said) a very scary Chisora further threatens to ‘burn’ Haye, inside or outside the ring. It also transpires today that the German Plod want to question both men over the incident, but Haye has yet to be located.  I’m sure he’ll turn up soon enough. Afterall, he does like talking…

It seems to me that this is either the most elaborate of stunts to build up some more tension for another fight between two fighters, who are frankly not very good. Or, it’s going to lead the sport somewhere just shy of the gutter where it already sits precariously next to. Hype is one thing, and sure, everyone likes a bit of theatre before a fight. Some trash talking never did anyone any harm, and we know it’s all in the name of getting more bums on seats. Or in the case of boxing today, more bums to spend $40 on an event package from HBO or Showtime.

Nobody did the self-publicity game quite like Muhammad Ali, and nothing quite captures him in his prime (in my opinion at least) as the excellent “When We Were Kings”, that documents his classic “Rumble in The Jungle” fight  in 1974 with George Foreman. Of course, almost forty years later, the game has changed, but I’d like to think that somewhere out there we can return to heady days of the ‘Sweet Science’ and leave chumps like Haye and Chisora where they belong – the playground.

“Yippie-ki-yea”

Die Hard was great, wasn’t it? How can you not like a movie where the bad guy’s called Hans Gruber? A hat-tip to the Bond movies perhaps (before they too became for choice of a better word- shit)?

DH 2 wasn’t a patch on it (How many good movies feature snow? Even the Von Trapp’s refrained from using it). But they brought it back with a worthy attempt for the third installment (still can’t work out how they worked out the gallon jug conundrum – then again I’m somewhat arithmetically challenged), but by the time we see Brucie in his semmit for the predictably shittily-titled ” Live Free or Die Hard” (Jesus…) I’d long given up on it.

It was with some surprise ( combined with a certain element of “what the F***!”) that I read the other day they’re releasing a fifth episode of the franchise on Valentines Day 2013. Whether it’s called “A Good Die To Die Hard (be careful what you wish for) or the Die Hard 24/7 (whoever thought this was going to work is obviously lacking certain brain cells – i.e. 90% of them) isn’t really the issue. It’s more of a concern just how they’re going to get Grandad in a vest (and his boy) into some more contrived shenanigans, but this time in Russia. I can hear the shady stereotypes being written from here.

Now, just a couple of days after Valentine’s Day, we had Kim Jong il’s posthumous birthday, and in truly over-the-top style Our Friend’s In The North unveiled a bronze statue of him and his old man on horseback. It just reminded me of the Roy Rogers (albeit in a slightly tenuous way) conversation in the aforementioned original Die Hard.

North Korea marks late leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday

My favourite part of this clip (other than the inspection of toothbrushes that is) is when they talk about KJI’s “supposedly caring side”. Of course, the powers that be in North Korea want the image portrayed of their leaders (and the same goes for those of us not living under an oppressive regime to some extent) to be seen in a certain, more favourable light. And then there’s the Kimjongilia. The Kimjongilia is a flower named after ‘The Dear Leader’ and an eye-opening documentary that needs to be seen by more people to get a better perspective of the atrocities that have (and still are) going on in North Korea.

More recently, we’ve seen an influx of  articles pop up telling us just how awesome it is in (or is going to be in North Korea). First, North Korea, New Land of Opportunity? actually proposes that investing (or opening/operating a business) in the North is a viable option. Next, the BBC chip in with Made in North Korea: Business in a ‘communist monarchy’ where it documents the story of a Swedish entrepreneur (who eerily looks like the vampire kid from  ’Let The Right One In’ ) and how it all went tits up for him after setting up a clothing factory). Or my favourite is this complete muppet (he’s Spanish, and I don’t think the two muppery-related incidents are related?), who really believes that he’ll be at the top table for ever more.

       

 ”Yippie-ki-yea”, indeed…

   

The kids are a bit 90210…

“God Bless Ozzy Osbourne” is the classic case of a film of two halves.

