Korea 24 - 2024.12.13
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Hello, it's the 13th of December and welcome to our Friday edition of Career24. I'm your host, Kwon Jang-ho. The National Assembly is set to vote on a second impeachment motion to oust President Yoon Sang-yeol on Saturday 4pm after his short-lived martial law decree last week. We'll have more details in news briefing shortly.

The government released an economic report today expressing concern about increasing downside risks due to domestic uncertainties. We'll discuss the risks facing the economy for weekly economy review. And coming up on Movie Spotlight, we have reviews of a local family comedy called About Family and the Demi Moore-led body horror film The Substance. We have all that and more on today's Crow24.

A second motion to impeach President Yoon Sung-yeol has officially been reported to a plenary session of the National Assembly. This comes after the first motion failed to pass Parliament last week.

The nation will be closely watching to see how ruling and opposition lawmakers will act during the vote scheduled for this Saturday afternoon. For more on this and our other headlines of the day, Rosene Park from our KBS World Radio News desk joins us now. Rosene, hello. Hello, John. So, Rosene, let's go over the details of this latest impeachment motion against President Trump.

President Yun. Okay, well, the motion proposed by 190 opposition lawmakers and one independent lawmaker was reported at around 2 p.m. on this Friday. Similar to the first motion, it stated that in declaring martial law, President Yun violated the Constitution and other laws concerning the principles of popular sovereignty and separation of powers.

The second bill highlighted that the fact martial law troops and police attempted to arrest lawmakers under Yoon's command serves as reason to oust the president.

It also stated that martial law troops occupy the National Election Commission, seize the mobile phones of commission employees, and sought to even seal off a polling company established by a veteran broadcaster, Kim Ho-joon, all of which serve as additional reasons to impeach the president. So when exactly is the impeachment motion vote going to happen? We know it's Saturday. What

What time will it take place? Because there's been a change today, right? Right. Initially, it was believed the vote would be held at the National Assembly at 5pm. However, it was updated today that the opposition camp plans to vote on the motion at 4pm on Saturday, falling in line with a law that stipulates a vote must occur between 24 and 72 hours after a motion is reported to a plenary session.

Now, the ruling People Power Party will again be the deciding factor in terms of whether this impeachment motion will go through.

What have we heard from the opposition, though, in terms of what they are doing to push it through? Well, we heard from main opposition Democratic Party chairman Lee Jae-myung today who urged the ruling party lawmakers to join the vote and also to vote for impeachment. He stressed history will remember the lawmakers' choices and that lawmakers, regardless of their party affiliation, have a duty to respect the Constitution and follow the order of their constituents.

He said at this point, it's not about protecting the president or the ruling party. It's about protecting the lives of the people who've been protesting out in the streets in the freezing cold. He said impeachment is needed to end the current chaos. Now, not many ruling PPP lawmakers have been vocal about what they plan to do during Saturday's vote.

But the party's new floor leader, Kwon Sung-dong, said he met with the National Assembly Speaker, Woo Won-sik, on Friday. What did they talk about? Well, Kwon told reporters that he suggested starting discussions on a constitutional amendment and requested Woo take the lead in initiating related talks.

So within the ruling party, one of the proposals for resolving this political crisis caused by President Yoon's emergency martial law declaration is to consider a constitutional revision to shorten the president's single five-year term by potentially adopting that four-year, two-term presidency.

However, the chief press secretary of the National Assembly speaker clarified later that the talks between Kwon and Mu were not about shortening the presidential term, but rather a general conversation about the possibility of discussing constitutional amendments.

Now we know there are many facets to the martial law incident and many figures involved including the National Police Commissioner General, Cho Ji-ho, who is under investigation for his alleged role in the case. He reportedly claimed that a judge who acquitted the main opposition DP leader Lee Jae-myung of subordination of perjury charges was included in the list of people subject to arrest

under the December 3rd martial law decree? Yeah, we've heard that according to Zhou's legal counsel, the police chief said defence counterintelligence commander Youn Heung had ordered confirmation of locations regarding 15 people following the martial law declaration. That list included the DP chief,

PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, National Assembly Speaker Woo, and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Yong-soo. But there was one person Cho did not immediately recognize. And that was Kim Dong-hyun, senior judge at the Seoul Central District Court, who had ruled in Yi's favor on November 25th. Now, Cho said he refused to provide the information and ignored the order.

