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There are very few genres you won’t find on Korean marquees these days, but among all the varied stories on offer, those that are the most abundant today and which have endured in the industry throughout the last 20 years are its popular thrillers. Yet while local viewers can count on seeing them appear in theaters during the whole calendar year, the fall season has become known as the busiest for the country’s crime films.

Spanning roughly from late August through to the end of November, this informal ‘thriller season’ seems to have kicked off in 2010, when seven titles, including The Unjust and Midnight F.M., were programmed in close proximity to each other, despite the seeming danger of overlapping audiences. While the trend has gone up and down, with the number vacillating between four and eight throughout the decade, 2017 seems to be the busiest year for fall thrillers yet, with V.I.P. having kicked off a run of ten titles on August 23rd, which is due to close on November 29th with a face off between The Chase and Forgotten.

There's never any shortage of thrillers being made in Korea, but as the industry has matured and its technical sophistication and ambition have grown, it’s become more complicated for studios to date their bread and butter crime titles. On a crowded release schedule, which includes some corridors stalked by intimidating Hollywood tentpoles (such as most of spring and early summer), while the more expensive homegrown blockbuster productions tend to get pride of place during the year’s four hottest theatergoing periods (Lunar New Year, late summer, Chuseok, end of year), the flow of time and circumstance has turned the fall season into the least risky time to release a thriller. 

Yet the calculated programming has turned up a new problem as with so much competition, some of these films tend to cannibalize each other, which leaves a fair share of casualties. But for studios increasingly pouring their resources into big-budget films, the losses incurred by these relatively cheaper productions can be seen as less of a risk.

 

DIRECTOR PARK Hoong-jung

CAST KIM Myung-min, JANG Dong-gun, LEE Jong-suk, PARK Hee-soon 

RELEASE DATE August 23

CONTACT Finecut

Tel : +82 2 569 8777

Fax : +82 2 569 6662

Email : cineinfo@finecut.co.kr

Following The Age of Shadows and A Single Rider, Warner Bros. Korea released their third title V.I.P., from New World (2013) helmer PARK Hoon-jung. The writer-director combines tropes of the serial killer chiller and North Korean political intrigue in this ambitious tale of an untouchable son of a North Korean official who has crossed borders to continue a savage killing spree. A cast of veterans play members of several agencies trying to track him down while Hollywood-based Swedish actor Peter Stormare also appears.

DIRECTOR WON Shin-yun

CAST SUL Kyung-gu, KIM Nam-gil, Seol-hyun, OH Dal-su 

RELEASE DATE September 6

CONTACT Showbox

Tel : +82 2 3218 5640

Fax : +82 2 3444 6688

Email : sales@showbox.co.kr

Based on a novel by acclaimed author KIM Yong-ha, MEMOIR OF A MURDERER features SUL Kyung-gu (Public Enemy, 2002) as a serial killer suffering with Alzheimer who meets a younger murderer by chance and believes his daughter to be in danger. Battling with his memories, he struggles to stay ahead of the dangerous killer, who happens to be a police officer. This stylish and magnified twist on the serial killer thriller is the latest from The Suspect (2013) director WON Shin-yun.

DIRECTOR KANG Yun-sung

CAST Don LEE, YOON Gye-sang, JO Jae-yun, CHOI Gwi-hwa

RELEASE DATE October 3

CONTACT M-Line Distribution

Tel : +82 2 796 2427

Fax : +82 2 796 2429

Email : sales@mline-distribution.com

An unlikely contender for the Chuseok holiday crown, sleeper hit THE OUTLAWS, the debut film of director KANG Yun-sung, is one of at least four films films featuring Don LEE (aka MA Dong-seok) this year, and testified to his box office credentials in formidable fashion. With a heavy dose of comedy and grit, this local cop versus Chinese-Korean gang flick was the sleeper hit of the year, opening in second place before finding its way to well over six millions admissions.

DIRECTOR KWAK Kyung-taek

CAST KIM Rae-won, KIM Hae-sook, SUNG Dong-il, JEON Hye-jin

RELEASE DATE October 12

CONTACT Showbox

Tel : +82 2 3218 5640

Fax : +82 2 3444 6688

Email : sales@showbox.co.kr

Friend (2001) director KWAK Kyung-taek returns with his 13th title, adding a supernatural edge to his thriller comfort zone with RV: Resurrected Victims. KIM Rae-won (Gangnam Blues, 2015) stars as a detective whose murdered mother, played by KIM Hae-sook (The Thieves, 2012), comes back to life, seeking to avenge herself. The only problem is that the person she points her knife towards is none other than her son.

