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A hugely popular reality series is also back with new episodes this week, and there are plenty of other great options as well.

February can either be a blessing or a curse for TV lovers. For football fans, the day after Super Bowl Sunday means waking up to the harsh reality that there will be no live games for six-plus months. On the other hand, programmers who no longer have to worry about competing with college football or the NFL can now unleash some of their best TV shows and movies.

What’s coming to airwaves and streaming services this week to compete for audience attention? We’ll break down all the best new shows and movies you can stream here!

Monday, Feb. 10 ‘Surviving Black Hawk Down’ limited series premiere | Netflix

Hollywood has already turned the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu into a blockbuster Hollywood movie in “Black Hawk Down,” but there...

Continuing the small trend of Korean action movies about stories of locals outside of Asia, as in “Escape from Mogadishu” and “The Point Men”, Kim Seong-je has come up with a story taking place in Bogota this time, with the film actually being shot there, at least until Covid forced the filmmakers to relocate in Korea. At the same time, however, the quality of these titles seems to deteriorate with each entry, and “City of the Lost”, unfortunately, is no exception.

Click on the image below to follow our Tribute to Netflix

After his family is uprooted by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, 19-year-old Kook-hee (Song Joong-ki) arrives in Bogotá with his parents in hopes of a better life, only to be thrown into a brutal struggle for survival. Stripped of their savings and left to fend for himself, he takes a job under Sergeant Park, who has started as a...

Netflix has debuted the trailer and premiere date for ‘Surviving Black Hawk Down,’ a three-part 360-degree telling of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, whose events inspired Ridley Scott’s Academy Award® winning film ‘Black Hawk Down.’

The docu-series tells the gripping real story of the horror and heroism behind the events that inspired Ridley Scott’s blockbuster movie ‘Black Hawk Down,’ blending raw, immersive storytelling with first-person interviews from both sides of The Battle of Mogadishu.

Also in trailers – Trailer lands for stopmotion animation ‘Memoir of A Snail’

The three-part series hits the streamer on February 10th.

The post Trailer drops for docu-series ‘Surviving Black Hawk Down’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Ryoo Seung-wan, also known as “Action Kid,” is one of the major players in the Korean film industry today. He’s most famous for directing the 5th all-time highest grossing film in South Korean cinema history, action-comedy detective film “Veteran” (2015). In more recent years, he wrote and directed the South Korean entry for Best International Film at the 94th Academy Awards, “Escape from Mogadishu” (2021) – a Korean peninsular analog to “Argo” set in Mogadishu, Somalia.

This year, Ryoo Seung-wan showed up to Toronto International Film Festival with “I, the Executioner,” the long-awaited sequel to “Veteran.” Hwang Jung-min returns as Seo Do-cheol: still a dedicated detective, but this time also an unenthused husband and even more lackluster father. Though his son is mercilessly bullied at school, Seo Do-cheol is blasé about the situation. He has other priorities at hand – such as a serial killer on the loose, a viral Internet sleuth undermining his authority,...

Netflix has dropped a teaser for Korean thriller series The Frog, which is launching August 23.

Directed by Mo Wan-il (The World of The Married), The Frog is billed by Netflix as a story that “revolves around ordinary people whose peaceful lives are thrown into turmoil by the arrival of a mysterious guest in the middle of summer.”

The teaser opens with the arrival of mysterious guest Seong-a (played by Ko) at a tranquil pension home in the middle of the woods. She quickly unsettles the pension’s owner, Young-ha (played by Kim), who tries to uncover her motives and identity. It then poses a familiar question: “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?”

The Frog stars Kim Yun-seok,, Yoon Kye-sang (The Outlaws), Lee Jung-eun and...

Stars: Lee Je Hoon, Hong Xa Bin, Koo Kyo-Hwan, Esom, Song Kang | Written by Kwon Sung Hui | Directed by Lee Jong-Pil

The Dmz is a lethal no man’s land that divides the Korean Peninsula. For South Korea, it’s a first line of defence against an invasion from the North. For North Korea, it’s a last measure to stop its citizens who try to escape from the country. Sergeant Lim Kyu Nam is stationed on the north side of it, but not for much longer. His ten-year enlistment is almost up. But he isn’t going home, he’s planned out an escape to the South, where he at least has a chance to live the life he dreams of.

Unfortunately, Dong-hyuk discovers his plans and tries to make his own escape. When he tries to stop him, they both get caught and accused of desertion. The only...

Fresh from the Cannes premiere of action thriller I, The Executioner, South Korean filmmaker Ryoo Seung-wan is preparing to shoot espionage action feature Humint later this year.

