Christmas Day Favorite Movie. It's a Wonderful Life.



I have lost count on how many times that I have actually seen this film. For years I would gather with family and friends and we would all watch this film, together. What is very unusual for this Christmas film is that none of this film actually takes place on the actual day itself. The last quarter of this film takes place on Christmas Eve.

The basic idea of this film is that, When is a man truly rich and how much one mans life can change those all around him. On this Christmas day we should all be asking ourselves that same question. What can we do to make it a better place and are we willing to do what is needed, like "George Bailey" does in this film?

Here is the entire plot of this film from Wikipedia and this has huge spoiler alerts all over it.

On Christmas Eve 1946, George Bailey is deeply depressed, even suicidal. Clarence Odbody, an Angel Second Class, is sent to Earth to save him — and thereby earn his wings. Joseph, the head angel, is told to review George's life with Clarence.

George as a boy (Bob Anderson) saved the life of his younger brother Harry from falling through ice — at the cost of the hearing in one ear; weeks later, George stopped his boss, local druggist Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), from accidentally poisoning a child while grief-stricken over the death of his son (from influenza).

From childhood, George's greatest ambition has been to see the world and design bridges and skyscrapers. However, George repeatedly has to sacrifice his dreams for the well-being of the people of Bedford Falls. Four years older than Harry, he puts off going to college until Harry graduates from high school to take over the family business, the Bailey Building & Loan Association, essential to many of the disadvantaged in town. But on Harry's graduation night, as George discusses his future with his date Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) — who has had a crush on him since she was a little girl — his father suddenly has a stroke and dies. Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a vicious slumlord, seizes the opportunity to gain control of the Board of Directors and decides to end the "sentimental hogwash" of home loans for the working poor. George persuades the board members to stop Potter; they agree, but only on condition that George himself run the business. George stays.

Harry goes on to college, but George's hopes of leaving Bedford Falls upon his return are dashed once again when Harry unexpectedly brings home a new wife. Her father has offered Harry a job in his company too good to turn down. Although Harry offers to do precisely that to help his brother, George cannot bring himself to ruin his brother's prospects.

George's mother conspires to set George up with Mary, despite her having a boyfriend — Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), an insouciant friend of George working in New York City, who has the catchphrase "Hee haw!" — and George and Mary do eventually get married. On their wedding day, George and Mary witness a run on the bank that leaves the Building & Loan in serious danger. Potter, sensing another opportunity, offers George's clients "50 cents on the dollar", but George & Mary decide to use their honeymoon cash to lend the townspeople what they need to quell the panic until their funds are restored. Later, Mary (with the aid of cabbie Ernie and Bert the cop) concocts an elaborate mock honeymoon in their new house.

George then starts up Bailey Park, an affordable housing project, with bar owner Martini and his family as the first homeowners. They and the other residents are rescued from paying high rents in Potter's Field; Potter grouses that their homes "are worth twice what [they] cost... to build." Potter tries to derail the competition by tempting George with a job at eight times his current salary, but George realizes that Potter is trying to bribe him and vehemently rejects the offer.

Over the next several years, George and Mary raise a growing family. When World War II erupts, George is unable to enlist due to his bad ear. Harry becomes a Navy pilot and is awarded the Medal of Honor for shooting down 15 enemy aircraft, including two kamikaze planes that were about to crash into a Navy troop transport.

On Christmas Eve, while on his way to deposit $8,000 for the Building & Loan, Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) encounters Mr. Potter and, bursting with pride, shows him the newspaper article about his nephew, about to be honored by the President. Absentmindedly, he leaves the deposit envelope with the $8,000 in the folds of the newspaper; Potter discovers it later in his office and keeps it. That day, the bank examiner is to inspect the Building & Loan's records; George discovers Billy's mistake and becomes unhinged while searching town for the money. Returning home, George sees his whole life as a massive failure and meaningless sacrifice. In desperation, George tells Potter that he has misplaced the $8,000, and appeals to him for a loan to rescue the company. Potter, knowing that Uncle Billy has actually misplaced the money, reacts with subtle surprise to George's admission. Potter turns George down and, smirking, insults him. Later, George crashes his car into a tree during a snowstorm and runs to a nearby bridge, intending to commit suicide. Before George can leap in, however, Clarence the angel jumps into the water. After a shocked George saves him, Clarence reveals himself to be George's guardian angel and pleads to help him.

George bitterly wishes he had never been born. Clarence then shows him what the town would have been like if George had never existed. Bedford Falls is called Pottersville and is mostly a slum with Main Street dominated by pawn shops and sleazy bars. Bailey Park was never built; the land is part of a desolate cemetery. George's home remains a run-down, abandoned mansion. George sees the people he knows and loves, but in this alternative world, none of them recognize him and their lives are hard and grim. His mother is a widow running a boarding house, and Mary is a spinster librarian; both are lonely, embittered women. Uncle Billy has been in an insane asylum for years, while Harry is dead, since George was not around to save him when he fell through the ice. Consequently, the men Harry would have saved in the war have also perished. Violet is a dancer who gets arrested as a pickpocket. Mr. Gower was convicted of poisoning the child and is reduced to panhandling. Martini no longer owns the bar. Ernie and Bert, although still friends, are much darker characters, and think George is insane when he claims to know them.

George returns to the bridge and calls upon Clarence and God to let him live again. His prayer is answered and George is returned to the moment he met Clarence. George runs home, filled with a new appreciation of what he has accomplished. There, he finds that his friends and family have collected a huge amount of money to save George and the Building & Loan from scandal and ruin. Seeing how many lives he has touched, and the difference he has made to the town (and having helped Clarence earn his wings), George Bailey realizes that despite his problems, he "really had a wonderful life".

To me it has always been the perfect Christmas film. Its a film about love, hope, honor and ultimately a mans' salvation. We are shown this one man "George Bailey", we are shown all of the stops in his life that made him into what he is today. It has not been easy and on the eve of Christmas, he is about to be thrown into jail for allegedly stealing $8,000 from his Building & Loan.

Then we are shown what the world would be without this one man. It is a darker and a more harsher place because for all of his so called bad works, he really did a lot to save this town and in the end the town saves him.

So if you are looking for a film to watch on this special day, then please gather with your friends and your expat family here in Korea and try and see "It's a Wonderful Life"


Merry Christmas.

CHRISTMAS EVE FILM REVIEW: JOYEUX NOEL


A few years ago, I wrote one of my longest movie reviews for an anti-war film from France called "Joyeux Noel." The majority of this film takes place between December 24-26 in 1914, during World War I. I thought so much of this film that I named it my #1 best film back in 2005.

I was trying to find a film for Christmas Eve that was different. We have all heard the stories about the child who was born on this day and how he would be the savior of the world. I them remembered this film and how men from both sides of this war remembered him and honored him. Please welcome to my Christmas Eve film reviewJoyeux Noel




If you have never read my original review please do so now. I am going to expand on the review more and show how I dealt with a hatred that I had been taught courtesy of the US Army.

It has been 3 years since I first did the review of this film and as of today, it is my second all time favorite film from France. For the majority of my life I have hated anything to do with France. So, while I was watching this movie, It dawned on me that, maybe, I should watch more French Films, and 3 years later I have and I've even liked a few of them.

Like I stated in the earlier review, I am a former US Army Soldier. I was taught to shoot at "Little Ivan's" (Nickname for Russian Soldiers) and from about age 6, was taught to hate this enemy of God. As I also said in the review, I had a deep hatred of this enemy, so much that when, on the rare occasions, that a Russian Soldier would have to come to Ft. Sill, I wanted then to start anything so I could kill one of them and proudly be able to say that, "I killed a commie for my mommy."

But something has happened to me with that over the last few years and that part of me that wanted to kill has been taken away. I actually met some people from Russia that were not soldiers. They were just normal people here, in Korea, trying to get an MBA or teaching with me at Woosong University. I saw no hatred towards me from them and I soon started to like the fact that I drank and ate dinner with my new Russian friends.

What finally helped me to overcome the majority of what the Army had taught me about the Russians happened during the Woosong Fall Semester 2008 When I taught a class with 4-6 Russian students in it.

The first day that I taught this class, I could not believe that I was actually hearing Russian. I quickly reminded myself that, this is Korea. I was a solid Cold-War Warrior and here I was teaching Russian students. During the introductions I told the students of my past with the US Army and how I was trained to shoot the enemy. I left class that day not really sure how in the heck to deal with my lingering hatred of Russia.

