The 10 Million Viewer Milestone Directors’ Club

NEWS & REPORTS
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Feature

NEWS & REPORTS

The 10 Million Viewer Milestone Directors’ Club

Aug 21, 2018

Writerby Pierce Conran
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What it Takes to Become a Member of Korean Cinema’s Most Exclusive Group

The 10 million viewer milestone club in Korean cinema welcomed another title last week: Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days. Another achievement for the film is that it is the first ever Korean sequel to hit the mark. It has also expanded the most exclusive club of all: one of the directors who reached the 10 million viewer milestone more than once, earning KIM Yong-hwa a seat at the table next to the two other members, CHOI Dong-hoon and JK YOUN.

KIM, CHOI and YOUN are among the most recognized and reliable hit-makers in the industry but even getting one film past the 10 million viewer mark has been proven not such an easy task. This week, KoBiz takes a look at the growing roster of hit-makers.

CHOI Dong-hoon

The first filmmaker to record two 10 million viewer hits was CHOI Dong-hoon, a director who has never failed to score big on the charts in his impressive five-film and fourteen-year career. He first emerged on the scene with the heist thriller The Big Swindle (2004), which landed on the tenth spot of the yearly top ten with 2.13 million viewers. Two years later, he rose to number two on the charts with the card shark smash Tazza: The High Rollers (2006 - 6.84 million viewers). The period action Woochi (2009) landed at third for 2009 with 6.14 million entries. His next heist thriller The Thieves (2012) saw him top the charts with 12.98 million admissions in 2012, a feat he almost managed again with the Colonial Era action-drama Assassination (2015) and its 12.71 million viewers in 2015, a rare year with multiple ten million viewer hits.

The secret to CHOI’s success, beyond his intelligent combination of genre elements, has been his sharp dialogue, exciting characters and deep ensemble casts, which cleverly pit stars playing up their strengths along with others going against type. CHOI was meant to return with a remake of the Hong Kong action-drama Wiretap, but the unforeseen illness of his lead-to-be KIM Woo-bin has delayed the project.

JK YOUN

After directing the gangster comedy My Boss, My Hero in 2001 (3.3 million spectators), director JK YOUN scored again just a year later with the hit youth comedy Sex Is Zero (2002) (4.09 million viewers). Aside from the disappointment of the high concept period action-comedy Crazy Assassins in 2003, it’s been an embarrassment of riches ever since. He returned with the romcom Miracle on First Street in 2007 (2.54 million) but it was in 2009 that he entered the record books, when his ensemble disaster drama Haeundae (2009) welcomed 11.45 million viewers. His next directing effort was even more impressive, as the sprawling dramatic epic Ode to My Father (2014) reached 14.26 million spectators.

YOUN, who can always catch the pulse of masses of Korea with his accessible films that carefully balance spectacle, comedy and melodrama, has been equally successful as a producer through his company JK Film, having delivered hits such as Dancing Queen (2012 - 4.06 million viewers), The Himalayas (2015 - 7.76 million viewers) and Confidential Assignment (2017 - 7.82 million viewers). Next up for him is next month’s THE NEGOTIATION (which he produced), and he’s also reportedly working one Korea’s first ever space drama, which is called Homecoming.

KIM Yong-hwa

Kicking off his career with the successful family comedy Oh! Brothers in 2003 (3.15 million viewers), KIM Yong-hwa proved himself to be no fluke when he delivered the most popular romantic comedy of all time in Korea, with the sensation that was 200 Pounds Beauty in 2006 (6.62 million viewers). With that film and its’ massive prosthetics demands, KIM began his fascination with spectacle-driven fare and special-effects technology to boost a film's appeal. Next up was 2009’s Take Off, the most successful sports drama of all time with 8.49 million viewers. He returned with the 3D baseball-playing gorilla drama Mr. Go in 2013, but while that project didn’t connect with viewers, it allowed him to found the VFX outfit Dexter Studios, which quickly established itself as a dominant effects company in the Asian Film Market.

KIM took on his biggest gamble yet when he signed on to direct the adaptation of a fantasy webtoon that would become Korea’s first ever simultaneously produced two-part film, the wildly successful Along with the Gods series. Last December, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017) became the second most successful film of all time in Korea with 14.41 million viewers and its sequel Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days, which is currently in theaters, has to date brought in 11.32 million spectators. Reports suggest that KIM will return for a third and fourth installment of the series, while he is also rumored to be developing another space-set drama.

