tomorrow will be a double feature

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" came out in South Korea this past Wednesday, January 8, and God help me, I'll be seeing it tomorrow (Saturday). Another movie, "Dolittle," has also been released here in Korea; it won't be released in the States until January 17, so I might as well take advantage of the relatively early peninsular release to get the drop on all my American peeps. "Dolittle" is the story of Dr. Dolittle, this time around starring Robert Downey, Jr. and not Eddie Murphy. Murphy's version was apparently a box-office turd; the preview for the new version looks charming enough for me to want to go see it. I'm all about talking animals, and I've long esteemed Saint Francis of Assisi—the guy who self-flagellated but also communed intensely with nature and all its creatures—as my favorite Catholic saint. Readers of this blog will remember that many of my "100 Below" stories feature talking animals (see here and here and here, for example), so yeah, I'm taken with the concept.

Amusingly, Wikipedia has this to say:

In South Korea, where the film was theatrically featured about one week before its US release, it scored No. 1 upon its debut, which prompted Downey Jr. to publish a video message thanking the South Korean audience.

According to Movie.Naver.com, "Dolittle" is indeed at No. 1, with 38.66% of ticket sales. "The Rise of Skywalker," by contrast, is already at No. 3, with a mere 14.16% of ticket sales. Obviously, Koreans got wind of the negative buzz in the West.