While industry analysts have highlighted the absence of megahit movies in the Korean box office, many have been equally stunned by a handful of low-budget movies that have been successful in the box office.
The most notable of these sleeper hit films is Spirits Homecoming, a film about Korean women who were forced to work in brothels for Japanese soldiers. The film is set during the height of World War II. The movie has received positive feedbacks from well-known film critics.
Spirits Homecoming is so low key that the film's producers were initially only able to release it to 513 screens.
However, the films underlying theme and masterful direction caught the attention of film buffs around the country. This soon led to a growing promotional campaign via several social media platforms. Spirits Homecoming eventually recorded a total of 3.58 million movie attendance, pushing the film to the number seven spot in the local box office.
Despite the abundance of foreign films, locally-produced Korean movie DongJu: The Portrait of a Poet successfully bested its rivals at the box office, thanks to the films infectious appeal to middle-aged moviegoers.
DongJu: The Portrait of a Poet tells the story of Yoon Dong-ju, a prominent Korean poet. The film follows the poet's story when he was detained by the Japanese for his participation in the Korean Independence Movement. The film has won the PaekSang Arts Award Grand Prize in Film. Park Jung-min won the Paeksang Arts Award for Best New Actor in Film for his role as Song Mong-gyoo.
Shot in black-and-white, DongJu: The Portrait of a Poet earned the $1.4 million during its run and debuted at the fifth place in the box office following its release on Feb. 17.