The first part of the documentary shows Ozzy as most of us have never seen him before – preparing for a show, warts and all. One of the advantages of having your son (and wife) co-produce this film is that you see Ozzy in a very natural light, moping around before a gig, following his 40 minute pre-performance routine (“5 minutes of physical exercise”…), then hitting the stage. They don’t hide the face that he can’t hit the notes he used to back in the day (and even that was somewhat questionable), and that even some of the shows might be a bit, well, shit. You do get the feeling though that he’s still really up for it, but the cynic in me says that the interference of his manager and wife, Sharon, definitely hints that he’s being fed some of the lines here. Do you really think he can be arsed signing every single one of the programs/t-shirts/whatever before every show?

Of course, the story of where is he now wouldn’t be complete with out talking about his up-bringing (poor, working-class), his adolescence (he was a ‘tit’ and a trouble-maker), and of course the beginning of the band that were the pioneers of Heavy Metal. His Black Sabbath band mates suggest that Ozzy only got in the band as he was the only one with a PA (that his father had bought for him), and that they didn’t take him seriously. It was after the huge success of the first four albums that things really went into a state of excess. His first marriage broke up (he still can’t remember when his first kids were born), eventually he was kicked out of Sabbath, the Randy Rhodes period when the solo career went through the roof, and all this time you actually wonder how he’s still alive today with all the gear he was taking (or more to the point, wasn’t taking).

As you’d expect, it’s not without its moments of humour as Ozzy claims that “I’m deaf!. The next tour will be in braille”, as we see him trying to do a sound check. In this part of the film Ozzy does manage to come across as quite likeable, is generally held in high-esteem (but maybe not for what you could call conventional reasons) by his peers, and you do feel yourself warming more and more to this truly original eccentric.

Then, it all goes a bit 90210. Hollywood. Drama. Bullshit. Too much Collagen and Botox on the screen at the same time, most of which don’t belong to the protagonist. This is where the family takes over the film and it all gets a bit self-indulgent and quite frankly, all a bit “woe is me”.

It’s hard not to agree with his kids (and his wife to an extent) that Ozzy didn’t give a shit about them and carried on in his own mad, rock’n'roll bubble. He claims that the reason he quit drinking and drugs was because his kids became addicts and he couldn’t deal with that as he was the cause of it all. That much may well be true, but the constant whining, whingeing, and general twattery of his kids (from the second marriage) just makes you want to yearn for more of the rock’n'roll stories. They hijack the remainder of the film and you get the feeling that they believe Ozzy wouldn’t be where he is today without them. They do not come across in a good light.

For the most part “GBOO” is an entertaining 90 minutes. And for music fans, I think it still has enough cred to cut through most of the sentimental bullshit and focus on the man, the madness, and the music.

It’s a musical journey…

One of the joys of having a wee bit of time off has been catching up on a few of the movies and documentaries that I’ve not had the opportunity to watch yet. In the last couple of days I also caught up on some Korea fiction when I finished “I Have The Right To Destroy Myself” by Kim Young- Ha. At only 119 pages long it was pretty easy to get through in one sitting. It’s definitely a good place to start for anyone interested in modern Korean literature (translated into English). And yes, it’s a bit barking too.

So, with nothing much on the cards other than walking the dog in the sub-zero temperatures a few times a day, I sat down to watch a couple of music documentaries that I’ve had an eye on for some time. First, was “From The Sky Down’ which is a look at U2′s making of the ‘Achtung Baby’ album and after that was “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne”, a memoir commemorating his forty plus years as an artist and all-round mentalist.

For anyone interested in a live performance film (see Rattle & Hum), then you may not find “From The Sky Down” to your liking. Sure, there are clips from gigs from throughout the bands lengthy career, and a couple of more intimate performances do feature,  such as The Edge’s haunting rendition of ‘Love is Blindness’.

Moreover, the film concentrates on where the band went (literally and metaphorically) after the huge popular and critical success of ‘The Joshua Tree’ and the slightly more-all-over-the-place ‘Rattle and Hum’. The film documents the personal relationships, the difficulties in finding the ‘sound’ they wanted, and all sorts of other more personal ups and downs amongst the band members. U2 decided to head to Berlin’s ‘Hansa’ studios to record ‘Achtung Baby’ to see if they could re-generate the ‘magic’ that they’d had previously and the film shows just how fraught with difficulties that process was.

