‘Cold Eyes’ smashes 4 million mark

Korean thriller film “Cold Eyes” attracted 4 million viewers in just 17 days, becoming the fifth domestic film to hit the record this year ― following box office hits “The Berlin File,” “Secretly Greatly,” “New World” and “Miracle in Cell No.7.”

The star-studded film, which stars actors Sol Kyung-gu, Jung Woo-sung, and actress Han Hyo-joo, tells the story of a group of detectives specializing in surveillance activities on high profile criminals. In the film, they together try to arrest the members of a bank-robbing organization. 

Han Hyo-joo, whose previous roles include the visually impaired woman in Song Il-gon’s 2011 tearjerker romance “Always,” and the unhappy Queen Consort in last year’s box office hit period drama “Gwanghae: The Man Who Became the King” (Masquerade), delivers a plausible and nuanced performance as Ha Yoon-ju, a young, driven woman who becomes the newest member of the special surveillance unit of the police force. Soon after she joins the team, the unit is assigned to monitor the elusive James (played by Jung Woo-sung), who in fact is the ruthless leader of an international crime ring.

Jung (“A Good Rain Knows,” “A Moment to Remember”), who has long been regarded a national heartthrob, presents an engrossing portrait of the lonely and complex villain. The role is Jung’s first villain in his acting career of some 20 years.

Heavyweight actor Sol Kyung-gu (“The Tower,” “Peppermint Candy”) brings a lot of humor to the movie, by playing Ha Yoon-ju’s considerate boss, who is both caring and hilarious.

Popular boy band 2PM member Lee Jun-ho makes his appearance as the confident, likable youngest member of the surveillance team, and surprisingly pulls off the role with ease. This is Lee’s second film appearance as an actor. His first was directors Kim Gok and Kim Sun’s 2011 horror “White: The Melody of the Curse.”

The film hit local theaters on July 3, and dominated the local box office ever since. It ranked no. 2 on Korean Film Council’s box office chart on Friday, beating Hollywood blockbusters “World War Z” and “Pacific Rim,” and local 3-D gorilla film “Mr. Go,” which came out on Wednesday. It garnered around 19 billion won ($17 million) at the local box office as of July 12, according to the Korean Film Council.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)