LEE Joon-ik’s Chuseok hit, the period drama The Throne, has been invited as the opening film of next month’s 35th Hawaii International Film Festival. Starring SONG Kang-ho and YOO Ah-in, the sober historical tale will open the festival on November 12th. As of October 8th, the film has attracted 5.73 million viewers (USD 38.81 million) at home. Closing the event on the 22nd will be Mabel CHEUNG’s China-HK drama A Tale of Three Cities.

 

Of course, The Throne won’t be the only Korean film making the trip to Hawaii, as HIFF has once again invited a slew of popular and acclaimed films from the country to screen for local audiences next month.

 

Among the invited are SHIN Su-won’s indie drama Madonna and HONG Won-chan’s horror-thriller Office, which both debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, in the Un Certain Regard and Midnight Screenings sections, respectively. Coming from Sundance is Benson LEE’s US-Korea co-produced youth comedy Seoul Searching, while HONG Sang-soo’s Golden Leopard-winning Right Now, Wrong Then debuted in Locarno. Among commercial fare, the year’s two biggest Korean hits, RYOO Seung-wan’s Veteran and CHOI Dong-hoon’s Assassination will also be in the lineup, as well as the legal thriller The Unfair and family dramedy Wonderful Nightmare. In addition, a retrospective screening of IM Kwon-taek’s period pansori (traditional Korean narrative song) classic Chunhyang (2000) will also take place.