He also claimed that President Yoon called him six times during martial law to push him to apprehend lawmakers in parliament, an order Cho said he did not follow.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the former Defense Minister Kim Jong-un have denied their client's treason charges, claiming that martial law declaration is part of the president's inherent governing authority granted by the Constitution. This is also what President Yun argued in his last address yesterday, right? Yeah. Kim's lawyer said calling the president's martial law declaration an insurrection and attempts to investigate the incident and indict those involved are acts of, quote, treason.

that lead to constitutional disorder. They said their client intends to fight alongside the president to protect the constitution. And what argument are they standing on? Well, the lawyers claim that only the president can decide whether a situation has fulfilled the requirement for a martial law decree and that, you know, such governing authority cannot be the subject of judgment by the judiciary. They said only the constitutional control against a martial law decree is parliament-based.

exercising its right to request revocation, which it did and the president respected.

Now, not surprisingly, support for President Yoon has waned significantly since this all erupted. According to a new survey, his approval rating has hit a record low of 11%. Yes, Gallup Korea surveyed 1,002 adults nationwide from Tuesday to Thursday. 11% of respondents said Yoon is doing a good job, down 5 percentage points on week. But it's the lowest posted since the launch of Yoon's administration of May of 2022.

A record of 85% of respondents, however, expressed dissatisfaction over Yoon's performance. With regard to ousting the president, 75% of respondents expressed support, while 21% said they are opposed to it. The survey had a confidence level of 95% with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

And amid all this, for the first time since the short-lived martial law declaration, the government released its monthly economic report. And it's raised concerns about a potential increase in downside risks due to weakened economic sentiment. Can you tell us more about this? Sure. The Ministry of Economy and Finance in its Green Book for December said that while price stability continues, there are concerns...

Thank you.

which has also resulted in a decline in overseas travellers. And if we look at last month's assessment, it cited, quote, uncertainties due to changes in domestic and external conditions. But this month, it was replaced with expansion of domestic and external conditions, reflecting, you know, some heightened uncertainty. That's where we're going to wrap it up for our news briefing today. Rosene, thank you for those stories. Thank you. Thank you.

The government has released a report highlighting concerns about increasing downside risks due to ongoing domestic uncertainties. In its first monthly economic report since the Emergency Martial Law declaration last week, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said growing domestic and external uncertainties, including reduced private spending and decreased business investment, are heightening these risks.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has vowed to monitor the political situation over the weekend and implement additional measures if needed to curb excessive volatility in the financial and foreign exchange markets. Authorities have also set aside a 10 trillion won stock stabilization fund ready to be mobilized "immediately"

If necessary. To get some analysis on all of these developments for this week's weekly economy review, we're joined in the studio by economics professor Yang Jun-suk from the Catholic University of Korea. Professor Yang, hello. Hello. So let's start with that monthly economic report dubbed the Green Book, which was released today. Although the report did not specifically mention terms like emergency martial law or impeachment crisis information,

It certainly hinted at them using the term political uncertainty, which was a term used in December 2016 during the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. The report talked about increased downside risks. So, Professor, what are your major takeaways from this report? OK, well, the big change in this report is that in the previous reports, there was always a mention that there are signs of recovery. Now that phrase has disappeared. Hmm.

So the government is taking a more perhaps pessimistic and more serious position on the future economy. And they've emphasized political uncertainty. I think that's the correct phrase to use.

Because, well, we talked a bit about this last week, but if you just talk about the martial law, it really didn't do much to the economy because it started very late and it ended very early. So it didn't affect production. It didn't affect exports. No one got hurt or killed. No one was arrested. So in terms of real economy, nothing really happened, which is part of the reason why the –

Credit ratings for Korea was expected to remain the same. But now we have political uncertainty because we don't know what they're going to do with the president. There is a legal ambiguity here because impeachment vote didn't go through. And we don't know if the president is really president.

We're in sort of this legal ambiguous ground where legally all the power is still with the president, but he's not supposed to do anything. And they're pretty much putting it to him. Please promise that you won't use your powers. Right. So it becomes very difficult to figure out who's in charge.

