Box Office

Pieta (Korea)

Opened Sept. 6

Drama. Directed by Kim Ki-duk. A man (Lee Jung-jin) lives as a brutal loan shark, making money by mercilessly threatening people to pay their debts. The solitary man, an orphan, has nothing or no one to lean on and hurts people shamelessly without realizing the pain he causes. One day, a mysterious woman (Jo Min-soo) appears claiming that she is his mother. The man rejects her at first, but gradually becomes attached to her accepting her into his life. He eventually decides to quit his job and live a normal life only to realize that his mother has been kidnapped. He assumes that the kidnapper must be someone he had hurt in the past, and starts tracking down people whom he had hurt, not knowing the horrifying secret that awaits him.

The Bourne Legacy (U.S.)

Opened Sept. 6

Action. Thriller. Directed by Tony Gilroy. OUT Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) is a member of Operation Outcome, a Department of Defense black ops program with its members highly trained both physically and mentally. While on a training assignment in Alaska, Cross is attacked by a Predator drone, a remotely piloted aircraft, and soon realizes that after Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project had been exposed by a former agent, Jason Bourne, the government was uncertain with the security of other programs and decided to close down Operation Outcome and eliminate all its members including Cross. Cross, now a wanted man by the country he served, is on a journey for survival and vengeance. 

The Traffickers (Korea)

Opened Aug. 29

Crime. Thriller. Directed by Kim Hong-sun. Sang-ho (Choi Daniel) and Chae-hee (Jung Ji-yoon), are a married couple who are on a cruise for their first trip to Weihai, China. However, Chae-hee suddenly disappears while Sang-ho is away. He soon finds out that Chae-hee’s pictures, belongings and records of boarding on a cruise have been completely removed. On the same cruise, Young-gyu (Im Chang-jeong), a human trafficker in the industry, gets on board to carry out a contract killing. But Young-gyu is shocked when he finds out that the person he was asked to kill was Chae-hee, someone he knew in the past. Sang-ho persistently searches for Chae-hee while Youn-gyu faces a dilemma about whether or not to kill her. With only six hours until the cruise’s arrival, the two men chase one another to determine her fate. 

The Grand Heist (Korea)

Opened Aug. 8

Action. Comedy. Directed by Kim Joo-ho. Lee Duk-moo (Cha Tae-hyun), son of the Joseon royal court’s only clean official, is a clever young man, but only chases after pretty girls and reads junk books. One day, Duk-moo finds out that his father is falsely accused of a crime and is eliminated by a corrupt official Cho Myung-soo (Nam Kyeong-eup). Duk-moo comes up with a brilliant scheme to heist Myung-soo’s Seobingo, a store of ice considered one of the most important and valuable commodities of the time. With the former chief guard of the royal ice storage Baek Dong-soo (Oh Ji-ho) as his partner, Duk-moo assembles a group of experts in a variety of fields including tactical strategy, artillery, explosives, diving and disguise. Together, the 11 thieves plot to put an end to Myung-soo’s reign and steal 300,000 blocks of ice. 

The Thieves (Korea)

Opened July 25

Crime. Action. Directed by Choi Dong-hun. Anycall (Gianna Jun), Popeye (Lee Jung-jae), Chewing Gum (Kim Hae-sook) and Zampano (Kim Soo-hyun) are professional thieves who work together. After their success in a gallery heist, the group hears that Popeye’s old partner, robbery mastermind Macao Park, is back for another job after having gone missing for many years. Pepsi (Kim Hye-soo), a genius safecracker and Macao Park’s old flame, decides to join the group to settle the old score with Park, who betrayed her in the past. With the joining of Park’s Chinese professional thieves, the 10-member group plans to steal a legendary diamond worth $20 million known as the Tear of the Sun.