Filming is set to begin in October with a cast including Zo In-sung, Park Jeong-min, Park Hae-joon and Nana. Produced by Filmmakers R&k it will be distributed by New. International sales are handled by Contents Panda.

Humint stands for Human Intelligence, a term used in the military to refer to the collection of information through people rather than gathering intelligence via more technical means.

The story will depict North and South Korean...

Ryoo Seung-wan, the South Korean film director who was last month in Cannes with “I, The Executioner,” says that his next picture will be an espionage action movie.

It is pitched as “depicting North and South Korean secret agents clashing while [also] uncovering crimes occurring at the border with Vladivostok, Russia.”

Currently titled, “Humint,” a reference to espionage industry’s shorthand for collection of intelligence through humans, rather than signals or data, the new film is to be produced by his Filmmaker R&k company and distributed by New.

Ryoo also says that throughout his career he has sought to change genres and that “Humint” will represent a “more mature espionage action” picture than some of his previous efforts.

Ryoo will release “I, The Executioner” at an unspecified date in the second half of this year. He has already settled the casting of “Humint” and has scheduled full-scale production of the...

Ryoo Seung-wan has been a pillar of the South Korean film industry for over 20 years, respected there for his keen social observation and thrilling action. But Europe’s great film festivals have feted him conspicuously less than some of his more internationally well-known peers. The Cannes Film Festival recently took a step toward correcting that record in 2024.

Ryoo, 50, made his first and only trip to Cannes back in 2005 with the gritty boxing drama Crying Fist, co-starring his brother, Ryoo Seung-bum, today a major star, and Korean cinema icon Choi Min-sik, then riding high thanks to his iconic role in Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy (2003).

“Crying Fist was very well received, but since we were in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the festival, it wasn’t screened in Cannes’ Grand Lumière Theater,” Ryoo recalls. “Back then, I was much younger and everything just felt fresh, fun and exciting. But I remember...

by Paweł Mizgalewicz

„Smugglers” is a pretty bright and fun crime film that also delivers some really insightful look at Korea as a Western-aspiring country and at the pains of poverty. Most impressing is perhaps that it manages so well to do all of it at once, without slowing down the pace. The main characters of this female-led story are far from mysterious, dark, Scorsese-like figures that would encourage us to ponder the intricacies of human psyche in its never ending lust for power. In “Smugglers”, going against the law is a pragmatic decision born out of economic despair. Struggling fisherwomen of 1970's Jeju town face the choice in the film's opening minutes – keep diving for stinky snails of diminishing quality, trying to make ends meet, or take a chance at moving Western merchandise left on the sea bottoms of the Korea Strait. American cigarettes, cosmetics, clothes and all...

Exclusive: From zombies in Train to Busan to the supernatural forces in Hellbound and parasitic creatures in Parasyte: The Grey, Korean director Yeon Sang-ho’s oeuvre of work has conjured fantastical monsters to launch dark, searing critiques of the evil that lurks in humanity’s midst.

Yeon’s latest Netflix series, Parasyte: The Grey, is a new story from the universe of the popular manga titled Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaaki, which was published by Kodansha from 1989 to 1994. Premiering on the streamer tomorrow (April 5), the six-episode thriller stars Jeon So-nee (When My Love Blooms), Koo Kyo-hwan and Lee Jung-hyun.

Yeon read Parasyte in his youth and refers to himself as a seong-deok, a Korean slang term for a “successful fan” (a long-time fan who eventually meets their idol). In Parasyte: The Grey, a young woman named Su-in (played by Jeon) is caught...

Blue Finch Film Releasing presents A Bittersweet Life, The Foul King and The Chaser on digital platforms from 8 April. These must-see modern Korean cult cinema classics from acclaimed filmmakers Kim Jee-woon and Na Hong-jin, are exploding back onto screens, with The Foul King available in the UK and Ireland for the very first time.

A Bittersweet Life

Gangster Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun) has worked his way up the ranks in his organisation, earning the trust of his callous crime boss Mr. Kang, who assigns him to spy on his mistress fearing she may be having an affair. When Mr Kang's suspicions are found to be true, Sun-woo finds his life on the line when his choice to spare the mistress and her secret lover's lives starts an irreversible gang war.

This ultra-stylish neo noir is written and directed by renowned filmmaker Kim Jee-woon, and features a career-defining performance from international star Lee Byung-hun,...