It becomes very difficult to see what policy is going to be for the future. And it becomes very difficult to see, especially if you're, say, a foreign government official, who are you going to talk to about policy? So we have to get this ambiguity worked out.

But the problem is it seems to be going on and on and on. So hopefully maybe tomorrow we'll get something on the impeachment one way or the other. Right. So that's going to be my next question. If he is impeached tomorrow, then that takes away some of the uncertainty, right? So I think it'll actually be a plus for the Korean economy. Now, if you look back in the Park Geun-hye impeachment, on the day of impeachment, we had a very negative shock.

But starting the very next day, it started recovering. And I think that may be what's going to happen this time if President Yoon is impeached. We may see some turbulence on Monday.

Well, we may not actually because a lot of things have been clarified. Right. And we've also been here before with President Park just a few years ago. So, yes, impeachment is something that's painful and there are unknowns involved. But as we said last week, it's going to be known unknown because we've been through it before. Whereas right now we're in a situation where we've never been there before and

If you're talking about rule of law, we're in a very ambiguous place right now because this was not defined anywhere in the Constitution or in Korean legal system. So I think if we go through the impeachment tomorrow, one way or the other, a lot of things will be clarified. And hopefully we can start our way to recovery since the...

uncertainty will be starting to be reduced. But the worst case scenario is that we do the same thing we did last week, which is have the vote cancelled or have the vote delayed for some mysterious reason or some legal justification for one thing or the other. Well, we'll see what happens tomorrow and see what the Green Book next month says as well. With all that in mind...

How have the financial and foreign exchange markets fared this week? It's been a bit of a mixed bag, right? Well, Kospi and Kostak made surprising comebacks on Tuesday. Now, Monday, after the impeachment vote went unnoticed,

awry. Kospi fell by 2.8%, Kostak fell by 5.2%. That's the biggest decline we had since the martial law was put in place and removed. So that gives you an idea what uncertainty does. But then the very next day, we had a recovery. Kospi went up by 2.4%, Kostak went up by 5.5%.

And even the stock market indices kept on going up, though the amount, the percentage point was smaller day by day. But still, the stock market recovered. But the interesting thing is,

The currency rates did not really recover. Right, they've been weakening, right? So Friday closing time, it was $14.23. And then on Tuesday closing time, it was $14.35. And yesterday closing time, it was $14.30. I think it went down a little bit today, but still, it's well above $14.20 right now. So...

What seems to be happening is that if foreigners came back into Korean stock market, we would have seen a lot more changes in the exchange rate. But because the Korean won still remains weak, the foreigners did not really come back to the Korean market. They're still leaving, though the amount of net sell-off is very small.

But mostly it was individual Korean investors selling to institutional investors. So in that sense, Korea, at least in international markets, we haven't really recovered, perhaps, though the domestic investors, institutional investors are taking perhaps some risk, feeling optimistic. Right. So the...

Right, so the dollar to Korean won exchange rate was 14.33 at 3.30pm Korean Standard Time, which is when the markets closed. So yes, above the 14.30 mark.

So authorities have said they are ready to deploy 10 trillion won, that's around 7 billion US dollars, in a stock market stabilisation fund at any time. The most recent deployment of such a stock market stabilisation fund dates back to 2008 during the global financial crisis.

So they are making contingency plans, it seems, even though the financial markets haven't been rocking that much. However, opinions are split over its possible effectiveness. So what do you make of this fund, Professor? OK, well, the fund comes from five major banks in Korea and some major financial institutions. It's controversial because, in a sense, it's intervening in the stock market and perhaps underperforming.

artificially raising the index prices. Basically, the fund is used to buy stocks

And the way they do it, they try to raise the index without playing favorites for one stock or the other. So it really is hard to sort of try to raise the stock indices without playing favorites. In fact, some Korean securities companies were saying that perhaps

They should buy semiconductors and automobile stocks because that's where the fund is going to be concentrated if they start buying stocks.

The fund was formed five times in the past, 1990 recession, 2003 credit card crisis, 2008 global financial crisis, 2020 the pandemic, 2022 when we had the very rapid rising interest rate coming from the U.S. So it was formed five times, but it was used three times.

in 90, in 2003 and 2008. In 2020 and 2022, the fund was formed but not used. And perhaps if the market continues to recover, then they'll keep that $10 trillion fund in reserve rather than start spending it right now. But the $10 trillion is...

slightly more than half the volume of daily trading. Daily trading on the average is about 18 trillion won. So even if you spend a whole amount, it's less than daily trading. So what academic research exists from the previous times this fund was used, they think it does prevent volatility.

but it doesn't do much about the fundamentals. And right now, the Korean stock market was weak even before the martial law.

