Director Hur Jin-ho’s new historical thriller, “The Assassin(s),” opened at No. 1 in South Korea over the weekend, drawing 1,199,156 admissions. The Korean Film Council said the film’s cumulative total reached 1,566,222 by Sunday. It also led the four-day extended Chuseok holiday period that began Thursday, attracting about 1.4 million moviegoers.
Inspired by the 1974 assassination attempt on then-President Park Chung-hee, in which the first lady was killed, the film follows efforts to find the plot’s mastermind. It stars Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho. The story blends historical events with cinematic invention, and some viewers have criticized it for alleged distortion. The film does not identify the mastermind outright, though characters raise the possibility that the former president or the state intelligence agency planned the incident.
“Tazza: Song of Beelzebub,” released Sept. 23, placed second with 566,528 weekend admissions. Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” was third with 364,763, bringing its total since its Aug. 5 release to 11,783,000. The Korean remake of “The Intern” ranked fourth with 206,347 admissions, while Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love” placed fifth with 72,022.