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Hollywood stars Bruce WILLIS, Helen MIRREN and John MALKOVICH had high praise for Masquerade, which closed the London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) and has attracted 11.73 million viewers to date in Korea.

 

At the LKFF's closing ceremony held on November 10th with CHOO Chang-min, the director of the film, and LEE Byung-hun and RYU Seung-ryong, actors of the film, in attendance, reactions from the audience were explosive. Including from global stars such as Bruce WILLIS, one of Hollywood’s top actors, Helen MIRREN, the British thesp who has picked up dozens of accolades including an Oscar and several BAFTAs, the character actor John MALKOVICH, and Dean PARISOT, a Golden Bear winning director.

 

Dean PARISOT, Bruce WILLIS, John MALKOVICH, and Helen MIRREN, who are currently in London to shoot Red 2, went to the theater early, even before the director and actors of Masquerade showed up. Before the screening started, LEE Byung-hun expressed gratitude to the director and actors of Red 2  for their attendance and each of the actors heated up the atmosphere by greeting the audience as his/her name was called.

 

WILLIS and MALKOVICH said, “It was really exciting and touching at the same time. Especially LEE Byung-hun’s acting which was excellent. The mise-en-scene was very beautiful. It was also good to see LEE’s new charm which I hadn't realized before.” PARISOT, the director of Red 2 also praised the film by saying, “Masquerade is basically a comedy, but it also has a strong message. I really liked it because I found the hidden side of LEE.” Helen MIRREN received applause and acclaim when she had a conversation with the audience following the screening.

 

The British film critic Tony RAYNS had a conversation with the audience after MIRREN. When one audience member asked LEE, “Among all the actresses in the world, who would you like to work with the most?”, he answered, “Helen MIRREN is the best actress to me and I have been impressed by her acting since I was a child. I cannot even believe that I’m working with her.” Then MIRREN stood up and thanked him back. LEE and RYU were surprised to see how big foreign fans’ love for Masquerade was and they promised to return with better films.

 

Meanwhile, Masquerade beat Taegukgi to become the 4th biggest Korean hit at the box office ever as of November 13th. 2 month after its September 13th release and after becoming only the 7th Korean film to draw over 10 million viewers, Masquerade finally overtook Taegukgi as the 4th best selling film ever after The Thieves, The Host and King And The Clown, by collecting 11,760,535 admissions.