I feel bad for Kim Rae Won that the noir gangster movie Gangnam 1970 has basically become the Lee Min Ho show with the lopsided fan promotion of the movie from his much larger fanbase. The plus side is that more people see the movie and that’s good for the entire production, yes? I haven’t watched the movie but the top billing in Korea had equal weight for the two male leads making me think both characters are equally showcased in the movie story, even if Min Ho-shi’s fans scream his name louder at the screen. That won’t be the case come March when the movie premieres in wide release in China.
The production has revealed that solely based on Lee Min Ho’s star power in China, Gangnam 1970 has just set a record for the highest price a K-movie has sold to China for airing. The C-version movie posters have just been released and one features just Lee Min Ho only (see above) while the other has both male leads but Min Ho is in front while only the top half of Kim Rae Won is visible behind him. The production has revealed that the C-release will be different than the K-original – Lee Min Ho’s screen time will be beefed up including adding more romance scenes with him and female lead Kim Seol Hyun as well as changing the ending.
The tagline for the C-posters is actually quite entertaining “I would rather not be a male god because I want to be a real man!” LOLOLOL, who came up with this shiz?
Ugh. This is unfortunate.
Well that sucks, but I’m glad I won’t be watching this movie in China or the China version. And with the change in endings, can we assume someone died (Lee?), or is it just more fanservice that they’re adding?
At the end of the day I don’t think KRW is sad about this since LMH is global actor, so it is what it is and he also knew that LMH is more famous then any korean celebrity right now before he took the movie.
Actually, Kim Rae-won expressed disappointment with the movie somewhat.
http://kpopbuddy.com/2015/02/01/kim-rae-won-disappointed-with-gangnam-1970/
oooh woow didn’t know KRW was disappointed.. but yeah His making the best tv-ratings with punch in a long time so congrats to him with that..
But Lee Min ho is a global actor and the korean industry needs to cut its bullshit and give the man his respect and drop all that senoirity non-sense
KRW mentioned that it was a learning experience… I wonder if the lesson he learnt is “Never co-lead with a younger and more popular celeb (doesnt matter if he has less talent).”
Exactly … Lesson learned is don’t be lee minho’s costar because you will get overshadowed and maybe even cut out so that lee Minho can shine… Just facts
This rule should be applied for china export only. SK showbiz is not that blind to know who is who.
lol “just facts” more like “just my hatred” showing to make these types of comments insinuating such and such.
This delusion. Lee Minho can’t act his way out of a paper bag, let alone overshadowing an actor of Kim Rae Won’s calibre. The only reason LMH is put at the centre of the promotion is because of his legion of deluded teeny-boopers who eat up anything he makes regardless of the quality.
Lily, you’re the one who is deluded and close-minded for having the audacity to call someone deluded because they dare liking LMH’s performance much more than KRW. What is this KRW’s caliber you’re speaking of? He isn’t all that from this movie. Only nonfans like you can see and judge things of quality, and fangirls can’t? Since when is being a LMH fan means she’s a deluded teeny-booper who just likes lowly things and can’t distinguish quality from random shit? That’s whole lots of judgments being passed on. Ignorance much O_o
LMH is nowhere to be equal to his seniors to demand such a respect, and he is not a global actor. Yeap, he is famous, COMMERCIALLY.
“I would rather not be a male god because I want to be a real man..” Sounds like an ad slogan that has nothing to do with the movie or his character itself. China promotion…*sigh*
BTW these Chinese Posters are simply to much badass.. I also liked the korean one where LMH throws a punch in the middle of a hectic fight
Wow, that is pure greed.
I honestly think KRW is a lot hotter than LMH. I still couldn’t get over my crush of him from LS IN HARVARD.
Punch is my first exposure to KRW and man, I agree with you 1000%. Forget comparing him to LMH, he is a force of nature on his own.
I do think KRW is much hotter and I like him more too..
I won’t be surprised if he is disappointed with this because while I get promotions being lopsided (because LMH IS more famous, no denying the fact) but changing the movie is a bit too much. It reflects badly on the the actor himself too. But I’m sure LMH had no say whatsoever, so it’s not his fault either…
I just hope the movie manage to reach its break even point 3 million won which seems unlikely or impossible at this point.hope it is not a flop….
