KMK: The Twilight Saga New Moon in Korea

You must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard of the latest movie craze sweeping the world: The Twilight Saga. Based on the novels from Stephanie Meyer the latest film in the trilogy, New Moon, has just hit screens in the United States. The opening day take of the movie earned an astonishing 72.7million dollars breaking the record previously set by The Dark Knight.

With those kinds of numbers you might just be wondering what this Twilight stuff is all about. Well, the films focus on teenager Bella Swan (yeah, talk about overkill) who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her dad. She’s a moody girl who doesn’t really care for Forks, her dad or anything with color. She mopes around in grays and suitably gloomy garb. She just wants to escape the gray skies of Washington and move back to the sunny deserts of Arizona. That is until she meets the local high school heartthrob Edward Cullen at school. He’s all lean and wiry with looks envied by Greek statues. And he runs with a chic gang of Calvin Klein models who also happen to be his foster siblings who have all been adopted by the local physician and his wife. Now that, I think, is more unbelievable than the fact that the Cullen clan happens to all be vampires.

When they first meet, Bella becomes depressed when Edward reacts nauseously to her entrance into the science lab. I’m sure she wished she used an extra stick of Lady Speedstick after gym class, but not to worry it’s not really her funky gym sock smell but the fact that her unique body chemistry and blood makes her pheromones irresistible to Edward. That kind of irked me, because really it came down to her genetics over her actual personality that determined Edward’s devotion and affection. If she had been a vapid egotistical escapee from The Hills or the new 90210 would he still have swooned?

In any case, Bella and Edward inextricably become closer and closer. She uncovers his undead secret, but that doesn’t matter to her. She wants to become like him and live forever, but he wants to protect her humanity and ensure she lives a normal life. Their love is threatened by James, a vampire who wants to taste Bella’s pheromones for himself. I won’t ruin the ending, just in case you plan on seeing it, but suffice it to say it’s full of such cloying overly sweet, overwrought endearments and pining glances that Strawberry Shortcake would OD on the sugar high. I will say that the only bright spot for me happened to be the character Jacob. Thankfully he supposedly gets much more screen time in the sequel, New Moon, which picks up right after Twilight.

I didn’t read the books but I have to say that in the movie the character Bella, grated, big time. Besides her funky smell, what exactly was the attraction she held for a being over 100 years old? She didn’t stand out in any noticeable way. It didn’t help that the actress couldn’t summon any meaning expression other than a pout. The film spends so m
uch time focusing on how great Edward is that I was like if he’s so great then why is he with Bella? Reactions to Twilight and New Moon are all over the place. Take a look at Salon’s Feature to start and then mosey over to Tiger Beatdown for the coup de grace and got me thinking that these films are way less about Bella and way more about Edward.

Controversy notwithstanding, The Twilight Saga novels, along with the films, have stirred up a frenzy of excitement not seen since Harry Potter had his first teenage kiss. Millions of fans around the world, called Twilighters, gather to attend screenings dressed up as their favorite character. They go not once or twice, but multiple times (insert inappropriate joke here) that makes for a truly satisfying movie experience. It should come as no surprise that the majority of audiences at the screenings have been girls, mid-life crisis women and probably gay men, but that’s just my unofficial polling research speaking.

Here in Korea the excitement is a little hard to judge. My students here just don’t’ seem to be hip to all the Twilight mania they’re supposed to be expressing as tweens. Most of them don’t really know what it is, but there are a few die hard fans that can’t wait for the movie to come here on December 3^rd. I don’t see the Twilight swag either. No book bags, pencil cases, T shirts, or notebooks being shown off.Still, there is about a week left until the big opening day here so there’s time for the hoopla to manifest.

I hope it does. I am total vampire geek even when it comes wrapped up in packages like Twilight. If the movie has less Bella and more Jacob then that can’t be bad at all. I’ve already put the friends on alert and will be mobilizing my own Twilighter fanatic mob to hit the theater in Seoul next week. Why not join in?

Korea Twilight Mania

Kpopped Twilight in Korea

Korean New Moon Website

Naver Twilight Blog

Cyworld Korean Twilight

Twilight New Moon Release Dates