It sounds like the Korean version of 'Love Actually', but don't tell director Min Gyu-Dong. He swears his second work 'All For Love' can stand on its own feet, and critics seem to agree, giving the film good marks for its acting and directing. The melodrama stole the hearts of many couples during the weekend, who boosted it to Number 1 for the second consecutive week. Although the film didn't have a particularly energetic opening week and made no huge strides this week either, it should have no problems reaching the 2 Million tickets, with its impressive cast attracting the attention of moviegoers. The fact it still tops the pre-sales figures for next week is another indicator of its potential to do well in the future. But then again, as the numbers for 'Sad Movie' (over 30,000 tickets from advanced screenings this week) show, it's not so much about a certain film or stars, but just the seasonal 'climate' affecting the success of certain films. Whereas this summer most of the horror films released underperformed, Chuseok went according to expectations, awarding its first place to a comedy. And, finally, it seems melodramas will all do relatively well this season, based on the score of the first three.

This good but not impressive result for this season's melodramas has an exception just like this summer's horror films had 분홍신 (The Red Shoes). Park Jin-Pyo's 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) not only became the most successful Korean melodrama of all time, but risks becoming the first to sell 3 Million tickets. Jeon Do-Yeon's star power and Hwang Jung-Min's increasing popularity, along with a good script and top notch directing made the film stand out even though it was stamped with a '18 and Over' rating and covered controversial themes. 2,700,000 tickets sold so far, and even though the film is currently third in the pre-order sales ranking for next week, it's quite unlikely it will drop out of the Top 10 in the next few weeks.

Setting aside his ego (big) and popularity in Korea (even bigger), the expectations of success for Jackie Chan (성룡 in Korea)'s latest action adventure potboiler 神話 (The Myth) weren't spectacular: Kim Hee-Sun has long been considered just a pretty face with little acting skills, better suited for CFs or vapid 'Korean Wave' Dramas, and the film received less than positive reviews where it was shown. But Koreans didn't care, and kept supporting their favorite action star. 'Myth' sold a quite respectable 255,000 tickets, which added to its impressive score in China continues to prove that despite becoming a shadow of his former self (for obvious reasons), constantly complaining with the Media (Chinese, Western, Korean... everyone), trying to hog the attention of the people in any way possible and making quite embarrassing mistakes when dealing with what comes out of his mouth... the man has still good drawing power, especially in Asia.

가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) is sort of 'suffering the season.' Although its score so far is impressive, boosting the sequel of the 2002 film 가문의 영광 (Marrying The Mafia) to become the most successful Korean comedy of all time, all these melodramas released and up for release are attracting the attention of most of the audience, leaving little room for the funny comedy. With 5,500,000 tickets to its tally, reaching the 6 Million is a possibility, but it's not likely the film will stay in the Top 10 for too long. But with a result surpassing everyone's expectations, I'm sure nobody at Showbox will complain.

Surprising just about everybody, the least likely film to succeed out of those released last September 29 ended up making the biggest noise. Jung Ji-Woo's 'Blossom Again' bombed, despite good to excellent reviews and Kim Jung-Eun's transformation; Han Suk-Gyu's first comedy in ages 미스터 주부 퀴즈왕 (Mr. Housewife) was a big disappointment, especially considering its cast. But 강력 3반 (Never To Lose), starring mostly TV stars (supercute and promising Nam Sang-Mi, the talented Kim Min-Joon and veteran Hur Joon-Ho) and with no pretenses of big success is still making good money, selling 880,000 tickets so far. Although it's still short of breaking even, I doubt anybody expected it to do that well. One of the major factors in making this film a minor success was Lotte Entertainment's aggressive marketing and distribution techniques outside Seoul. Although they'll have to be careful not to make this a cultural issue (Seoul likes 'this' - the 'others' like 'that'), distribution companies in Korea are recognizing the potential of marketing more traditional but still quality fare - gangster comedies like 'Marrying The Mafia 2', straightforward police dramas like 'Never To Lose' - to audiences outside the capital, which seem much more receptive to locally-targeted films.

This is nothing new, as the conflicting results of 2002's 집으로... (The Way Home) showed, when the film did well in the country and spectacularly in Seoul. People living in the big metropolis saw the film as a return to their roots in some way, whereas a lot of people outside the big cities felt the film was a little too 'cute', with a sugarcoated, backward view of life in the countryside. From that moment on distribution companies have tried to replicate that film's formula of success, mostly failing. But since the success of gangster comedies (which was fueled aggressively by tickets sold outside Seoul) in 2001, the opposite has been true with much more frequency. It's very likely this 'fragmented' style of marketing will continue, especially since it creates good profits for films which are often ignored in the capital, thanks to 'bigger' films from home and abroad pushing multiplex owners to decrease their screens.