…..?
3 million won? que? It has 2 million plus admissions, if that is what you want to know.
Shitty way to screw over Kim Rae-won all around, I don’t think this system of changing an entire movie for release to a specific territory is going to lead to a better movie but get that China money I guess.
Nobody said 3 million is the break even point for this movie (i.e. budget vs revenues). Considering the sale of the film internationally, this film is definitely considered a financial success.
They just mentioned that generally, 3 million is the ‘ breaking point’ of a film to be considered a blockbuster hit.
forger anybody it lee min ho who said bep of the movie is 3 million won or its a flop
The breakeven point is supposedly 3m admissions based on production cost of supposedly 10 billion won. There’s also promotion & other costs. To be considered as a blockbuster rather than just reasonably successful, maybe at least 5m, just to get into the top 50?
Its like rating cable tv dramas and Television network dramas together. 5mio Admission is the normal non-rated numbers for success.
The record for rated movies is on 4.01mio, so you can’t rate a handicapped movie because of censorship as non-censored movie.
I don’t know what is considered as a normal number for success, rated or non-rated. The 5m number was just to squeeze into the top 50. However, I consider “My Love Don’t Cross that River” a phenomenal success even though its box office is only 4.7m (<5m) because its production budget is only 120 million won (US$110,000).
As for the record of 4.01m, there's several R19 Korean movies with higher box office numbers, including Friend (8.1m), Tazza (6.8m), Ahjussi (6.2m), Chaser (5.0m) etc.
You should do your research better. Friend, chaser or ahjussi was never 19rated before they aired on the cinemas. but become later on DVDs.
The first Tazza was not 19+rated before its cinamatic release but Tazza 2 was.
Some movies were just never 19+ rated while being on the cinema. I don’t know why they didn’t got censorship.
I did my research very well, thank you. My sources are from KOFIC, IMDB, Daum, Hancinema and Soompi, all of which state that those movies are rated as 19/Over 18.
Here are some news articles links for you which mention the R19 rating while the movies were airing in Korea:-
Tazza – “http://www.hancinema.net/-high-rollers-gives-high-thrill-7281.html”.
Chaser – “http://www.hancinema.net/blockbuster-the-chaser-attracts-over-4-million-moviegoers-13015.html”.
Ahjussi-“http://www.koreaherald.comview.php?ud=20100809000714”.
I don’t know how or where you did your research but I think you need to find more reliable sources of information.
These sources says nothing except they are censored and 19+..
I’m talking about before airing in the cinemas and I can already tell not many movies get censored but most of them do after there cinema visit…
I will post an article that says Tazza 2 is the record-holder
Many of you should now this as well!!! many gangs, violent or gambling movies gets censored but not all but few of them while airing in the cinema and most of them became 19+ on DVD and BluRay..
So they are not legit 19+ box office wise..
Tazza 2 is the record-holder with http://www.kpopherald.com/view.php?ud=201502061750245389131_2
If the break even point for this movie is 3 million admissions it’s not going to make that in Korea. The movie only has 2,081,000 admissions as of today (per Kobiz.com). Admissions have been tumbling quickly. The second weekend admissions fell 45% from the first weekend and this weekend admissions fell 60% from last weekend. As an aside Kim Woo Bin “The Technicians” ended its run in Korea with 2,560,000 admissions. I don’t think Gangnam Blue will surpass this number in Korea.
So I guess it makes sense monetary wise to do all the fan service it can to try to get LMH Chinese fans to see the movie. But what about artistic integrity? *Shrug*. I guess the film will do well in China if LMH fangirls come out in droves to see it.
I wonder if this happens often with Korean films changing the narrative to appeal to international audiences.
Gangnam blues is already a successful movie keep in mind the movie is 19rated which means it lost 70% of its orginal viewers which are teen boys in the age of 13-18 cuz they need IDs to enter the cinema to watch this epic action..
So its Admission is actully successful and it will surpass KBWs movie which was not 19rated movie still..
