Thursday evening I got the chance to see 그림자 살인 (Private Eye) at Gangnam Cinus G. The movie was quite entertaining, actually. It's a thriller set during the Japanese occupation, though the year is never specified. I won't reveal anything about the plot, but it's definitely worth seeing. I was very happy again with the English subtitles. Here is the Korean trailer.Private Eye Korean Movie Trailer - Click here for the most popular videos
I must say, though, that I was rather disappointed in the accessibility of this movie. I went with a Korean friend, so he called the cinema and found movie times for us. When we got to the theater, there was no sign that said which movie or which theater was showing the English subtitles. There was no English title for the movie. And I thought to myself this: if I spoke no Korean, and read no hangul (which makes up for the vast majority of foreigners here) how would I know that this movie was had English subtitles.
If you want to make Korean movies more accessible, why not write on the sign board that there are English subtitles available.. in English?? Is that really so hard? I've seen English titles for Korean movies that don't have subtitles... so why not write it for the ones that DO have subtitles.
I appreciate the efforts that the government has put into subbing these movies. Really, I do. They made nice little pamphlets that I found in the theater with directions to both the theater in Gangnam and the theater in Myongdong. But, if you can't put movie times in English on the website, provide even a paragraph summary of the movie, or if NOTHING else, make sure that browsers can appropriately display the hangul on your site, so that those of us who CAN read it can figure out the movie times and disseminate the information among friends. There are too many problems with the Korean website, and the English Service website provides nothing but the title of the current movie and directions to the theater... including plenty of directions for how to park... even though we know that only about .1% of foreigners have a car...
Oh, and that brochure that I found at the cinema for the English language service... had no reference to the English Service website, only a reference to the Korean site. And, speaking no Korean it'd be nearly impossible to find the English Service from their home page. Good job Korea. Yet again you work so hard and spend so much money to do something right, but you screw up the easy part....
The English service has been around for less than a month... so I'm going to hope that they pull themselves together. I wish there were some feedback link on their site, but no, yet again, another failure.
Anyway, don't let my negativity about the system keep you from seeing the movie. It's definitely worth it.
Have you checked koreanfilm.org?
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