So it's not going to suddenly change the stock market from current doldrums to bright, shining market that we had a few years ago. But it may be useful if another politician makes a dubious statement that affects the stock market. It can be used to perhaps control volatility that comes from somebody speaking the wrong thing. Right.

I guess for now, it's just about giving reassurance to the market, right? And if it does get used, that's actually not a good thing at all. It means that the market has become too volatile. Exactly. And I'm a bit worried about possible moral hazard that's involved. As I said, some securities companies are recommending that investors buy certain stocks because, well, if the fund goes in, then that's what they're going to buy.

You mentioned that the Korean stock markets were weak even before the martial law incident. And that was perhaps one of the reasons the financial markets appeared to be reasonably stable in light of the martial law incident. That was something you mentioned last week.

And there has been more data from the Bank of Korea released this week that showed that foreign investors remained net sellers of Korean stocks for the fourth consecutive month in November. Offshore investors sold a net 4.15 trillion won, that's about 2.89 billion U.S. dollars worth of local stocks last month, extending their net selling to a fourth month.

Now, these are last month's figures, meaning that this was before the martial law incident, backing up that claim that the markets have been in the doldrums even before December. What are the reasons behind the continued net selling by foreign investors, though? OK, well, net selling in this case means the amount sold subtracted by amount bought. So if you added all this together, it means that foreigners are still leaving the market. Now, Korea has been recording negative numbers

uh net selling uh for the last uh four months or so but before then if you take about 12 months before uh from last summer to this summer uh foreign investment had been coming in on the net uh but still uh the money is going down out very quickly uh and that's because the uh

fundamentals, medium and long-term issues in Korea and U.S. On the Korea side, we have lackluster outlook for Korean companies and Korean growth for the next year or so. We had increasing emphasis on Korea discount, which involves a whole slew of issues on corporate governance, transparency, as well as political uncertainty. And obviously, the current martial law incident does not help anything

reduce the political confusion part of the Korea discount. And then on the US side, we have perhaps a perfect storm of market going high.

You had the high coming in from the end of presidential elections. They always have that at the end of presidential elections. But then you had the extra kick because Trump promised lowered corporate tax rates. He also promised tariffs. So they expect the corporate profits to go up and down.

The exchange rate is rising, so they can also count on gains from currency fluctuations. And then currently they're undergoing the so-called Santa rally at the end of the year. So we have S&P hitting historical highs and NASDAQ at or near historical highs. So that's

From an individual investor's point of view, it really makes sense to go out from Korean stocks to U.S. stocks. And that seems to be what's continued

happening right now and of course the martial law incident just poured more fire into uh poor more uh poured more wood into the fire right and so can we assume that the martial law incident uh with that now more foreign investors will continue to sell korean stocks come uh december what about into the future months okay well a lot of it has been sold already but they are still on the net selling uh

Now, things are not likely to get better in the next month or two. Martial law did not obviously make things better, but even if the political confusion is reduced, well, you moved your money out from Korea to the United States. And that happens when you have a negative shock because you always move toward the safe assets. We talked a bit about this last week.

And let's say you moved your money into the dollar. Are there any good reasons to put your money back into Korea? I mean, okay, the political uncertainty is less than before, but Korea is still having a pessimistic outlook for the next year. Profitability of Korean companies are down. We have...

We have continuing political risk because of the impeachment. The risk is reduced, but it's not eliminated. Korean won is expected to remain weak for quite some time. And U.S. market is still going very strong. So why would you put your money back into Korea?

So I don't think things will get worse. Or if it does get worse, it'll get worse very slowly. But will it get better? Probably not until at least second quarter next year.

OK, let's look at one more issue before we go. Amid all the political turmoil in the last week, the National Assembly managed to pass the bill on next year's budget. It reflected the opposition-led reduction of 4.1 trillion won, or around 2.9 billion US dollars, the revised bill mandating a budget of...

of 673.3 trillion won, was approved during Tuesday's plenary session. This is the first time in the nation's modern history that the Budget Bill has passed the Assembly after unilateral revisions were made by the opposition. But...

