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Movie Interstellar and Korean mothers

Posted November. 28, 2014 08:48,   

한국어

Movie "Interstellar" is taking Korean box office by storm. The movie has sold 7 million tickets in the box office in 20 days, as of Wednesday. It is expected to break 8 million mark on Friday. If it does not lose momentum, the movie will likely join the "10 million club" as the 13th movie. At the news of the film’s great popularity in Korea, the movie director Christopher Nolan and hero Matthew McConaughey uploaded a short video on the YouTube to express gratitude. Heroine Anne Hathaway said “Thank you” in Korean.

This 169-minute long movie has become a box office failure in the North America and movie critiques have been pouring harsh reviews over the film. However, such results are in stark contrast to what is going on in Korea: IMAX tickets are sold out, and some people are re-selling advance purchase tickets (ticket touting) for this Sci-fi movie on the Internet. In its latest article titled "Interstellar: 10 Reasons It’s Nolan’s Worst Film," the American entertainment magazine WhatCulture analyzed reasons behind poor performance of the film, which includes weird ending, lack of logic, the length, dull photography, poorly-written characters, the sense of humor malfunction, and lecturing the audience, etc.

Recently, director Nolan said at a press conference in Shanghai, China, “Korean fans seems to have great knowledge in the science, and I guess that’s why they like my film.” It is a compliment, but it sounds like a naive comment from a person who does not know much about Korea. Rather, more valid reason for the success of Interstellar could be Korea’s unique enthusiasm for education. Preference of audiences aged over 40 or higher is an index of family audiences. For Interstellar, the preference of audiences aged over 40 topped 40 percent. Movie theaters showing Interstellar are full of dads and moms holding hands of their kids. Saying “I heard that the movie explains precisely about a scientific theory. I hope it works well for education of my kids,” moms and dads come to a movie theater hoping that kids have interests in the universe or have a dream to become a scientist.

In 2007, the exhibition of Rene Magritte at Seoul Museum of Art became a great success thanks to word-of-mouth that Magritte’s paintings help children develop creative thinking. Movie "Myeongryang" drew family audiences who were seeking education on history and Admiral Lee Soon-shin’s leadership. This time, it is a sci-fi movie. With great success of the film, books on physics such as theory of relativity, wormhole and event horizon, are selling well. Hollywood might be amazed by Korean mothers’ enthusiasm for education, which greatly influences success of a movie in the nation.