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KANG Je-gyu’s World War II drama <My Way> is due to open in theaters in Japan on January 14, 2012. Leading Korean distributor CJ E&M says the film will be released on 300 screens. Starring JANG Dong-gun and ODAGIRI Joe with a strong supporting cast which includes Chinese star FAN Bingbing and Korea’s KIM In-kwon, the film is Korea’s most expensive– made for US$25 million.

 

Based on a true story, <My Way> follows the strange story of a Korean man drafted into the Japanese imperial army to fight in China. Taken prisoner, he ends up in a snowy Russian labor camp, and then eventually on the beaches of Normandy working for the German army when the Americans land. Jang Dong-gun plays the lead, who is at heart first and foremost a marathon runner. He shares a longtime rivalry with Odagiri Joe’s character who is from a Japanese colonial family. Through the chaos and insanity of battles, the two men discover a friendship that takes them to an unexpected fate.

 

Directed by KANG Je-gyu, whose <Shiri> in 1999 and <Taegukgi> in 2004 became record-breaking hits in Korea, the film was anticipated to be a major contender at the year-end box office. It opened in South Korea on Dec. 21 to face massive competitionfrom the Hollywood film <Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol> (released Dec. 15). Although <May Way> has been doing less business than expected, the film has so far taken in more than 1.17 million admissions for co-distributors CJ E&M and SK Planet.

 

CJ remains optimistic about the film’s chances in Japan. The company’s 3D sea creature thriller <Sector 7> previously only took about 2.2 million admissions in Korea, but recently clocked up CNY20 million (US$3.1 million) after a week on release in China.