Although the Korean movie industry recently announced that the local box office recovered to 70% of Pre-pandemic Level, largely due to the success of “12.12: The Day” which was released on November 22nd and has earned 7,729,273 admissions by December 14, the situation with local cinema is not exactly hopeful, as a number of key figures and specialists mention. Particularly the fact that the majority of talent, including movie stars and filmmakers seem to move towards the rather more popular dramas, the gap left in the movie industry is felt more than ever. At the same time, though, not everything is all bad, since the mainstream movies still find ways out in festivals, streaming and distribution, while a number of intense social dramas remind of the second reason Korean cinema reached the heights it holds now (apart from crime thrillers).

In any case, here are the best South Korean films of 2023, in reverse order.

by Paweł Mizgalewicz

„Smugglers” is a pretty bright and fun crime film that also delivers some really insightful look at Korea as a Western-aspiring country and at the pains of poverty. Most impressing is perhaps that it manages so well to do all of it at once, without slowing down the pace. The main characters of this female-led story are far from mysterious, dark, Scorsese-like figures that would encourage us to ponder the intricacies of human psyche in its never ending lust for power. In “Smugglers”, going against the law is a pragmatic decision born out of economic despair. Struggling fisherwomen of 1970's Jeju town face the choice in the film's opening minutes – keep diving for stinky snails of diminishing quality, trying to make ends meet, or take a chance at moving Western merchandise left on the sea bottoms of the Korea Strait. American cigarettes, cosmetics, clothes and all...

Kim Seong-hun and Ha Jung-woo, the director-actor combo who gave us Tunnel, reunite for the second time on the winning buddy action-comedy Ransomed, the latest in a series of high-profile films based on recent real-life stories featuring Korean characters gallivanting in third world countries. This very specific subgenre, which also includes Ryoo Seung-wan's Escape from Mogadishu, The Point Men and the Netflix series Narco-Saints, also with Ha, popped out of nowhere when all these projects were announced in late 2019. Later joining the cadre was the Choi Min-shik led Disney+ series Big Bet. Ha plays Korean diplomat Lee Min-jun in the 1980s, who volunteers to engage in a daring plot to retrieve a fellow Korean diplomat, kidnapped in Lebanon 18 months earlier but yet to...

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

Disney+ has announced that Moving, an adaptation of Kang Full’s popular webtoon, has become the most-watched Korean original on Disney+ globally and Hulu in the U.S. based on hours streamed after its first seven days.

The 20-episode series, which started streaming on August 9, has also become the most watched series on Disney+ across the Asia Pacific region and the biggest premiere on Disney+ in Korea to date.

Produced by Studio&New, the series stars Ryu Seungryong (Extreme Job), Han Hyojoo (The Beauty Inside) and Zo Insung (Escape From Mogadishu) in the story of three teenagers who have inherited unusual physical powers from their secret agent parents.

While on the surface they look like ordinary high school kids, each has the power to transcend a different physical limitation, but with outside forces keen to exploit these talents, their parents know it’s safer to keep them hidden away.

“The global...

For many, Kim Seong-hun made one of the best non-serial killer South Korean thriller in “A Hard Day”. While he followed that up with the rather well-made but comparatively underwhelming “Tunnel”, he has since settled for creating a zombie-infested Joseon for Netflix's ultra-popular series “Kingdom”. For his much-awaited return to the big screen, he follows “Escape from Mogadishu” and “The Point Men” in adapting a real-life situation involving Korean diplomats finding themselves in a pickle overseas, for an action adventure feature presentation.

“Ransomed” is released by WellGo USA

Lebanon, 1986. A newly-deployed South Korean diplomat gets kidnapped and despite the government's best efforts, they are unable to find his whereabouts or even who his captives are. Without any ransom demands, the case hits a dead-end for more than a year, when suddenly one evening, Min-joon, a diplomat for the Iranian region in the Ministry of External Affairs, gets a phone...

Back in the 1970s, when Korea was closed to the outside world, locals relied on black market dealers to get their hands on everything from American cigarettes to Ritz crackers. Though this illicit import racket was run mostly by men, it wouldn’t have been possible without half a dozen uniquely talented women — skilled divers known as haenyeo who fished the loot from the sea. At least, that’s the fresh girl-power premise floated by action maven Ryoo Seung-wan (“The Battleship Island”) in his snappy, retro-styled crime saga, “Smugglers.”

Featuring a funky Lalo Schifrin-esque score (from composer Chang Ki-ha) and more wide-collared polyester pantsuits than a “Charlie’s Angels” costume contest, the movie presents itself as a lost relic of less enlightened times, but boasts gender dynamics that are very much of this moment. In early scenes, the divers earn their living fetching oysters off the ocean floor — or at...

Exclusive: On August 9, Disney will drop the first seven episodes of its adaptation of Korean artist Kang Full’s Moving webtoon worldwide on Hulu and Disney+.