I got to know my Russian Student's. The 1 male student in my class loves the NBA, rap music and when I introduced him to The Dave Chappelle Show, He loved it. I also taught 3 Russian females in this same class. When the Text Book asked them to talk about their likes and dislikes, I found out that if you change a few words here and their, I could have been listening to College students have these exact same conversations at my old university. I heard the same hope and dreams from these students that I had heard from students from Korea, Japan, Germany and the USA. As I was listening to them, this movie kept flashing into my mind, I thought that I saw hate but instead all I saw were students seeking knowledge. It was a very humbling experience for me.

What I have been recently thinking about this film after I rewatched it for this review, was the opening moments of this film. As I stated in the earlier review. I saw 3 children, just like I was at their age, taking in 3 different languages of how they need to kill the enemy to protect their version of a "Fatherland." I then cringed with horror all of the sides of this war cheered when the deceleration of war was announced. I still to this day, bow my head at that part of the movie. Hell is being unleashed and these fools are cheering for it.

I still feel about this film as I wrote back in my earlier review, so I wont say much more about it. Golda Meir once said, “We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” this films shows that, even for a few moment in time, peace is possible. But if we keep to our hatred, in the end that all that we will have left. What possible good can come from that?


Please enjoy a music video from "Joyeux Noel" and everybody have a nice Christmas Eve and please let's be kind to one another.




Happy Birthday Dad. We still miss you.

I grew up a lot during my high school years of 1982-1984. I hated those years and really have no desire ever to revisit it. I saw a lot of the stupid early teen 80's films and I always saw a lot of sex and drugs. (Neither of which, as a teenager, I was doing.) I was so glad to graduate in 1984 and to finally leave high school behind me and to start college.

So welcome to my #10 all time favorite film, The Breakfast Club



I had never really seen a teen film that ever talked to me during my high school years. I wasn't a sex craved student nor was I a drug induced student. I didn't live anywhere cool, like California or New York. It was like, teenagers were doing something together and I wasn't really doing anything like I have seen in the movies.

When this film came out in February 1985, I had just left my high school 9 months earlier so all of the teen drama was still very fresh in my mind. I really had no desire to see this film. I had seen a preview and I decided to see the film at the very last second. I was so glad that I did.

The film opens up with parts of David Bowie's, "Changes" lyrics on the movie screen. What I saw on the screen were these words.

"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're going through."

All I really remember about that moment is that, I did not feel insulted by this so called teen movie. I also recall that for the first time maybe a film is actually talking to me instead of insulting me.

We are then introduced to the 5 people that made this film. Andrew Clark: (Emilio Estévez) Andrew is the film's athlete. Claire Standish: (Molly Ringwald) The princess of the group. John Bender: (Judd Nelson) The criminal of the group. Allison Reynolds: (Ally Sheedy) The basket case of the group and Brian Johnson: (Anthony Michael Hall) The group's brain.

I then remembered that they all were in detention on a Saturday for 8 hours and that they all had to write an essay on why they were in detention. To this day, I hate that part. To me, its wasted work and I see how much of that wasted work I did in high school.

I still really had no idea what I was watching but I was naming the names of the people that were in my high school to the people that I was watching on the screen and when it came for me, I picked Brian. I sure saw a lot of me in this person. (The geek, the high school virgin, the kid who never felt like he fit in with anyone)

I then remember that the film was setting up these students to be real and not like the cartoon-like kids I had seen for years earlier. They were talking about the same B.S. that I was going through and, what few friends I had, we were all talking about the exact same things.

Where this film really took off for me was the scene that the students smoked some of Bender's marijuana. I remember thinking, "Ok, I will never do this". But as they were smoking it, the high school drama stopped and the students started to be real by talking about what was actually going on around them and how they were trying to deal with it.



The above scene is when this good film turned into a great one for me. I saw these 5 different students actually sit down and just talk without any of the High School cliques that I hated in my high school. I saw all of them trying to be honest to each other and watch just how much they discover that they all have strained or outright hated relationships with their parents and are afraid of making the same mistakes as the adults around them. However, despite these students becoming friends, the students are afraid that once the detention is over, they will return to their very different cliques and never speak to each other again.

The exchange between Claire and Brian here with Brian basically calling her a bitch and Claire somewhat agreeing with it was a classic movie moment. When Brian then breaks down and tells everybody because he got an "F" grade that he wanted to kill himself, but the flare gun went off in his locker.

The students, then all agree, that Brian should actually write the detention letter and this is what he writes,

The beginning letter is as follows:

Brian Johnson: Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062.

Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed.

Does that answer your question?... Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

While Brian is writing the letter, Claire/Bender and Allison/Andrew are starting to become a couple and everyone is asking what will happen on Monday when they must return to their drama of high school.

The film ends with Brian’s’ letter being read by the principal and the students going back home after detention is over.


So why do I rate this film as one of my all time favorites?

For a kid growing up I saw all of these same problems and, like me, they really did not have any answers either. The film took a very honest look at high school and said that, for a moment, what if there were no cliques and that we could actually be ourselves without worrying what everyone else thought about it. The film did not insult me with mind numbing sex and drugs like so many other films had during this time.

Next year is my 25th high school reunion and I am slowly starting to reconnect with people from that era via "Facebook". I went to my 10th and 20th but I have no real desire to see the 25th or anymore reunions. High school was horrible and I have no real desire to revisit it in person. This movie reminds me why I hated it so much. All of the drama lies and never really belong to anyone or anything, like this film highlights. It’s something that the adult in me wants to put away and never go back too.

I have this film on a HD-DVD and the new 2008 re-release. John Hughes'(The director of this film) first draft was originally scripted out to be a 2-1/2 hour movie. However, many of the scenes were cut out and the negatives destroyed. John Hughes has stated that he has the only complete copy of The Breakfast Club on film. I would love it if they were to release a blu-ray version of this movie with the 2.5 hour cut of the film.

If you liked or hated your high school and have never seen "A Breakfast Club" Then please see this film and see if you are anyone in this film and does this film talk to you as it did the 18 version of me as it still does 20+ years later.

I have loved baseball my entire life. It is my favorite sport to watch. I have been a New York Yankees fan since 1974 and I really hate the Boston Red Socks. So, it should be no surprise at # 11 is, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams





Now, I have no idea why but Kevin Costner and Baseball seem to like each other. Back in the late 80's he stared in both of my #11 films. In "Bull Durham", Kevin plays Crash Davis, a long time minor league baseball player, who is asked to mentor the teams new rookie pitcher "Nuke" LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins). In "Field of Dreams" Kevin plays Iowas farmer Ray Kinsella who upon hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his corn fields; he does, and Shoeless Joe Jackson returns to once again to play baseball.

A few years ago, I had drinks with the foreign Samsung Lions players and Hanwha Eagles Outfielder Jacob Cruz. We were talking about baseball and I asked them about "Bull Durham". Each of the players then told me a story about their time in the minor leagues and all 3 of them told me that they had had similar stories like Crash had had. I would say that is the main reason that I love the film "Bull Durham", It shows men who play baseball for a job money and for the love of the game.

But to really understand these films one has to know baseball. With the expat community here in Korea, a lot of the teachers have never seen a live game or watched a game on television. This is what could be a huge problem in understanding the little stories that all come together in both of these films.

What we see in this film is a career minor league player, "Crash" Davis, who is now back in Class "A" baseball. He is asked by management to try and mentor the latest million dollar arm, "Nuke" LaLoosh. As the film states, a million dollar arm and a dime (10 cents) brain to go with it.

We are also shown Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) romance "Nuke" to make him a better man and a baseball player because she, every year, has chosen a player on the Bulls to be her lover/student. She tells him to start to listen to "Crash". The next scene where its the pitcher talking to his catcher is pure baseball. They talk about where to throw strikes, how to win the crowd and how to scare the batters. When "Nuke" listens to his catcher, he becomes a great pitcher. When he tries to think for himself, he gives up a lot of home runs.

Annie likes Nuke but she is realizing that the man for her might actually be Crash and its a triangle that is played out until the end of the film. Nuke gets called up to pitch in the Major League of Baseball(MLB) and Crash is released. He is told by management that they will have a few coaching positions open up next season and they would love for him to be one. After Crash's season is over he goes to Annie and they become a couple.

For a film that was turned own by all of the major studios and was shot for only 9 million US$ Dollars, it really tells a great story of the game of baseball. The film was best said in his review for Sports Illustrated, by Steve Wulf. He wrote, "It's a good movie and a damn good baseball movie."

