Will 4-D cinema from South Korea save American movie theaters?

This article in the Los Angeles Times is highlighting the "4-D moviegoing experience," which shakes, rattles, sways, and sprays moviegoers so as to add an extra sensory element or two — and perhaps a bit of motion sickness — to an evening at the cinema:

As the giant spaceship crashes into the mysterious planet, the seats inside the movie theater heave back and forth and rumble like an earthquake.

"Back ticklers" in the seats thump as an astronaut dodges fireballs and rolls on the ground. A strobe light flashes and huge fans expel gusts of air reeking of smoke and gunpowder.

"Back ticklers" in the seats thump as an astronaut dodges fireballs and rolls on the ground. A strobe light flashes and huge fans expel gusts of air reeking of smoke and gunpowder.

In the latest bid to attract moviegoers back to multiplexes, where 3-D -- featured in hits such as "The Avengers" and"Men in Black 3"-- is already the norm, technology and entertainment companies are pushing a new system known as 4-D.

At the leading edge of the technology is South Korean conglomerate CJ Group, which operates Asia's largest theater chain and has set up a laboratory near Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to demonstrate and market its 4DX system.

The 4-D experience is wowing fans in South Korea, Thailand and Mexico, where CJ Group has 29 specialty theaters that regularly screen big Hollywood titles such as"Avatar,""Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and"Prometheus," which featured the crashing spaceship.

Now CJ Group is close to finalizing a deal with a nationwide U.S. chain to create nearly 200 4-D theaters in the next five years, with the first to open this year in Los Angeles, New York and several other major cities.

CJ Group executives say its 4-D venues already draw sellout crowds from Seoul to Mexico City, and they predict that U.S. audiences are ready to shell out an extra $8 for the new movie experience. They say 4-D technology will help reverse the longtime decline in cinema attendance in the U.S.

I have yet to watch a movie in such a theater, but I may try to catch Batman or The Avengers or something while I'm in Seoul, if they're still available. I just hope it's better and smoother than the nascent 4-D technology of the Taejŏn Expo back in 1990-something, which seemed Disney-derivative and a little jerky.

In 2012, this scene means the guy is watching a 4-D movie.
In 1982, it would have just meant there were a bunch of smokers in the theater. 

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Man from Nowhere going to Hollywood

The Weinstein Brothers have announced that their Dimension Films will do a remake of The Man From Nowhere (Korean title: Ajŏshi, 아저씨), the highest grossing Korean film of 2010. It stars Won Bin, most famous to Western audiences for his role in the Korean War epic Taegŭkki Hwinallimyŏ (Brotherhood):

"We have always been huge action and martial arts fans and are getting back into the genre in a big way with 'The Man From Nowhere,'" Bob Weinstein, The Weinstein Company's co-chairman, said in a statement. "It's a slick, fast-paced action thriller anchored by a strong emotional relationship that audiences are going to love."

Metropolitician is fond of saying "ajoshis ruin everything." All I can say, considering the track record* of Korean films reworked into Hollywood pictures, I hope someone doesn't ruin Ajŏshi.

* See The Lake House, My Sassy Girl, and The Uninvited. Or don't. Only Juno, an unauthorized and unacknowledged remake of Jenny, Juno (or at least an adaptation), was arguably better than the Korean original.

...

And speaking of dishonesty...

I just got done watching The Informant!, a film starring Matt Damon that chronicles a case that his character, biochemist-turned-VP Mark Whitacre, made for the FBI that agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) was engaged in massive price-fixing in the 1990s.

The movie itself is an entertaining jaunt, but at the same time is kinda scary when you think about how widespread corporate malfeasance may be. But anyway, what I found interesting was that two major Korean foodstuff manufacturers were mentioned a couple times in the movie, Miwon and Cheil.

From the Kurt Eichenwald book on which the movie was based:

Besides the Japanese, there were other foreigners involved— executives with European subsidiaries of Ajinomoto, as well as officers of two Korean companies, Miwon and Cheil Jedang Ltd. Over time, Herndon figured, he would get comfortable with the names.

It's a case of hundreds of millions of dollars of price-fixing that, frankly, I don't recall involving Korean firms (or Japanese ones, for that matter), even though I remember reading about the ADM case in American media:

Tensions were rising among the lysine producers, even before the Tokyo meeting began. Several of the companies were dissatisfied with the results from Irvine. The Korean companies—Miwon and Cheil— both believed that they were being cheated in the volume allocation. Executives from Cheil were so angry that they refused to come to Tokyo. The tussle between ADM and Ajinomoto had been only partly resolved, and both were wary of the other’s honesty. Only Kyowa Hakko had not voiced a direct objection to the allocation.

Anybody recall this case, and recall the Korean companies' involvement? All of the players, it seems, are doing just fine despite the case.

The price-fixing was over lysine, an essential amino acid that was being used as a food additive. What's interesting (to me, at least) is that Matt Damon's character made several references to Michael Crichton books such as Rising Sun, while the movie Jurassic Park, also written by Mr Chrichton but not mentioned in The Informant, highlighted the genetically modified dinosaurs' inability to produce lysine as a failsafe that would prevent them from surviving long if they ever made it off the island.

If it's Tuesday, it must be one of the Koreas...

While the Chosun Ilbo reports that John Cusack was appearing at the COEX to promote his upcoming film, 2012, it appears that John Cusack himself was in North Korea doing... God knows what.

Quoting the MTV Movies Blog:

Barack Obama has at least one passionate backer in Twitter-Wood for his Chicago Olympics pitch. Jeremy Piven tweeted support for his home city today, as the International Olympic Committee makes its final decision in Copenhagen. John Cusack, meanwhile, continued his intercontinental rounds and tweets today upon leaving North Korea for Japan, though it's anyone's guess how he got in there in the first place.

Indeed, here is the tweet from John Cusack himself:

In north Korea heading to japan -- feel like I'm being shuttled in and out of country s after international incidents...

Call South Korea "North Korea" and you may just have an international incident on your hands, Mr Cusack.

So, um... What's up with that? Is John Cusack just horribly confused thanks to jet lag? Is he just geographically impaired?

Or (and this is my theory), did the recent death of John Hughes make movie buff Kim Jong-il all nostalgic for 1980s depictions of tidily presented teen angst and so he kidnapped Mr Cusack with the intention of making sequels to Better Off Dead, Say Anything, and The Sure Thing*?

UPDATE (November 25, 2010):
I guess ex-Governor of Alaska, former Vice Presidential candidate, and future Republican nominee for President Sarah Palin and I are kindred spirits. Just as I often quote lines from John Cusack's flicks (e.g., "This is America, you can go anywhere"), Sarah Palin quotes lines from John Cusack's tweets.

* An all-time Kushibo favorite.