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| Park Bo-gum in a scene from "Seobok" / Courtesy of CJ ENM |
By Kwak Yeon-soo
The sci-fi action film "Seobok," featuring Gong Yoo and Park Bo-gum, will simultaneously hit theaters and a local streaming service next month, its distributor CJ ENM said Wednesday.
It will be the first big budget Korean film to take the "two-track" approach amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while a few have skipped theaters and gone directly to streaming platforms.
"Time to Hunt" (2020) was the first Korean film to go to Netflix without a theatrical release, followed by the time-slip thriller "Call" in November and space opera "Space Sweepers" in February.
"Seobok" is one of the most eagerly awaited films of 2021 because two heartthrob actors are starring together in a film for the first time. It was originally slated for a theatrical release in December, but this was thwarted by COVID-19.
"Responding to the rapid changes in consumer's perspectives and needs for content, we decided to release Seobok in theaters and on streaming service Tving," CJ ENM said in a statement.
"We believe playing in theaters will better serve enthusiastic moviegoers by providing more options. Also, we hope to boost local theaters that are struggling from the lack of new releases."
Tving is Korea's No. 3 online streaming platform with 2.41 million monthly active users, following Netflix and Wavve. The company said it will invest 400 billion won ($356 million) over the next three years to secure quality content across genres for the platform.
In an effort to release films and still make a profit, production companies started experimenting with having dual streaming and theatrical releases.
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| A poster for "Seobok" / Courtesy of CJ ENM |
Lee is well-known for the award-winning romance drama "Architecture 101," starring Bae Suzy, Lee Je-hoon and Cho Jung-seok.
Inspired by the name of an envoy sent by Qin Shi Huang, Chinese first emperor, who searched for a herb of eternal youth, "Seobok" raises philosophical questions about the future of humanity and conveys the message that humans shouldn't be overly ambitious
"From the ancient times to present, human beings fear death and care about their well-being. Seobok allows us to think about the dignity of humanity and the advancement of life science technologies," Lee said during a press conference held in October.
Gong is currently filming Netflix's mystery thriller "The Silent Sea" alongside Bae Doo-na and Lee Joon. Park is currently serving his military duty in the ROK Navy.
"Seobok" will premiere April 15.