Directed by Park Inje (Kingdom Season 2), the 20-episode series tells the story of three teenagers who have inherited unusual physical powers from their secret agent parents.

While on the surface they look like ordinary high school kids, each has the power to transcend a different physical limitation like gravity, speed or pain. But with outside forces keen to exploit these talents, their parents know it’s safer to keep them hidden away.

Lee Jungha (Run On), Go Younjung (Sweet Home) and Kim Dohoon (The Law Café) play the teenagers, while the parents are played by Ryu Seungryong (Extreme Job), Han Hyojoo (The Beauty Inside) and Zo Insung (Escape From Mogadishu). You can watch the trailer here.

Kang Full, who also wrote the screenplay for the series,...

Two rookie boxers find themselves facing off against a whole underworld of ruthless gangsters in the first trailer for Netflix’s latest high-octane action series, Bloodhounds. (See the trailer below.)

The series stars Woo Do-hwan (The Divine Fury, The King: Eternal Monarch) and Lee Sang-yi (Once Again, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha) as two up-and-coming rookie boxers who find themselves thrust into the merciless world of loan sharks. After witnessing how these gangsters prey on the financially desperate, they decide to team up with a benevolent, retired moneylender (Huh Joon-ho — Silmido, Escape From Mogadishu) to bring down the underworld’s most ruthless loan shark, played by Park Sung-woong (New World, The Deal), and his ruthless runners.

‘Bloodhounds’

According to the series logline, Bloodhounds’ first eight-episode season, which launches June 9, “promises to deliver a series of thrilling fight scenes that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. But more than just a...

Upcoming action epic follows ‘Roaring Currents’ and ‘Hansan: Rising Dragon’.

Korea’s Acemaker movieworks has pre-sold Noryang: Deadly Sea, the final instalment of Kim Han-min’s epic naval action trilogy, to a raft of territories led by North America (Well Go USA).

The upcoming film also sold to Germany (Plaion), Taiwan and Southeast Asia (MovieCloud), Cis (Capella), Poland (9thplan), Mongolia (Filmbridge) and inflight (Eagle).

It follows Roaring Currents, which remains South Korea’s all-time biggest box office hit with more than 17.6 million admissions following its release in 2014, and Hansan: Rising Dragon in 2022.

Noryang: Deadly Sea stars Kim Yun-seok (Escape From Mogadishu...

Before shooting began on Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite, the film’s production crew had trouble finding one of the film’s crucial locations: the luxurious home of the wealthy Park family. The chances of finding the right house were slim, but the chances of finding a two-story house with an ideal setting was even slimmer. As a result, the film’s art team created a set — a one-story house that would become the Park’s mansion and the film’s main setting.

Later, artists at Dexter Studios, a Seoul-based visual effects studio, added a second floor to the house using computer graphics based on its blueprints, complete with a staircase and a garden that was digitally created. The streets nearby also were made in 3D and digitally merged with the film. During the four months of preproduction, more than 200 artists at Dexter worked on the project and roughly...

Exclusive: Korean studio Lotte Cultureworks’ drama Pale Moon, which has been selected for Canneseries, will be broadcast in Korea beginning April 7 on KT’s Genie TV, followed by a debut on pay-tv network Ena and streaming service Tving on April 10.

The show will also be launched in Japan on Ntt Docomo’s new video streaming service Lemino (previously known as dTV) beginning April 12.

Starring Kim Seo-hyung, the series has been invited to screen later this month at Canneseries (April 14-19) in the Rendez-vous section, out of competition. Lotte Cultureworks developed and produced the show, which was co-produced by Big Ocean Enm and KT StudioGenie.

Based on a novel by Japanese writer Kakuta Mitsuyo, the series revolves around a bored housewife who takes on a part-time job at a bank and makes an irreversible choice to embezzle money from rich customers. The source novel has also been...

Exclusive: Korea’s Lotte Cultureworks is teaming with Desert Bloom Pictures to produce a Korean-language adaptation of autism comedy drama On The Spectrum, which was originally produced by Israel’s Yes TV.

The series has also been adapted into an English-language version by Amazon Prime Video under the title As We See It.

Co-created by Dana Idisis and Yuval Shafferman and produced by Yes TV and Sumayoko, the original series follows three roommates in their 20s who are on the autism spectrum, striving to get a job, keep a job, make friends, fall in love and navigate an elusive world. The original show received a grand prize at the 2019 Seoul International Drama Awards.

Desert Bloom Pictures is a production company based in Seoul and Los Angeles, which has a focus on co-production opportunities and is also working with Korean film and TV outfits including Studio Dragon, Dexter Studios and Blaad Studios.