It’s a documentary that really focuses on how the band got to where they were at the time, the huge global success, and some of the insecurities they have as musicians they had when they were playing these huge arenas and stadiums all over the world. It shows how the band work out the process of getting the songs: music, melody, then improvising for the lyrics. And best of all, it’s not all navel-gazing, rock’n'roll cliche bullshit that they could have so easily fall into.

It’s quite light-hearted and fun at times as we see Larry Mullen Jr getting pulled over by the German cops in his Trabant. Or when Bono describes the Edge’s tuning-up process depending on his mood. These were the more human aspects of the band that I think we’d never seen before and I really like the whole mates/band/gang outlook of the film.

It’s worth a watch, even if you’re not a fan, just to have a look inside what makes a band tick and how they created their last great album.

“We’re a’ Jock Tamsan’s Bairns”

Today is Burns Day (or Night as we tend to call it at home) and it’s probably the one day of the year where I do go a bit ‘Tartan’. It’s not a noticeable amount really. Maybe I’ll listen to a Burns song or a poem (of which there are many on youtube etc), or talk (more like lecture) to my better half about how much of a top bloke Robert Burns was and how he’d beat Bill Shakespeare in a square go (Battle of The Bards) with consummate ease.

More to point, it’s also a time when the rest of the world get to be all ‘Scottish’ for the day, whether their ancestors hail from there or not. I think it’s great that we get to share this with everyone (as the title of the blog entry would suggest). Fortunately, for those who don’t have a chip on both shoulders (or in other words – are not Scottish themselves) , they get back to normal and generally let us be until the next big piss-up. It’s a fair trade I think.

However, one of the things that has come up in discussion in my classroom and amongst friends has been the recent media interest in the proposed Scottish referendum. I’ve just finished a job where I was teaching teacher’s from government schools, mostly to help improve their English and hopefully to give them a bit more cultural background as to where I’m from and ‘aw that. Most of them were perplexed as to why they don’t teach Gaelic in all Scottish schools, given the fact that we are so fiercely proud of our heritage? Or why in high school’s (English) ‘Higher’ examinations that no Scottish novels or plays were studied up until now.  And just what is all this referendum malarkey about?

My friend Bryan, a ‘proper’ journalist (as in – he’s fond of a few shandies and gets paid for writing) has written a couple of great pieces on the subject that is well worth a read. There’s also a very simple breakdown of the issues involved here. My favourite, however, has to be those crazy Taiwanese (it must be their love of Irn Bru that does it?) who gave us this…

So far so good, eh? Well, it wouldn’t be very Scottish if you couldn’t make an arse of it. First, we had some mad, Shortbread Warrior-type, going off on one on those who opposed independence as being anti-Scottish. As a riposte (and quite a funny one too), this guy ended up losing his job (although one less politician isn’t necessarily a bad thing) for producing this video about the aforementioned ‘Tartan Terrier’.

Next, there was the question of whether ex-pats (I guess that’s me and my like) should be allowed to vote in the referendum, and it seems to causing quite a stooshie going by the comments underneath the article. And just to add fuel to the fire comes this. My biggest concern has to be how much all of this is going to cost and just how much more they (as in the politicians) can manipulate the situation further for their own gains.

As it stands just now, I’m a ‘NO’. I don’t think there’s enough proof to suggest that we’d be able to go it alone. The opponents want a referendum where there’s a simple yes/no question for us to answer, and to my mind that seems to be the easiest and fairest way to decide the matter in 2014 or whenever they can get hold of Mel Gibson to do it. That said, I’m still as cynical as ever and can only echo the sentiments in this video.

Pop Quiz…

Memories from growing up in the 1980′s for me are few and far between.

I put it down to the heady combination of rock music (you could count indie, goth, punk, folk, blues and whatever else we were listening to at the time), girls being in and around your social circle (and becoming a bit more than your mate’s sister if you know what I mean?), being introduced to exotic vintages from around the globe like this or this, and of course how would we have ever found out about anything at all if it wasn’t for Channel 4′s Red triangle series?

When it came to music on TV you did have some choice. You could have The Tube on a Friday dinnertime (look at this lineup of bands that appeared on the show) which was great. Or, on the BBC you had Top of The Pops (which varied from just being shit every week, to being shit every week with the odd moment of genius), and the sometimes brilliant Old Grey Whistle Test.

