Culture Briefs

Korean singer to receive Obama award

Lim Hyung-joo

Korean popera singer Lim Hyung-joo will receive a cultural honor from United States President Barack Obama, his management agency DGNcom said.

The 28-year-old tenor was chosen as a recipient of this year’s U.S. presidential award in recognition of his contribution to promoting friendly ties between South Korea and the United States.

Lim participated in a series of concerts to mark common anniversaries of the two nations. In 2003, he performed in Los Angeles to commemorate the centennial anniversary of Korean immigrants to the United States. The following year in New York, he sang at the concert commemorating the 55th anniversary of the start of Korean War. In 2010, he held a solo concert at the New York Carnegie Hall to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and donated all of the profits to the UN to be used as scholarship for the descendants of the Korean War veterans.

Lim is the youngest Korean to receive the award. The ceremony will take place in Washington D.C. in April.

Theatergoers dropped from last year

The number of theatergoers in January this year dropped by 4.8 percent from the same period last year, according data from the Korean Film Council.

The number of audience in January was 22.48 million, down by 11.2 million from January last year. Sales from the ticket boxes, however, increased by 1.3 percent. This was due to the increase in average ticket prices by 6.3 percent from 7,379 won in January last year to 7,841 won in January this year.

The market share of Korean films in January nearly doubled that of foreign films, taking up 62.4 percent of the market whereas foreign movies took up 37.6 percent.

This was due to the popularity of “Ode to My Father” which topped the box office in January. The movie drew 13 million viewers since its release in December and 7 million of them saw the movie in January.