Na Hong-Jin will direct the Korean thriller for Plus M Entertainment.

Award-winning Korean actors Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Hoyeon have joined Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender in the cast of upcoming thriller Hope.

The Korean feature is directed by Na Hong-jin, marking his first film since The Wailing in 2016, and is backed by Korean producer-distributor Plus M Entertainment.

Hwang starred in The Wailing, which played at Cannes, and is also known for Netflix’s Narco-Saints, Cannes 2022 title Hunt and Berlin 2023 feature Kill Boksoon.

Zo is known for roles in war epic The Great Battle and more recently Escape From Mogadishu,...

Ryoo Seung-wan likes to keep busy. Even as his film “Escape from Mogadishu” was still ruling the box office in 2021, he was already busy shooting his next, “Smugglers”. His third period film in a row, “Smugglers” is a change of sorts for him. Where all his films are sometimes labelled as too macho, with female characters and actresses serving a secondary, almost throwaway part, “Smugglers” is the first time a Ryoo Seung-wan production is centred around female characters.

Synopsis

In 1970s, at Guncheon (a small village near sea), there were Haenyeos (women divers who are able to dive w/o equipments), including two best friends Chun-ja and Jin-sook, Jin-sook`s brother and Jangdori. They always collected seafood under water for living. But, as few factories started to be built near beach, Haenyeos started to have trouble with what they were doing for living. Without any choice, the ship crews decided...

Click here to read the full article.

Netflix has commissioned Parasyte: The Grey, a new Korean original horror series from Train to Busan director and Hellbound creator Yeon Sang-ho.

The series, which reimagines Kodansha’s legendary manga series Parasyte, tells the story of unidentified parasitic life-forms that live off of human hosts and strive to grow their power. As they start to disrupt society, a group of humans wage war against the rising evil.

The streamer has also confirmed that Jeon So-nee (When My Love Blooms, Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage), Koo Kyo-hwan (Peninsula, D.P., Escape from Mogadishu), and Lee Jung-hyun (Peninsula, Decision to Leave) will lead the cast.

Parasyte: The Grey is written by Yeon and Ryu Yong-jae (Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area). The series is produced by Climax Studio and Wow Point. Netflix will release the show worldwide.

Yeon achieved worldwide acclaim for his zombie classic...

Ryoo Seung-wan’s features have some certainties to them: they will have a high profile star-cast, a high budget that will be utilised for very well-planned and accomplished action set-pieces offering thrills aplenty and, most importantly, they set out to entertain. A box office magnet, his films also tend to do a tidy amount of business and as such, his new projects are looked forward to with great anticipation. His latest, “Escape from Mogadishu”, from its promotional campaign looked set to be in the same grand scale that Ryoo adapted in his previous work “The Battleship Island” and an audience devoid of a similarly grand production over the last few months ensured that it opened to huge numbers in the local theatres.

“Escape from Mogadishu” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

It’s 1990 and both the Koreas, still struggling to get membership at the Un General Assembly, have taken to the African continent,...

Espionage action film marks directorial debut of ‘Squid Game’ star Lee Jung-jae.

South Korea’s Megabox Plus M is launching its Cannes sales slate led by Midnight Screenings title Hunt, directed by Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae in his directorial debut.

Having starred in numerous TV and film titles such as Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid, selected for Cannes in 2010, the actor will now be eligible for the festival’s Camera d’or with his first feature as a director.

His period espionage action film stars Lee with Jung Woo-sung as two unit chiefs in the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.

The Far East Film Festival in Italy’s Udine has set Chinese-Italian co-production “The Italian Recipe” as the opening title of a revived, largely in-person event.

The film, directed by Hou Zuxin, sees an unexpected series of events bring together a Chinese reality TV show contestant and a woman already resident in Italy. The collision of personalities, connections and chemistry between stars Liu Xun and Yao Huang resemble those of “Roman Holiday,” festival organizers suggest. The film has its world premier on Friday next week, launching a nine-day event that runs until April 22-30.

The 2022 selection runs to 72 titles, selected from over 400 submissions, numbers that organizers say, is proof that Asian filmmaking was not halted by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The fear, not unreasonable, given all the halted productions, dismantled sets and release dates announced and then postponed for months, that there wouldn’t be many films to choose from was...

Strong opening for ‘The Worst Person In The World’.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 25-27)Total gross to date Week 1. The Batman (Warner Bros) £1.7m £35.6m 4 2. Ambulance (Universal) £520,999 £520,999 1 3. Rrr (Dreamz Entertainment) £411,891 £650,204 1 4. Uncharted (Sony) £349,000 £23.2m 7 5. The Nan Movie (Warner Bros) £289,502 £1.1m 2

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31

Dreamz Entertainment’s action drama Rrr started in third place at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, recording the highest opening weekend for an Indian film in the past two years.

