Five Korean films battle for Chuseok box office audiences

Korean cinemas are laying out a lavish spread this Chuseok. At the heart of the feast are five homegrown films that feature veteran actors and titles that have already earned acclaim on the international festival circuit.

Korea's take on 'The Intern'

“The Intern,” which arrived in theaters on Sept.16, follows Seon-woo, played by Han So-hee, a fashion company CEO in her 30s who has built a successful business but finds her personal life on the verge of collapse. She begins to regain her footing after hiring Ki-ho, a senior intern in his 60s, played by Choi Min-sik.

The Hollywood film of the same name proved a major hit in Korea in 2015. Audiences touted it as essential viewing for anyone hoping to avoid turning into a kkondae, the Korean shorthand for an overbearing older person. The country went on to become the U.S. film's second-biggest market worldwide after North America and accounted for roughly 28.5 billion won ($20.6 million) in box-office revenue.

The Korean adaptation moves the story to Seoul and gives its older protagonist a distinctly local flavor. “I felt a lot of pressure because it was a role that Robert De Niro had played,” Choi said. He taps into his own easygoing charm to make Ki-ho seem like a warmer, more familiar middle-aged Korean man.

A distinctly Korean twist comes when Ki-ho sees Seon-woo lose faith in herself. Until then, he treated his younger boss with unfailing deference and always spoke to her formally. But this time he drops the honorifics and begins his advice with, “If you were my daughter.”

For audiences receptive to that kind of cultural localization, it may be just the note to leave the theater smiling.

Director Kim Do-young, who debuted with “Kim Ji Young, Born 1982” (2019) and scored both commercial and critical success with the romance “Once We Were Us” late last year, puts an intergenerational friendship at the heart of the film. Less satisfying is the treatment of Seon-woo: The Gen Z boss too often serves merely as a foil for Ki-ho’s experience and warmth.

Reexamining an assassination

Arriving on Sept. 23 is the period drama “The Assassin(s),” a fiction-based drama that sheds light on the true story of the assassination of the then-first lady.

“The Assassin(s)” is the clear front-runner among the Korean releases. As of Sept. 16, it held a 16.6 percent share of advance ticket sales on the Korean Film Council’s box-office tracking system, second overall behind “The Odyssey.”

Director Hur Jin-ho revisits the Aug. 15, 1974, assassination of first lady Yuk Young-soo, but the film does not confine itself to the historical record. It suggests that the bullet that killed Yuk may have been fired by someone other than Moon Se-gwang, the young ethnic Korean man from Japan who had been identified as the shooter.

Actors Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho portray newspaper reporters who pursue the case, while Yoo Hai-jin plays a detective.

It marks the long-awaited return of the period drama, a genre that once dominated the pre-pandemic Chuseok box office. Past holiday hits include “The Face Reader” (2013), the highest-grossing Chuseok release of all time, as well as “The Age of Shadows” (2016), “The Fortress” (2017) and “The Great Battle” (2018).

Its excavation of the darker corners of Korea’s modern history also puts “The Assassin(s)” in the same vein as two other Hive Media Corp productions: the 10 million-admission blockbuster “12.12: The Day” (2023) and the Disney+ series “Made in Korea” (2025-).

A little gambling is fun with 'Tazza'

Choi Kook-hee’s “Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub” breaks a bit from its three predecessors, trading the traditional Korean card game hwatu (Go-stop game with flower cards) for poker.

At its center are Jang Tae-young, played by Byun Yo-han, and Park Tae-young, played by Roh Jae-won. Best friends since their school days, the two build a successful online casino business together before jealousy, betrayal and revenge begin to test their bond.

Because each knows exactly how the other thinks, the poker table becomes as much a psychological battleground as a game of cards. The film retains the broad contours of the original comic while reworking many of its characters and plot details.

“I wanted to close the door on the ‘Tazza’ franchise myself after 20 years,” Byun said. “I tried to capture the jealousy and sense of inferiority you might feel toward a friend in your school days, and how those emotions can eventually drive two people apart by the narrowest of margins.”

Applauded at Venice, 'Possible Love'

Two veteran auteurs are also returning to theaters on a smaller scale. “Possible Love” marks Lee Chang-dong’s first film in eight years and arrives after winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

Starring Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Cho Yeo-jeong and Zo In-sung, the drama centers on two married couples from different socioeconomic backgrounds whose lives intersect. Inspired by a mass layoff at a major Korean company more than a decade ago, Lee explores what he calls “the love that remains possible for us in an age when labor is disappearing.”

Sul and Jeon play a couple who have lost their jobs, while Cho and Zo portray a married documentary director and producer who set out to chronicle their story.

“Possible Love” will debut on Netflix on Nov. 6, but first it will receive a roughly two-week theatrical run starting Sept. 23 to qualify for submission in the international feature film category at next year’s Academy Awards. Netflix is also streaming all six of Lee’s previous features, from his debut “Green Fish” (1997) through “Burning” (2018).

Something a little lighter

Maverick hitmaker Lee Joon-ik, meanwhile, turns his eye to the vertical screen for “My Father’s Table.” The film, which has played exclusively at Lotte Cinema since Sept. 9, began life as a short-form drama commissioned by the platform Lezhin Snack.

Lee Joon-ik shot the 61-episode series on a shoestring budget of roughly 500 million won, then recut it into a 146-minute feature. The vertical image, confined to the center third of the theater screen, initially feels unfamiliar. Lee, however, adapts Gorita Studio’s webtoon with a playful touch and a brisk rhythm suited to episodes that run roughly two minutes each.

The comedy centers on a domineering patriarch who spends much of his life overturning his wife's meals. Now in his twilight years, he ventures into home cooking for the first time. His kitchen misadventures intertwine with memories of the couple’s younger days, which faded into the background as they devoted themselves to raising their children. The series will also roll out on the Lezhin Snack app in two parts on Sept. 17 and 24.

Before the pandemic, the three-day Chuseok holiday could draw around 4 million moviegoers. That audience collapsed to 950,000 in 2021 and has only partially recovered. In 2024, total admissions climbed back to 2.8 million, but one film, “I, the Executioner,” accounted for 2.35 million of those tickets in just three days. This year’s crowded field is therefore likely to produce clear winners and losers.

“Korean films tried to dodge big-budget foreign releases such as ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ in August, but that has made a costly fight for audiences over Chuseok inevitable,” said a film industry official who requested anonymity.

The release calendar remains crowded after Chuseok. “Reawakened Man,” starring Koo Kyo-hwan, opens Sept. 30, followed on Oct. 3 by “Digger,” which will bring Tom Cruise to Korea for a promotional visit.

BY NA WON-JEONG, JEONG EUN-HYE [[email protected]]