[HanCinema's News] Four Major Films to Close Out Summer Season at South Korean Box Office
By William Schwartz | Published on
After a promising start to the summer season with "The Roundup" being a huge success, the last few weeks have seen Hollywood films generally dominate at the South Korean box office. But that will likely change over the next month, as four major South Korean films will be released, each with strong potential to be a big box office success. First up is "Alienoid" which stars Ryu Jun-yeol, Kim Woo-bin, and Kim Tae-ri as alien wizards in a storyline that crosses past and present.
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"Alienoid" will be released on July 20th. Next up will be "Hansan: Rising Dragon" which stars Park Hae-il as the legendary historical General Yi Sun-sin as he takes command at the outset of the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. The historical film is a spiritual successor of sorts to "The Admiral: Roaring Currents" which was released in 2014 and became the most popular South Korean movie of all time. "Hansan: Rising Dragon: will be released on July 27th.
The week after that will see the release of "Emergency Declaration" which stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jeon Do-yeon among others as persons of interest in a terrorist attack on an airplane. The disaster thriller has long been delayed due to COVID-19. Emergency Declaration" will be released on August 3rd. Lastly, "Hunt" will come out on August 10th. The action spy film is the directoral debut for Lee Jung-jae, as he also plays a spy facing off against an assassin played by Jung Woo-sung.
The sheer quantity of high profile projects over such a short time period suggests that distributors believe the COVID-19 depression for domestic film to mostly be over. But it remains to be seen whether any of these films will be able to measure up to "The Roundup" in terms of box office success. "Hansan: Rising Dragon" will be released in the United States on July 29th via Well Go USA and "Emergency Declaration" will follow on August 13th, also through Well Go USA.
Written by William Schwartz
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William Schwartz
Staff writer. Has been writing articles for HanCinema since 2012, having lived in South Korea from 2011 to 2021. He is currently located in the Southern Illinois. William Schwartz can be contacted via william@hancinema.net, and is open to requests for content in future articles.