By Mark Schilling
Japan is in the midst of a Korean pop culture boom, largely fueled by the monster success of Winter Sonata, a weepy TV drama that made millions Japanese women ardent fans of soft-featured star Bae Yong-jun. On the big screen, however, a similarly huge hit has been slower to arrive. Silmido and Tae Guk Gi (Brotherhood) -- both male-oriented action films and setters of box office records in Korea -- underperformed relative to their pre-release hype in Japan.
Now Toshiba Entertainment has finally rung the gong with Everybody Has Secrets -- a romantic comedy featuring Winter Sonata's female lead Choi Ji-woo and hot male star Lee Byung-hun. Released on 150 screens nationwide on November 27, the film soared to 4th place on the nine-major-city chart its opening week and is now expected to surpass the Y1 billion ($9.5 million) mark.
The story, about three sisters who fall for the same smooth-talking businessman, is not a hanky-wringer -- but the audience, says a Toshiba publicist, is "the same women who adored Winter Sonata."
Both Choi and Lee visited Japan to promote the film at its Tokyo International Film Festival screening on October 30 -- and were mobbed by more than 800 reporters. "The Japanese media has tagged Lee as the next Bae Yong-jun," explained the publicist. Choi, needless to say, is the woman all those Bae fans would love to be.
Crowds packed theatres following the film's opening, with an 80-20 female-male split. "More than dating couples, groups of women are seeing the film together," said the publicist. "But it's a fun film that men can also enjoy."
Toshiba is also handling Park Chan-wook's Old Boy -- the winner of the Grand Prix at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It is currently enjoying a long, prosperous run, with a $43,937 average on two major city screens in its fifth week on release. Next March Toshiba will release Kim Ki-duk's Samaria, the winner of the Best Director prize at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival. "The Korea film industry is making high quality films," the publicist said. "That, more than anything, is what keeps the boom going."