Despite that, with everything that's been going on politically, this story has almost gone under the radar. But still, Prasad, what have you made of next year's budget? OK, well, I know that government is unhappy because some of their spending did not get through. I think it's more important to get this through quickly rather than trying to have everything they want. Right now, we don't need any more political conflicts.

And frankly, the amount that the government lost was about 4 trillion won. That's less than 1% of the total budget spending. And it's only about 0.16% of Korea's expected GDP for next year. So...

it's not going to affect that much macroeconomic terms. Now, in terms of certain projects, it may have more significant implications. But then remember, the majority party, the ruling party lost the election. So you can't expect the ruling party to get everything they want.

Now, the 673 trillion won is still the largest nominal budget that Korea had. Compared to last year, the spending is going up by 3.2%, which is higher than the expected inflation rate for this year. So in terms of real spending, it is going up.

And now I am somewhat worried because some of the money was cut from reserves. What that means is that the reserves are money that's reserved for perhaps surprises that are coming up. So perhaps a natural disaster or something unexpected. And so there's less cushion there.

So I am a bit worried about that. And you can argue that because Korea economy will be down next year, we will need every penny that we can get. But then in this, I do agree somewhat with the opposition party. If we need the money back, if we need the money next year, we can do it through supplementary budget. That's we're going to wrap it up for our weekly economy review. Professor Yang, as ever, thank you for your analysis. Thank you.

Welcome to the Korea 24 stock market update. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 12.34 points or 0.5% on Friday to close at 2,494.46.

The tech-heavy KOSDAQ climbed 10.38 points, or 1.52%, to close at 693.73. You can check Korean stock market updates at world.kbs.co.kr.

We've come to Korea Trending Now, our daily segment where we round up some of the most viewed stories and issues on Korean news outlets outside of our news briefing headlines. And bringing us those stories, we have with us Daniel Choi, our KBS World Radio News Editor. Daniel, hello. It's good to see you. Good to see you too, Jang Hoon. So what do you have for us first? Korean web comic industry is taking much-needed action against illegal distributors.

Yes, piracy has been a plague affecting this industry that's been rapidly growing in size and influence in recent years, both at home and around the world. The webcomic or webtoon industry, that is.

So what measures are being taken then? A legal battle against unauthorized platforms. Seven Korean major webcomic companies have formed an anti-piracy association. They submitted a petition to the Daejeon Provincial Court against operators of Agitune and Agitune Novel, demanding the website operators who the Webtoon firms alleged to have been sharing webcomic and novel contents without the original distributor's consent,

receive the maximum penalty possible so that the consequence would deter further crimes from occurring in the future.

Yes, unfortunately, such operations have been going on for years, but webtoon companies have expressed frustration as when offenders get reported and caught, the companies have said that they received little more than just a slap on the wrist. Right. Members of the association stated unauthorized distribution is a very serious offense that not only infringes on creators' rights, but seriously damage the country's K-content industry and hinders its development. A lot of successful movies and TV shows are based on these webtoons these days, but

Agitune websites have been engaging in such unlawful activity since 2021, according to the members. They went on to criticize Korean courts for imposing insufficient penalties that failed to reflect the severity of the financial damage incurred. When seeking support and cooperation from outside of Korea for international crackdown operations that would involve the Interpol should have been carried out.

as these illegal operations involve using servers based overseas and they're constantly changing the firm's names to evade detection. The WebToon Association members expressed disappointment that related crimes took a backseat to what would constitute illegal

higher priority cases for the courts. Yes, Webtoons, they've been growing as both content that people enjoy consuming, but also, as you said, inspiration for other content such as films and TV shows, but such piracy activities are siphoning money away from these companies and creators and hurting the industry. So it sounds like welcome news that some action is now being taken. Next, we turn to another modern day cultural phenomenon,

eSports and another cultural phenomenon himself, Faker, the Korean player, the legendary Korean player. He has again earned the highest honor in the gaming realm. Over in Los Angeles, Faker, real name Lee Sang-hyuk, won the best eSports athlete of the year at the Game Awards or the TGA, arguably the most prestigious annual event to honor the best in the gaming world.

