Forgot password

Asia’s film industry executives descended upon Hong Kong this month for the annual Hong Kong International Film and TV Market, taking place from March 13th to 16th at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center and staged by the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council. Unlike previous years, the market did not coincide with the Asian Film Awards, which took place on March 21st, and took place well before the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), which was pushed back to April 11th to coincide with a late Easter holiday this year.

For Korean cinema there were a variety of news items announced during the event, spanning new titles, global film sales, as well as catalogue acquisitions and company reshuffles. Korea was also a major player at the Asian Film Awards and will be represented by a clutch of indie titles at next month’s HKIFF.

 

Leading distribution news was Showbox, which scored a raft of sales for its prison crime drama The Prison, which bowed in Korean theaters this week. From debut director NA Hyun and featuring veteran star HAN Suk-kyu (Swiri, 1999) and leading man KIM Rae-won (Gangnam Blues, 2015), the film sold to distributors in Japan, France, Switzerland and Africa, and also offloaded its worldwide in-flight rights. This was in addition to previous deals to Australia and New Zealand, China, Philippines and Taiwan. Well Go USA will release the film in North America on March 31st. Showbox’s other upcoming titles include the election drama The Mayor with CHOI Min-shik and the political drama Taxi Driver with SONG Kang-ho and Thomas Kretschmann.

Korea’s top film house CJ Entertainment revealed a trio of new titles for its 2017 slate. In order of release these were the body-swap framed Daddy You, Daughter Me with YOON Je-moon (Mother, 2009) and JEONG So-min (Alice: Boy from Wonderland, 2015), with bows April 13th, period investigation comedy The King’s Case Note with LEE Sun-kyun (A Hard Day, 2014) and AHN Jae-hong (Fabricated City), out later in April, and the undated prison crime drama The Merciless with SUL Kyung-gu (Cold Eyes, 2013) and IM Si-wan (The Attorney, 2013). The outer wall of CJ’s booth was adorned with a long poster for their flagship release of the year, RYOO Seung-wan’s period escape action-drama Battleship Island, with HWANG Jung-min and a host of other stars.

In other news, boutique distributor FINECUT announced that they had acquired the back catalogue of Bom Film Productions, which includes key titles from KIM Jee-woon, Hong Sangsoo, LEE Yoon-ki and E J-yong. United Pictures revealed their new pickup Romans 8:37, an ecclesiastical drama from indie auteur SHIN Yeon-shick (The Avian Kind, 2015). Longtime Korean production house and distributor 9ers Entertainment announced that they were pulling back from international sales to focus on domestic activities. The Spackman Entertainment Group, which owns Master production house ZIP CINEMA, also announced their acquisition of Frame Pictures, a Korean camera and lighting equipment rental which had provided services for the smash movie Veteran and TV series The Legend of the Blue Sea, and which also offers 4K post-production services and runs an agency for cinematographers.

Korea’s presence could also be felt in the market schedule, as an array of titles from a range of Korea’s distribution houses were available each day, so much so that eager buyers of Korean films sometimes had to choose between several Korean films screening at the same time.

Contents Panda led the pack on the market schedule with screening for four of its titles. Two of those, the indie The Artist: Reborn, which debuted at the Jeonju International Film Festival, and their recent pickup My Little Brother, a family dramedy that marks Disney’s first foray into Korean film distribution, were available to all badge holders. Meanwhile Lucid Dream, which already presold globally to Netflix, was only available to Chinese buyers (where the online giant has no operation) and their upcoming heist title ONE-LINE was an invitation-only screening.

United Pictures screened two films in the market, their YOO Ji-tae bowling drama SPLIT, and the upcoming ORDINARY PERSON, which had its market premiere in Hong Kong and goes on domestic release on March 23rd. Other Korean films in the market included Lotte Entertainment's recently released dark thriller Bluebeard with CHO Jin-woong (A Hard Day, 2014), FINECUT’s Hong Sangsoo film On the Beach at Night Alone and M-Line Distribution’s Happy Bus Day, which will have its public premiere at the Hong Kong International Film Festival next month.

 

A number of Korean films will also be featured at next month’s 41st Hong Kong International Film Festival, though they are less prominent in the lineup than they have been in previous years. Most notably, LEE Seung-won’s previously mentioned Happy Bus Day will screen in the Young Cinema Competition, a rare world premiere for a Korean film in Hong Kong. From the director of Communication & Lies, which debuted in the New Currents competition of the Busan International Film Festival in 2015, Happy Bus Day features a very dysfunctional family assembling for a chaotic dinner. Following Hong Kong, the film will feature in the Korean Competition of the Jeonju International Film Festival in April.

Other Korean titles at HKIFF include a pair of titles in the Indie Power section. JANG Woo-jin’s Autumn, Autumn, which debuted at the Busan International Film Festival and screened in Berlinale, and KIM Soo-hyun’s political comedy Beaten Black and Blue (previously known as The Great Patrioteers), a Jeonju Cinema Project which debuted at Jeonju in 2016 will have its international premiere in Hong Kong. KIM’s film received top marks from Korean critics when it was released late last year, winding up on the annual top 10 list of the country’s top film magazine Cine21.