Korean films set for summer blockbuster season, with Hero, Mogadishu and Train to Busan sequel Peninsula releases going ahead – despite Coronavirus
The Covid-19 pandemic has sent the Korean film industry into an unprecedented crisis, but several big name film studios are sticking to their original plans to release new movies this summer.
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 10,000 and claimed more than 200 lives in Korea, the film industry is grappling with a sharp drop in audiences. The number of film-goers has hit an all-time low as people avoid multiplexes due to fear of contracting the disease.
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The summer season is expected to include a lot fewer blockbuster films as many companies are postponing the release of their movies, with a slate of Hollywood films having release dates pushed back.
Paramount Pictures has postponed the release of Top Gun: Maverick from June to December, and Sony Pictures pushed back the release dates of Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Morbius to 2021 from July this year.
Amid such a crisis, however, South Korean film studio Next Entertainment World (New) has initiated its months-long promotion for the upcoming zombie thriller Peninsula. According to the film producer and distributor, the blockbuster will be released in Korea and several other countries in the summer.
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The sequel to smash hit Train to Busan, Peninsula occupies the zombie-hit world created in the 2016 original, and is set four years later. The story follows a group of survivors who are still fighting the zombies, who are now more powerful than before. Directed by Yeon Sang-ho, the film stars A-list actors Gang Dong-won and Lee Jung-hyun.
“After the first official trailer was released online, we've been getting a great reaction from domestic and international fans. The film Peninsula will be full of large-scale action sequences and explosive thrills,” a New official said.
Director Yeon also hinted that Peninsula has a much wider scope of movement compared with Train to Busan, which was shot in narrow spaces inside a train.
Meanwhile, CJ Entertainment is looking to release the musical Hero in the summer, in commemoration of the 110th anniversary of Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun's death. The film tells the story of Ahn, best known for the 1909 assassination of Itō Hirobumi, Japan's prime minister and the first resident governor general of Korea. Ahn was executed in a Japanese prison in China on March 26 the following year. A remake of the popular musical theatre piece of the same title, Hero dramatises the final years of Ahn's life.
Director Yoon Je-kyoon, best known for his previous works Ode to My Father and Haeundae (Tidal Wave) produced the film. Actor Jung Sung-hwa from the original musical, who played the historical figure from when the show opened in 2009 until last year, plays Ahn in the film as well.
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Meanwhile, Lotte Entertainment will gear up to release action crime film Mogadishu, featuring Kim Yoon-seok and Jo In-sung. Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, the film depicts the life-or-death escape of South Korean and North Korean embassy workers stranded in the midst of the Somali Civil War that took place in the 1990s.
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This article originally appeared on Korea Times.
While Hollywood has pulled the release of smash sequels Top Gun: Maverick and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, South Korea’s film industry is stocking up the popcorn for big screen seasonal releases, starring Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Song Joong-ki and Kim Tae-ri