News

We’ve had films revolving around the flowery cards game hwatu (the “Tazza” series of films) and also the board game Go (both the “The Divine Move” films). Now, it is the world of billiards gambling that gets explored in Chae Ki-jun’s “Sixball”.

Synopsis

A movie about men and women involved in billiard gambling.

The film stars fresh faces Lee Dae-han and Kang Ye-bin in the lead, along with Kim Ah-ra (“The Soul-Mate”) and Hong Dal-pyo, who also featured in Chae Ki-jun’s debut film “The Legendary Lighter”. It is expected to release in South Korea some point in May, 2020.

After a spate of action comedies “Champion”, “The Soul-Mate” and the upcoming “The Villagers” as well as a starring role in the fantasy adventure “Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days”, Ma Dong-seok will be seeing 2018 off in style as the lead in out-and-out crime thriller “Unstoppable” by debutant director Kim Min-ho.

Synopsis

Dong-Chul and Ji-Soo are a happily married couple. Dong-Chul was once a notorious gangster, but he has since changed his ways. One day, Dong-Chul comes to home to find his house in disarray and his wife missing. Dong-Chul then receives a phone call from someone offering to pay him to give up his wife. Dong-Chul vows to save his wife.

The action thriller also stars Song Ji-hyo as Ji-soo as well as Kim Sung-oh in an important role. “Unstoppable”, whose Korean title literally translates as “Angry Bull”, is slated for a November 2018 release in South Korea.

The Korean tentpoles which dominated the Chuseok week, continued to rule the South Korean box office over the latest weekend.

Costume action drama “The Great Battle” remained on top, accounting for 43% of the weekend total. The Next Entertainment World release earned $6.43 million between Friday and Sunday for a total of $35 million from 4.53 million admissions after two weekends on release.

Cj Entertainment’s “The Negotiation” climbed to second spot from the previous week’s third. The crime drama earned $2.99 million, for a two-weekend total of $13.7 million. Megabox’s “Fengshui” slipped to third from second, with a week-on-week drop of 58%. The costume drama earned $1.9 million for a total of $15.3 million after two weekends.

Korean independent release, “The Soul-mate” landed in fourth. Opening on Wednesday, the comedy earned $2.81 million over five days. Starring Don Lee (“Train to Busan”), “Soul-mate” revolves around a judo instructor who becomes haunted by a dead police officer’s soul.

Ma Dong-seok’s rise from strongman side roles to one of the most bankable stars in South Korea and a global superstar has been nothing short of incredible. 2018, in particular, was a strong year for the ex-Mma coach, with starring roles in the arm-wrestling comedy-drama “Champion” and the upcoming “Wonderful Ghost” (also called “The Soul-mate”), as well as a key role in the tentpole film “Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days”. Looking to finish the year off on a high, his final film of 2018 will be director Lim Jin-soon’s “The Villagers”.

Synopsis

Ki-Cheol begins work as a contract gym teacher at a high school in a quiet countryside village. Ki-Cheol feels weird because a female high school student went missing, but nobody in the village seems to care. Only Yoo-Jin, who is the missing girl’s friend, is sure that her friend has been kidnapped. Yoo-Jin...