This is the second straight year he accomplished this feat. His team, T1, was also named the best esports team of the year at the TGA. Last month, Faker led his team to defend its title in the World Championship of League of Legends, one of the most popular games across the globe. And earlier this year, the 28-year-old became the first inductee into the LOL Esports Hall of Legends. His

Some might assume that some people are born with such gaming skills, but Faker did share his ups and downs and what helped shape him into the play he is today in a recent public diplomacy event. Right, well, we see other highlights, but there are many moments when he was down and out along his career. At the event hosted by the foreign ministry, he chose to deliver a speech exclusively.

and talk about how he was obsessed with winning and he was devastated in the face of defeat and how he learned to grow from failures and become better because of them. He saw wins or losses both as small successes that each failure teaches growing lesson and provide motivation.

He also highlighted the importance of humility and learning and growth, pointing out how the world has increasingly been fraught with hate and discrimination. He expressed hope that young people will share this mindset that when you believe, what you believe in may not always be correct and that there is no one absolute answer.

staying with Korean stars that sweep international awards, BTS member Jungkook has earned honours at the Billboard Music Awards for the second straight year. Yes, again, he does it. It's looking like routine for the K-pop superstar to stand atop the podium at the Billboard Music Awards, one of the major pop events, major pop awards in the United States. That is, this year, Jungkook nabbed two awards, Top K-pop Album, Top Global K-pop Song.

for his debut solo album, Golden, and its main track, Standing Next to You, respectively. Now, unfortunately, he could not grace fans with his presence at this ceremony, as he is still carrying out his mandatory military service, of course. Meanwhile, there were other K-pop stars who also bagged awards. Right, they were there. Boy group Stray Kids earned Top Global K-Pop Artist Award, Seventeen won the Top K-Pop Touring Artist Award,

And both teams delivered heartfelt messages of thanks and Stray Kids delivered powerful performances as well. Of its hits, Seventeen wowed the audience by taking on the stage also. Taylor Swift dominated this year's BBMAs, taking home just 10 awards. Just 10. Okay, we'll wrap it up there for Korea Trending. Daniel, thank you for the stories. Thank you so much for having me. Hello, I'm violinist Clara Jumi Kang. You're now listening to Korea 24 on KBS World Radio. ♪

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It's time now for our Friday feature, Movie Spotlight, where our film critics give us their recommendations on what to watch among the latest releases here in Korea, whether at the cinema or online. And the critics with us today, first we have Darcy Paquette. Darcy, hello, it's good to see you. Hi, good to be here. And we have Mark Raymond here with us as well. Mark, hello to you too. Hello. So Darcy, we are starting with your film this week. It is a

Korean family comedy. It's titled About Family or 대가족 in Korean, which translates to Big Family. It's funny if you've seen the film. Right, right. We'll get to that in just a second. But yes, the film is a period film as such. It's set in the year 2000. So not that long ago, but still the pre-smartphone era, of course. And it's a film that's been

It stars Kim Yoon-suk and Lee Seung-gi. What can you tell us about this film, Darcy? Yeah, so it follows a structure that's quite similar for Korean comedies, whereas the first half is focused kind of more on the comedy. And then the second half, it turns into more of a touching drama. And so the story centers around this family that's headed by the patriarch Moo-ok, who's played by Kim Yoon-suk. And, you know, he runs a famous dumpling shop, well, restaurant in the center of Seoul. He's extremely rich. He's

kind of made a lot of money over the years. But he's kind of a grumpy, miserly character. You know, not very generous. And then, I mean, one of the things that upsets him most in life is the fact that, you know, he hasn't been able to kind of pass on his bloodline. He has a single son, but the son has decided to become a Buddhist monk. And so, you know, any possibility of extending this family down to another generation has been eliminated. Or so it seems, because, you know, one day these two children show up

claiming to be Mork's grandchildren. And it turns out that the son, before he became a monk, he had donated his sperm in college. And so the film basically starts from there and it gets as much drama as you can possibly get out of this situation.

Okay, so that's quite a setup. You can see that I think that's right for some comedic and also moving plot points. Tell us more about the director as well, because he has quite a diverse and interesting filmography, right? Yeah, I mean, a lot of people will be familiar with him. His name's Yang Woo-suk, and his debut film, The Attorney, starred Song Kang-ho and was a big hit back in 2013, I believe.

