The past two years have shown a peak in a distressingly mundane Hollywood trend: nine out of the 10 top-grossing films in each year were either sequels, prequels or remakes.

Of the two films that did not fall into those categories, one was a surefire-success book adaptation (The Hunger Games) and the other a bastardized slice of warmed-over pop culture (The Smurfs). Looking ahead at the schedule of releases for 2013, there’s good reason to fear that the industry may continue to take its gargantuan smurf over all that was once entertaining.

Thankfully, there is at least one promising development on the domestic film front: a handful of popular and adventurous directors from South Korea are taking on big-budget American projects due to be released this year.

Directors like Park Chan-Wook, whose audacious revenge thriller Oldboy (2003) found an enthusiastic international audience, will be among those at the forefront of this wave of foreign talent.

Park’s confrontational films may have initially brought outside attention to his work, but his upcoming American debut, Stoker, trades in some shock for classic chills in a psychological horror plot starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska.

Early critical reception for the March release has been quite positive, with many reviewers pointing out atmospheric similarities to the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

“Korean directors make visceral, artistic and compelling films that many Americans will fall in love with. I can’t wait to see Stoker,” said fourth-year biochemistry and english double major Brian McGarry.

The first release this year to feature a prominent Korean director was The Last Stand, an action flick starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. While the film itself has received mixed reviews, some critics have pointed out that it benefits from director Kim Ji-Woon’s inventive visual style.

Among Kim’s additional body of work is the chilling ghost story A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), which has since been remade stateside as The Uninvited (2009) and The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (2008), a wild, spaghetti-Western-influenced adventure set in 1930s Manchuria.

Later in the year, we will see the third major South Korea/U.S crossover with Bong Joon-Ho’s sci-fi epic Snowpiercer. Bong is arguably the most compelling of the three filmmakers mentioned, with a knack for consistently widening the boundaries of whatever genre he works in, whether it’s a black comedy (Barking Dogs Never Bite, 2000), a giant monster movie (The Host, 2006) or a murder mystery (Mother, 2009).

Snowpiercer will be an adaptation of a French graphic novel, whose intriguing scenario concerns the survivors of an ice-age apocalypse who reside in a perpetually moving train.

“[Snowpiercer] sounds intriguing. It’ll be interesting to see if the movie will bring a different sensibility to the genre,” said fourth-year technocultural studies and art double major Christopher Jones.

One must commend these directors for taking on projects in an entirely new studio system — and in the case of Kim Ji-Woon — a new language. Kim revealed in recent interviews that the South Korean system is much different, with all the resources and energy on set going toward achieving the director’s vision instead of adhering strictly to the shooting script and working hours once the film is written.

One must also give props to a few Hollywood studios for trying something different.

“South Korean directors have certainly made a mark on Korean pop culture by displaying their unique style and attention to detail in movies, dramas and music videos,” said president of the K-Pop club Phancisco Doan, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior and computer science double major. “This is why K-pop culture has been making its way into the states and [is] becoming ever more popular.”

One might hope that the tradition of remaking successful foreign films into slightly different copies will be curbed in favor of collaborating with international talent. In any case, it may open up domestic audiences to other varieties of popular entertainment available in world cinema.

ANDREW RUSSELL can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Game of the week

Metal Gear Solid fans and action aficionados alike have something to look forward to this week with the release of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The latest title from developer Platinum Games features the company’s trademark enthusiasm for all things over-the-top, albeit in a far more familiar setting.

Revengeance takes place four years after the events of 2008’s Metal Gear Solid 4, and this time around Raiden finds himself in the spotlight. The katana-weilding cyborg ninja stands in stark contrast to usual protagonist Solid Snake. Revengeance does feature moments in which stealth remains an option, but more often than not Raiden prefers face-to-face confrontations.

Metal Gear Solid creator/director Hideo Kojima did oversee some of the game’s narrative development, but the real appeal of Revengeance is the adrenaline-pumping combat system, courtesy of Platinum Games. It’s fluid, fast-paced and features a unique cutting mechanic in which both enemies and environmental objects can be sliced in a number of ways.

Feedback for Revengeance has been largely positive so far, though some reviewers have mentioned the game’s short playtime as a notable downside. Personally, I value an entire video game experience over some kind of dollar-to-hour ratio, so in that sense it seems like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an easy recommendation.

This week in news

By the time The Aggie readers see this column, Sony will have unveiled the PlayStation 4 (or whatever other name the company decides to call its newest console). However, at the time of this print that had not happened yet. So instead we look back to the weekend to highlight some big news from Bungie, the creators of Halo.

This past Sunday marked the first official reveal of Destiny, Bungie’s newest project. It’s another first-person shooter, but the company is referring to the game more specifically as a “shared-world shooter,” in which players cooperatively interact with each other online without traditional matchmaking menus and systems.

The term MMOFPS has been has been thrown around a lot in the wake of Destiny’s reveal, but publisher Activision did state that the game will not feature subscription fees. An internet connection will be required to play the game, though.

Few specifics were given in terms of gameplay mechanics, but Bungie did mention a class system and the inclusion of magical abilities. These abilities come from The Traveler, a huge sphere looming over the sole remaining city. Not only did The Traveler grant special powers to certain individuals, but it saved humanity from ultimate destruction.

Players will traverse the post-apocalyptic world and journey to other planets in an effort to fight off various alien species. This means access to ships, and Bungie left open the possibility of space combat.