Somewhere in-between those shows was “Pop Quiz”, which was on the BBC, and featured 2 teams of muso-types answering questions on yes, you got it, music, musicians, and all things rock’n'rollery. From this early episode, they were asked by that sanctimonious twat of a host Mike Read, such taxing questions as “Who’s the lead guitar player of Pink Floyd?” and “Name the members of U2″? Shit, it must have been a nightmare getting beat from anyone called Alvin Stardust.

One of the good things about the show was you got to see (and hear) contemporary musicians of the time (and times past) jibber on about music and how much they actually new about it. I’m sure most of them were half in the bag when they recorded it (Phil Lynott was a captain of one of the teams. How could possibly not have a proper rock’n'roll time?), and at least they gave it a go.  And Kim Wilde was fit…

I don’t really remember what happened to the show after Phil Lynott’s death? It may well or not have stayed on TV for a while, but like all good things it came to an end. Tonight, is also one of those nights when I get to say goodbye to something that was a huge part of the music (and bar) scene in Seoul – Stompers last show. The bar itself has been closed for a while, and maybe there was a chance of things picking back up again, but it wasn’t to be. I’ve had some great nights in that bar, but most of the exact memories are somewhat hazy. I’ve played and watched countless gigs there, good hospitality, a good crowd, a bit of a dive, and many (many) shots were the order of the day. Those were some good times.

Ask any musician who’s ever played in Itaewon if they know or have played at Stompers and the answer would more than likely be -” Dwayne! Stompers! Sure, we had a blast!”

We’ll miss that place.

 

 

Young Guns (Go for It)

So, the biggest news in this part of the world of late was Kim Jong Il meeting his maker and the subsequent announcement that his son, Kim Jong Eun, was to step into his old man’s shoes. All in all, 2011 wasn’t a great year for despotic dictators and their minions. In the Middle East they got rid of their leaders in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia, and there are still struggles going on in Yemen, Syria and Jordan. Some commentators have mused that what we are witnessing is nothing short of the birth of a new Middle East, but I would argue that a democratic and secular Middle East would be the real sign of a new beginning.

This news of KJI’s sudden (or maybe not so?) departure came about a week or so after me completing the first semester of my MA in Asian Studies at Sejong University, here in Seoul. One of the classes I took was a politics class focusing on North and South Korea between 1945 to the present day and I really enjoyed it. The professor who took the class was excellent and was himself involved first-hand in President Kim Young Sam’s administration and the lead up to him becoming elected in 1993.

Dr. Kim, as well as being highly academically qualified, was also of an age where he could recall the Japanese occupation of Korea (he was at elementary school I think he said…?), the Korean war, and all the subsequent turmoil and changes on the Korean peninsula since then. A lot of the classroom discourse was centered around current political ongoing’s in the region and it probably wouldn’t get any bigger than the death of the ‘Dear Leader’. Too bad it was a bit late for that final term paper.

From the tail end of last year, the scenes the world witnessed coming out of Pyongyang were nothing short of those blagged from a Luis Bunuel movie. In fact, the mass hysteria, the huge state funeral, every single detail seemingly choreographed to seduce the viewers into believing just how strong the cult of personality is.

The North were quick to appoint Kim Jr. into place as to avoid too much of a power struggle amongst (I’m sure one or two of the Generals in this photo) the ruling elite, and no doubt to give the impression of a smooth transition into the next era of totalitarian rule. One thing that I have certainly noticed over the post couple of weeks is just how much press coverage all this is getting and on such a regular basis.

First, we’re being told that the South can go take a run and jump (I’m paraphrasing of course…) and that the North wants nothing to do with the ‘puppet’ regime. Of course, we know this is complete bollocks as the North still depends on food aid from the South to feed their people but they’d rather not talk about that. When you can get beyond the posturing, the histrionics, and the fact that both countries will be under new leadership at some point this year (South Korea’s presidential elections are in December) then the hope is that both sides can get back to negotiating some sort of agreement. However, if the right-wing, conservative’s regain power in South Korea you can probably expect more of the same as we’ve seen in the past 4 years.

What’s caught my eye is the current interest in the new boy in town. We’ve had him installed as the Chief of the army, and now as the birthday boy, but you can bet your bottom dollar that there’ll be plenty of stories coming out in the coming months about foreign policy, nuclear plants and awesome haircuts. There are definitely interesting times ahead.

