Summer Heats Up for Blockbuster Showdown

NEWS & REPORTS
Feature

Feature

NEWS & REPORTS

Summer Heats Up for Blockbuster Showdown

Jun 26, 2018

Writerby Pierce Conran
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Auteurs and Hitmakers Tussle for Box Office Supremacy

Now that the Avengers and Jurassic Worlds of the world have made their way through Korea’s cinemas, it’s time for the real summer season to get started in the country as the year’s hottest local films are set to hit multiplexes. Proven hitmakers and high-profile sequels are among this season’s top offerings during the sweltering summer high season.

While Hollywood typically enjoys dominance in the Korean market from late Spring through to early Summer, the tide tends to turn in mid-July, when the box office receipts explode and local fare dominates. The school holidays, as well as the peak temperatures and humidity, drive huge crowds into theaters during this rich box office season, which lasts until late August, but generally kicks off a run for the local industry as Korean films tend to do well throughout the Chuseok holidays and fall season.

The following are some of the biggest titles coming out during the rest of summer, but with release dates often revealed with the little advance warning, it’s always possible for more titles to be added to the lineup. The season will also provide launching pads for several smaller films and of course, a number of major Hollywood titles which will try to compete against local blockbusters, including Mission: Impossible: Fallout, Ant-man and The Wasp and The Incredibles 2.

Sunset in My Hometown - July 4

The busiest hitmaker in Korea, LEE Joon-ik is back with his fifth film in the six years since he came out of his mini-retirement in 2013. After a trio of hit period dramas, LEE is back with Sunset in My Hometown, a rare modern-day narrative and his first ever youth film, led by PARK Jung-min, star of LEE’s 2016 arthouse drama DONGJU; The Portrait of A Poet, and Eungyo (2012) lead KIM Go-eun.

PARK plays a wannabe rapper who has failed to get past the early elimination rounds of a nationally televised contest for years and when he learns that his estranged father is on his deathbed he returns to the countryside. There he meets an old school acquaintance played by KIM. When he discovers that his father’s condition isn’t as bad as he’d been led to believe, he decides to return home but he’s mistaken for the local criminal and the police force him to stay in the area.

Though it will go up against Marvel when it opens on the same day as Ant-man and the Wasp, Sunset in My Hometown is well positioned to follow in the footsteps of other recent youth drama hits, such as YIM Soon-rye’s Little Forest with KIM Tae-ri and RYU Jun-yeol.

The Whispering - July 12

Korean horror films used to be the fixture in the summer months but have been less visible in the season in recent years. Though in the wake of several successes, including JUNG Bum-shik’s found footage horror GONJIAM: Haunted Asylum, which became the second most successful local horror film of all time in March, optimism is returning for the genre.

The Whispering focuses on a group of youths who experience terrifying supernatural events at an abandoned amusement park. The film marks the feature debut of CHOI Sang-hun, who worked as an assistant director on Mr. Perfect (2014). Cast includes KIM Min-kyu (Chasing, 2016) as well as SO Ju-yeon, CHOI Hee-jin and KIM Tae-min in their debut film roles.

Inrang - July 25

The first of three Korean summer tentpoles this year, Inrang (Korean title) is the ninth film from acclaimed genre filmmaker KIM Jee-woon. A big-budget and live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime Jin-Roh , The Wolf Brigade, KIM’s film transposes the action to a hypothetical Korean peninsula in 2029, which is on the cusp of reunification.

GANG Dong-won (Master, 2016) stars as Joong-kyung, a member of an elite anti-terrorism squad that has been put together to put a stop to ‘Sect’, a violent anti-reunification group. JUNG Woo-sung (Steel Rain, 2017) plays the head of the unit’s training squad while HAN Hyo-joo (The Beauty Inside, 2015) features as the sister of a woman who dies before Joong-kyung’s eyes.