The film works because the stories are based on real people that the director Ron Shelton met while playing minor league baseball in the USA. The story about the baseball players needing the day off, so they turned on the water sprinklers at night, really happened in Amarillo, Texas. Annie is based off of many different baseball groupies that Shelton met. Every baseball team has a "Crash." Someone who keeps working in the minors, who hopes that one day he can play in MLB.

If you have never seen the film 'Bull Durham" then over the holiday season. please watch it and I think that you will like the movie.


Now for "Field of Dreams", I have shown this film to various ladies that I met though out my life and, to a core, none of them has ever figured out why I love this film. One even went to say, "Why did you want to rent this film? It's about baseball and corn." She did not get it.

The film is basically, For all of his life, a man was searching for his dreams. Then, one day, his dreams cam looking for him.

Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is a novice farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that he is supposed to construct a baseball park in his corn field. One day he is walking in his corn field and he thinks that he hears a voice tell him to "Build it and he will come." He is then quickly shown a baseball field where his corn is growing. Ray thinks that he is going insane but he decides to make his baseball field.

He is also thinking about his dad, Ray's deceased father, John Kinsella, he loved baseball, the Chicago White Soxs and Shoeless Joe Jackson. (Now if you have no idea about Joe, then please click on this link and here for a better understanding of the man.)

He then decides to plow the field and replant the corn to try and save the farm, but later on that night, he sees Joe in the field. A shocked Ray comes out to the field to hit him some fly balls and pitch to him. Joe is thrilled to have a field on which to play, and asks if he can bring some friends. The line of the movie is stated when Joe ask Ray, "Is this Heaven?" when Ray states, "No it's Iowa."

The next night, all 8 players who were banned by the Black Soxs scandal show up to play at the field. Ray thinks that this was the reason but the voice has more roads that he must go on before its done.

The voice states, "Ease his pain," and he goes looking for Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones), who had once written about the golden days of baseball and has retreated into a life of solitude. He convinces Terence to got to a Red Socks game where they both see a message about a 1920s ballplayer named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham (played by Burt Lancaster). The voice states to, "Go the Distance."

What I really liked about this part was when they found that Graham had died in 1972, they do research to find out why the man quit baseball. Later that night Ray goes out for a walk and is transported back to 1972 to meet Dr. Graham and the doctor tells him that he wanted to save lives as a doctor and not travel and stuck in the minor leagues. Ray does offer to take Dr. Graham to his "Field of Dreams" but the Dr. turns him down.

On the trip back to Iowa, they decide to pick up a young hitchhiker. After a brief talk of how the man is trying to find a way to play professional baseball, the young man introduces himself as Archie Graham. The younger version of Dr. Graham.

They all arrive at the field and Terence can see them all playing baseball. Ray is about to have the bank foreclose on his property and Terence tells ray not to do it and he states this speech about baseball


Terence Mann: Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.

The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.


He decides not to sell his farm and he slowly starts to look at Joe. The film ends with this moment when Ray asks Joe, is his pain healed?

Wikipedia.....Shoeless Joe then tells Ray, "If you build it, HE will come", and glances toward a player near home plate in catcher's equipment. The player removes his mask, and Ray recognizes his father, John, as a young man. Ray assumes the voice was Joe's: "It was you." Joe assures him, "No, Ray, it was you." Joe then walks across the field and disappears into the corn.

At his wife's suggestion, Ray introduces John to his granddaughter, Karin, catching himself before telling Karin who he is, and simply introducing him as "John". As his father is heading toward the outfield, to leave with the rest of the players, Ray asks his father to play catch, finally calling him "Dad", and father and son choke back tears. As they play catch, the viewer is pulled back and high above the field. A long line of cars approaches the baseball field, the trail of headlights extending to the horizon and the twilight.

To me it was perfect ending to a perfect movie.

It took me along time to really understand the ending of this film and I think I finally have it now.

I lost my father to cancer back in 2004 and I wish, like Ray did, that he could play a simple game of catch with the bot that he help raise into a man. To this day, I still miss our talks about boxing, baseball and life. I saw this film a few weeks ago and I was wishing that i could build a field and that me and my dad could play catch on it and just talk without and stupid b.s. that either me or him would bring into these talks. Just a simple game of catch.

In the end of this film, everyone's pain was released and it bothered them no more.

Please see both of my #11 films when you get the chance.

#12. Tie. Oldboy (South Korea) Battle Royale (Japan)






Sometimes when new teachers come to Korea, I am usually asked to recommend them films from Korea. When they tell me that they want to see other films from Asia, I usually include these 2 films together, as an introduction to Asian films. The last person I introduced "Battle Royale" to, had nightmares for days over it.

These 2 films are not your normal films and should never be thought of as normal. One film looks for revenge while the other film tries to survive insanity.

These reviews will be heavy spoiler alert. If you have not seen these films, then you might want to stop now and watch them both.

I had first heard of both of these films from the http://www.aintitcool.com/ website and I knew that if I could ever get both of the films that I would have to watch them. The only problem was that I was living in the USA at the time and nobody was releasing either film on DVD in the USA. So I had to try and order a DVD from Asia.

When "Battle Royale" arrived, I watched it a lot for the next few days. I had never seen anything quite like it. I could not believe that someone had the reason, to make a film like this. At the time of the viewing, the urban legend was, that this film was banned in the USA and would never get a release date in American theaters. (This has since been disproved, because the Japanese right holders want the film to have a wide release in the USA and no film company has stepped forward with that request.) So when I showed my college friends this film, I sold it to them as being a banned in the USA film that you just had to see.

The vast majority of my friends really did not get this film when I show it to them. they could not believe the violence, the insanity, nor the illogical idea of the film. They told me that the wanted a wild film and after they saw "BR" they wanted nothing more to ever do with a wild film ever again.

Now, for those who have no idea about the plot, here is what IMDB states...

In the beginning of the 21st Century, the economy of Japan is near a total collapse, with high rates of unemployment and students boycotting their classes. The government approves the Battle Royale Act, where one class is randomly selected and the students are sent to an island wearing necklaces with few supplies and one weapon. After three days, they have to kill each other and the survivor wins his or her own life as a prize. The 42 students of a ninth-grade class are selected to participate in the survival game and abducted while traveling in their bus. Under the command of their former teacher Kitano, they have to eliminate each other following the rules of the sadistic game where only one wins.

Now you must remember something here that is different about Asia. Friendship is take very serious here, I have seen couples break up here in Korea because the boy or girl did not like their friends. So you can imagine, to survive this game, you might have to kill your best friend.

The hero of this film on Shuya Nanahara played by (Tatsuya Fujiwara), does not kill his best friend, Yoshitoki "Nobu" Kuninobu played by (Yukihiro Kotani) he is killed by someone else but Shuya sees it all go down and it really hurts him. In a promise that he made to his friend he decides to take it upon himself to protect Noriko Nakagawa played by(Aki Maeda), the object of Nobu's affection. What was interesting was seeing most of the students reactions when they had to kill a friend, the look of disbelief is what really carries this film to a great film.

The films goes on a non-stop pace for approximately 2 hours and when the film is over, a lot of my friends, who I have shown this to, have had a hard time believing what they have just seen. One person said there was too much death and no life. This film is not for everyone, so if you see it be sure that you actually want to see friends die for 2 straight hours.

The film was directed by the late Kinji Fukasaku, for America Audiences, he was best know for directing the Japanese part of Tora!, Tora!, Tora. He tells a film of madness through teenagers eyes, so real that my friends have had nightmare for days because of it. Please see it when you get the chance and please , at all cost, pass on the "Battle Royale 2" sequel.


Now the next film, "Oldboy" is my all time favorite Korean film. Once I arrived in Korea back in 2005, I went a found a copy of the film that aintitcool.com had recommended to me back in 2003.

I really could not believe the film. From the films opening line of grabbing a man tie and leaning him over a building ledge and telling him, "Let me tell you my story", to the end of the film where he has realized what his actions have done to himself and others around him.

The main reason this film works is due to the actor Min-sik Choi. When he takes over the role of the hero of this film, you actually believe that he has been in jail for 15 years and only has 5 days to figure out why.

This film is know world wide for Min-sik actually eating a live octopus when "Oldboy" stated that he wanted to eat something alive so he could be alive again. For the western audience, no one could have ever imagined that people around the world do eat live octopus. It was a shock seen that works.