But the success story of the year is obviously Park Gwang-Hyun's 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol). Despite my calling for an applause, celebrating the end of an amazing run for the little film with no stars which made it huge... well, the run is not over! Showbox keeps supporting the film, and even though beating 친구 (Friend) and its 8,180,000 tickets seems highly unlikely if not impossible, the 8 Million are definitely a possibility. Up to the 16th, the war drama sold 7.93 Million tickets. I'm speechless, really.

Next week should be more of the same: melodramas ruling the box office. 'Sad Movie' and 'All For Love' will fight for first place, while 'You Are My Sunshine' will comfortably sit at the bottom of the Top 3. With only two Korean films released next weekend - one of those being 연애 (Love is a Crazy Thing), which despite good reviews didn't make much noise in any of the major pre-order sites' rankings - Hollywood films should recoup some of the market share they lost all over the summer, but that's only until the second onslaught of romance films (in the form of romantic comedies) comes to theaters in the next two to three weeks. Potential sleeper hit of the season: actress Bang Eun-Jin's debut feature as a director, the thriller 오로라 공주 (Princess Aurora) which received almost unanimously good reviews, and sounds like a winner. Critics say the film is not the kind of thriller which generally does well at the box office, but reading the praise the actors (Eom Jung-Hwa, Moon Sung-Geun) received, and the acclaim the talented actress is getting, expectations should be raised a notch.

Finally, an update on 외출 (April Snow)'s success story in Japan. The melodrama, starring hugely popular stars Bae Yong-Joon and Son Ye-Jin and directed by Hur Jin-Ho, sold a cumulative 2.3 Billion Yen, becoming the most successful Korean film ever released in Japan. Other than confirming Yonsama's impressive fanbase in the country, the film's success is another proof that Japan is the leading force in the success of the Korean Wave, with one of the first cases of a Korean film doing better overseas than at home. Last but not least, Son Ye-Jin's status in Japan has been elevated from a popular star to someone who might even challenge 'Ji-Woo Hime' (Princess [Choi] Ji-Woo)'s throne of most popular Korean star in Japan. And, with the upcoming release of last year's melodrama 내 머리속의 지우개 (A Moment To Remember) starring the talented young star, that possibility could become a fact.

Box Office Top 10 - Weekend of October 14/15

01. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - KOREA - 37.3% - 1,320,000
02. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - KOREA - 16.5% - 2,700,000
03. 神話 (The Myth) - CHINA/HK - 14.0% - 255,000
04. Wicker Park - USA - 6.5% - 77,000
05. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - KOREA - 6.3% - 5,500,000
06. Four Brothers - USA - 5.8% - 43,817
07. Charlie & The Chocolate Factory - USA - 5.5% - 1,400,000
08. 강력 3반 (Never To Lose) - KOREA - 3.0% - 880,000
09. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - KOREA - 1.7% - 7,939,869
10. Fever Pitch - USA - 1.6% - 90,000

Weekend Market Share
(Error Margin: +/- 5%, Based only on Top 10)

KOREA: 64.8%
USA: 19.4%
OTHERS: 14%~15.8%

Maxmovie Online Pre-Order Sales Figures - Weekend of October 22/23
Numbers as of 10/21

01. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - 32.84%
02. 새드무비 (Sad Movie) - 28.93%
03. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 11.28%
04. The Merchant of Venice - 7.25%
05. The Cave - 4.91%
06. Wicker Park - 4.41%
07. 神話 (The Myth) - 3.76%
08. Charlie & The Chocolate Factory - 3.40%
09. Transporter 2 - 2.51%
10. 가문의 위기- 가문의 영광 2 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 1.66%

2005 Box Office Top 10

01. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 7,939,869
02. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,500,000
03. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154
04. 공공의 적 2 (Another Public Enemy) - 3,920,000
05. 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) - 3,700,000
06. 마파도 (Mapado) - 3,089,717
07. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 2,700,000
09. 박수칠 때 떠나라 (Murder, Take One) - 2,480,000
09. 혈의 누 (Blood Rain) - 2,274,779
10. 댄서의 순정 (Innocent Steps) - 2,197,555

All Time Box Office Top 10

01. 태극기 휘날리며 (Taegukgi) - 11,746,135 [2004]
02. 실미도 (Silmido) - 11,074,000 [2003]
03. 친구 (Friend) - 8,180,000 [2001]
04. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 7,939,869 [2005]
05. 쉬리 (Shiri) - 6,210,000[1999]
06. 공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area) - 5,830,000 [2000]
07. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,500,000 [2005]
08. 조폭 마누라 (My Wife is a Gangster) - 5,250,000 [2001]
09. 가문의 영광 (Marrying the Mafia) - 5,200,001 [2002]
10. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154 [2005]

Via Film2.0, nKino, Maxmovie and Maxmovie 2