I often admit that I’m not a huge fan of the Halo series, but Destiny strikes me as a hugely ambitious and exciting game. It won’t be coming out until 2014, but I look forward to hearing more about Bungie’s latest project in the coming months.

ANTHONY LABELLA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Created by the Department of Theatre and Dance, the experimental theater lab showcases the creative ingenuity of Davis students.

This spring, Sarah Salem, a third-year dramatic arts major, and Duskin Drum, a PhD student in performance studies, have co-opted a new experience titled Change(d).

Salem and Drum created the idea for the production while living in the cooperative living known as the Domes.

“We were influenced by communal life,” Salem said. “Taking care of the land and each other; there’s no hierarchy.”

Salem’s overarching goal is an exploration of collaboratively devised work. She wants to see different perspectives addressed in the collaborative process, and Change(d) allows for this diversity.

The performance focuses on themes of ecology and politics. In this massive framework, each participant will have the ability to bring work from their own field of study. This diversity of source material will guide the direction of production.

“I’m very interested in the message. We’ll use theater games to commune with one another. We’ll learn each other’s passions,” Salem said.

She believes the unscripted nature of the play will yield a performance crafted by the participants.

Drum believes the play will create a collaborative community.

“We were both excited about the ideas of the Brazilian performer Augusto Eoal. It’s exciting to now get a chance to work on his techniques,” Drum said.

Drum has a diverse background in theater. After a short stint in college, he dropped out, became a street performer and a puppeteer. Eventually he performed internationally till after seven years he returned to continue his collegiate career.

“There’s a tradition tied to directorial and performance roles. We wanted a model of performance and education that was less authoritarian,” Drum said.

In pursuit of this goal, their performance is wide open and process-oriented. Duskin stressed the commitment necessary for this sort of project to succeed. They intend to do three major shows and a series of public appearances. If they are able to create a serious production, their work will be time intensive.

Though Ezka Whaley-Mayda was not part of the creative force that engineered the process, she still was one of the first proponents. A third-year art studios major, Whaley-Mayda lives with the two organizers.

Whaley-Mayda looks forward to the open-minded nature of the performance. She took careful emphasis to note, though small of stature, she would provide all she could to the production.

“I expect to be really uncomfortable [but] also to be joyful, lie on the floor, hopefully not vomit. I have never done experimental theater so I am very interested,” Whaley-Mayda said.

The lab is still accepting participants. Rehearsals will take place Monday through Thursday and the lab will culminate in performances presented May 24 through 26. The first workshop takes place March 8 at 10 a.m. at Wright Hall. For more information, email dwdrum@ucdavis.edu.

BEAUGART GERBER can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

No big deal, but I was on a phone call this past weekend with James Franco and Sam Raimi. Sure, I was one of a dozen college reporters listening in on a conference call with two big names involved in the upcoming film Oz: The Great and Powerful. Sure, we were on mute as the moderator asked questions and we plebeians typed furiously onto our laptops. But I was on a freaking phone call with James Franco, y’all.

It all began when I received an email about a college conference call. I’ve done this before, when I had the chance to actually speak to the main comics of “Key & Peele,” a comedy show on Comedy Central. But this time, I was on a Disney conference call with a movie star and a famous director.

Oz: The Great and Powerful is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, the original MGM film with Judy Garland. Actors such as Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis and Zach Braff star in the film, along with Franco, who plays the main character.

Just in case you live under a rock or essentially don’t particularly care about Hollywood, James Franco is tied to the Spider-Man series, Pineapple Express, 127 Hours and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. But what makes him interesting is that he’s an extreme academic on the side. A short list of his alma maters include UCLA for undergraduate studies, Columbia University’s MFA writing program, NYU for filmmaking and Brooklyn College for fiction writing.

Oh, and on top of that, he was a PhD student in English at Yale University. And if that wasn’t enough, he taught at USC and now teaches at UCLA. A question was asked about how he balances it all, and Franco gave an honest answer.

“I insist that I have a balance. It’s saved my life. I love the academic world. During the past seven years, I’ve gotten addicted to school. I love teaching and being able to focus on other people’s work,” Franco said.

There was also a question about how it was different working with Raimi this time around versus when they worked together on the Spider-Man movies. Again, Franco did not hold back.

“He’s one of my favorite directors to work with and watch. I had a supporting role in Spider-Man, and he usually identifies with the main character. He blames me for wanting to kill Peter Parker. I got a little less love, but now that I’m the protagonist in Oz, I feel more of Sam’s love.”

The other phone call I got to participate in that afternoon was with the director of Oz: The Great and Powerful. Sam Raimi is best known for his directing of the Evil Dead series and had a lot of great advice for college students interested in directing.

“Be directing now. Every day you should be writing a script or a scene. Every weekend you should be filming. Sunday, you should be editing. Monday, show it to a university audience. They won’t like your little film. Go back and fix it,” Raimi said. “You do all of this now and you’ll always be a director. Get to work, you lazy bums!”

This little pep talk can be applied to anyone in college with a dream of accomplishing something great, and it was that one response to a question about advice to aspiring directors that I identified with and believed in the most.

We’re all (hopefully) aiming to achieve more, help others and inspire with our work. It was a treat and the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to listen to two famous working professionals in Hollywood speak frankly about the business.

But I’m still angry I didn’t get to ask Raimi about his thoughts on the Spider-Man musical.

ELIZABETH ORPINA now aims to interview Beyonce. Send contact information to arts@theaggie.org.