Becoming Korean at the cinema

I was late to watching “The King’s Warden.” But I finally cleared some time in my schedule and headed to the cinema with my wife to watch Korea’s latest “cheonman yeonghwa” — a domestic title that surpasses 10 million ticket sales, which basically means that one in five people here have seen the movie. The list of the biggest selling movies here is quite surprising if you view it through an international lens. Most people, for example, will think of Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 hit “Parasite,” and yet that barely scraped past the 10 million mark and currently sits at 23rd on the overall list. Instead, the top five comprises “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” (2014), “Extreme Job” (2019), “The King’s Warden,” “Along With The Gods: The Two Worlds” (2017) and “Ode to My Father” (2014). Globally popular actors like Lee Byung-hyun are also surpassed by domestic heroes like Hwang Jung-min and Ryu Seung-ryong. What’s interesting about the biggest selling movies here is that none of them try to appeal to an international audience. They aren’t designed with glo