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Parasite producer Barunson E&a has a new CEO.

Yoonhee Choi has stepped in to take over from Gene Hong (Brian) Park and Kwak Sin Ae. She has been with Barunson E&a since 2021, when she was hired as Managing Director and was upped to COO in April last year.

Choi was previously at Cj Enm, serving as head of international sales for films such as the Barunson E&a-produced Oscar winner Parasite and The Spy Gone North and producer of titles such as Seobok, Hard Hit and Nothing Serious.

Barunson E&a’s upcoming slate also includes the next two features from Parasite director Bong Joon-ho and as well as projects from directors Kim Sung-hoon and Um Tae-hwa.

Since October 2022, it has been expanding its global footprint by launching International sales and production / financing arms, securing sales rights to its first non-Korean film, Giddens Ko’s Miss Shampoo, and investing in Indonesian thriller 13 Bombs,...

Yeon Sang-ho may have not been able to replicate the grand success of his live-action debut “Train to Busan” yet, but you have to hand it to the writer-director for never shying away from trying new challenges and newer genres. After showing much promise in his much acclaimed animated features “King of Pigs” and “The Fake”, he ventured into live-action territory with “Train to Busan”, following that up with with the superhero entry “Psychokinesis” before going back to the world of zombies with “Peninsula”, which may not have lived up to the hype of the original (or even its animated prequel “Seoul Station”), yet ended up being the highest-grossing Korean release in the pandemic inflicted 2020. Yeon would then join hands with Netflix to bring his webtoon “Hellbound” to an Ott series before re-teaming with the streaming giant for his first venture into full-blown sci-fi with “Jung_E”.

“Jung_E” is streaming on...

Despite suffering from a hefty delay courtesy of the pandemic, “Seobok” managed to deliver on its widespread anticipation with a box-office-topping opening weekend domestically. At its core a sci-fi thriller which encapsulates everything one would expect from a blockbuster hit, Lee Yong-joo’s latest film is an intriguing interpretation of the story of Xu Fu, and one which will keep its willing audience engrossed from the very start.

on Amazon

Min Ki-hun (Gong Yoo) is a cast aside intelligence agent. Suffering from a brain tumour, he is deadwood to the government higher-ups, and knows himself that the persistent severe headaches which now plague his days are just a cruel appetiser to his impending death. Nevertheless, Min finds himself hesitantly brought back into the thick of things by the shady Chief Ahn (Jo Woo-jin) to take care of the world’s first human clone, Seobok (Park Bo-gum), a...

Both the truth and limits of the old adage that directing is 90 percent casting can be found in Werewolves Within, a fun if middling horror-suspense-comedy with thick ribbons of whodunit mystery that sails along for quite a while on the strength of a lunatic vibe, born of its motley-crew players, before finally petering out. A […]

The post Blu-ray/DVD Column: Werewolves Within, Curiosa, Seobok: Project Clone, The Monkey King: Reborn, Amityville Uprising appeared first on Shockya.com.

“Seobok,” a rare South Korean sci-fi film with “Squid Game” star Gong Yoo, will get its launch next month in North America via streaming platform Rakuten Viki.

Licensed from distributor WellGo USA, the film will be available exclusively through Rakuten Viki’s Tvod service for $2.99. Rakuten Viki has exclusive rights for the movie for two weeks in the U.S. and Canada, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 15, 2022. Although the window of exclusivity is two weeks, the movie will be available for a full 60 days on Tvod.

Gong stars as a retired security agent who is tasked with moving the first human clone (played by Park Bo-gum) to a safe place. The clone has additional telekinetic and self-healing powers and is coveted by multiple terror groups. While in transport, the clone becomes aware of his assets and is not ready to go down without a fight.

Produced by Cj Entertainment and Studio 101,...

Seobok Video Review — Seobok (2021) Video Movie Review, a movie directed by Lee Yong-ju, written by Lee Yong-ju, and starring Gong Yoo, Park Bo-Gum, Jang Young-nam, Jo Woo-jin, Park Byung-eun, Daniel Joey Albright, Kwang-hoon Na, and Maurice Turner Jr. Crew Yeong-wook Jo created the music for Seobok. Mo-gae Lee crafted the cinematography for [...]

Continue reading: Video Movie Review: Seobok (2021): An Exciting Science Fiction Film that Delivers More than Expected...

