Korean movies playing in theaters have no English subtitles and thus cater mostly to Korean audiences only, despite the rising number of non-Koreans living in the country.
But that picture is about to change, albeit slowly.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has picked two theaters to provide English subtitled Korean movies to give people who lack Korean language skills a chance to enjoy Korean movies.
The selected theaters in Seoul are two branches of local cinema chain CINUS.
One is in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, and the other in Gangnam-gu (district), the southern part of the city.
The films to get English subtitles this year will be those with appeal to international audiences, giving them a chance to watch major Korean films during their first runs.
The full list has not been finalized yet, but Seoul officials say that about 10 Korean movies released this year will be shown subtitled in English at these two CINUS theaters.
As part of this series, people who don't speak Korean well will have a chance to watch the much-hyped Korean thriller "
Private Eye" with English subtitles to be released on Apr. 2.
"
Private Eye" is the first Koran film to feature a private investigator as the main character.
The film, written and directed by
Park Dae-min, is based on the director's own script, which won the 2005 Makdoongyi Screenplay Contest.
The flick is set in Seoul in 1910 under Japanese colonial rule, and it is about the adventures of gumshoe Hong Jin-ho (played by
Hwang Jeong-min) and his two assistants, a medical student named Gwang-soo (
Ryoo Deok-hwan) an inventor Sun-deok (
Eom Ji-won) as they try to solve crimes.
In the movie, Jin-ho's routine, which is all about dealing with trivial theft of pocket money, is disrupted when he gets dragged into a high-profile murder case.
The case is brought on by aspiring physician Gwang-soo, who discovers a corpse in the woods and secretly takes it to practice his dissections on.
Scared of being wrongly accused of the murder, the med student asks the
Private Eye to solve the case for him.
The corpse turns out to be the son of one of Seoul's most powerful men and the duo, along with a third investigator, inventor Sun-deok, set out to delve into the murder case.
Jin-ho and his colleagues steadily close in on the suspect behind a chain of murders targeting the most powerful men of the Joseon Dynasty.
A scene from the movie '
Private Eye'
A scene from the movie '
Private Eye'
And at the end of their investigation lies an even bigger secret, which would spoil the movie to reveal here.
English subtitles for the tightly-scripted thriller will be available at CINUS Myeongdong and CINUS Gangnam from Apr. 2, the day of the movie's first release.
To get to CINUS Myeong-dong, go to Myeong-dong Station, line 4, exit 7 or 8. For CINUS Gangnam (CINUS G), go to Gangnam Station, line 2, exit 5.
For more information about the program, call 1544-0070.
By Han Aran
Korea.net Staff Writer