KBWs movie was a flop all in all.. Gangnam Blues is not even 3 weeks on cinemas but will likely gross about 600-800 admissions in the coming 2 weeks.
Kim Woo Bin’s movie is currently standing at 2.56 million admissions, opening in a VERY crowded and competitive holiday market including major chungmuro films and hollywood blockbusters, with no star power apart from Kim Woo Bin himself, who’s never had to be the sole main lead in anything before. And his previous movie Friend 2, which was 19+ rated, had 2.9 million admissions.
Gangnam 1970 is currently at 2.081 million admissions, and at most will add maybe another 100-170 thousand admissions at their current rates of ticket sales. This estimate of it picking up another 600 thousand admissions in coming weeks is …..optimistic, to put it very kindly. Sandra has the estimate correct, G1970 is not a bigger hit than the Technicians commercially, at least.
Friends 2 was not 19rated? you got that wrong and KBW was not the lead either..
The record for 19rated movies stands at 4.01mio admissions. Gangnam Blues is successful movie considering it was 19rated movie and already has 2.01mio.
Are you saying its not realistic for gangnam blues to pick 480k admission in the coming 2 weeks?
KBWs Movie was a Flop just like Koala said it was not 19rated even thou with 2.5admission it was a flop.
Friends 2 is a 19rated movie and was a huge success at 2.9 million tickets sold.
I estimate G70, also a 19rated movie, will end up with around 2.3-2.4 million tickets for its domestic Korean run. It probably has another 3 weeks left in the theaters and will likely be 7-10 in the box office in the remaining time. It will probably make a lot more money in China compared to K-movies in recent years haven’t and that will overall make G70s gross pretty solid.
The Con Artists (The Technicians) actually had a bit more staying power and in the last three weeks brought in enough dough to have the media call it a solid success for Kim Woo Bin’s first headlining movie. No need to compare apples to oranges for the two movies.
lets be honest for not rated movies to be decent successful they need to atleast hit the 6-7 mio admissions and in that The con artist fails big time.
Example Kim soo hyuns greatly secretly was considering decent successful. with around 6.96mio admissions non-rated movie.
on other hand the con artist has no case here.
Btw I’m really not sure whether the friends 2 got censored before airing in the cinemas. because many of the gang movies got censored after there cinemas visit which means it dosen’t directly hit there grossing power.. So Friends were not officially one of these 19rated movies i guess just like the nameless gangster, the new world etc etc all became 19rated after..
But Tazza 2: the hand of god was infact 19rated before coming to the cinemas.
KWB’s movie was not a flop. It broke even at 2.4m admissions (total cost of 7 billion won), thus making a slight profit with that extra 160,000 admissions.
It’s unlikely that G1970 will add another 600-800 thousand admissions in the coming 2 weeks because the highly anticipated Detective K will start airing this week, which means G1970 will face a reduction in screens.
And ultimately, whether a movie is a commercial success or not depends mainly on its production cost versus its revenue. The restricted rating only means that the average revenue per ticket will be higher (since there’s no cheaper child/teen tickets), so less tickets to reach the same amount of revenue. For example, Love Forecast broke even at around 1.8m admissions, based on production cost of approx 4 billion won. With a higher production cost of supposedly 10 billion won, G1970 needs to garner a lot more admissions to breakeven.
Not really going to watch this but they’re changing the ending?? I wonder if it’ll narratively make sense. Are they changing it to cater to the LMH fanbase?
Flippin ridiculous
Is the movie still the same if the ending is changed. Would gone with the wind still be gone with the wind if the Chinese ending has Rhett staying with Scarlett instead of telling her to take a hike?
There have been movies that have changed its ending just for the China release so G70 doing this isn’t new. That it’s doing it purely for LMH’s raging popularity in China is a novel reason. One of the biggest HK movies ever Infernal Affairs famously has two endings, the one for HK and the rest of the world, and the one only for China. The original ending was the dark ending with the bad guy gets away with his crime. Chinese censors said no way, so the Chinese ending had the bag guy arrested by the cops at the end.
