The Roundup (Korea) Opened May 18 Crime Directed by Lee Sang-yong Cop Ma Seok-do heads to Vietnam to extradite a suspect. But soon after his arrival, he discovers murder cases and finds out that the vicious Korean killer (Son Sook-ku) has been committing crimes against Korean tourists for several years. Ma Seok-do decides to chase after the killer but it is not easy as Korean cops do not have investigative power in Vietnam.  Operation Mincemeat (US) Opened May 11 Drama Directed

“Ma Dong-seok is his own genre.” Korean moviegoers often say this in reference to the Korean-American movie star, also known as Don Lee, in recognition of his unique screen presence and charisma. A recent survey by online research firm PMI on Koreans aged 20-60 asked what word comes to mind when hearing his name. The answers were in the order of: “muscular/huge,” “tough/strong,” “Mavely (a combination of “Ma” and “lovely”),&rd

The action comedy "The Roundup" has set the best opening-day record among Korean films released during the COVID-19 pandemic, box-office data showed Thursday. The sequel to the 2017 hit comedy "The Outlaws" garnered about 467,000 viewers upon its debut Wednesday, accounting for 89 percent of the tickets sold on the day, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). It marked the largest first-day score for a homegrown film since the new coronavirus broke out in early 2020, ou

Although “Cassiopeia” might seem like a woeful movie about a young lawyer in her 30s suffering from Alzheimer’s, the film’s director Shin Youn-shick said he focused more on portraying the father and daughter dynamic. “When I was working on the script. I watched the movie ‘The Intern’ to cool my head. That was also when I had a desire to work with (the actor) Ahn Sung-ki again,” the director said during a press conference held at Megabox theaters

Surging global demand for K-content drive international productions

South Korea's major cinema chains remained in the red in the first quarter of this year amid the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, but the lifting of distancing rules will likely provide them fresh momentum for a possible turnaround in the coming quarters, data showed Tuesday. CJ CGV, the No. 1 multiplex operator under the wing of entertainment giant CJ Group, said its operating loss reached 54.9 billion won ($42.9 million) for the first three months of 2022, narrowing from an operating deficit of 6

Hollywood blockbuster "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" surpassed 5 million admissions Tuesday, data showed. The latest Marvel Studios' flick hit the milestone at 7:20 a.m., on the 13th day of its theatrical release in South Korea, according to the official box-office data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). It became the fastest movie to top 5 million in the past three years, outmatching the country's biggest pandemic-era hit "Spider-Man: No Way Home," the film

“The Red Herring,” a documentary directed by Yi Seung-jun about the embattled ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk, has raised a total of over 2.6 billion won ($2 million) from over 51,000 people on the crowdfunding platform Tumblbug as of Sunday, far exceeding its original goal of 50 million won. “I was very surprised by the Tumblbug funding result. I am moved by the support. Thank you,” Cho said in a video clip released on Tumblbug Monday. “I want to have a talk with t

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (US) Opened May 4 Action Directed by Sam Raim Set a few months after the events of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021), Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a powerful sorcerer who must protect the earth from mystical menaces. He battles these unexpected enemies with a teenager America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) with the power to travel across the alternate universe. In the process of doing this, he travels into the multiverse. I

Korean American actor Don Lee, better known as Ma Dong-seok in Korea, is returning as a beast-like cop called Ma Seok-do in “The Roundup,” a sequel to the hit crime film “The Outlaws” (2017). “What differentiates the film (from the first movie) is that it has a different villain. Also, the scale of the crime differs, as well as the process of how the cops catch them. The jokes and action in the film were also upgraded,” Lee said during a global press confer

Ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk made a surprise appearance via video to ask conservative Korean moviegoers to watch “The Red Herring” during a press conference held at CGV Yongsan on President Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration day, Tuesday. “What I want the people to know is that there are different perspectives on the situation and that there are different experiences and different testimonies,” Cho said in the video. “I hope this documentary will be watched by man

Even for veteran director Hirokazu Koreeda, who won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 for “Shoplifters,” directing a movie in a foreign country was a challenge. During a press conference at CGV Yongsan in Seoul on Tuesday, the Japanese director said he got a lot of help from “Parasite” star Song Kang-ho while filming his movie, “Broker.” “Before shooting the film, I had a meeting with director Bong Joon-ho. We talked over a mea

Hollywood blockbuster "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" has topped a cumulative 3 million admissions at the fastest pace in the pandemic era, box-office data showed Monday. The latest Marvel Studios' flick attracted 1.7 million people from Friday to Sunday, bringing its combined total to 3.5 million, according to the data by the Korea Film Council. It surpassed the 3 million threshold Saturday, the fourth day of its theatrical release, becoming the sixth film to achieve the

Kang Soo-youn, the iconic Korean movie star who brought home the nation’s first acting award from the Venice film festival, died on Saturday at the age of 55. The tragic news came two days after she was taken to hospital on Thursday for a cardiac arrest. Kang died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 3 p.m. at a hospital in southern Seoul, her family said. Kang’s funeral committee is led by Kim Dong-ho, founder of the Busan International Film Festival and the current Gangneung Internatio

Best international film goes to Canadian nature documentary ‘Geographies of Solitude’ and best Korean feature film ‘Jeong-Sun’