And then he went on to direct The Steel Rain and its sequel, which was an action film about tensions with North Korea. The first one was released just as there were a lot of tensions with North Korea. So it was very timely. And so this is his fourth film as writer-director. And yeah, it's his first time kind of

taking on a somewhat smaller scale film. All of his previous films have been really big and kind of targeted as potential blockbusters. But it seems that this was a story that he wanted to do. Yeah, so from a legal slash political drama inspired by real events to a high concept action thriller involving North Korea to now this fairly low stakes family comedy. It is quite an interesting catalog.

Meanwhile, Kim Yoon-suk is a familiar face to fans of Korean cinema as well for his performances in The Chaser, Tatja, Escape from Mogadishu and many more films. What kind of performance does he give here? Yeah, I mean, it's one of these roles where you have this character who, you know, is seemingly heartless at first and, you know, gradually you get to see like the warm,

sentimentality beneath the surface. Although, I mean, you can kind of see it from the beginning. It's not very well hidden, but nonetheless, I think he is a really gifted actor and he's able to make scenes kind of come alive with his performance. Even this type of role where he is kind of withdrawn and he's not someone who kind of shares his emotions very much, but

But he's very excited when he finds out that he has grandchildren. And so, yeah, I think I liked his performance here. You know, I wouldn't put it up as among his best performances because, you know, his best performances are, you know, just kind of legendary in Korean cinema. But as something where he is kind of more relaxed, I think he kind of heads the film in quite an effective way. OK, so it seems like he's put in quite a good performance. What about the rest of the film? What do you make of it?

Yeah, I liked it more than I thought I would. You know, it is very sentimental. And so, you know, viewers who don't like sentimental films should maybe stay away. But I think that if you're willing to kind of take the genre for what it is, it works well. It, you know, it takes a lot of twists. They're not like real huge plot twists, but nonetheless, you know, you can never really tell where the movie is going to go next. Yeah.

You know, the kids are cute. Isengi, who plays the monk, is also really effective in this role. I think that he's quite an interesting and memorable character. So, yeah, I mean, it's just kind of that basic thing where if you have, you know, interesting, well-drawn characters and

you know, a plot that isn't too predictable, that it keeps your interest all the way to the end. Okay, that sounds quite encouraging. Mark, did you get to see this film? I know sometimes you find Korean comedies rather hit and miss, to say the least. Yeah, I haven't seen this one. I didn't get a chance to see it this week. These kind of family comedies I find are pretty interesting, like even if the film doesn't work totally.

Just the kind of sociological interest. And the fact that this was set in 2000 is also intriguing for me. That's actually the first year I lived in Korea. So I would be a bit of a nostalgia. And so, yeah, I'm kind of curious to see it, even though, like you said, the comedic aspects of the films are often lost on me.

maybe in translation or maybe just culturally. But I do like the family dynamics. So that would be, I think, something I would be kind of interested in. Sure, especially what it might tell us about Korea and Korean society today. Darcy, do you think this film will find an audience at the moment? Is there an appetite for this kind of film at the box office nowadays? How is it faring?

I mean, it's hovering around number three in the box office. You know, it's behind firefighters, which, you know, despite all the political events going on, is doing quite well and it's kind of building some momentum at the box office. And then Moana 2 is, of course, hanging around and

doing well with families. You know, I think that the film will benefit from good word of mouth, but I'm not sure that's going to be enough to really allow it to pick up any steam in this month. And so, yeah, we're still looking at low numbers, which is...

You know, kind of the story of 2024. Right. I guess it is a shame because of everything that's going on, I guess, outside of the cinemas at the moment. More dramatic than the films. Right. These kind of periods are normally slow times for cinemas, as we've seen in the past as well. So perhaps this film will struggle because of those reasons as well. But it does seem to be a recommendation from Darcy this week.

Once again, it's called About Family or 대가족 in Korean. Let's turn to our second film this week. It is a foreign release and it's your pick, Mark. It's called The Substance or simply Substance in Korea. It's a film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year and has generated a lot of discussion. Can you tell us more about it, Mark?