DIRECTOR JUNG Ji-woo

CAST CHOI Min-shik, PARK Shin-hye, RYU Jun-yeol, LEE Ha-neui 

RELEASE DATE November 2

CONTACT CJ Entertainment

Tel : +82-2-371-5500

Fax : +82-2-371-6340

Email : filmsales@cj.net

Known for piercing human drams such as Happy End (1999) and Eungyo (2012), director JUNG Ji-woo combines his penchant for intense introspection into this remake of the popular Chinese court thriller Silent Witness from 2013. Switching out the original’s rapid pace for a more somber tone that showcases the strengths of a stellar cast led by local heavyweight CHOI Min-shik (Old Boy, 2003), Heart Blackened is a character study filtered filtered through a twisty genre premise. 

DIRECTOR LEE An-gyu

CAST KIM Hye-soo, LEE Sun-kyun, LEE Hui-joon, CHOI Moo-sung

RELEASE DATE November 9

CONTACT M-Line Distribution

Tel : +82 2 796 2427

Fax : +82 2 796 2429

Email : sales@mline-distribution.com

Debut director LEE An-gyu gives us one of the few women-led pictures of the year in the action noir A Special Lady. Sporting a shock of blond hair, KIM Hye-soo echoes her gritty role in Coin Locker Girl (2015) as the number two in a gang who must ward off fighting factions when her boss takes ill. Matters complicate themselves when the existence of her secret son is revealed.

DIRECTOR LEE Yong-seung

CAST SHIN Ha-kyun, DOK Kyung-soo 

RELEASE DATE November 15

CONTACT Lotte Entertainment

Tel : +82 2 3470 3523

Fax : +82 2 3470 3549

Email : international@lotte.net

The closing film of this year’s Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan), Room No.7 is the first commercial feature of LEE Yong-seung, who debuted to great acclaim with 10 Minutes, a New Currents Award winner at the Busan international Film Festival in 2014. LEE’s black comedy-thriller features SHIN Ha-kyun (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, 2002) and EXO member DOH Kyung-soo as the owner and part time worker of a DVD room rental store who face off when they try to stash a dead body and drugs in the same vacant room.

 

DIRECTOR JANG Chang-won

CAST Hyun-bin, YOO Ji-tae, BAE Sung-woo, PARK Sung-woong

RELEASE DATE November 22

CONTACT Showbox

Tel : +82 2 3218 5640

Fax : +82 2 3444 6688

Email : sales@showbox.co.kr

From first time filmmaker JANG Chang-won comes the star-driven and slick offering The Swindlers. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the hit local heist flicks that have come before it, such as The Thieves (2012) and The Con Artists (2014), the film features Hyun-bin (Confidential Assignment) as a top conman who teams up with a crooked prosecutor played by Old Boy (2003) villain YOO Ji-tae to take down an even more fearsome swindler.

DIRECTOR KIM Hong-sun

CAST BAEK Yoon-sik, SUNG Dong-il

RELEASE DATE November 29

CONTACT Contents Panda

Tel : +82 2 3490 9372

Fax : +82 2 515 1055

Email : sales@its-new.co.kr

Following Traffickers (2012) and The Con Artists (2014), KIM Hong-sun is hoping to make it three for three at the box office with serial killer film The Chase. What sets this one apart is the focus on the plight of elderly citizens in Korea as BAEK Yoon-sik of Save the Green Planet (2003) plays a landlord who teams up with a retired detective (SUNG Dong-il, straight back on screens after RV: Resurrected Victims) in a colorful seaside town to track down an elusive killer who targets the elderly.

 

DIRECTOR ZHANG Hang-jun

CAST KANG Ha-neul, GIM Mu-yeol, MOON Sung-keun

RELEASE DATE November 29

CONTACT M-Line Distribution

Tel : +82 2 796 2427

Fax : +82 2 796 2429

Email : sales@mline-distribution.com

Coming off the success of Midnight Runners, young star KANG Ha-neul, who recently began his obligatory military service, teams up with GIM Mu-yeol of Eungyo (2012) in the new mystery-thriller from actor and director ZHANG Hang-jun. KANG is the younger brother to GIM’s character, who suddenly disappears and returns 19 days later with no memories and a starkly different attitude.