5 Korean Movies You Really Should Know About But Probably Don’t
Hundreds of movies are released each year and the pile becomes increasingly hard to sift through and even great movies sometimes get lost in it.
1. The Battleship Island
Ryoo Seung Wan’s much anticipated The Battleship Island, starring Song Joong Ki and So Ji Sub and other A-list stars, about Koreans trying to escape a Japanese battleship, did not reach the break-even point. Despite a dynamic cinematography and a perfectly realized set, it stopped at 6.5 million viewers.
2. The Fortress
Hwang Dong Hyuk’s start studded cast could not take The Fortress to the skies — the film stopped at 3.8 million viewers despite Lee Byung Hun’s and Park Hae Il’s passionate performances.
3. The Mayor
Park In Je’s political drama that discusses rampant corruption was no match for the political reality of the nation. Despite Choi Min Sik’s amazing performance, which the critics picked as this year’s best, the movie only had 1.3 million viewers.
4. Okja
Okja only screened in the small theaters in Korea as they could not screen in the nation’s 3 mega multiplex theaters. Despite it being a Bong Joon Ho project, it had only around 300,000 viewers. Much of it has to do with the fact that the film opened via online streaming service, Netflix.
5. The Merciless
The Merciless was invited to the Cannes for its Midnight Screening, and garnered much attention both nationally and internationally. Critics have stated that it redefined the noir genre. But the movie ran into issues as the director, Byun Sung Hyun, became the focus of much social media backlash against his political comments.
These critically acclaimed movies that surprisingly didn’t meet the break-even point (considered 8 million viewers) but if you haven’t seen any of them you definitely need to.
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