Yeah, it's kind of a horror sci-fi kind of film directed by Coralie Fargate, making her kind of second feature after 2017's Revenge. It stars Demi Moore and Margot Qualley, who play essentially the same character, as it turns out. In Aging 1, Moore plays this aging celebrity,

who is worried she's about to be replaced from her fitness TV program. So in desperation, she turns to this experimental slash underground treatment known as the substance, which transforms you into a much younger version of yourself.

but the twist is only for a week at a time so of course being a horror sci-fi film uh the complications arise as the two halves of the self start kind of engaging in a battle over the one body they're kind of forced to share

We also have Dennis Quaid in a supporting role as a scummy kind of network producer. But basically, this is just a two-woman kind of show. And a nice comeback role for Moore, who has been working steadily for the last couple decades, but nothing kind of high profile. So this is one of her first kind of shows.

big roles in many years. Okay, so it seems like she enjoyed it as well from looking at all the press coverage. It sounds like an intriguing setup, certainly sounds like there are a lot of themes that can be explored there. Do you think it works?

It's a tricky one. I mean, I hesitate to recommend it too widely because if you don't like body horror, this is not for you. It does get very out there. I see. Okay. And so there are some unsettling scenes and kind of disturbing imagery, these kind of things. I don't really think the film works, but I found it a bit too one note, I guess. Like you said, there are a lot of themes involved.

The movie, to me, felt like there was one theme and it kept banging it into the ground. Right, okay. But I'm kind of glad it exists because it is, if nothing else, a kind of a unique kind of film, something that is kind of different. And so if you are kind of a more adventurous moviegoer, I think it's worth checking out. It reminded me a little bit of Darren Aronofsky's work, the filmmaker, especially the movie like Mother, which got very bad reviews and audiences really hated, but yeah.

A lot of film critics and filmmakers kind of admired it for its kind of audacity. I think there's something kind of similar here. So I give it, it's kind of a mixed review, but it is certainly kind of something. So if you are looking for something...

not down the middle of the regular movie going. It's worth, I think, checking out even if I personally didn't think it worked particularly well. Right, so first, not for the faint-hearted, and second, it doesn't actually work that well, but it's admirable for what it tries to achieve. It certainly leaves a mark, is what you're saying. Darcy, what about you? Did you get to see the film? Yeah, I had an interesting viewing experience, and...

I think at the beginning I was taking it too seriously in a way. And then, I mean, I sort of remembered partway through it that, you know, this movie has recently been nominated for a couple Golden Globe Awards, which is kind of a sign of how the Golden Globes are changing, but that's another discussion. But yeah,

The interesting thing was that it was nominated in the comedy musical category. OK. Mark described it quite accurately as a horror sci-fi film, but it's also kind of a comedy at the same time. And I think that... I guess satire, then, possibly. Yeah, I mean, sick comedy, perhaps. I mean, if you kind of...

relax a bit and then just not take it too seriously, then I think that, you know, and if you're not too disturbed by the imagery, I think that that's probably the most effective way to watch it. I totally agree that, you know, the film has one point and a big hammer and it just like bang, bang, bang over and over again, kind of emphasizing the same theme. But yeah, I am going to remember it because it's nothing if not unique. Yeah.

Interesting. It certainly seems like the director, Mark, is one who doesn't take the easiest or obvious routes. I understand her first film, Revenge, was pretty intense as well.

Yeah, she's definitely wanting to kind of explore these kind of more extreme kind of themes from, again, from a very, like, feminist perspective, right? And, yeah, I mean, not as if I, the themes of the movie were not interesting to me. It just, I wish there was more.

Yeah, I think, like Darcy's right, I think it probably does work best as just like a comedic kind of riff on this whole idea of, you know, women and how aging women are treated in the media, which is really its only kind of thing it has to say. I wish there was a bit more there, especially because it is a movie about identity as well, and like split identities doesn't really do anything with that theme, I didn't find. It was just more concerned about

this kind of critique of the media essentially and how women are portrayed in the media, which fair enough is a, is a point to make. It just didn't really go much further than that for me. So you're saying ironically, the film, the substance you wished had more substance. Well, on that note, I think we're gonna have to leave it there with Mark Darcy. Thank you for your reviews and we'll see you next time. Thank you. Bye bye.

And we wrap up our show there. We'll be back on Monday following the fallout from the second impeachment vote tomorrow and more. I've been your host, Kwon Jang-ho, and thank you, as always, for listening. Goodbye.