The second collaboration between Director KIM and Warner Bros. Korea, following their smash hit The Age of Shadows in 2016, Inrang also stars GIM Mu-yeol (Forgotten, 2017), HAN Ye-ri (Worst Woman, 2016), HU Joon-ho (The Merciless, 2017) and Min-ho (Derailed, 2016) of K-pop group SHINee.

Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days - August 1

The second installment in a two-part webtoon fantasy epic adaption of webtoon ‘Along with the Gods’, the first simultaneously filmed double production in Korea, Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days follows the extraordinary success of last December’s Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017), which is now the second most well-attended Korean film of all time with 14.41 million admissions (USD 103.71 million).

HA Jung-woo, JU Ji-hoon, and KIM Hyang-gi return as the three archangels from the afterworld, who guide the recently deceased through a series of seven trials held in seven halls over 49 days. LEE Jung-ja is once again on board as the King of the Underworld while Don LEE (aka MA Dong-seok) of TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) and THE OUTLAWS (2017) joins the main cast as the God of House after his role was teased at the very end of the first film.

So bullish are expectations for the fantasy epic sequel that production company Realies Pictures has already announced a pair of new sequels. Also to be helmed by KIM Yong-hwa, the films will once again be simultaneously filmed late next year. Producer WON Dong-yeon states that the new installments, which will go beyond the original webtoon, will open the door to potential prequels and spinoffs.

The Spy Gone North - August 8

YOON Jong-bin’s period North Korean-themed spy drama will be in Korea following its world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it featured in the Midnight Screenings section. It was the director’s second invitation, after his debut, The Unforgiven (2005) screened in Un Certain Regard in 2006.

Box office sensation HWANG Jung-min, lead of such all-time hits as JK YOUN’s Ode to My Father (2014), RYOO Seung-wan’s Veteran (2015), and LEE Il-hyung’s A Violent Prosecutor (2016), plays the real-life operative codenamed Black Swan who was tasked with posing as a South Korean business interested in establishing ties in the advertising business with North Korea but is really after the hermit kingdom’s nuclear escalation plans. CHO Jin-woong of recent smash hit Believer plays his handler while LEE Sung-min, a cast member of YOON’s previous film KUNDO : Age of the Rampant (2014) and the lead of fellow August release The Witness graces the screen as the North Korean official he deals with.

Given the surprising political developments of late on the Korean peninsula and the narrative’s more nuanced themes of inter-Korean cooperation, many are curious to see if the film will benefit from current events when it hits screens.

The Witness - August

After a boozy post-work dinner, an insurance adjuster returns to the new apartment he shares with his wife and daughter late one night. Looking out the window he witnesses the unthinkable, a man murdering a woman, but before he knows what to do, the killer notices him.

From TRAIN TO BUSAN producer Next Entertainment World, The Witness hopes to inspire the same kind of success that the studio’s mystery-thriller Hide and Seek had in August, 2013, when it surprised the industry with over five million viewers, after being released at the tail end of one of the busiest summer seasons on record. LEE Sung-min (also in The Spy Gone North) stars as the insurance adjuster who contends with a potential serial killer as well as his conservative new neighbors.

Just like Hide and Seek, The Witness will focus on an affluent upper-middle-class family unit with a middle-aged patriarch faced with a danger threatening the stability of the modern residential complex he lives in.

The Soul-Mate - August

The second directorial outing for Jo Won-hee following the macabre hospital-set revenge comedy-thriller Enemy at the Dead End (2010), The Soul-Mate stars Don LEE (aka MA Dong-seok) as Jang-su, a widower who runs a judo studio and who is the only person who can see Tae-jin, a police officer who finds himself separated from his body following an accident during an investigation, and who also happened to be Jang-su’s nemesis.

One of many recent projects featuring LEE in the lead, The Soul-Mate is unlikely to take the box office crown over the season (that honor will likely go to LEE’s other summer contender Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days) but may find a receptive audience when it opens towards the end of the summer season as it looks to emulate the success of high-concept comedy-thrillers such as the 2016 smash LUCK-KEY.

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