Star-Driven Korean Sci-fi Seeks Global Audience 

SEOBOK, the new action-drama starring GONG Yoo and PARK Bo-bum, is set to bow in Japan, where it will open theatrically on this summer on July 16.

The third feature film from director LEE Yong-ju, who previously made the horror film Possessed (2009) and the romantic drama Architecture 101 (2012), SEOBOK was originally scheduled to open domestically at the end of last year but its release has postponed owing to a rise in Covid-19 cases.

Distributor CJ Entertainment eventually rescheduled the film for release on April 15, at which point it became the first film to open in theaters and on the streaming service TVING simultaneously. The film topped the box office on its opening weekend and has welcomed almost 400,000 viewers in Korea. 

The film presold to 56 countries ahead of its launch and opened simultaneously across several Asian markets alongside its home market, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. In Hong Kong it topped the box office for two straight weekends.

GONG stars as a terminally ill former secret agent who accepts a job chaperoning the world’s first human clone to a secure location in exchange for experimental drugs that could save his life. The trip quickly proves complicated as several factions with different aims descend upon them. The clone, named Seobok, is played by PARK. The film co-stars JANG Yeong-nam, JO Woo-jin and PARK Byung-eun.