The film ‘Opposition Party’ starring Kang Ha-neul, Yoo Hae-jin, and Park Hae-joon has become the highest-grossing Korean film of the year in just four weeks since its release.The success of ‘Opposition Party’ is considered even more encouraging in that it was achieved despite the long-term stagnation of theaters and the unfavorable box office conditions of being ‘restricted to minors.’

‘Best performance in Cheongbu’ since Corona

According to the integrated computer network for movie tickets on the 6th, ‘Opposition Party’ opened on the 16th of last month and has attracted a total of 2,551,795 viewers as of the 5th.Not only did it easily break even(2.5 million viewers), it also recorded the highest box office performance among Korean movies released this year, beating out ‘Hitman 2’, which opened in January and attracted 2.54 million viewers.

‘Opposition’ proved its overwhelming box office momentum by breaking the highest box office record among youth-rated films released after the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.The previous record was held by the Hollywood hero film ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ (cumulative audience of 1.97 million)that was released in theaters last year.

‘Opposition’ gave up the top spot on the 30th of last month when new releases such as Ma Dong-seok’s ‘Holy Night: Demon Hunters’ and Marvel’s blockbuster ‘Thunderbolts*’ were released, but it returned to the top spot in just one day and is demonstrating its ability to maintain the top spot.Even in its fourth week of release, the movie is still maintaining the second place in advance ticket sales, and if this trend continues, it is expected to easily reach 3 million cumulative viewers.

O “The taste of well-boiled kimchi stew!”

The ‘blue light’ has been properly turned on in qualitative evaluations as well as quantitative figures.It is maintaining CJ CGV Golden Egg Index, which is considered a representative actual audience rating, at 97%, recording the highest score among the currently showing movies.Lotte Cinema and Megabox ratings are also 9.4 and 9 points out of 10, respectively.

The audience is praising the refreshing action and fast-paced development.Some are comparing the story of the ‘opposition party’, where the main characters with different goals, such as a drug broker, a prosecutor, and a detective, unite or confront each other, to ‘Insiders’, which is considered the bible of the crime action movie, and are accepting the somewhat typical story as an advantage that takes advantage of the ‘genre characteristics’.’Well-boiled kimchi stew’, ‘The taste of familiarity is savory’
Witty audience reviews attest to this.

Among the many drug-themed crime films that have been released in recent years, ‘Opposition Party’ is receiving interesting responses for being the first to deal with the real-life drug broker ‘Opposition Party’, who provides information to investigative agencies and makes plea bargains with drug criminals.


Reporter Seungmi smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.