South Korea Police Allege Box Office Manipulation On 320+ Local Films; Exhibition, Distribution Officials Referred To Prosecutor – Reports

Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, October 4-13) has unveiled its full line-up, including opening and closing films, and announced that Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat has been named as Asian Filmmaker of the Year. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.

Human Rights Watch states the case very clearly: North Korea “remains one of the most repressive countries in the world.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Oppenheimer” remained the top performing film in South Korea for the third successive weekend. It earned $2.04 million for a 19-day cumulative total of $22.4 million. The row of wins for “Oppenheimer” demonstrates again Korean audiences appreciation of top acting skills.

Paramount+ has announced it will premiere William Friedkin’s last film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in all international markets where the service is currently live.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Ten Korean independent films will have their world premiere in the Busan International Film Festival’s Korean Cinema Today section. Selectors said on Friday that this year’s crop are films that “delve into profound themes of life, agony, family affection, and personal introspection, inviting audiences to contemplate their meaning.” They add that, “the imaginative depiction of a diverse array of stories, free from the typical rules of genre, adds anticipation.” Delivery presents a “suspenseful irony” as an affluent couple deal with infertility and a young, financially struggling couple face an unplanned pregnancy. “FAQ” is a comic fantasy where an elementary schoolchild innocently picks up a bottle of Korean rice wine or makgeolli at a field camp and then gets to know the secrets of the world through alcohol.

The Devil’s Plan.The Devil’s Plan will feature 12 contestants of various backgrounds living together for a week and competing through a chain of bizarre events in order to win ₩500million (roughly US$370,000).Netflix’s new trailer introduces the series’ 12 contestants – including SEVENTEEN member Seungkwan, actors Ha Seok-jin, Lee Si-won and Park Kyung-lim and YouTuber Kwak Joon-bin – as they enter the different rooms where their challenges will take place.Scenes of these upcoming challenges, which appear to include card games, pattern recognition challenges and an escape room, are also shown in brief snippets. The new South Korean variety competition series will premiere on Netflix on September 26.The other cast members on The Devil’s Plan are: professional Go player Cho Yeon-woo, announcer Lee Hye-sung, US-based lawyer Seo Dong-joo, Canadian pro gamer and poker player Guillaume Patry, former Blue House policy advisor Kwedo, American orthopedic surgeon Seo Yoo-min and university student and pro poker player Kim Dong-jae.The upcoming series is produced by Jung Jong-yeon, who previously worked on game shows like The Genius and Great Escape.

Disney+ has scored the next breakout hit from Asia after “Squid Game.” Star-studded international espionage series “Moving” has become the most watched Korean original on Disney+ globally and Hulu in the U.S., based on hours streamed after seven days. In its first week since launch on Aug. 9, the series also became the most watched series on Disney+ across Asia Pacific, including in Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan – based on hours watched – and the biggest premiere on Disney+ in Korea to date, based on hours streamed in the first week since launch.

STAYC, Dreamcatcher and more will perform at ‘Korea On Stage in London’, which will take place this November.Concert organiser MyMusicTaste has announced the first line-up for its upcoming ‘Korea On Stage in London’ event, which will take place in London on November 8.The first slate of artists revealed include K-pop girl groups STAYC and Dreamcatcher, boyband P1Harmony, South Korean indie rock duo Jannabi and Yageum Yageum.[KOREA ON STAGE IN LONDON

Neon’s re-release of Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 Oldboy grossed an estimated $495k on 250 screens this weekend for a total cume of $880k over five days. It’s set to cross the $1 million in its first week back – surpassing a cumulative North American gross of $707k with original distributor Metro Tartan Film. The classic revenge thriller came out in 2003 and was released Stateside in 2005. It was the first South Korean film to win the Grand Prix in Cannes in 2004 and took in $15 million worldwide.

There were mammoth queues outside the Thirsty Korean restaurant in Chorlton on Sunday (August 20) after Sacha Lord offered to pay for everyone's meal.