Directed and written by Lee Yong-ju, South Korean blockbuster Seobok was one of those festival films that I happened upon and loved. Thanks, Fantasia (who has the Canadian premiere)!  I'm not sure what's going on in South Korea's film schools and culture, but it's magic. They know what they're doing. I'm trying to come up an example of a not-so-great South Korean film, but I can't; so whenever I see that a production from that country, I know I'm in for some high-quality horror, thrillers, crime tales, and vengeance. Anyhow, Seobok is the story of Min Ki-hun who's looped back into service, this time for high-security scientific facility powered by a shady military...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Seobok Review — Seobok (2021) Film Review from the 25th Annual Fantasia International Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Lee Yong-ju, starring Gong Yoo, Park Bo-Gum, Jang Young-nam, Jo Woo-jin, Park Byung-eun, Daniel Joey Albright, Kwang-hoon Na, and Maurice Turner Jr. “Elevated” genre is such a ridiculous concept because it suggests that [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Seobok: A Cool and Calculated Cloning Thriller With a Warmly Philosophical Heart [Fantasia 2021]...

Quebec’s Fantasia Festival has unveiled the third and final wave of titles set to screen at this year’s 25th edition and announced that Takashi Miike’s latest feature “The Great Yokai War – Guardians,” will close the festival. The world premiere of Julien Knafo’s Quebec zombie flic “Brain Freeze” will open the festival following an Aug. 4 pre-fest screening of James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.”

“The Great Yokai War- Guardians” is the follow-up to Fantasia 2006 opener “The Great Yoki War,” and unspools in a fantasy world of Japanese demons, kaiju and pop culture references which proved a hit in Montreal the first time around.

Other key titles featured in the third wave lineup include Lee Won-tae’s “The Devil’s Deal,” his first film since “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” won Sitges’ best film award in 2019. BAFTA-winner Paul Andrew Williams’ (“Murdered for Being Different”) “Bull,” a revenge thriller,...

Compared with the U.S. or European countries, South Korea’s infection and death toll from Covid-19 was small. But the disease has had an outsize impact transforming the entertainment industry.

Film producers and distributors are currently seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, and are busily repopulating the late summer distribution calendar. But the virus has hastened the systemic shift to a more digital future.

In pre-covid times, film-mad fans meant Korea had one of the world’s highest per-capita cinema attendance rates and the mid-sized country the world’s fourth-largest box office. And after “Parasite” and Korean-language, U.S.-made “Minari” scored at Oscars and resonated with audiences worldwide, there has been renewed interest in Korean movies, at levels not seen since the naughties.

At first, Korea seemed to be handling the pandemic well, through isolation and testing, and in summer 2020, cinemas were able to welcome back major commercial movies.

Man In Love, a Taiwanese remake of the 2014 Korean romantic drama has been winning hearts locally, grossing $11.3M through Sunday, and remaining No. 1 for three weeks in a row, despite holdover competition from Godzilla Vs Kong and Mortal Kombat. The debut feature from Yin Chen-Hao is coming out of its fourth frame and is currently the top local title of the pandemic era as well as moving up on the all-time chart for Taiwanese films at home.

Taiwan’s movie theaters were affected by Covid, but were never forced to close, and as capacity restrictions eased, a project titled Local Films Taking Off saw a number of Taiwanese titles hit theaters every month until April this year. That included a rewards system incentivizing moviegoers out to cinemas, the Straits Times reported in January. Through end-2020, local films had garnered 18% of the market, versus just over 8% in 2019.

The trend appears to...

New release title “Recalled” injected a little excitement into the South Korean box office over the weekend, deposing last week’s winner “Seobok.” But the nationwide aggregate remained moribund.

The indie film is a mystery thriller that features a woman suffering from disturbing visions of accidents, post traumatic stress and her fight to find the truth despite the partially-remembered images. It is directed by Seo Yoo-min.

Its release pattern (957 screens) was marginally wider than the number of holdover screens for “Seobok” (902 screens). But “Recalled” managed to earn $856,000 over the weekend for a $1.01 million cumulative after five days.

It accounted for 27% of the box office, implying total business of just $3.17 million. The weekend total was 8% down on the previous session.

“Seobok” fell by 63% from $1.43 million over the previous weekend to just $529,000 in its second frame, and third place.

The film had been hotly anticipated by audiences, but its simultaneous availability on...

Despite suffering from a hefty delay courtesy of the pandemic, “Seobok” managed to deliver on its widespread anticipation with a box-office-topping opening weekend domestically. At its core a sci-fi thriller which encapsulates everything one would expect from a blockbuster hit, Lee Yong-joo’s latest film is an intriguing interpretation of the story of Xu Fu, and one which will keep its willing audience glued to their seats.

