"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" has dominated the South Korean box office in its opening weekend, topping 1 million total admissions, box office data showed Monday. The sequel to 2018's "Venom" sold a combined 778,000 tickets over the Friday to Sunday period, bringing its combined total to over 1.1 million since its release last Wednesday, according to data from the Korean Film Council. It is the third film this year to surpass the 1 million mark in its first week of release,

The 26th Busan International Film Festival wrapped up its 10-day run on Friday at the Busan Cinema Center, with the closing ceremony hosted by two Korean rookie actors -- Lee Jun-hyuk and Lee Joo-young. This year‘s BIFF, which opened Oct. 6, screened 223 films from 70 countries offline at six selected theaters in Busan. This change was significant as the BIFF organizer held a much scaled-down event last year in light of COVID protocols. Each film was also screened only once at the Busan

Stillwater (US) Opened Oct. 6 Thriller Directed by Tom McCarthy Bill (Matt Damon) visits France to meet his daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin), who is five years into serving a nine-year prison sentence. She is in prison for killing her roommate and unfaithful lover Lina while attending university in France. When Bill meets his daughter he discovers that she could be innocent and tries to find a way to prove it with a French woman named Virginie (Camille Cottin). No Time To Die (US) Opened Sept

Director Longman Leung said he hopes to shed light on legendary Hong Kong singer and actor Anita Mui through his film “Anita,” which closes the 26th Busan International Film Festival on Friday. “First of all, I hope that people who grew up with Anita Mui don’t criticize me (after watching the film). Also, I hope that people who are around my age start to miss her,” the director said during an online press conference, organized by BIFF, Wednesday. “Lastly, I h

With the global success of Korean content such as Netflix’s “Squid Game,” streaming companies are expressing heightened interest in working with content creators here. Disney+, which will launch its streaming platform service in Korea on Nov. 12, also said it is ready to expand its partnership with Korean content makers. “Disney is a global entertainment company that has been playing an important role in many regional markets including Korea. Based on this experience,

"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" has beat the opening day total of "Black Widow," the latest Marvel release, in South Korea, data showed Thursday. The sequel to 2018's "Venom" topped the daily box-office chart by selling 203,263 tickets on the first day of its release Wednesday, according to data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). For comparison, "Black Widow," the most-watched foreign film for this year to date, attracted about 195,000 moviegoers on its

South Korea’s best-known short film festival returns under a new name this year. The 19th Gwanghwamun International Short Film Festival is being held at Cinecube in Jongno-gu, Seoul, from Thursday to Oct. 19. A total of 84 movies from 36 countries will be screened during the festival. Opening the event is Elvira Lind’s “The Letter Room,” about a kindhearted prison officer who is transferred to the mailroom to monitor the prisoners’ correspondence. While doing hi

Director Justin Chon says he created his new film, “Blue Bayou,” to bring attention to “unfair” policies regarding adoptees in the US. “I saw an issue that was happening in the United States that I felt was very unfair,” Chon said at an online press conference held as part of the 26th Busan International Film Festival on Tuesday. As well as directing, Chon appears in the film as protagonist Antonio LeBlanc, an ethnic Korean adoptee raised in a small town i

The upcoming comedy-drama “Perhaps Love,” directed by Cho Eun-ji, revolves around a bestselling author whose life changes dramatically when he falls in love. “The cast and the crew, including myself, were always laughing while shooting. I actually got a note of warning from the sound recording director because I giggled too much even in a serious scene,” Cho said in an online press conference Tuesday. “We were able to finish our project with a lot of laughs. I am c

Korean Cultural Centre UK announced that it will hold the 16th London Korean Film Festival for two weeks from Nov. 4 to 19. The festival organizer said it will screen 35 Korean films of diverse genres including independent films, classic films, animation and shorts. Last year, the annual event was held as an online-offline hybrid festival due to the pandemic, but this year all of the films will be screened at nine local theaters in London. “Escape from Mogadishu” directed by Ryoo

Breakdown into how real-life events in South Korea were depicted in “Squid Game”

South Korean actress Jeon Jong-seo said Friday it was a fresh experience to play a wordless character with supernatural powers as a foreign actor in her first English-language film "Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon." "This was my first American project, and it required all actors go through audition," Jeon said during a special talk session at the 26th Busan International Film Festival that kicked off Wednesday. "I also joined the cast through audition. I sent my clips to

BUSAN -- For French director Denis Dercourt, who is also a musician, creating his new thriller, “Vanishing,” was similar to the experience of composing music. “You have to write a story with tension and then release the tension, exactly like composing music,” Dercourt said during a press conference organized by the 26th Busan International Film Festival at the Busan Cinema Center on Friday. From 1988 to 1993, he was a viola player with the French Symphony Orchestra and

Award-winning Japanese film director Ryusuke Hamaguchi said Friday he had planned to shoot his latest project in South Korea to learn from the neighboring country's thriving cinema industry. He was in Busan, as his two films, "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" and "Drive My Car," were invited to the Gala Presentation section for introducing new projects of the world's renowned filmmakers at the ongoing 26th Busan International Film Festival. (Yonhap)

Legendary director Im Kwon-taek, 86, entered the theater in the Centum Campus of Dongseo University in Busan, where a press conference organized by the 26th Busan International Film Festival was to take place, proceeding slowly with a cane. With unsteady hands, he took out the golden-frame glasses from his jacket and began to look back on his 60 years in the Korean film industry. “I have a career of creating over 102 films or so,” he said. “If I state my career in one senten