[HanCinema's News] "Serve the People" Enters OTT Market Off of Weak Box Office Returns

The melodrama film "Serve the People" was released this past February 23rd. Despite intense interest in the film on social media, however, its box office returns have been quite weak. Figures from the Korean Film Council show that in 12 days of availability, "Serve the People" only managed to achieve 67,709 admissions. "Serve the People" has now entered the streaming market under the cloud of its own failure to achieve revenue comparable to its headlines.

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The reasons for this aren't too difficult to grasp. The once famous genre of melodrama has long since fallen out of fashion in South Korean media culture. COVID-19 continues to ravage the South Korean film industry. Not just "Serve the People" but nearly every release this year both foreign and domestic has struggled to attract interest at the box office. There's also the matter of pedigree- "Serve the People" is based on the Chinese novel of the same title by famed author Yan Lianke.

This gives "Serve the People" an artistic reputation. Previous Yan Lianke adaptations such as In the Mood for Love and Lust, Caution were more for highbrow viewers that mainstream consumption. But just being an adaptation of a Chinese novel at all is a negative in South Korea's current political environment, where anti-Chinese sentiment is at an all time high. It remains to be seen whether "Serve the People" will have better luck in secondary markets than the primary one.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Serve the People" is directed by Jang Cheol-soo, and features Yeon Woo-jin, Ji An, Cho Seong-ha, Kim Ji-chul, Park Jung-eon, Kim Byung-man-I. Release date in Korea: 2022/02/23.