February has been marked by Korean films putting up a good fight at the box office. The three films that led the Lunar New Year holiday box office - <Dancing Queen>, <Unbowed> and <Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time> - all passed the 3 million admissions mark together this month. Of these films, it was director YOON Jong-bin’s <Nameless Gangster> that topped the charts in February.

 

After debuting with <The Unforgiven> (2005) which went to Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2006, Yoon made his second film <Beastie Boys> in 2008 and has made a comeback after nearly three years with <Nameless Gangster>.

 

The film depicts Busan in 1982. CHOI Min-shik stars as customs officer CHOI Ik-hyun,who uncovers methamphetamine in his inspections. In order to smuggle it to Japan, he partners with Busan’s biggest crime organization boss CHOI Hyung-bae, played by HA Jung-woo. Ik-hyun has a gifted tongue and can talk his way out of or into anything, while Hyung-bae has a charisma that allows him to take control of anyone immediately. Together, they start to take over Busan. Their territory expands extravagantly until the ROH Tae-woo administration starts a “war on crime” in 1990 and a rift occurs between the two men.

 

Released Feb. 2, <Nameless Gangster> clocked up 910,000 admissions in its first week and took in 3.5 million admissions by Feb. 21. As of time of writing on Feb. 27, the film has taken in 3.98 million admissions and is looking at surpassing the 4 million mark soon. Despite the film’s “Teenager restricted” rating, Choi Min-shik and Ha Jung-woo’s lead performances backed up by a solid supporting cast has attracted audiences.

 

<Dancing Queen> and <Unbowed> have been competing for the no. 2 and no. 3 spots at the box office and are showing real staying power. <Dancing Queen>, which opened Jan. 19, took in 3.55 million admissions by Feb 21 while <Unbowed>, which opened Jan 18, has attracted 3.32 million. <Dancing Queen>, in particular, is showing signs of becoming a long-run sleeper hit like <Sunny>, which took in over 7.3 million admissions.

 

The 3D animation <Speckles: The Tarbosaurus> opened on Jan 26 and took in 965,000 admissions. With the restart of school and spring break in February, middle schools and high schools took their students en masse to see the animation while parents with children also went.

 

YOO Ha, director of films such as <Once Upon a Time in High School> and <A Dirty Carnival>, has been attracting attention with his comeback film <Howling>. The film opened Feb. 16 and took in about 750,000 admissions by Feb. 21. Considering the film stars top box office draws SONG Kang-ho and LEE Na-young, <Howling> has had a rather weak start.

 

Academy Award winner <The Descendants> took in 30,000 admissions while Academy-nominated <Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy> took in 40,000 admissions.

 

With anticipated Korean films such as the romantic comedy <Love Fiction> starring Ha Jung-woo and KONG Hyo-jin (opening Feb. 29), director BYUN Young-joo’s mystery film <Helpless>(March 8), and director CHANG Yoon-hyun’s <Gabi>(March 15), Korean films look like they will continue to put up a good fight at the box office next month as well.