삼거리 극장 (The Ghost Theater, aka Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater)?

UPDATE (17 Feb 2008): I have a copy on its way. Lime ordered it for me. Last time we checked, it wasn’t available anywhere, but now it is. Whee! 

Ever since I heard about this film, I’ve wanted to see it, but I’ve never seen it on any shelf, or advertised here, and it’s never available at Yesasia.com.

And yeah, it does exist — there’s even a trailer here er, here:

And yeah, in one way, it looks like another Fox Family, a film I hated in the theater (though it grew on me later), but even if the ghosts are made up like teen boyband popstars who have discovered The Cure circa The Head on the Door, this still looks a little more inventive and interesting.

Not just because it’s about a kid hanging out with a bunch of ghosts, but also because

  • it’s set in a theater, and thus primed to explore all kinds of things about film,history, and imagination, even if it is in a goofy way
  • one of the ghosts is a Japanese soldier, if I remember right, and I always find depictions of colonial-era Japanese in Korean films an interesting topic
  • the music and even the song and dance scenes seem better (from the trailer, anyway) than in Fox Family.
  • again, if I remember right, it’s got an interesting human story — a little girl looking for her grandma, who went out to see a movie and disappeared. Of course, grandma’s relationship to film is more complex than that.

So anyway, no idea if I’ll ever see it — it seems to be nowhere I look — but this is definitely a film I’ve been waiting for.

And if anyone has a copy he or she would like to part with, let me know…

Here’s a cute scene from the film:

2 thoughts on “삼거리 극장 (The Ghost Theater, aka Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater)?

  1. I know this is an old post but I have been looking for this movie on and off for years! A Korean friend had downloaded it around 2009 or so and I loved it. I am no longer in contact with this friend but would be so happy to see/own this film. It would be appreciated if you can help me at all! I can’t even find ways to purchase the movie and I am more than happy to spend money on it!

    1. I see a lot of copies of the soundtrack available here, and even someone selling the poster for (about) five bucks, but the DVD seems harder to get: it’s sold out from the usual places one buys new DVDs (well, when one buys them at all these days).

      That said, there do seem to be second-hand copies available from Aladdin Books, some of them for much less than the original price. Do you have a Korean friend now who could help you obtain it from there?

      (If not, let me know and maybe we can work something out: I know what it’s like to really, really want something that is easily purchaseable somewhere else far away, and impossible to get where one lives.)

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