Foreign films have trouble reaching smaller cities
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By MELISSA OLSON
Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:04 AM CDT
Special to the Herald
As you know, if you’ve ever read the little bio at the bottom of every article, I write this piece every week from Madison where I live and work. I’ve been in Madison for a little more than a year now, and I like almost everything about this city.
Sure, the street system makes no sense, and the most popular local activity is drinking your body weight in alcohol. But the people are nice, there’s a lot to do outdoors, and Madison tries to entertain its residents with local festivals and concerts.
And, as a large-ish city, Madison can afford to have plenty of movie theaters — which means I can see almost everything I want to. We’ve got first- and second-run theaters, all the big IMAX releases, a couple of VERY arty joints with movies that are too obscure even for me, and at least one theater showcasing nothing but well-reviewed foreign and indie films.
And on Friday, I went there to watch the best monster movie you’ll never see.
The movie is called “The Host,” and it’s a Godzilla-like tale about a creature lurking in the sewers and river in Seoul, South Korea. A few years after a careless American pathologist dumps contaminated chemicals down a Seoul drain that runs directly into the Han River (that part, by the way, was based on a true story), a half-fish, half-whatever monster runs amok in the city, devouring people.
One of its victims is the young daughter of a hapless food-cart worker, and when he realizes the little girl is still alive and trapped in the sewer, he enlists his father, brother, and sister to go get her back.
I’ve always pitied the filmmaker who tries to make a horror movie today — how do you make an original movie, when all these horror stereotypes are already established?
But “the Host” is both inventive and witty, with a grotesquely entertaining main villain (when the fish-thing uses his tail to swing from beam to beam under a bridge, it is cool), a not-so-subtle message about American interference in global situations, and a lovingly told story about a small family who would — and does — sacrifice anything to save their youngest member.
It’s also — strangely enough — a little bit of a comedy.
You’ll probably never get a chance to see “the Host,” though. You see, for all its strengths, “The Host” is still a foreign film, and Hollywood distributors have long ago written off small towns like Chippewa Falls as being forever uninterested in a movie with subtitles.
As a Chippewa native, I find that a little insulting — yes, Hollywood, I CAN read. But I also know that I’ve had a lot of conditioning that leads me to want to view a film with subtitles. I spent an entire year of college in History of the International Cinema, so for nine months of my life, I watched at least one foreign film per week. I lost the habit of being irritated at subtitles and learned how to not see them.
But it’s a lot easier to get that perspective in a big city, where foreign films are readily available. There’s an evil cycle at work here, and it goes like this: studios assume small-town folks won’t like foreign movies, so they don’t release them there. And those communities never get a chance to watch them. And if you don’t watch foreign films, it’s pretty hard to get used to foreign films. And they’ll always seem weird and difficult to watch. And if they seem weird and difficult to people living in small towns, then studios will figure small towns don’t want to see foreign movies, and not release them there.
It’s a shame, too: foreign movies provide a different perspective on the world, and especially a new perspective on our country.
As Americans, we have the privilege of constantly debating our nation’s place in the world. But watching movies from other countries — especially movies like this one, that comment subversively on U.S. policies — gives us a chance to actually see America as outsiders do. And that viewpoint is invaluable in our own discussions.
If that doesn’t convince you to check out a foreign movie like “The Host,” look at the box office numbers. Local theaters tend to release mostly blockbuster movies, the films that are made with a big budget and designed to pull in huge amounts of money.
But in South Korea, “The Host” is the biggest blockbuster of all time. In a nation of only 48.5 million people, 13.02 million went and saw “The Host.” That’s 26 percent of the population.
Now, if 26 percent of the United States population went to see a movie, and if they each paid $8, that would be a $624 million dollar gross. That’s a lot of moolah. In fact, that’s about 24 million dollars more than “Titanic” made. And we all know that movie was kind of popular.
“But Melissa,” you ask, “how can I see ‘The Host’ if none of the local theaters are playing it?’”
Excellent question, reader. If you own a DVD player that can play foreign films (some can, some can’t — check with the manufacturer), then you can order “The Host” on Amazon.com at any time. Just make sure to get a version with subtitles. If you’re feeling hardcore enough, you can take a trip to Minneapolis or Madison to check out the movie.
Or if all else fails, you’ll have to wait until July or so, when the DVD of “The Host” will hit video stores.
The studios are hoping you won’t do any of that, though. No, they’re hoping you’ll wait another couple of years, until the U.S. remake (yup, they’re doing it) of the movie will hit theaters.
Of course, it’ll be a scrubbed-down, Americanized version, with different actors, a different director, no criticism of American globalization, and, I’ll bet, a lot more special effects.
There will be no South Korean viewpoint, and I doubt there will be as much comedy. But, hey, the studios are counting on you not to notice.
Melissa Olson was born and raised in Chippewa Falls. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in film and television, and works for a television production company in Madison. E-mail comments and questions to Melissa at mfo.usc@gmail.com.
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