The other scene that this film is know for is the huge hammer fight outside a private prison. The first time I saw this I could not believe that he had taken on 20+ men with a hammer and I believed every part of the fight.

The plot of this story is very simple. FROM IMDB

On the day of his daughter's birthday, Ho Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) gets completely drunk and is arrested. His best friend No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji) releases him from the police station, and while calling home from a phone booth, Dae-su vanishes. Indeed he has been abducted and imprisoned in a room for fifteen years. One day, he is suddenly released, receives clothes, money and a cellular and meets the Japanese chef Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), and they feel a great attraction for each other. However, Dae-su seeks for his captor and the reason of his long imprisonment. While looking for revenge, Dae-su discloses deep secrets from the past.

My thought on revenge is best explained by an old saying.

"For the person seeking revenge it is best to dig 2 graves. One for the person you seek revenge on. The other grave is for yourself."

Every time I see this film, I keep wondering does he know the rule of revenge and can he see what darkness is coming his way because of it? When the film is over and all of the questions are answered of why he was in jail for 15 years and what he did in those 5 days for revenge, you feel like it was a hell of a ride and no one should ever go on that ride again. The Oedipus ending of the film, is what will haunt the viewer of the film for days afterwords.

Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. All 3 of these films were directed by Park Chan-wook.

I combined these 2 films as my #12 all-time favorite films for a few reasons.

They both are very hard to watch and people have had both of these films haunt them for days. These films are not normal films and are both great ideas of mans power to control others around him. Both film have made a lot of people angry and both films, to me, are very deep with all of the different stories working together for one heck of an ending for both of these films.

If you have not seen these films then please do and be careful. If you have and you like these 2 films, try watching them back-to-back. It will make for an interesting night at the movies.

My all-time favorite films Preview.


For the last 3+ years, I have been reviewing movies for various websites in Korea. I have never done an "All time favorites list" , until now. Starting on 21 December and going until Jan 3, 2009, I will list my top 12 favorite films with a break for a Christmas Eve film and on December 25th, my favorite Christmas film of all time. I do hope that you enjoy the surprises that are on this list.

YEAR-END REVIEW
Korea's film industry grapples with slump. Early this year, there was only doom-and-gloom in the Korean film industry.

Major production houses and distributors feared an economic slump would further dampen the market, undercutting the already reduced share of local films.

The negative predictions turned out to be largely on the mark.

As investment sentiment hit a new low, a host of small-budget films were released, with lackluster box-office performances. The protracted slump in the video and DVD markets pushed Hollywood distributors to withdraw branch offices in Korea.

The troubles at home also affected the performances of Korean filmmakers abroad. Fewer Korean films got honors at major international film festivals. For instance, no Korean film was invited to Venice International Film Festival for the first time in 10 years. Exports of Korean films are also feared to have slowed significantly this year.

The most depressing news for Korean filmmakers is that the share of local films slumped by more than 10 percentage points to 42 in the January-November period, according to CJ CGV, a major multiplex cinema operator.

The weakness in Korean films was widely expected. While Hollywood blockbusters continued to ramp up marketing in Asia and in Korean in particular, the majority of local production houses grappled with the dearth of investors. The global economic downturn aggravated the situation, pushing potential film investors to tighten their belts and turn cautious on new projects.

If the downward trend continues throughout December - as it most definitely will - the share of Korean films is expected to hit a new low.

Strangely enough, the number of Korean films released this year did not shrink much. Until November, 113 Korean films, including indies, greeted Korean moviegoers, down only 10 from the same period of last year.

But there were only seven Korean films that turned a profit. Given that Korea had eight blockbusters that sold more than 3 million tickets in 2005 - the height of the Korean Wave - 2008 is likely to be remembered as one of the gloomiest years.

According to the Korean Film Council, "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" sold 6.68 million tickets, emerging as the biggest Korean box-office hit this year, followed by "The Chaser" (5.1 million) and "Public Enemy Returns" (4.3 million).

"The Good, the Bad, the Weird", however, failed to make a profit. Its massive budget of 20 billion won turned out to be too costly for its box-office performance.

The real show-stealer was "The Chaser", a suspense thriller that became the year's surprise hit. The movie, which was critically acclaimed and also popular at the box office, went on to win seven awards at the Korean Film Awards 2008 early this month.

Director Na Hong-jin won awards for both Best Director and Best New Director, while actor Kim Yoon-seok, one of the co-stars of the film along with Ha Jeong-woo, won Best Actor at the Korean Film Awards 2008.

The success of "The Chaser", released in February, came as a pleasant surprise because it featured no high-profile actors. Despite the negative factors, "The Chaser" garnered almost unanimous praise from critics due to the movie's heart-pumping pace and air-tight storytelling.

Among foreign films, "Kung Fu Panda" was No. 1, selling 4.6 million tickets, followed by "Mama Mia!" (4.5 million) and "Iron Man" (4.3 million).

As the economic slump has deepened, Korean cinema operators are now arguing that it is time to increase ticket prices, which are currently around 10,000 won.

The government is now planning to help bolster the flagging movie industry by securing a fund worth 80 billion won. The Korean Film Council, a state agency in charge of promoting local films, held a series of forums to explore possible measures to prop up the industry, and recently unveiled a plan to invest 7 billion won in 10 indie films next year.

By Yang Sung-jin

Redskins Legend Sammy Baugh Passes Away

The Associated Press Posted: December 17, 2008 Sammy Baugh, who set numerous passing records with the Washington Redskins in an era when NFL teams were running most every down, died Wednesday night, his son said. Baugh, who was 94 and had numerous health issues, died at Fisher County Hospital in Rotan, Tex., David Baugh said. David Baugh said his father had battled Alzheimer’s and dementia for several years. He had been ill recently with kidney problems, low blood pressure and double pneumonia. "It wasn’t the same Sam we all knew," his son told The Associated Press. "He just finally wore out." Sammy Baugh was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. After starring at TCU, "Slingin’ Sammy" Baugh played with the Redskins from 1937 to 1952. "Sammy Baugh embodied all we aspire to at the Washington Redskins," Redskins owner Dan Snyder said. "He was a competitor in everything he did and a winner. He was one of the greatest to ever play the game of football, and one of the greatest the Redskins ever had. My thoughts and prayers are with his family tonight." While he was noted for his passing, Baugh was one of the best all-around players of his day. One season he led the league in passing, defensive interceptions and punting. In one game, he threw four touchdown passes and intercepted four passes. He threw six touchdowns in a game--twice--and kicked an 85-yard punt. "There’s nobody any better than Sam Baugh was in pro football," Don Maynard, a fellow West Texas Hall of Famer who played for Baugh, said in a 2002 interview. "When I see somebody picking the greatest player around, to me, if they didn’t go both ways, they don’t really deserve to be nominated. I always ask, ’Well, how’d he do on defense? How was his punting?’" When Baugh entered the NFL, the forward pass was so rare that it was unveiled mostly in desperate situations. But Baugh passed any time. As a rookie in 1937, Baugh completed a record 81 passes (about seven a game) and led the league with 1,127 yards. At the time, only six passers averaged three completions a game that year. He went on to lead the league in passing six times. Baugh still holds Redskins records for career touchdown passes (187) and completion percentage in a season (70.3). His 31 interceptions on defense are third on the team’s career list. He still owns the league mark for single-season punting average (51.4). "He was amazing, just tremendously accurate," Eddie LeBaron, who took over as Washington’s quarterback in Baugh’s last season, said in a 2002 interview. "He could always find a way to throw it off balance. I’ve seen him throw the ball overarm, sidearm and underarm and complete them." Sammy Baugh Baugh guided the Redskins to five title games and two championships, playing his entire career without a face mask. His No. 33 is the only jersey Washington has retired. Baugh’s reputation blossomed as a star high school football, baseball and basketball player in Sweetwater. It began to grow during his college days at TCU. It was there that he picked up the nickname "Slingin’ Sammy"--but it wasn’t for his passing. It was for the rockets he fired to first base as a shortstop and third baseman. "Everybody thought I was a better baseball player growing up," he said in 2002. "I thought I was going to be a big league baseball player." As an All-American football player, he led TCU to a 29-7-3 mark, including Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl victories. He masterfully executed an early ancestor of the West Coast offense at TCU, and he credits Horned Frogs coach Dutch Meyer with his NFL success. "I was a little ahead of a lot of football players in those days because of Dutch," he said. Baugh was known to make blunt, witty remarks. After the Redskins’ 73-0 loss to the Chicago Bears in the 1940 championship, a writer asked if the outcome would have been different had an end not dropped an early touchdown pass. "Yeah," drawled Baugh. "It would have been 73-7." Baugh was known for his reclusiveness. After his NFL career, Baugh retreated to his 7,600-acre West Texas ranch about 95 miles southeast of Lubbock. The Hall of Fame and the Redskins have tried to lure him east for ceremonies over the years, and he always turned them down. For years he drove to Snyder three or four times a week for golf, until sore knees, searing heat and the 100-mile round trip made those outings too tough. But he always enjoyed football season. "I’ll watch it all damn day long," Baugh, who often sprinkled his conversation with mild obscenities, told The Associated Press in a 2002 interview. "I like the football they play. They got bigger boys, and they’ve also got these damn speed merchants that we didn’t have in those days. I’d love to be quarterback this day and time." He bought the Double Mountain Ranch, named for two hills that jut out of the flat earth north of his house, in 1941. He and his wife, Edmonia, who died in 1990, raised five children on the arid expanse covered with mesquite trees, prickly pear cactus and about 500 cows. He came to the ranch full time in the mid-1960s, after several two years coaching the New York Titans and a year with the Houston Oilers.