Having taken £238,313 from previews on Thursday, the film followed up with a £411,891 weekend. Playing in just 150 locations, it brought in £2,746 per site – an outstanding...

Warner Bros.’ “The Batman” continued atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the third weekend in a row with £3.3 million ($4.4 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The film, starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz now has a total of £32.6 million.

Sony’s Japanese animated film “Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie,” a prequel to the “Jujutsu Kaisen” manga series, debuted in second place with £825,529.

Another Sony title, “Uncharted,” collected £605,723 in third position and now has £22.7 million after six weekends.

Warner Bros.’ British comedy “The Nan Movie,” written, directed by and starring Catherine Tate, debuted in fourth place with £565,340. Another British comedy, eOne’s “The Phantom of the Open,” starring Mark Rylance, debuted in fifth position with £456,829.

Universal’s animated sequel “Sing 2” took £421,651 in sixth place and now has £31.8 million after eight weekends.

Continuing a fine weekend for debutants, Entertainment Film Distributors’ horror “X” bowed in seventh position...

Sales of cinema tickets rose but exports plummeted across a second year impacted by the pandemic.

South Korea’s film industry slowed a decline in takings during the second year of the pandemic with market earnings down 3.5% to $842.6m.

A report by the Korean Film Council (Kofic) into sales and distribution on all platforms as well as exports of rights and services revealed that takings were down year-on-year from an estimated $872.5m in 2020.

However, it is far from the dramatic drop of 58% experienced after the first year of the pandemic, when takings fell from the $2.07bn recorded in 2019.

The main...

Sales of cinema tickets rose but exports plummeted.

South Korea’s film industry slowed a decline in takings during the second year of the pandemic with market earnings down 3.5% to $842.6m.

A report by the Korean Film Council (Kofic) into sales and distribution on all platforms as well as exports of rights and services revealed that takings were down year-on-year from an estimated $872.5m in 2020.

However, it is far from the dramatic drop of 58% experienced after the first year of the pandemic, when takings fell from the $2.07bn recorded in 2019.

The main cause of the decline last year was the...

Signature Entertainment has announced the release of the excellent South Korean political thriller Escape from Mogadishu, from acclaimed director Ryu Seung-wan, in UK cinemas and on digital platforms starting on March 25, 2022.

Synopsis: Escape from Mogadishu is a nail-biting political thriller based on a true story and starring Kim Yoon-seok (The Chaser) and Huh Joon-ho (Netflix’s Kingdom). Rival diplomats from North Korea and South Korea become trapped as civil war rages in Mogadishu, Somalia. With no aid from either government, their only shot at survival requires uniting with bitter adversaries to escape. This record-breaking Asian blockbuster is South Korea’s entry for the 2022 Oscars, and was the opening film at this year’s London Korean Film Festival. Escape from Mogadishu was written and directed by Ryu Seung-wan (Veteran) with additional writing from Lee Ki-cheol (Assassination).

While the Korean film business faces challenges, 2022 does offer a bumper crop of Korean movies from big-name filmmakers. Here are some of the best:

The Apartment With Two Women

(Finecut)

Kim-se In’s debut drama unspools in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.

Broker

(Cj Entertainment)

“Shoplifters” director Kore-eda Hirokazu examines the trade in children in his Korean-language film debut. With a stellar cast including Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Lee Ji-eun (aka Iu) and Bae Doo-na, it too is awaiting a high-profile festival launch.

Concrete Utopia

(Lotte Cultureworks)

A webtoon adaptation directed by Uhm Tae-hwa sees star Lee Byung-hun (“G.I. Joe”) as one of the few survivors of a massive earthquake that destroys Seoul. In post-production.

Decision to Leave

(Cj Entertainment)

Park Chan-wook directs Tang Wei in a tale of a detective falling in love with the prime suspect. Awaiting a prominent festival berth.

Hi5 (aka “Haipaibeu”)

(Next Entertainment World...

This year’s Diff will run as physical event from February 23-March 6.

Sasha King’s Vicky and Dónal Foreman’s The Cry Of Granuaile are among the world premieres screening at this year’s Dublin International Film Festival (Diff), which will run as a physical event from February 23-March 6.

Produced by King and Bill Snodgrass, documentary Vicky tells the story of Irish woman Vicky Phelan’s work to expose the truth behind Ireland’s Cervical Check healthcare scandal.

The Cry Of Granuaile is produced by Foreman, Liam Beatty and Edwina Forkin and centres on an American filmmaker, reeling from the...

