Who`s pirating? Seoul or Hollywood?

"Similarity goes beyond coincidence. Who copied whom?"

Among various questions raised by Web surfers on Internet movie sites such as ¡®nkino¡¯ and ¡®Movieland,¡¯ one has been raised concerning the Hollywood movie "Frequency," scheduled to be released Nov. 18 and the Korean movie "Dong-gam" (Mind-melt), which opened May 27 this year.

Using wireless communicators, two people living in separate time periods come to share their lives in the plots of both of these movies. The movies also share a similarity in the premises of such a phenomenon, celestial eclipse (¡°Dong-gam¡±) and aurora disturbance (¡°Frequency¡±). The similarity has raised a suspicion in the minds of Internet surfers that perhaps the director of Hollywood¡¯s "Frequency" might have gotten an idea from the Korean movie.

However, "Frequency" originally was scheduled for release in April, one month prior to the Korean movie`s release, and was a project that began in 1996 by director Lenny Harlin with Sylvester Stallone as the billed star. However, the movie`s release was delayed due to a change of director and star.

The filming of the Korean movie began in 1998.

"Since 1997, with an exclusive deal between Daewoo and New Line Cinema, the synopsis of the movie `Frequency` has been known in Korea,¡± a source at publicity and marketing agency Young-hwa Bang (Movie Room), for Hollywood`s "Frequency" said. ¡°Many in the movie industry were aware of the plot for the Hollywood movie."

However, a source at the production company of the Korean movie disagreed.

"We became aware of the Hollywood movie only after the filming of ¡®Dong-gam¡¯ was completed," he said. "As you will see, the two movies are completely different."

Kim Hee-Kyung susanna@donga.com