Small cinemas to offer discount coupons starting July 1

The new zombie thriller "#Alive" posted the highest weekend box office total in five months since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. According to the data by the Korean Film Council, "#Alive" attracted 702,000 moviegoers over the Friday Sunday period, far outnumbering runner-up "Innocence" with 98,000 and No. 3 "Onward" with 87,000. It is the highest box office recorded by a single flick during a weekend since the drama

Will summer tentpole films become a breakthrough for recovery?

Alive (Korea) Opened June 24 Thriller, Drama Directed by Cho Il-hyung An unexplainable disease spreads in the city, turning infected people into zombie-like creatures, and Jun-woo (Yoo Ah-in), a YouTuber and gamer, is stranded inside his house alone. What food he had left is soon finished, and in a matter of days, electricity and water are cut off. The creatures roam around the apartment complex, sometimes making their way inside houses. Just as Jun-woo starts to lose hope, another survivor on

The pansori master who stars in ‘The Singer’ says he now wants to pursue an acting career

Aspiring director attempts Korean slapstick horror

Star-studded blockbuster “Negotiations” may become the first Korean film to restart overseas shooting since the COVID-19 pandemic virtually stopped all international travel The film’s local distributor, Megabox Plus M on Tuesday announced that the film’s producers will return to shooting in Jordan in early July. The producers of the film starring top-tier actors Hwang Jung-min and Hyun Bin halted all overseas shooting plans earlier this year, just after the global out

Korean director Ahn Jae-huun’s feature animation “The Shaman Sorceress” bagged the Contrechamp Jury Distinction award at the 44th Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, Saturday. Based on a 1936 Korean novel of the same title, the film depicts the breakdown of a traditional family following a clash between shamanism and Christianity. Taking the form of an animated musical, the film features Korean singer and actor Sonya as the shaman Mohwa, who comes into con

The 2020 Cannes Film Market, an annual marketplace where the global movie industry convenes for business opportunities, will be held online for the first time this week from Monday to Friday, featuring several Korean films attempting to follow the success of last year’s grand prize winner “Parasite” by director Bong Joon-ho. The online film market will try to mirror the offline experience by hosting online concerts, keynote talks and over 150 events, with more than 1,200 onlin

CGV, South Korea's largest multiplex chain, said Friday it will introduce an electronic visitor registration system based on quick response (QR) code verification technology at all of its theaters nationwide to help curb the spread of the coronavirus. CGV's announcement came after South Korea last week mandated QR code-based registration of visitors at bars, clubs and other entertainment facilities across the country, stepping up measures against COVID-19. Those facilities are required to use

Amid tightening tension on the Korean Peninsula, the second edition of the Pyeongchang International Peace Film Festival kicked off Thursday. The festival, set to run for six-days until Tuesday, is the first local film festival to take place as usual in the presence of audiences and guests since the ongoing novel coronavirus situation broke out in the nation. Though there had been one-day film awards, it is the first film festival event to be held for multiple days. “We have had our c

Returning with zombie flick “#Alive,” the actor shares his thoughts about the film, his life

Baseball Girl (Korea) Opened June 18 Drama Directed by Choi Yun-tae The only female baseball player in the nation and on her high school team, Soo-in (Lee Joo-young) pitches a 130-kph fastball. She strives to make it on a professional team, but everyone around her doubts her dream. Watching her fighting a lonely challenge, the team’s new coach Choi (Lee Joon-hyuk) tells Soo-in that her goal is impossible not because of her gender, but because of her physical limits and suggests a new str

Naver’s Audio Clip adapts web novels and webtoons into aural films

As fearful as it may be, the conflict between the two Koreas has become one of the most tried-and-true subject matters of recent South Korean tentpole films, capturing the imagination of the people living under the constant possibility of war between the divided nations. And while most of these projects tend to strive for historical authenticity, seldom do real-world incidents, such as Tuesday's blowup of an inter-Korean office building in the Kaesong Industrial Complex, eerily echo fictional