The Florence Korea Film Fest is 20 years old this year! The most important Italian festival dedicated to the best of contemporary South Korean cinema will bring again in 2022 films, documentaries, trends and movie stars to Florence from 7 to 15 April at La Compagnia cinema and online on the Più Compagnia and MyMovies platforms.

Here are some anticipations:

To inaugurate the festival, the Italian premiere of “Heaven: to the Land of happiness” by Im Sang-soo, cult director of Korean cinema: a road movie starring Choi Min-sik in the role of a terminally ill inmate who runs away with Park Hae-il (“The Host”) also seriously ill who cannot afford the necessary treatment. The two men meet by chance and decide to leave together for an adventure that will become their journey in search of happiness. Also in the cast Yuh-Jung Youn, Soonja’s the unconventional grandmother from “Minari”.

The long-awaited Italian premiere of...

“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,...

Though the Covid-19 pandemic crushed in-person plans, officials went ahead with announcing honors for films that were set to screen at this month’s Palm Springs International Film Festival. That decision has led to good news for Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero.

The film, starring Amir Jadidi in the story of a man who tries to convince a creditor to withdraw his complaint, picked up three awards from the festival by winning the Mozaik Bridging the Borders Award and earning a best actor prize for Jadidi and best screenplay prize for Farhadi. The latter two honors came in Fipresci international categories. A special jury of international film critics reviewed 36 of the 93 official submissions for the Academy Awards international feature film category and picked winners for best international feature film, best actor, best actress and best screenplay.

Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen was named best international film. The Mexican...

Mexico’s Oscar-shortlisted Prayers For the Stolen directed by Tatiana Huezo won the Fipresci Prize for Best International Feature Film at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which revealed its juried winners Wednesday despite being forced to cancel its 2022 edition.

The festival, which had been scheduled to run January 6-17 before being scrapped amid the latest Covid surge, is considered a must-stop for International Feature Oscar contenders, with 36 of the 93 official submissions this year slated for the lineup.

The Fipresci jury also awarded Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian Oscar hopeful A Hero two prizes, for Farhadi’s screenplay and best actor for Amir Jadidi. It won three prizes overall, also taking a Mozaik Bridging the Borders Award.

Agathe Roussell, the star of France’s Palme d’Or winner Titane, was named best actress by Fipresci jurors.

Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen, which was released by Netflix in theaters and on the streaming platform in November,...

Distributors held back local releases due to pandemic curbs on cinemagoing.

In South Korea, total box office revenue in 2021 went up 5.7% year-on-year to $485.3m. Admissions went up by slightly more than one million compared to 2020 to a total of 60.5m n in 2021.

However, this is far cry from a pre-pandemic 2019, a year that broke records for both admissions (226.7m) and box office revenues ($1.61bn).

Scroll down for Top 20, 2021

And as audiences stayed home and local distributors held back releases, the market share of Korean films fell to 29.7%. This broke the 10-year streak of local films taking the majority of box-office receipts in the territory.

South Korean cinema last year squeezed out a gain of 14% compared with 2020, but 2021’s major box office honors went to foreign movies, not the normally dominant local film sector.

Aggregate gross revenues hit KRW584 billion ($488 million) in 2021, earned from 60.5 million ticket sales, according to Kobis, the data service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). In 2020, revenues were KRW510 million ($426 million), earned from 59.5 million spectators.

In pre-covid times, South Korea was the world’s fourth largest box office market, behind only North America, China and Japan, due to Koreans’ high per capita cinema attendance rate. But Korea has failed to enjoy the same strength of theatrical recovery seen in many other major markets, and both 2021 and 2021 figures are substantially lower than the pre-covid era.

The Korean film industry’s woes at home also stand in sharp contrast to the growing overseas success of Korean music and TV drama overseas.)

The...

The death earlier this month of Chin Doo-hwan, the most hated of South Korea’s three military dictators, who ruled for nearly a decade until 1988, is a timely reminder of the foundations of the country’s present economic might.

Today, South Korea combines global prowess in electronics, semiconductors and shipbuilding (industries boosted by the old regime’s strategic plans) and in culture and services, such as entertainment, cosmetics and food. The latter were born of the cultural flowering that followed the end of oppression.

The country’s contradictory currents of light and dark, paternalistic conglomerates (known as chaebols) locking horns with creative startups, and artistic freedom that butts up against enduringly rigid hierarchies, have left their mark on Korean movies including “Old Boy,” “Snowpiercer” and multiple Oscar-winner “Parasite.”

This duality allows K-pop stars to be built into idols by bootcamp-like talent agencies and then propelled by technologically advanced forms of fandom.