Movie Review: Milk

What if the hot film at the moments core stands against everything that you believe? If you have that same problem, then welcome to my review of Milk.

Readers, a lot of you are not going to agree with me and this spoiler-review will make you mad. If you can deal with it then please continue with this review, If you can not, then I ask you to stop now and see this film when it arrives in Korea.

Now this film deals with Harvey Milk, if you do not know who he was then please click on this link so you will have an idea who Mr. Milk was in life.

Mr Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. The murder of Mr. Milk, along with the Mayor of San Fransisco George Moscone by Dan White in 1978 caused the State flag of California to be lowered to half staff in memory. When a film about a famous man is made, we the audience must ask, not how he died, but how did he live?

I knew the story of Harvey Milk before I saw the film, I knew exactly what he was and what Mr. Milk stood for. This is the problem that I have with this film. For some readers the man loved who he wanted to love, so myself and other readers, the man lived in sin and died in sin.

Recently, a fellow college of mine at Woosong University debated this exact topic. After 20 minutes he had not changed my opinion nor I had changed his, we agreed to disagree. If you can not figure out our debate then the I will pose the question to you, Is Homosexuality a sin? Your answer could determine weather you like this film or not.

Readers, I debated weather or not I should write a neutral based review. Then I remembered a lesson that a teacher told me many years ago. If you teach or try and write for everyone, in the end you will write of teach to no one but yourself.

So let us deal with the movie. We are introduced to Harvey Milk as he meets a man, who will become his love time lover Scott. We are then shown a man who tried to establish a camera store and is told by people that if "His Kind" sets up shop that he will be shut down. This soon becomes Mr. Milk's first entry into business and he finds out which businesses are Gay friendly and his friends will shop their, if they are not then they will not shop their and then the business would fail.

Its also the same time that the Teamsters come to Mr. Milk and ask his to support a boycott of Coors Beer because they will not sign a union contract. Harvey gets the Gay bars to stop selling Coors and the Coors beer sales drop dramatically in San Francisco.

The rest of the film deals with the rise of Harvey Milk, his loves, his rise to power and his becoming the first openly gay man in the United States to win an election for public office. This is also the time that Dan White is really introduced into the film. Dan and Harvey have a falling out over a political issue and, in the end, Mr. White resign his local government seat.

Now what the film failed to include was that before the murder of Mr. Milk, was that on November 18, 1978 news broke of the murder of California Representative Leo Ryan, who was in Jonestown, Guyana to check on the community built by members of the Peoples Temple who had relocated from San Francisco. The next day came news of the mass suicide of members, the final total was over 900. The city was dealing with the news of this event, just getting worse day by day. (I have no idea why this was not shown in the film)

There had been extra security placed by the mayor, because of the Jonestown suicides, to protect against exactly what happened next. The film shows Mr White entering through City Hall's front door but in actuality, Dan White entered City Hall through a basement window to avoid metal detectors and made his way to Mayor Moscone's office. Witnesses then heard shouting between White and Moscone, then gunshots. White shot the mayor once in the arm, then three times in the head after Moscone had fallen on the floor. White then quickly walked to his former office, reloading his police-issue revolver with hollow-point bullets along the way, and intercepted Harvey Milk, asking him to step inside for a moment. Mr. Milk was found face down on the floor, shot five times, including twice in the head at close range.

(If you did see the film Half Nelson one of the students gives a speech about 2 murders and how the defendant claimed that he did the murders due to too much junk food, area newspapers quickly dubbed it the "Twinkie" defense. After the student gave his speech he could not believe what he had just spoken. If you remember the film, the Dan White trial is what the story was based on)

The film ends with a candle light memorial for both of the victims of Mr White. During the credits you learn what happened to certain people that were included in this film.

So readers, you will have to decide what you think about the main question that was posed earlier in this review. Is Homosexuality a sin? If it is then you are going to have a very had time with this film. If you do not believe that it is a sin, then you are going to enjoy the great acting jobs done by Sean Penn, James Franco and Josh Brolin.

I did not like the film overall mainly, due to the topic. I know people that practice this sin and I pray for the sinners that the repent and become washed anew.

If you have noticed I have never used the word hate anywhere in this review nor should anyone hate because they are different. I saw at the age of 6, in Munich, West Germany 1972, what hate can do and I saw it once again September 11, 2001 with over 2000 people killed because of hate. we should nor can we hate because people are different. My side of the argument has forgotten that part. We should love all of our brothers and pray for them. This is what God commands, love, not hate.

Sorry to ramble but that part needed to be said in this review.

I will not grade this film. You have to decide this one for yourselves. It would not surprise me to see Oscar nominations being received for this film.


Harvey Milk: "My name is Harvey Milk—and I want to recruit you."


Opens in Korea. (No Date at the time of this review)

How I saw the film: DVD Award Screener

Film Review- Grand Torino

If this is the masters'coda, then he went out with a classic with Grand Torino.

For the last few years, I have really enjoyed Clint Eastwood's films. His style lately has reminded me of my favorite Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. The hidden secrets, the pain of sin that he can not forgive himself for and the struggle for life and death are features in both of their films and are the main points for Eastwood's new film "Grand Torino"

When the film opens, we are being show an man,disgruntled Korean War vet, Walt Kowalski. We are shown that his wife has died and that he can not deal with his family nor his grand-children. After the funeral, we are introduced to the other main character in this film, a young Hmong teenager, named Thao Vang Lor. What we see is a boy who is lost and is trying to figure out how to become a man.

Walt, for some unknown reason, takes a shine to this boy and tries to teach him how to become a man. I will leave this part of the film unspoiled, let me just say that this was some of the funniest parts of this film.

What I also liked about the film was the voice of reason, Walt's Preacher, Father Janovich. Walt's calls him a "27 year old virgin, who think that seminary school has taught him about life and death." When you see him also start to learn from Walt, it's another small piece of a film that takes it from a good film and turns it into a great one.

But with every hero we are also introduced to a villain. His cousin, Who as part of Thao's initiation into his gang makes Thao steal Walt's prize possession, a 1972 Gran Torino. When the attempt fails Thao, has to work for Walt for a few days and you can slowly see Thao start to respond to "tough love" that all master deal out to their students. What I liked here was that the master did not want to be one and the student had no clue that he was even a student. It should not have worked but, By the grace of Eastwoods' directing and acting, its well shown and very believable.

The above might be a problem for some of today's modern audience. They have grown accustomed to a much faster pace of film, a higher body count and people who call themselves actors, who truly are not. If they are looking for this in this film, then they will walk away very upset and then they will have failed to truly see this film.

The films ending was quite a surprise that I will not spoil for you. i was thinking one thing and then he goes and does something that I could not believe that he did it and that he pulled it off on the screen. When the films final credit were rolling, I was sad. I was thinking, "If this is Clint Eastwood's coda, then we have been taken on a pleasant journey in this film. Please see this film when it hopefully arrives in a Korean theater sometime in 2009. As I state in my reviews, "I See the crap, so you don't have to." I saw a great film here with no crap. my grade is an A+

To all my Democrat friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.


