Berlinale Market Fruitful for Korean Distributors

Several Korean titles have been sold internationally at the recent Berlin International Film Festival. Asian and European markets are the main destinations for the Korean films.

Park Chan-wook's award-winning "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK" has been sold by CJ Entertainment to the Japanese exhibitor Tokyo Theaters and the French Wild Side. "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK" has also been selected as the opening film for the Hong Kong Film Festival in March. Previous Park Chan-wook films "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" – part of the 'vengeance trilogy' together with Old Boy – were bought by FR from the United Arab Emirates for distribution in the Middle East.

Another CJ title "Like A Virgin" – directed by Lee Hae-yeong and Lee Hae-joon - was bought by Amuse Entertainment from Japan. CJ project "Soo" by Korean-Japanese director Choi Yang-il was pre-sold to German Splendid.

Encore picked up the rights for Park Jin-pyo's "Voice of Murderer" for Singapore and Malaysia. "Hwang Jin Yi" will follow "Voice of Murderer" into the same markets when it's finished, the film was pre-sold to Festive. "Hwangjin-i - Movie" will also travel to Thailand (J-Bics) and Vietnam (Time Vision).

J-Bics will release the comedy "Hot for Teacher" ("Sexy Teacher") in Thailand and Encore obtained the rights to release the film in Singapore.

Korean animation "Aachi And Ssipak" was bought by StudioCanal for the French Market. The film was pre-sold to Russia (Alpha Motion), Israel (Dream Entertainment) and Italy (AB Film).

Sales strongly dropped last year to Korea's main international market Japan. The sentiment among Korean distributors was that although not reaching the record-highs of two years ago, there is still a steady sales flow to the Japanese market.

Yi Ch'ang-ho (KOFIC)