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South Korea: Reason Behind Movie ‘The Attorney's Box Office Smash

Categories: East Asia, South Korea, Arts & Culture, Elections, Film, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Ideas, Media & Journalism, Protest

South Korean movie ‘The Attorney [1]’ which depicts the early life of ex-President Roh [2] who started as a civil rights lawyer resisting against dictatorial regimes, has drawn over 4 million admissions in just ten days of screening. Movie critics even comment [3] [ko] that its popularity in Korea is more explosive than that of Hollywood blockbuster ‘Avatar’ which made a huge hit in the country. Prominent culture critic Chin Jung-kwon (@unheim [4]) explains via Twitter that the current administration and its multiple political scandals [5] have ironically helped the movie by inspiring people to take interest in democratic values.

It is hard for this sort of film to make a big-time (commercial) success, but the government has paved the way for public’s explosive responses to it. While movie ‘May 18 [7]’ (which is about the 80s democratic movement) have failed to re-summon the old slogan of ‘Democracy’, this movie was able to gain success as the government taught people that you should not be treating that old value as outdated.