Korea has selected the disaster thriller Concrete Utopia starring Lee Byung-hun and Park Seo-jun as its entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 2024 Oscars.

This weekend, Warehouse Project and Parklife boss Sacha Lord will foot the entire bill for customers at one Manchester business.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief South Korean police said on Wednesday that they had found evidence that the box office performance of 323 films over the past five years had been inflated. Seoul Metropolitan Police said that, as a result, they had referred 69 people from major exhibition chains and 24 film distribution companies to prosecutors.

Gavin Bridge Senior Media Analyst South Korean media company Next Entertainment World (NEW) subsidiary NEW ID’s launch of ‘BINGE Korea’ signifies a pivotal shift in the consumption of Korean content for American audiences. As the leading provider of curated non-English and non-Spanish language FAST channels in the U.S., NEW ID is leveraging its experience within FAST to create the first FAST service dedicated to Korean content. ‘BINGE Korea’ is accessible via a wide range of platforms, including Samsung, LG Smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, and plans to expand to Roku, iOS, and Android TV.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Byung-hun-starring disaster movie “Concrete Utopia” topped the South Korean box office over the latest weekend, replacing female led crime caper “Smugglers.” Directed by Um Tae-hwa, “Concrete Utopia” is set in a Seoul that has been largely destroyed by a massive earthquake. One building stands tall among the wreckage and becomes a refuge for those already inside, but the inhabitants must fend of the unwanted attentions of outsiders. It opened on Wednesday, earning $8.40 million between Friday and Sunday and fully $11.3 million over its full opening five days, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Jeon Somi’s agency will remove an animated character from the music video of one of her latest songs after viewers accused it of plagiarism.The video in question comes from the visual accompaniment for the South Korean singer’s single ‘Fast Forward’ – the lead track of her new EP ‘Game Plan’. The track and music video both debuted on Monday (August 7).Following its release, some viewers have pointed out how the character in the original video resembles the artwork style of Japanese cartoonist, Rumiko Takahashi and her characters illustrated in the manga series Urusei Yatsura (1978-87).The artist is also most widely recognised for her fantasy romance series, InuYasha, which ran between 1996 and 2008.In the music video for ‘Fast Forward’, it appears as if the character is meant to resemble the 22-year-old singer, however, many highlighted how it was nearly identical to the artwork on the cover of the first volume for Urusei Yatsura – with the main changes only being to the direction the character is facing and the hairstyle (via Koreaboo).Now, Somi’s agency, THEBLACKLABEL, has issued a formal apology in light of the accusations of plagiarism, and insisted that they “deeply apologise” for the parallels between the characters.“We have reviewed the issue as soon as we were made aware of the criticisms that the animation within ‘Fast Forward’ reminds viewers of a character from another animation,” the agency said in a press release yesterday (August 9, via Korea JoongAng Daily).“We have decided to delete and change the scenes at issue.

EXCLUSIVE: In the opening scene of Netflix survival show Zombieverse, a dating couple in a bar in Seoul’s trendy Hongdae district lean in for a kiss. 

told the Los Angeles Times that attempts to arrange a meeting with Netflix — to demand that members be compensated with the same residual model as American members of SAG-AFTRA — have gone unanswered for months.“One of [Netflix’s] first priorities when entering the local market should be to establish some channel of communication with groups like us,” the country’s answer to Fran Drescher said.“But there’s no answer at all.”Residuals have recently been in the news as American actors and writers striking for fair compensation post their often insultingly meager checks, ranging from a single penny to a few dollars. As opposed to the royalties paid in broadcasting, residuals must be paid in perpetuity to actors in the United States, based on how many times their films and shows are streamed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hybe, the Korean music and entertainment firm, achieved record revenues in the first half of the year as album sales climbed and live performances took off. This was achieved despite the hiatus being forced on BTS, the company’s most famous K-pop act, by its band members’ military enlistment. On Tuesday, Suga, who had his first solo music tour earlier this year, became the third member of BTS to begin his compulsory military service.