Min Ki-hun (Gong Yoo) is a burnt-out, side-lined intelligence agent. Suffering from a brain tumour, he is deadwood to the government higher-ups, and knows himself that the persistent severe headaches which now plague his days are just a cruel appetiser to his impending death. Nevertheless, Min finds himself reluctantly brought back into the thick of things by the shady Chief Ahn (Jo Woo-jin) to take care of the world’s first human clone, Seobok (Park Bo-gum), a test specimen whose DNA holds the...

Hotly-anticipated thriller “Seobok” opened on top of the box office in South Korea over the weekend, despite also premiering on streaming video. It was comfortably ahead of second-placed film, another new release, “Detective Conan: The Scarlett Bullet.”

Together the top two films managed to return overall theatrical revenues back to the depressed range that they have been stuck in since the beginning of the year, but below which they dipped on the previous weekend.

“Seobok” earned $1.43 million over the weekend, and $1.81 million in the four days since its Thursday release. That gave it a 41% share of the weekend box office. “Detective Conan,” which released on Friday, took $674,000 for a $19% market share.

They displaced the previous weekend winner “Book of Fish,” which slipped to fifth place with $183,000, and “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which fell to sixth spot in its fourth weekend on release. It earned $160,000, a drop of 67%, producing a cumulative total of $5.93 million.

Leading Korean entertainment conglomerate Cj Enm is to break the theatrical window in the world’s fourth largest movie market with a simultaneous cinema and streaming release for “Seobok,” one of the year’s hottest Korean movies.

The group said that it will distribute the sci-fi actioner in theaters on April 15 and also make it available on its own streaming service, Tving.

While Hollywood studio Disney has chosen to release titles such as “Mulan” with simultaneous premium video and cinema releases, and WarnerMedia is planning the same for its entire 2021 Warner Bros. slate, holdbacks have remained in place through much of Asia.

Directed by Lee Yong-joo (“Architecture 101”), “Seobok” features “Train to Busan” star Gong Yoo as an intelligence agent charged with transferring the first human clone from a laboratory to a safe place in the real world. Park Bo-gum stars as the eponymous clone.

“Seobok” had been set for...

Large parts of South Korea’s entertainment industry are reeling as the national government put capital city Seoul on the country’s second highest virus response footing. Concerts, award shows and movie premieres are being canceled, and all but essential staff are being told to work remotely.

“Most people are working from the office here in Busan, but our secondary office in Seoul closed from today, and it will stay closed until the end of December,” Nam Dongchul, the Busan International Film Festival’s chief programmer told Variety. “We were lucky to be able to hold the festival in October.”

“We’ll be working from home again,” said Kim Yunjeong at Seoul-based film sales agent Finecut. “This is the new normal.”

The shelter in place orders are a disappointment for the country’s entertainment industry, which had been riding high from the recent successes of Oscar winning film “Parasite,” pop...

"It's beautiful." "What is?" "To be alive." Cj Entertainment has debuted the full main trailer for the South Korean sci-fi thriller called Seobok (or Seo Bok), the name given to the very first human clone. This action thriller tells the story of Ki Heon, a former agent from an intelligence agency who was given his last order to protect the world's first human clone Seo Bok. He must escort Seobok, who has never known life outside of the laboratory, to a safe place. Starring Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum in the lead roles. Gong Yoo explains: "The director told us to use Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise's relationship in Rain Man as our reference." That makes sense. This does look a bit like Ex Machina meets Rain Man, and I'm certainly curious to give it a watch. The footage in both trailers looks quite good - nice to...

South Korea’s Cj Entertainment, the studio behind multiple Oscar-winner “Parasite,” confirmed that it is leading its AFM sales slate with “Decision to Leave,” the newly announced title by another master director, “Oldboy” helmer Park Chan-wook.

The studio is pitching the film as a crime-romancer with dialogue in Korean and Chinese. The story involves a detective, to be played by Park Hae-il (“Memories of Murder”), who develops romantic feelings for a woman, played by China’s Tang Wei, who should be the prime suspect in a murder case he is investigating.

The studio provides no other updated information on delivery, production budget or supplementary casting. When Cj announced the film last month, it said that it would be investor and local Korean distributor of the film, but told Variety at the time that it had not settled on the international sales agency role.

In many recent instances, Cj has held...