To all my Republican friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Baseball needs a pan-Asian league

By Jackson Broder

Sunday, Dec 14, 2008,

‘Instead of punishing players for seeking careers in a more competitive and lucrative league, [baseball officials] need to create a viable alternative in Asia that gives them real incentive to stay at home.’

The last couple of months of baseball in Asia provided followers with a glimpse of the problems confronting the professional game in the Pacific Rim, as well as the possibilities and benefits that would arise from the creation of a pan-Asian major league consisting of pro teams from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China.

Last month’s Konami Cup — a competitive but ultimately meaningless annual exhibition series featuring champion teams from Japan’s NPB, Korea’s KBO, China’s CBL and Taiwan’s CPBL — showcased Asia’s best pro clubs and highlighted the movement toward international play. But the tourney was played to mostly empty seats, save for a handful of scouts, friends and families of players and a few die-hard fans in the Tokyodome.

Here in Taiwan, this year’s gambling and match-fixing scandal has caused two of the CPBL’s teams to fold, leaving the league on the verge of collapse with just four teams remaining. Meanwhile, Taiwanese fans who will stay awake until 3am or travel halfway across the world just to watch Wang Chien-ming (王建民) pitch a single game can’t be bothered to travel a few hundred meters (or even change the channel) to watch CPBL games.

In Japan, a select few pro teams remain profitable, but most are struggling to stay afloat as fans and baseball brass lament declining interest and an increasing defection of top talent to Major League Baseball (MLB).

At the same time, MLB teams are continuing to comb Asia’s professional leagues and amateur ranks for talent, in some cases signing “agreements” with Asian pro teams that treat them more or less as vassal appendages to the big league clubs. Recently there has been talk of adding an MLB franchise or even an entire division in Asia. But this doesn’t solve the problem for fans of local professional teams and leagues in Asia who want to see quality, homegrown pro baseball.

The question is, with some of the world’s top baseball talent and a huge base of avid, knowledgeable fans, why haven’t Asian professional leagues been able to harness this hunger for baseball into quality professional leagues?

If Asian fans, players and owners want to experience a competitive, exciting and marketable level of pro baseball that can compete with MLB and celebrate Asia’s vast pool of talent, then the answer is to combine the existing teams from the major pro leagues in Asia in a single league.

This would create a legitimate pro league with enough teams to generate genuinely compelling competition. It would significantly enhance the overall quality of baseball in Asia, over time providing a viable alternative to MLB for Asian players and fans, and give fans something real to cheer for at the pro level. It would also help stem the tide of player defections.

In the past year, KBO, CPBL and NPB officials have turned to draconian rules to warn young players away from seeking careers in the US. But these officials miss the point: Instead of punishing players for seeking careers in a more competitive and lucrative league, they need to create a viable alternative in Asia that gives them real incentive to stay at home.

What parents would want their prodigy to join a four-team league that can fold at any minute when he could try his hand at MLB? What fans would sit in a near-empty stadium watching the same small number of clubs compete year after year?

Consider, then, the excitement that new cross-strait and regional rivalries would generate. How would nationalist tensions among Asian nations play out on the field? Imagine if the Hanshin Tigers came to play the Uni-President Lions in Taiwan in a game that meant something and had playoff implications. The stands would fill and a new taste for competition and rivalry would emerge.

Marketing possibilities and TV revenue would grow exponentially across Asia if the leagues were consolidated and adequately promoted. People would actually want to pay to see games where something was at stake.

As US interest grows in the game overseas, Asia league games could be broadcast late at night on ESPN in the US instead of reruns. The World Baseball Classic was wildly popular in the US, and there is no reason to think that an Asian pro league would not be just as successful, given the level of talent that Asia boasts.

LOGISTICS

Whether or not an Asian league would be sponsored by MLB or function independently remains to be seen. In practical terms, consolidation would not be difficult to accomplish if the will were there.

Taiwan’s CPBL and Korea’s KBO have four and eight teams respectively. Japan’s NPB has 14 clubs. China’s CBL has six.

It would be easy to divide teams into two leagues, just like MLB. The Japanese league, for example, could be like the National League in the US. The teams in this league would continue to play each other as they do now. Then, the KBO, the CPBL and the CBL could merge into a single league like the American League. The KBO could consist of one division and the CPBL and CBL teams the other.

As with MLB fixtures, inter-league play could be limited to a handful of games for marketing purposes, thus minimizing travel costs, while the majority of games would be played within divisions that align geographically and preserve current rivalries.

Playoffs would then involve the winners of each league in a pan-Asian series. This would replace meaningless exhibition matches such as the Konami Cup.

OBSTACLES

There is no question that any plan for an Asian league would encounter many obstacles, and many baseball insiders scoff at the very idea of it. Convincing team owners, who have highly divergent interests, to work together would be a challenge.

Air travel between China, South Korea and Taiwan would be costly. In addition, corporate sponsors of Asian clubs often treat them as advertisements and would be unlikely to buy into such a plan unless it were demonstrated to them that it would be financially worthwhile.

Then there are the archaic owners and entrenched old boys’ networks in the NPB — particularly the Tokyo Giants junta — that would be reluctant to accept change.

At the outset of a unified competition, the top teams in the NPB — and possibly the KBO — would be much stronger than the others, so a more level playing field would have to be created, while limitations on player movement would have to be eased to ensure freer and more equitable distribution of talent.

The biggest obstacle would be national rivalries, language barriers and prejudice. Many people I have interviewed have suggested that a league would not work simply because employees from different countries simply could not cooperate, though this is highly debatable. And, of course, Taiwan would have to address its gambling problem.

Despite these challenges, the benefits that would flow from the formation of a pan-Asian league far outweigh the energy required to overcome obstacles. The idea is still in its early stages, but is already being discussed in baseball circles in Taiwan and Japan among a younger vanguard of officials who recognize the need for improved play in Asia — and who can see past today’s stale situation.

Baseball fans in Asia — who deserve the exciting, competitive atmosphere of professional baseball — would finally profit from a mechanism that would generate a higher level of competition. There would then be a real reason to head out to the ballpark instead of cheering for top hometown players in MLB games.

Most of all, the game would grow and fans in Asia — some of the most knowledgeable and passionate in the world — would see the game go to the next level. The time for change is now.



Jackson Broder is a scout for a Major League Baseball franchise and co-editor of the East Windup Chronicle, a baseball and culture blog.

Nerine Viljoen has died.

Nerine Viljoen, a South African woman who was teaching English in Mokpo, has died as a result of injuries sustained in a November 29th apartment fire. As per the Facebook group:

Nerine passed away at 11:00 this morning.(Korean time) Her heart failed and the doctors could not get it going again. The memorial service will be Tuesday morning in Mokpo. I just wanted the parents to tell the family first and not for family members to read it on facebook. That's why I'm only informing everyone now.

Donation information again is here:

Nicko Janse van Vuuren
Shinhan Bank
acc no. 110 -194 -121017

A reader wanted to pass along some information regarding the "Mokpo Pub Quiz," a regular event that, this time, will benefit Nerine's cause. The next one is planned for December 19th, in Mokpo of course; more information on the Facebook page.

Movie Review. Australia

When is an epic not an epic? When the film is "Australia"

For the last few years, I have been following the stories about this film (The Australian "Gone with the Wind", Russell Crowe pulls out of film, film was ordered a new ending re-shoot by 20th Century Fox, the film tested horribly, and many other rumors.) with all of the above information going on all around this film, my only thought was "Train Wreck" and after seeing the film, my guess was right, this film was horrible.

There are so many things wrong with this film it is hard just to point to one, so I will list a few of then about this film.

1. Originality: There was nothing new in this film. When I first saw the opening line of the film, I made a comment to myself, "I am seeing another version of "Rabbit Proof Fence?" I saw nothing new in this film and where he, the director Baz Luhrmann, copied other films into this film, I stopped counting because it started to take any idea of this being a film and it turning into a bad student film. Then the bombing scenes that were originally from 1970's "Tora! Tora! Tora! movie finally made me lose any idea of being an actual movie, when they were included in this film.

2. Chemistry: I never believed any of the love story or any of the background story that we were given to. It started to remind me of a very bad Korean Soap Opera with all of the flaws that these horrid shows create. I never believed what was I watching and the film suffered for it.

3. Racism. The blatant telling of the racism was almost too much to take. With a huge PC net cast over this film, It made the majority of white people evil and all Aborigines seemed to know magic, it was too much. With the fake lies of racism that were highlighted in the film The Express earlier this year, it made me wonder how much of the "Stolen Generation" was true in this film and how many lies were told while dealing with this historical travesty in this film.

