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Summer has been smashing box office records left, right and center in 2013. A combination of hot weather, enticing tentpoles and a lack of Hollywood competition has led to the current spoils being enjoyed, for the most part, by local productions. However, though this year’s figures have reached scarcely imagined new heights, the current success is built on top of an existing framework for seasonal dominance that the industry has carefully fostered over the years. A few factors have set the groundwork for the unprecedented success experienced by the current market: the weather, the timing of the Hollywood and Korean blockbuster seasons and the specific genre programming of the season. However, at the heart of all this is perhaps the enduring success of the Korean thriller.

 

During the summer season, genre films are king as audiences come to theaters seeking out high concept diversions. Though an array of genres has been represented on the charts over the year during the summer months, such as disaster films (Haeundae, 2009), sports films (Take Off, 2009), period action (War of the Arrows, 2011), animation (Leafie, A Hen into the Wild, 2011), and period comedy (The Grand Heist, 2012), one stands head and shoulders above the rest, persistent in its presence on the charts: the Korean thriller.

  

For both foreign and domestic consumers of Korean films, the thriller is a staple that is returned to again and again. While the quality varies between individual titles, their popularity has left an enormous mark on the Korean film industry, year after year. Of course, far from being merely a summer stalwart, Korean thrillers are programmed throughout the year. If we take a look at 2013, before the summer we had: An Ethics Lesson, New World (both February), The Berlin File, The Gifted Hands (March), Running Man (April) and Montage (May). Though some of these were successful (New World, The Berlin File), with each hit there came a miss (An Ethics Lesson, The Gifted Hands). In summer, not only do we get more thrillers but they tend to be much more successful.

 

  

This year it began with the release of Cold Eyes on July 3rd. Featuring stars SEOL Kyung-gu, JUNG Woo-sung and HAN Hyo-joo cast against type, the investigative thriller was a powerful presence on the charts which eventually accrued 5.5 million admissions. At the tail end of the month, both Snowpiercer and The Terror, LIVE (released on the 31st) lead to a mammoth weekend with the highest accumulated total of tickets ever sold at the Korean box office (4.5 million). Both films are still on release and have accrued 8.84 And 5.43 million viewers as of August 27th, respectively.

 

In mid-August, another pair of Korean thrillers faced off, this time Hide and Seek (4.21 million in 14 days) and The Flu (2.74 million in 14 days). Combined with Snowpiercer and The Terror, LIVE, the four films hit a 89% market over the mid-August weekend and later went on to record three consecutive days (August 19-21) where they topped the 90% mark between them. Though four films were sharing the spoils, effectively, almost every ticket being sold at a Korean multiplex was for a Korean thriller.

 

 

Korean thrillers are known the world over for their specific but effective traits. They are polished, high-quality works that exhibit a keen understanding of genre conventions, while also routinely going against the grain, often by blending with tropes borrowed from other genres. This, combined with their emotional heft derived from the accumulated frustration of the peninsula’s difficult history, has led to their sustained popularity during the last 15 years.

  

Going back to the summer of 1999, there were a pair of local thriller hits that wound on the yearly top ten chart, both released during summer, which ranked third and eight, respectively. They were LEE Myung-se’s classic stylized cops and robbers film Nowhere to Hide and the underwater thriller Phantom: The Submarine. Following the turn of the millennium, thrillers in Korea experienced a surge in popularity that resulted in successes like KWAK Kyung-taek’s Friend (2001), KANG Woo-suk’s Public Enemy (2002), BONG Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), PARK Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003) and CHOI Dong-hoon’s The Big Swindle (2004). However, none of these were released during the summer. It wasn’t until the summer of 2005, and the release of PARK Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, that the summer trend began to take root.

 

Since then, each year has seen its share of Korean thrillers dominate during the summer months. 2006 brought us KANG Woo-suk’s Hanbando, the HWANG Jeong-min starring Black House was released in 2007, 2008 gave us KANG Woo-suk’s Public Enemy Returns (the third in a series of films that had previously found success outside of the season), KWAK Kyung-taek’s Eye for an Eye, and Running Turtle with KIM Yun-seok came in 2009. A new decade brought about only better fortune as both KIM Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil and The Man from Nowhere dominated in 2010 and then Blind scored a surprise hit run in 2011. Last summer became the best season on record for Korean thrillers (as well Korean films in general) when Deranged, CHOI Dong-hoon’s The Thieves, Neighbors and Traffickers stormed the charts.

 

 

Summer 2013 has offered viewers five Korean thrillers and each of them has become a hit, with four of them leading August to becoming the biggest for Korean films and overall ticket sales on record. Judging by these previous successes, it’s no surprise that studios are lining up thrillers during the summer months to capitalize on their clear advantage during the period. Of course, it’s not just thrillers that are heating up the charts during the summer as two other factors have significantly contributed to the Korean film industry’s success during the season. The weather, a constant pariah every July and August with its blitz of rain, humidity and high temperatures, is an immutable factor that studios have learnt to use to their advantage. Given the high cost of cooling one’s home effectively, there are relatively few places that consumers can go to cool down during July and August. Over time, the multiplex has become a popular destination for those seeking to beat the heat.

  

Another external factor that Korean studio executives have considered is the position of the Hollywood blockbuster season. Though it traditionally began in mid-May, over the Memorial Day weekend, as US studios have each sought to get the jump on each other, recent years have brought ahead the season’s start. Now, films like Fast Five (2011) and next year’s Captain America 2 are having their debuts in April. Thus, while blockbusters used to run until early August, the danger of audience fatigue has also brought forward the end of the summer blockbuster season. Now it tends to sputter out in mid-July, with August reserved for riskier or more genre-based mid-level releases.

 

Granted, US release dates for Hollywood fare are not the same as in Korea. Though most big films open around the same time, some start earlier, such as last year’s Battleship and this year’s Iron Man 3, which both debuted in late April on the peninsula. On the flipside, some late summer US tentpoles will be delayed a few weeks, such as the sci-fi Elysium, which will open in the last weekend of August in Korea, three weeks after its US debut. Some have attributed this shift to the tendency for Korean films to dominate in August, or, more specifically, to the presence of Snowpiercer, another highly-anticipated social revolution sci-fi from the respected genre director BONG Joon-ho.

 

While a number of high profile Korean films are programmed throughout the summer, it is often the case that the most promising ones are scheduled to open at the very end of July or the start of August, while a number of other potential genre hits fill out the rest of the month. Given the light programming of US titles during this season, it seems that US distributors and Korean distributors of major US titles, are wary of going up against local fare during these critical few weeks on the calendar.

 

With the weather unlikely to change, the Hollywood and Korean summer release calendars clearing the way for each other and the clear thirst for domestic product, next summer should see a similar bounty of local hits in the late summer months. If the past is any indication, the majority of those ways well be the latest crop of Korean thrillers.

 

By Pierce Conran