[HanCinema's News] "Recalled" Hits Nearly Fifty Percent of Early Reservations

According to figures released by the Korean Box Boffice Information System (KOBIS) "Recalled" has taken a commanding lead in early reservations. As of this writing, the mystery thriller is sitting at 49.6%, and has spent most of the day over forty percent. No other film, foreign or domestic, is even cracking double digits. Though early figures are unreliable, and "Recalled" has yet to appear. This data also tracks with figures released by film theater websites.

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The strong performance of "Recalled" is a bit of a surprise, for a couple of reasons. First, "SEOBOK" had a fairly disappointing weekend, despite the big name science fiction project having a well-known cast and aggressive marketing. Numbers had believed to have been depressed either by COVID-19 fears, the simulcast on the streaming TVING service, or possibly both. If these numbers hold through the end of the week, however, "Recalled" may be the first big hit of the year.

The second point is that "Recalled" has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, with there being intense pressure on leading actress Seo Yea-ji due to her being implicated in a large number of scandals. In such circumstances a boycott would be more logical than an apparent surge of interest. However, the news story has also improved the profile of "Recalled" which also stars Kim Kang-woo as the leading actor and which is by no means Seo Yea-ji's project alone.

It is unclear whether the high numbers will continue to hold until April 21st, when "Recalled" will be released in theaters. The project is the first from director Seo Yoo-min, who is best known for her work as a scriptwriter. "Recalled" is the first project for Seo Yea-ji since the drama "It's Okay to Not Be Okay" from last year and the first project for Kim Kang-woo since "New Year Blues" earlier this year.

Written by William Schwartz