4. Epic: The film was trying to be Australia version of Gone with the Wind. A historical love story born in racism and war and instead we get Pearl Harbor. Too me the film is too long and not worthy of the epic title that Baz, wanted. Instead we are given a sappy, cute 160+ minute film that fails on every level.

Now I saw this film with 4 people and it was a 3-1 vote for this film, with my vote being that I hated this film. They talked about the scenery and how the film was shot for the reasons that they liked it. If you like that type in a movie then you will love this film. If you are actually wanting a good film,then, in my opinion, you will hate this film, as much as I did.

Grade D-

Opened in Korea. 10 December 2008

Nullah: Miss boss! We gotta get those fat cheeky bulls into that big bloody metal ship!

Movie Review : Twilight

To be honest, I have not read the book first before I saw the movie and after I saw the movie, I have no real desire to read any of the books. I will try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible because, I think that if you what the little twist are in this film and you see them coming, then you will loose interest fast, in this film.

I went into this film with an open mind and decided that i will try this film just as a film and not the pre-teen hype that I have heard about it. I also went to this film with a group of friends to judge their reaction to it, to see if I would have missed something. After the film was over, I was thinking, "I really wasted my $ and why were the ladies going crazy over this junk?"

The film basic plot is that a teen age girl falls in love, hard, for a cute boy vampire. Since its about a teenage girl, you are also given a PC view of her new friends and that everyone is confused about love. This is where the film started to lose me. I like High School films but this one just never seemed to be a real high school, To me it was a small town version of 90210 with vampires thrown in and the film soon lost me.

After the film I asked one person why she liked it, She stated that "She had always liked vampire film and that she loved the love story of the film" To me this film was shot for females and their feelings of love and desire. My film mate confirmed my thoughts about this film.

In this writers humble opinion, please drive a steak through the heart of this vampire film and pass on it. The final insult to me was the last scene when a certain vampire shows up and the mind reader could not detect her. It was the final insult for this reviewer about this film.


Grade D-

Opened in Korea: 12-10-08


Isabella Swan: [to Edward] I'd rather die than to stay away from you.

December 10th, 2008 at 11:02 pm

Door Opens for Apple iPhone in Korea

» by GI Korea

UPDATE: The Marmot’s Hole has more on the opening of the cell phone market in Korea as well.

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Good news for all of you in Korea that want to one day own a iPhone:

After dragging its heels for months, Korea’s telecommunications regulator finally came around and declared WIPI, a local software standard mandated for data-enabled mobile phones, a mistake.

The decision will bring an end to the dreadful wait by Korean gadget lovers of iPhone, Apple’s latest product to create a global craze, with wireless carriers KTF and SK Telecom allowed to release the handsets next spring.

Following a lengthy debate, commissioners of the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Wednesday agreed to retire the home-made standard specifications on April 1 next year, lifting what had effectively been a trade barrier for foreign electronics makers like Apple and Nokia.

“Mobile-phone operators have been required to use the WIPI mobile platform on their handsets, but considering global industry trends toward the use of general-purpose mobile operating systems, we concluded that there was a need to allow carriers the freedom to decide whether to use WIPI or not,” said Shin Yong-sub, the director of KCC’s policy bureau.

“Consumers will also be able to choose from a wider variety of products and benefit from increased price competition from handset makers,” he said.

Currently, about 86 percent of all mobile phones used in Korea are WIPI-enabled. The KCC had discussed whether to phase out the WIPI requirements over a span of six months or a year, but the suggestion was turned down with commissioners concluding that mobile carriers wouldn’t be able to replace their WIPI-based services quickly anyway. [Korea Times]

With the Korean government removing this trade barrier will Korean citizens be taking to streets claiming iPhones cause brain cancer now?

Anyway this news should make Brendon Carr happy who has been closely following the WIPI trade barrier practice in Korea:

WIPI’s largely been a failure from the perspective of encouraging value-added services. Its user experience is terrible—press “1” for Music, “2” to see some actress’ topless photos, “3” to see the Seoul subway map, etc.

But it’s done a great job of protecting Samsung and LG from foreign competition. The reason is that the cost of engineering WIPI into a phone is largely the same, regardless of whether you have a 1% market share or a 50% market share—like Samsung was reported to have in 2006. WIPI is not used in any market other than Korea, which means that anyone wanting to get into the market has to bear the same engineering cost, but can only amortize those costs across a small number of units. That means lower profits, or a loss, for the foreign maker. It tends to reduce foreigners’ interest in the Korean market.

For a phone like the Research in Motion Blackberry (they’re Canadian, not American, but bear with me), or the Apple iPhone, neither of which needs—or wants—WIPI in order to offer their services to customers, any investment in engineering WIPI compliance would be money completely wasted. The last thing that Steve Jobs wants is a service on the iPhone where users have to navigate some kludgey press “1” for this, press “2” for that menu system. Who needs that, when a full Internet browser is available? Yet under current Korean law, these foreign companies who don’t need WIPI have to bear that wasted cost. That’s a classic non-tariff trade barrier.

In case you’re wondering, in Korea the Samsung Anycall Haptic rev. 2 phone goes for US$690 for the 8GB model, US$775 for the 16GB. Rumor has it that the same phone is coming soon at US$199 in America, where Samsung faces a more competitive market. Does anyone think Samsung relishes the idea of Apple bringing iPhone here at US$199 or a similar price point? [Korea Law Blog]

Well it looks like Samsung isn’t going to be happy with this which makes me wonder why President Lee Myung-bak decided to remove this trade barrier in the first place?

Rehashing Korean War Executions, Again, & Again

» by GI Korea

First of all, I appreciate all the e-mails I have been receiving from everyone sending me the latest Charles Hanley article. It is at the point now that I can tell a Hanley article must have been published just by the uptick in reader e-mail in my inbox. So thanks again.

It seems like every few months Associated Press writer Charles Hanley comes up with some article to milk his prior No Gun Ri fame, which he undeservedly won a Pulitzer Prize for in 2001. In May 2006 he wrote an article about the “discovery” of the Muccio Letter then a year later in April 2007 he wrote a nearly identical article. In May 2008 he had another article out that was co-authored by Jae-soon Chang, which ROK Drop readers may remember I have called out before for his poor and sensational journalism as well. This was followed up with yet another article a few months later nearly identical in content.

Anyway I found this latest article to be more typical Hanley writing with his typical use of theatrical words like “declassified” or formerly “secret” documents to make the reader believe he discovered something new in regards to the executions of political prisoners, suspected communists, & civilians in Korea:

Charles Hanley

Government investigators digging into the grim hidden history of mass political executions in South Korea have confirmed that dozens of children were among many thousands shot by their own government early in the Korean War.

The investigative Truth and Reconciliation Commission has thus far verified more than two dozen mass killings of leftists and supposed sympathizers, among at least 100,000 people estimated to have been hastily shot and dumped into makeshift trenches, abandoned mines or the sea after communist North Korea invaded the south in June 1950.

The killings, details of which were buried in classified U.S. files for a half-century, were intended to keep southern leftists from aiding the invaders at a time when the rightist, U.S.-allied government was in danger of being overrun by communist forces. [Associated Press]

As I pointed out in my prior posting on this topic in response to his last article, the subject of political killings by the Rhee Syngman government is nothing new and well known. Hanley is simply playing his old game of making old news, new again. It has been well known for years that the ROK Army was responsible for executing thousands of political prisoners before and during the war. Of course the truth isn’t as simple as the South Korean government lining up and killing hapless political prisoners. In fact before the Korean War even started, South Korea was faced with a North Korean backed communist insurgency. The South Korean government led by autocratic President Syngman Rhee allowed the ROK military to brutally suppress the insurgency, which led to a number of communist guerrillas and civilians being killed. With the intermingling of guerrillas and civilians it is impossible to determine the real number of each that were killed.

To show how absurd Hanley’s claims of uncovering these exuections is I have a DVD of the execution of suspected communists and I didn’t even need to sift through declassified or formerly secret documents to find it like Hanley claims he had to do.

Something that I found particularly distasteful is that Hanley has to sensationalize the deaths of children in order to drum up interest in his article with a lead headline of “Children Executed in 1950 South Korean Killings”. If this isn’t professional atrocity mongering then I don’t know what is?

