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▲ This photo, provided the movie's distribution company Lotte Entertainment, shows a scene of "Mogadishu". (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by the movie's distribution company CJ Entertainment, shows a scene from the "The Cursed Dead Man's Prey". (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by Walt Disney Company Korea which managed the film's distribution, shows a scene from "Jungle Cruise". (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- Under the COVID-19 crisis, action movies are competing over which one will be the summer's biggest hit for this year.
Last summer, the Big 3 movies revealed themselves with 2-3 weeks intervals in between, but this year three movies armed with their own unique colors and breathtaking actions are to be released simultaneously on the 28th.
This year’s Big 3 are “Mogadishu” directed by Ryu Seung-wan based on a true escape of the North and South Korean officials from a civil war, “The Cursed Dead Man’s Prey” by director Yeon Sang-ho who created a whole new type of zombies with this film and “Jungle Cruise” through which the watchers can follow an Amazon adventure in the 20C in search of a legend.
Before noon of the 26th, the monitored ticket booking rate of “Mogadishu” is on 1st place with 34%, according to the Korean Film Council’s Korea Box Office Information (KOBIS). “The Cursed Dead Man’s Prey” and “Jungle Cruise” are following the rate with respectively 13.4% and 12.8%.
“Mogadishu” stems from a real incident of the North’s and the South’s officials’ escape from Somali in 1991 during the civil war there.
The film was produced 100% in Morocco before the spread of the coronavirus. With Africa’s hot air, the unfamiliarity of the city gave the film its exotic atmosphere.
The South and the North, who were making rival diplomatic strategies to join the UN, end up in the same boat for survival and escape from the civil war and show sincere humanity to each other over the border of ideology which will act as a touching point for the film-watchers.
After quarreling over even the slightest issues, making intense fights both implicitly and explicitly, the two together make a ‘bulletproof car’ and race the vehicle in a desperate final attempt to escape which is a new kind of action worth watching.
Also, on top of the characters and the ensembles the talented actors made, the movie is praised for its deep lingering impression without any overdoing in the watchers’ hearts afterwards.
“The Cursed Dead Man’s Prey” is an expansion of the occult thriller drama “The Cursed” and at the same time is a following episode of director Yeon’s zombie series. His zombie series is now in its 3rd phase after “Train to Busan” (2016) and “Peninsula” (2020).
Jaechaeui, a revived corpse, moves under someone else’s commands but unlike the ones in “Train to Busan” or “Peninsula”, can speak and act like humans, cannot be killed with bullets and can run in immense speed, drive cars and chase people.
The drama with an occult aspect, ‘bang-beop(謗法) which is a way to curse another using name in Chinese characters, photos and possessions, was highly rated as a genre well pointing out the problem of hatred in the Korean society. But the movie strengthened the range and intensity of actions with the jaechaeui’s strength undefeatable by human strength which maximized the film’s entertaining aspect.
“Jungle Cruise” whose concept was from Disney Land theme park's ride, ‘Jungle Cruise’, takes the viewers to Amazon, the land of mysteries of the early 20th century.
It vividly depicts the winding streams, densely gathered trees and the land’s jungle creatures such as dolphins, piranhas and jaguars.
The movie is led by botanist Lily (by Emily Blunt) in search of the ancient legendary flower, the ‘Tears of the Moon’, which is known to possess healing powers and Captain Frank (by Dwayne Johnson) who leads the cruise tour with an old boat.
The two calling each other a ‘barge man’ and a ‘fraud’, makes a perfect action combo with Captain Frank’s barehanded fights only using old-fashioned weapons such as ropes, pistols and knives and adventurous Lily showing imperfect and slapstick moves.
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