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Drive My Car,” Japan’s entry to the Academy Awards’ international category, looks to be the odds on favorite from Asia to win the category.

The drama with a theater world backdrop follows the trajectory of South Korean four-statuette winner “Parasite” in that it began its winning ways at Cannes and is festooned with awards en route to the Oscars. “Parasite” won the Palme d’Or, which “Drive My Car” did not, with that honor this year going to Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” which became France’s entry to the category. It also recently won at the New York Film Critics Circle.

Nevertheless, “Drive My Car” won three awards at Cannes and has the added advantage of U.S. distribution, where it is currently on theatrical release.

The 2008 win for Takita Yojiro’s “Departures” remains Japan’s only win since the category was made competitive in 1956.

While...

by Nathaniel R

The "Korean Wave" has exploded in the last decade as more and more international audiences eagerly lap up South Korean music, television, and film. The roots of that cultural tidal wave go back to the 1990s and, in film, particularly the early Aughts when a group of young directors took the country by storm with exciting genre films. Some of them like Park Chan Wook and Bong Joon-Ho have gone on to become international superstars but they weren't alone. Ryoo Seung-wan, one of several others to make waves in the Aughts with hits like Die Bad and The Unjust is, in some ways still rising. He recently had the biggest hit of his career and awards nominations at home with the action drama Veteran and, now, a handful of years later, another huge hit and his first Oscar submission. Escape from Mogadishu is a tense action drama and true story.

After going dark for the first time in more than half a century, the return of the Cannes Film Festival proves one major point: the event is still a significant launch pad when it comes to the International Feature Film Oscars. Indeed, of the 90-plus submissions recorded so far this year, nearly a quarter made their debut on the Croisette, be it in Competition, Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week. It’s perhaps to be expected—since the Academy first introduced the category in 1956, foreign-language auteur works have dominated more commercial fare—but the skew towards Cannes is telling. Other festivals have their place—notably Berlin and Venice, with Sundance emerging this year as an unexpected new contender—but, as a rough guide, Cannes has physically premiered six of the last 10 winners and presented last year’s victor, Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (Denmark) under the umbrella of its virtual 2020 label.

Every year since its creation in 1956, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) invites the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The award is presented annually by the Academy to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States that contains primarily non-English dialogue and that was released theatrically in their respective countries between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021. The shortlist of fifteen finalists is scheduled to be announced on 21 December 2021. The final five nominees are scheduled to be announced on 8 February 2022.

Here are the Asian Submissions for Best International Feature Film. There are some excellent movies in this bunch and we have seen and reviewed already some of them.

Armenia

“Should the Wind Drop” by Nora Martirosyan

Azerbaijan

“The Island Within” by Ru Hasanov

Bangladesh

“Rehana” by Abdullah Mohammad Saad

Bhutan

“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom...

Deadline has launched the stand-alone streaming site for Contenders Film: International, featuring the 26 panels from Saturday’s all-day virtual showcase of key titles entered into the International Feature Oscar race. This year’s panel lineup included appearances by the likes of Javier Bardem, Noomi Rapace, Asghar Farhadi, Dan Stevens, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Agathe Rousselle discussing their buzzy projects as the movie-awards season heats up.

Click here to launch the streaming site.

The stars and filmmakers represented a wide swath of international offerings featuring Mubi’s Unclenching the Fists (Russia) and Great Freedom (Austria); Kino Lorber’s Luzzu (Malta), Hive (Kosovo), Casablanca Beats (Morocco) and Brighton 4th (Georgia); Aurum Film’s Leave No Traces (Poland); Sideshow and Janus Films’ Drive My Car (Japan); Cohen Media Group’s Let It Be Morning (Israel) and The Good Boss (Spain); Netflix’s The Hand of God (Italy) and Prayers For the Stolen (Mexico); Bleecker...

Box office takings in South Korea retreated over the weekend, despite a local film taking the top spot. This year has seen a dearth of local movies releasing in cinemas, though that shortage may be reversed in the coming months.

Local comedy drama film “Perhaps Love” was the biggest film of the weekend. It earned $2.09 million from 1,192 screens, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated y the Korean Film Council (Kofic), and deposed Marvel franchise film “Eternals,” which earned $1.94 million from a larger 1,257 screen combination.

Following a Wednesday release, “Perhaps Love” racked up an opening five-day total of $2.87 million. It was directed by Choi Eun-ji and stars the reliable Ryu Seung-ryong.

“Eternals” was released on Nov. 3 and had a strong opening session. After three weekends, it has now amassed a cumulative of $25.1 million. That figure makes it the third highest grossing film of 2021 in Korea, while its momentum...