Later on in the article he sources his claims of the killing of children back to the Korean Truth & Reconcilliation Committee. As I have demonstrated before the Truth & Reconcilliation Committee is staffed with leftist scholars who have no interest in developing an accurate history of what happened during the Korean War. Notice in the article no mention is made on how many children were killed. Could this be because the forensic evidence they have found shows few children killed? This doesn’t stop the usual suspects from claiming the “US Sanctioned the Executions of Korean Children“.

Hanley also throws in this statistic from the Daejon Massacre:

The AP has reported that declassified U.S. military documents show U.S. Army officers took photos of the assembly line-style executions outside the central city of Daejeon, where the commission believes between 3,000 and 7,000 people were shot and dumped into mass graves in early July 1950.

First of all I would like to see the forensic evidence to prove up to 7,000 people were executed by the ROK military in Daejon. I say this because Hanley has a history of making up body count numbers that the forensic evidence does not support. I also find it interesting that Hanley makes no mention of the North Korean massacre of both civilian and POWs in Taejon:

After capturing Taejon in the summer of 1950, the North Korean Home Affairs Department jammed the city prison with suspected anti-Communists—soldiers, officials, business and professional men. Beginning Sept. 23, 1950, several groups, numbering from 100 to 200 each, were taken from the cells each night. The prisoners, hands tied behind their backs, were herded into line beside open trenches and shot. As U.N. forces threatened the city, the Communists resorted to more expedient methods, dumped bodies into makeshift trenches. Others were sealed into caves or jammed down wells (see NEWS IN PICTURES). Estimated casualties: from 5,000 to 7,500, including 42 U.S. soldiers. Said the Army’s report: “For murderous barbarism, the Taejon massacre will be recorded in the annals of history along with the rape of Nanking, the Warsaw ghetto and other similar mass exterminations . . . Those responsible . . . must be brought to judgment before the tribunal of civilized peoples.” [TIME Magazine - 1953]

Also any bodies the Truth & Reconcilliation Committee find in Taejon that they claimed were killed by the ROK military because of the type of bullet used, remember that the North Koreans used American M1 rifles to execute their prisoners with:

On September 27, 1950, approximately 60 American prisoners who had been confined in Taejon prison were taken into the prison yard in groups of 14, with their hands wired together. These men were forced to sit hunched in hastily dug ditches and then were shot by North Korean troops at point blank range, with American M-1 rifles, using armor-piercing ammunition. Of the 2 seriously wounded survivors, only 1 lived to recount the gruesome details. Unnumbered civilians estimated at between 5,000 and 7,000, as well as soldiers of the Republic of Korea, were also slaughtered at Taejon between September 23 and September 27, 1950 [FN11 - Pt. 1, pp. 15-25]. [Korean War Educator]

So once again, I want Hanley and company to prove their claim that up to 7,000 civilians were executed by the ROK military in Taejon. The facts are there is no way they can prove their claim and yet are throwing that number around as if it is an accurate number, which it is not.

Here is quite possibly the most dishonest paragraph in this entire hit piece:

Other once-secret files show that a U.S. Army lieutenant colonel reported giving approval to the killing of 3,500 political prisoners by a South Korean army unit he was advising in Busan, if the North Koreans approached that southern port city, formerly spelled Pusan.

Lieutenant Colonel Emmerich on the left.

Hanley makes it seem like this lieutenant colonel ordered 3,500 people to be executed. In fact no one was executed which Hanley conveniently left out. The lieutenant colonel in question is LTC Rollins Emmerich who in fact delayed a ROK Army commander from executing his prisoners:

Emmerich was told by a subordinate that a South Korean regimental commander, determined to keep Busan’s political prisoners from joining the enemy, planned “to execute some 3500 suspected peace time Communists, locked up in the local prison,” according to the declassified 78-page narrative, first uncovered by the newspaper Busan Ilbo at the U.S. National Archives.

Emmerich wrote that he summoned the Korean, Col. Kim Chong-won, and told him the enemy would not reach Busan in a few days as Kim feared, and that “atrocities could not be condoned.”

But the American then indicated conditional acceptance of the plan.

“Colonel Kim promised not to execute the prisoners until the situation became more critical,” wrote Emmerich, who died in 1986. “Colonel Kim was told that if the enemy did arrive to the outskirts of (Busan) he would be permitted to open the gates of the prison and shoot the prisoners with machine guns.”

How do we not know that LTC Emmerich wasn’t using a stall tactic to stop the executions? If so it worked brilliantly since the prisoners in Busan were not executed. Emmerich should be getting a medal and not be slimed as some kind of war criminal by the likes of Charles Hanley. It is a shame that the US does not have stronger defamation laws for Emmerich’s family to go after Hanley with because I’m sure they have to be outraged by Hanley’s sensationalist journalism.

Interestingly enough this week Hanley’s main source for his articles the Korean Truth & Reconciliation Committee were implicated along with the Korean NIS and MBC for trying to pressure one of the most prominent North Korean defectors Kim Hyun-hee to change her story in regards to the North Korean involvement in the KAL 858 bombing that killed 115 people for political reasons. Kim even said that the T&R Committee reminded her of show trials in North Korea:

Nor did the truth commissions formed by the Roh administration leave Kim alone. The NIS’ in-house panel attempted to question Kim in 2005, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission made a similar attempt in 2007, only to be rebuffed. Kim says subjecting a case already tried three times by the judiciary to a fourth and fifth trial by these commissions reminded her of the show trials in North Korea.

The secret service conducted an in-depth investigation of Kim in the wake of the 1987 bombing and subsequently protected and monitored her, but in a bid to please the Roh administration, it acted as though it had no idea what was what. That is the shameful legacy of the fad for digging up past wrongs that swept the nation under the Roh administration.

We should urgently find out whether Kim is telling the truth. Is it true that the NIS, which has a massive state budget, and the truth commissions that sprang up like so many mushrooms on the soft bed of taxpayers’ money, leaned heavily on this poor woman to please the government? Whatever the truth of the matter, the three networks that stirred up this whole sorry business must admit the truth and apologize. [Chosun Ilbo]

Hanley has a record of sourcing articles from North Korean and communist sources and now he is sourcing articles from a committee that reminds people of being operated like a North Korean show trial. This is the quality of AP journalism now adays.

So why is Hanley now releasing a string of nearly similar articles all sourced by the Korean Truth & Reconciliation Committee? Well it is because the Lee Myung-bak government is trying to do away with the committee:

The plan for merging and abolishing past history truth commissions, professed by the Lee Myung-bak administration since the time of Lee’s presidential transition committee, is showing signs of being realized. Bills for the amendment of 15 related laws, submitted to the National Assembly on November 20 by the Grand National Party’s Shin Ji-ho and 13 other Assembly members, form a framework for combining the functions of the 14 history truth commissions currently operating into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea. [Hankyoreh]

This committee is hoping that another No Gun Ri type of issue could ensure the continued existence of the committee and are using Hanley to try and realize this goal. Unfortunately for them Hanley has been so discredited over the years few big media outlets take him seriously anymore.

Bottom line is that the ROK military authorities and Syngman Rhee found themselves in desperate circumstances and implemented desperate measures to include executing an undetermined number of innocent civilians intermingled with actual communist guerrillas who were themselves responsible for the killing of their own unknown number of civilians.

The US government treated this as an internal ROK issue in the early weeks of the war but eventually worked towards getting the Rhee government to stop the retribution killings of suspected communists:

The problem of dealing with Koreans charged with collaboration with the North Korean Communists during the occupation of South Korea is being closely studied here at the temporary capital as preparations get under way for the return to Seoul as soon as that city will be liberated. [New York Times - 1950]

Another interesting fact that Hanley some how does not bother to mention.

I have said this before and I will say it again. The issue of civilians killed during the Korean War is a very real one that unfortunately people with biases are using to advance their own agendas that are aided by sensational media reports from people like Charles Hanley.

The Truth & Reconciliation Committee in theory is a very good idea that I support, but it is the people that are leading it that is the problem. The T&R should be a committee dedicated to creating an accurate history of the war. I have already demonstrated this current group of people are not interested in doing so.

Since the Korean War was a UN action maybe a joint UN research team from countries heavily involved in the Korean War could investigate the claims? This would be better then the Charles Hanley’s of the world being left to write a revisionist history of the Korean War.

Bottom line though is that veterans and civilians deserve an accurate accounting of what happened during the war which Charles Hanley, Jae Soon-jang, and the T&R Committee are currently not interested in doing which is just another continuing tragedy of the war.