There are a lots of sites out there that are showing North Korea to the outside world for the first time. The photos from Inside North Korea are excellent. And this insight into what it’s like to teach in North Korea are more than likely to catch the eye.  I don’t fancy it much on a Monday morning after a good weekend on the sauce.

It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out in the months and years ahead.

 

The act of willfully allowing one’s ears to bleed…

There was a story I came across this week that was slagging off Nickelback. Imagine, who would ever dream of doing such a thing? With a mere 50 million (or thereabouts) albums sold, a plethora of hits behind them, sell-out world tours, and a lead singer who is a better looking version of Sarah Jessica Parker leading from the front (see previous entry), what’s not to like?

The first time I heard them in the flesh must have been around 2001(or 2) and it was all my buddy Jason Lynn’s fault. I remember we hooked up one Saturday night and ended up in Hollywood Bar in Itaewon, no doubt watching the football and fraternizing into the wee hours as was our want. He’d just been sent the CD (remember them?), possibly a CD single, from home and was eager to let everyone in the bar hear it. The only reason it was memorable for me was that was the song that went on to launch them into the Rock ‘n’ Roll land of Ferrari’s, supermodels, an extensive collection of shitty over-produced songs and videos, and more hits on Youtube than all the ‘Hitler’ Downfall clips combined.

It’s fair to say that I’m not much of a fan, but one or two songs have had the odd hook or something that wasn’t bad. The song ‘Hero’ from the original Spiderman movie isn’t the worst, but when you check the video it’s almost like Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) and Jack  Black are hamming it up. 

So, the drummer from The Black Keys has blamed Nickelback for Rock ‘n’ Roll being down the shitter, according to this article at least. Maybe he has a point but I’d like to think that there’s a bit more to it than that. They’re an easy target if nothing else. There’s only a lull in guitar bands (as he calls it) coming to the fore because record companies want it this way at the present time. I’m sure all those kids in their bedrooms learning chords, jamming out with their friends in their garages, basements, and practice rooms are as mad for it as I (‘We’) were 20-something years ago. Why not just say that Nickelback are pants and leave it at that? You won’t get that many in disagreement.

One of the other stories to come out in the first week of 2012 was that Van Halen were making their live comeback (with Dave Lee Roth) ahead of their new album and US tour. I’d always had a soft spot for the original line-up of VH and didn’t even mind Sammy Hagar that much either, but of late it’s been a bit of a circus. Rolling Stone magazine reviewed the gig here, but to be honest I think RS is pretty shitty when it comes to reviewing anything these days. I’d prefer to think of the opening drum part for ‘Hot For Teacher’ and some of the other great songs they’ve done and let that do the talking instead.

And why anyone, let alone Metallica want to make a 3-d movie escapes me?

However, the highlight of the week for me would be the news that about 700 Thin Lizzy ‘demos’ have come to light. One can only hope that there are some gems in there.

Looking on the bright side, we’re always granted that at least 3 days a week the Korean press will churn out some shite about K-pop being the reason why the world’s a better place these days. World peace, a cure for cancer, or maybe one of these non-entities being nominated for a Nobel Prize sometime in the future is what they’re really capable of?

My favourite piece this week was about the ‘next big thing’, “A Pink”. What kind of fucking name is that? Not only does this article look like it’s been sketched out in crayon but it then goes on to boast that girls of 16 years of age have been going through “years of rigorous training at their entertainment factory”. Please, whatever you do, do not encourage these bastards and all their little helpers. Whoever told them to say that the best way to distinguish themselves from other acts was (drum roll) to use their real names. Wah! That’ll make all the fucking difference then, eh?

I’m going to end this piece with a quote from the Urban Dictionary who have at least 12 pages of definitions (well, kind of…) for Nicekelback, but I think it works in whatever context you want to use it.

3. nickelback 

the act of willfully allowing one’s ears to bleed.

“I was Nickelbacking so the school nurse sent me home early.”

Pics on one page –

My photos folder keeps filling up and I decided to put a lot of them on one page. Some good times from 2011 and a wee bit from 2012 too…

Old Horseface is back…

Towards the end of last semester I decided I had to change the final graded assignment for the students in my writing class. I’ve found that by using the old ‘write about what you know’ ploy I could give them assignments on something that they can relate to and movies were a pretty good way of doing that.

