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With five million admissions (as of January 1st) and counting, JK Film has scored yet another hit with mountaineering drama The Himalayas, their 16th production to date. Two of their films (Haeundae, 2009; Ode to My Father, 2014) have joined the illustrious ten-million-viewer club and while their catalogue spans an array of different genres, those that have scored with audiences have principally relied on two things: spectacle and melodrama.

 

While such a combination is nothing new to cinema, let alone South Korean films, the careful formula that has been developed by JK Film since its inception in 2001 has made them a force to be reckoned with, particularly as their recent films have begun to challenge traditional viewing patterns in Korea. ‘Blockbuster melodramas’ such as Ode to My Father and The Himalayas act as in a similar way to Hollywood’s four-quadrant films, appealing to men and women, and young and old audiences. JK Film has been particularly successful in attracting older viewers, a demographic that previously seldom frequented the multiplex.

 

 

JK Film was founded as Doosaboo Film, Inc. by director JK YOUN and his friend KIL Young-min in 2001 following the success of YOUN’s feature film debut My Boss, My Hero, which came out at the height of the gangster comedy craze in Korean cinema. The company’s first production was YOUN’s next feature, the youth comedy Sex Is Zero (2002), another hit that would go on to spawn a successful sequel, Sex Is Zero 2 (produced by YOUN but directed by YUN Tae-yun) in 2007. Four more films appeared between those installments, YOUN’s period action-comedy Crazy Assassins (2003), the company’s first flop, CHO Myeong-nam’s comedy A Bold Family (2005), MIN Kyu-dong’s romance All For Love (2005) and YOUN’s fourth film, the hit romcom Miracle on 1st Street (2007).

 

When the company changed its name to JK Film in 2009, it drew its focus away from the light comedies they had become known for, and instead began to tackle more challenging and diverse genre fare.

 

First out of the gate, and a momentous turning point for the company was YOUN’s fifth feature at the helm, the smash hit disaster film Haeundae (2009). Starring SUL Kyung-gu and HA Ji-won, the film followed residents of the Haeundae neighborhood of Busan, a popular beach resort, as their lives are thrown into peril when a massive tidal wave threatens to wipe out their town.

 

Over its 129-minute running time, the film spent a long time introducing its characters and their community before presenting the tsunami, which only occurs in the second half. Though more melodramatic and featuring less set pieces than traditional disaster films produced in Hollywood and elsewhere, this balance weighted towards the dramatic proved to be a shrewd decision, as the film brought in 11.32 million viewers (USD 69.16 million), at the time the fourth most successful Korean film of all time.

 

Over the winter of 2009-2010, JK Film released two smaller, and very different films, the noirish cop thriller Secret (2009) and the women’s prison drama Harmony (2010). The latter, with its sentimental themes of sisterhood and motherhood, proved another success for the company, as it sang its tune to three million viewers (USD 18.47 million). The smaller gangster romcom My Dear Desperado, a well-reviewed release featuring 90s superstar PARK Joong-hoon, followed in the spring of 2010.

 

JK Film next focused on the big-budget monster feature Sector 7 (2011), which they hoped would kick off the 3D industry in Korea. Re-teaming with HA Ji-won and sporting a large budget (pegged at over USD 10 million), the film was a gamble that ultimately didn’t pay off for the company, as admissions topped out at 2.42 million (USD 16.5 million). JK Film’s CEO KIL Young-min would later admit that they were out of their comfort zone with the project, as pure genre fare was not an area that the company had great affection for. Not long after, JK Film rebounded to some extent with JO Bum-gu’s action-comedy Quick, which drove past the three million viewers mark in late summer 2011. Fortune smiled on them during the Lunar New Year period of 2012, when LEE Seok-hoon’s romcom Dancing Queen, with HWANG Jung-min and UHM Jeong-hwa, squeaked past the four million admissions mark.

 

For their next project, JK Film sought to make a Korean version of James Bond with spy action-comedy. Starring SUL Kyung-gu, MOON So-ri and Daniel Henney, The Spy: Undercover Operation was released in the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day) season of 2013 and performed reasonably well, though its 3.43 million admissions barely covered the film’s pricey production budget.

 

 

Returning to the director’s chair, YOUN would provide JK Film with its next film, the epic drama Ode to My Father. With a USD 14 million budget and global locations including the Czech Republic and Thailand, Ode to My Father was an unprecedented undertaking for the company but paid off in a huge way when the film bowed in December 2014, and remained at the top of the charts well into the new year. When all was said and done, the film had attracted 14.26 million viewers (USD 94.41 million), making it the second most successful Korean film of all time. It also won numerous awards in Korea and scored a number of prestigious festival invitations, which included the Berlin International Film Festival.

 

Inspired by his father, YOUN’s film focuses on one Korean man’s selfless journey through life and various milestones of Korean history. From the Hungnam Evacuation of the Korean War to work in German coal mines and the Vietnam War, the protagonist of Ode to My Father lives through major events, all the while doing what he can to support his family. Though featuring large scale war sequences and other expensive set pieces, YOUN’s film sets itself apart from other blockbusters by using its money shots exclusively to heighten the emotional quotient of what is essentially a family drama. Bucking audience trends, reports suggest that over 40% of the audience for Ode to My Father were middle-aged or senior viewers, an unusually high share.

 

Seeking to strike the iron again and casting the same lead (HWANG Jung-min), JK Film next released the mountaineering drama The Himalayas from Dancing Queen director LEE Seok-hoon. Released in the same end of the year period in 2015, the film has drawn the same enthusiasm (and audience) as Ode to My Father, comfortably soaring over the five million mark by the end of the year after just 16 days of release. Though featuring numerous tense expedition sequences, the film is at heart a drama about a friendship between two men, and what happens when one of them dies.

 

Though its latest film still has plenty of time left in theaters, JK Film will soon return to the multiplex, first with PARK Hyun-jin’s smaller multi-strand romantic drama Like for Likes in Feburary, featuring YOO Ah-in, KIM Joo-hyuk and LEE Mi-yeon, and next with KIM Sung-hoon’s big budget Cooperation, the tale of a joint investigation between South and North Korea that will feature superstar Hyun-bin.