CHOI Yong-bae produced BONG Joon-ho’s <The Host>, which holds the No. 1 spot in at the Korean box office for any local films. While working at Cinema Service in the late 1990s, he increased distribution of Korean films and brought a change to the movie market that had been thus far dominated by foreign films. Upon establishing Chungeorahm Film in the early 2000s, he distributed almost a dozen Korean films, such as <Singles> and <A Good Lawyers Wife> each ...More

CHOI Yong-bae produced BONG Joon-ho’s <The Host>, which holds the No. 1 spot in at the Korean box office for any local films. While working at Cinema Service in the late 1990s, he increased distribution of Korean films and brought a change to the movie market that had been thus far dominated by foreign films. Upon establishing Chungeorahm Film in the early 2000s, he distributed almost a dozen Korean films, such as <Singles> and <A Good Lawyers Wife> each year and built Chungeorahm Film as the No. 3 distributor, following CJ Entertainment and Cinema Service, in the industry. Once he started investing in movies, he focused on well-made diversity films such as <3-Iron> by KIM Ki-duk and <Tale of Cinema> by HONG Sangsoo. He also ventured into production, starting with <The President’s Barber>, starring SONG Kang-ho. When <The Host> became a success in China, he opened up a branch office in Beijing and announced a plan to make a Chinese sequel of the film, scouting Ning Hao as the director. Meanwhile, he also pushed for the production of a Korean sequel, by signing an investment deal with Singapore’s Boku Films. Currently the sequel is scheduled to be directed by Park Myung-cheon, who is a famous director of Korean commercials. But CHOI’s biggest achievement in recent years has been to complete his long-term project <26 Years>, a drama about the May 18 Gwangju massacre in 1980. Based on the original work by comic book artist Kang Full, the project was one of the most-anticipated films in 2008, but the production was abruptly suspended. Despite enduring six years without finding any investors during the conservative government’s regime, CHOI didn’t give up the project. Instead, he found a new investment model in crowd funding. <26 Years> was the first Korean film that made a breakthrough with this new investment platform, with more than 17,000 participants funding USD 548,000 in total. Released during the presidential election period, the film became a surprise and historic hit by drawing in almost three million viewers. Less