LEE Joon-ik

One of the most consistent crowd-pleasers of the Korean film industry has been LEE Joon-ik, who has specialized in (but not been limited to) period era dramas. Following several early successes, the former film poster designer was responsible for the most successful Korean film of all time with 2005’s King And The Clown and its 12.3 million audiences, though he would only hold on to the crown for a couple of seasons.

The closest he has come to the 10 million mark since has been The Throne (2015), which reached 6.25 million viewers during the Chuseok holiday of 2015, yet the prolific filmmaker has been responsible for an impressive number of hits at more modest budgets in recent years, including Hope (2013), DONGJU; The Portrait of A Poet (2016) and last year’s Anarchist from Colony (2017).

BONG Joon-ho

The person who swiped the crown of most successful Korean film from director LEE was none other than BONG Joon-ho, who is the most globally recognized filmmakers among Korea’s top local hitmakers. His creature feature The Host (2006) reached 13.02 million spectators in the summer of 2006 and held on to the crown for eight years. The surprise success wasn’t even BONG’s first major hit. His classic thriller Memories of Murder (2003), considered one of the greatest Korean films of all time, was the second most well-attended Korean film of 2003 with 5.26 million entries.

After The Host, BONG almost became the first filmmaker with two ten million hits when his sci-fi action-drama Snowpiercer (2013) brought in 9.35 million viewers. Due to a boycott from major exhibitors in Korea due to a theatrical window dispute, we’ll never know how well BONG’s subsequent film, the big-budget Netflix-produced film Okja (2017), would have fared with general audiences. BONG is currently shooting the film Parasite, his first fully Korean film since 2009’s Mother.

RYOO Seung-wan

Action maestro RYOO Seung-wan was an early hit with critics but it took a while for him to find his feet with general audiences, but once he did, he honed his talents and improved with each outing. The first broad success came with The Unjust in 2010 (2.72 million viewers), which he followed with his first blockbuster, the spy yarn The Berlin File (2013), which reached 7.17 million viewers during the Lunar New Year holiday in 2013. In 2015 he parred things down with the action-drama Veteran (2015), which stunned the industry with its 13.14 million viewers. RYOO went big for his next project, the World War II prison escape film The Battleship Island (2017), which fell a little under expectations, even with its enormous 6.6 million entries.

KIM Han-min

He may only have one title in the group, but KIM Han-min is sitting comfortably at the top of the table with his 2014 naval warfare epic Roaring Currents, which is far and away the most successful Korean film of all time with 17.61 million admissions. Yet it’s not even the first time the director scored a major hit. Three years earlier, he experienced huge success with War of the Arrows (2011), another period action title with welcomed 7.47 million viewers.

The Rest

Though there’s no space to go into any detail for the whole group, the other members currently comprise CHOO Chang-min (Masquerade, 2012 - 12.32 million viewers), JANG Hun (A Taxi Driver, 2017 - 12.19 million viewers), YANG Woo-suk (The Attorney, 2013 - 11.37 million viewers), KANG Woo-suk (Silmido, 2003 - 11.07 million viewers), KANG Je-kyu (TaeGukGi: Brotherhood Of War, 2004 - 11.75 million viewers), LEE Hwan-kyung (Miracle in Cell No.7, 2013 - 12.81 million viewers) and YEON Sang-ho (TRAIN TO BUSAN, 2016 - 11.57 million viewers).

Yet the 10 million club doesn’t hold all of Korea’s proven hitmakers. If we were to broaden the list, we might include the three filmmakers with two titles in the all-time Korean top 50 that have yet breach the mark. These include KANG Hyoung-chul with Scandal Makers (2008 - 8.25 million viewers) and Sunny (2011 - 7.45 million viewers), KIM Jee-woon with The Age of Shadows (2016 - 7.5 million viewers) and The Good, The Bad, And The Weird (2008 - 6.69 million viewers), and LEE Seok-hoon with The Pirates (2014 - 8.67 million viewers), and The Himalayas (2015 - 7.76 million viewers).

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