Three Korean movies compete starting from Chuseok holiday

The winner of the three Korean movies that were released on Wednesday, the day before the Chuseok holiday, turned out to be “The Bad Guys: Reign of Chaos.” According to the Korean Film Council, the movie attracted 2,108,580 viewers having surpassed the two million mark on the fourth day after its premiere on Wednesday. There was no historical drama film playing in the theater during the holiday.

“The Bad Guys” is a theater version of the TV series broadcasted on cable channel OCN. The movie version features key characters in the TV series, including Oh Goo-Tak, played by Kim Sang-joong, and Park Woong-Cheol, played by Ma Dong-Seok. The theme of the original version – using criminals to catch criminals – has been kept as well. There is some criticism that violence imposed on victims is featured in an excessively graphic way to highlight the brutality of criminals and that the storyline is too predictable, but most reviews welcome the movie’s recreation of the original version’s catharsis. In addition, there are other reviews that actor Ma Dong-Seok’s distinct action and humor are what makes the movie more interesting, going as far as to say that “the movie’s genre is the actor himself.”

“Tazza: One-Eyed Jacks,” the third one of the Tazza series based on South Korean cartoon Tazza, scored No. 1 on the day of its premiere but is placed second at the moment with the number of accumulated audiences standing at 1,437,569. On the other hand, “Cheer Up, Mr. Lee” featuring Cha Seung-won as the main actor has been viewed by only 733,434 people.

“South Korean movies have been struggling overall. It may be partially due to the fact this year’s Chuseok holiday is shorter than usual, but there haven’t been a lot of fresh and interesting films,” said movie critic Sung Eun. “The industry should reflect on why high-budget blockbusters have been repeatedly recording poor performance since last year.”


Seo-Hyun Lee baltika7@donga.com