Going to the pictures in Korea is by far one of the most popular ways for people to spend their free time. In fact, I’m sure (for those of you in the same boat) if you ask any regular university student “how often do you go to the movies?”, they’ll probably answer on average “once or twice per month”. It’s about $8 per ticket (although 3-D rip-off flicks will cost you more BUT early morning showings will be cheaper), and I’d say for 2 people you’d spend $20 all in – tickets, popcorn, drinks, transportation. Probably decent in comparison to what you’d pay in the UK?

Anyway, when I’m trying to give the students some ideas to write about, it never fails to amaze me just how many of them will write about the same thing. Not their ‘style’ of writing, but more like the actual subject they end up writing about.

It’s not their fault, but it’s more down to what’s available and showing at the local multiplex that must influence their decisions (and taking peer pressure etc into account). This semester (this being the first time that I’ve done a 5 paragraph essay for a final assignment with them) the winner had to be ‘Inception’. I’d say that out of 60 students there were at least 10 who chose this movie as their ‘favourite’ or most ‘memorable’. Although the movie was released in the summer of 2010 and added to the fact that most of them can’t remember what they had for breakfast (I could be added to that statistic at times myself) it was quite refreshing for them still to be so enthusiastic about this particular film. I quite enjoyed ‘Inception’,  (and the South park spoof episode) and I guess it proved that you could make such a thing as an intelligent blockbuster movie.

There was the occasional student who chose something like Fellini’s “8 1/2″  (I preferred La Strada myself, but hey, it was better than the guy who picked to write about ‘Marley and Me’) and of course a good selection of Korean and Japanese movies too, but the majority of films they wrote about were well-known Hollywood titles. Most of them could be classed as ‘popular’ (or the ‘kids’ like to say - very famous) and had probably done relatively well at the box office.

However, according to a recent article in Time magazine it’s said that sales at the box office in the US have decreased by about 4.5% or $70 squillion dollars. My heart bled for the poor lambs. After a bit more of a trawl through my Twitter feed (yes, I know…) I came across an interesting piece by Roger Ebert (he of the thumbs up/down movie review show) who came up with a list of reason why. I’d go as far as saying that I’m not too fussed if the movie companies or multiplexes are losing money or not. And I’d also go along with his opinion in #6 on his list when he puts it down to a lack of choice, and therein lies my point. The selection of movies in theatres in Korea is pretty poor and when the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US kicks in it will undoubtedly get worse. Hmmmmm?

The other day I was walking through a nearby multiplex when I saw this huge (and how can you miss Sarah Jessica Parker’s HUGE old horseface on an even bigger banner?) poster for this movie called “I don’t know how she does it”. It doesn’t come out until the beginning of February next year (they’re just teasing me for the next month or so) and that’s it – that’s the biggest movie to get here in February 2012? I’m sure we’ll still have either Holmes or Mission Impossible straggling about then too, but Sarah Jessica Parker? Really? If the movie’s anything like the poster suggests (and it suggests it’ll be like all the worst Kate Hudson movies PLUS Sex & The City combined) that it’ll be utter shite and a complete waste of mine and yours hard-earned. That said, the choice is yours.

Still, wouldn’t it be nice to think that from time to time movie theatres in Korea wouldn’t have to kiss Hollywood’s arse and show what will probably be a huge waste of time and money (but will no doubt do well), but instead there would be a niche for just that something a wee bit different? I know, it’s a pipe dream. It would be even better if point A were to come to fruition that there would be a readily available medium where we could keep up with what’s showing on a regular basis (this website does a decent job of maintaining listings ). Moreover, I can navigate my way through most Korean cinema sites to check to see what’s showing, but try booking a ticket without a Korean ID number and see how far you get? It’d also be an idea to get more Korean cinema’s to show more of their Korean language films with English subtitles as I’m sure given a choice between spending 2 hours in the company of Seabiscuit or checking out something locally produced would be a (sometimes) welcome alternative.

EDIT: I’ve just read the movie poster and it says that SJP’s movie “Can You Tell What It Is Yet (or whatever it’s called) is based on a New York Times bestseller. That’s it, I’m definitely reserving tickets for the first night!