Yeah as soon as I have read this post I thought of Infernal Affairs. I watched it in Hong Kong and was so upset at the end that I wanted to see the China one to feel better :). Not that I encourage this or anything, this is because I’m a fan of Leung Chiu Wai you see and that one nearly broke my heart, my friend had to listen to me for hours how unfair the whole thing was to Tony 🙂
I have not seen the film so don’t know how the alterations will affect the whole thing.
And despite the fact that many people complain about it, China is a huge market (as evidenced how the once so different HK films have changed into “suitable to be shown in China” ones) I hope this fact will not have similar effects on S.Korean cinema.
again you guys comparing GB with other movies. I think GB is quite success despite its 19+rated and its high action, dark and lot of violence. those things may not most people a cup of tea. but yeah GB can manage it and gathered more than 2M admission. so please stop making comparison. I do love KRW. I watch him too in punch. but all the reviews I read from most of people who alr watch GB the praised belong to LMH as they said that LMH really out of his comfort zone. he makes his kimjongdae till they can’t ‘recognize’ LMH anymore. They said LMH is the best in GB so far. for this point I think LMH needs some recognition for his acting and in GB he got it. so GB is not just success in admissions but also critics and audience review.
ah I heard that the things that need GB to wait to hit China theater till march is bcos China is strict regarding censor, and GB has A Lot unproper scene like violence and sex scene. so seems GB need to cut some and so adding some scene too to filling that cut scene. for ending I don’t think it’ll much different mybe just adding some scene or epilogue.
Lmh is everywhere in China. Is it him or ksh? My friend is now working in China part time and his coworker showed him how this one guy was everywhere on the billboards and he is Korean not Chinese! So with that kind of popularity, I would definitely milk it for what it’s worth. Artistic integrity whatever… They have to change it anyways for Chinese censorship so it’s not really the same anyways.
You should think LMH fans would like to see the movie in its original form (that was well reviewed) instead of adding in scenes of him just to add them. I don’t know the ending so I can’t speak of that changes they made, but obvious money grabs never work out well. I feel bad for the whole cast who worked on the movie and who aren’t being appreciated.
I can tell you that the general LMH Chinese fandom response to this is “yay, more oppa!” which goes to show the quality and tenor of how his fans appreciate him, i.e. quantity over artistic quality. I think his fandom skews younger TBH which also explains the level of discourse. As for the Chinese ending, reportedly Director Yoo Ha is pissed but that’s the terms of the sky high price the Chinese distributor paid for the movie so at the end of the day Showbox decided that it’s money over artistic vision.
as a fan Im pissed and dissapointed when the news come out like they see Minho as money maker not an actor they should trust. I think the one should be blamed is the distributor which is thirsty and greedy over money tsk. I feel bad for LMH and all cast.
anyway here’s a review from a viewers tho the writer is MH fans but she’s objectively review it. seems GB critically great
https://breathlesssurvival.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/lee-min-ho-matures-for-gangnam-1970/
ughhh
wtf ever
There are some comments about Gangnam being a 19+ movie. So I looked up Tazza which opened in 2014 and was also a 19+ movie. It’s total admissions was 4,015,000. The article called the admissions underwhelming.
The movie may end up doing better in China than Korea. Who knows.
Tazza 2 holds the record for 19+ movies before coming to cinema and not these who became 19+ after its cinama visit.
There is difference even in 19+ censorship. gangnam blues and Tazza plus others became 19+ before hitting cinemas because of the sexual or gambling content not violence
I would only watch it because Kim Rae Won is in it…..he runs circles around Lee Min Ho’s acting….I am SOOO enjoying “Punch”…boy this man can act! Always been my favourite actor and always will be 🙂
Have you actually seen the movie? KRW is nowhere near running circles around LMH actually. He was not very impressive and quiet limited in his expressions. I’m also watching him in Punch and this dude cannot do emotional scenes at all, those forced tear drops are hard too watch.
*to watch.
Lol. Everyone has their own preference. If you think LMH is great, then he is great. If other people said KRW is great, leave them be. erghhh. No need to fight whose better actor here. There’s no absolute answer for this.
What nonsense? Lee min ho totally outshone KRW in GB…Watch it and see it for yourself. KRW isn’t AL Pacino or Robert De Niro that he can run circles around any other actor. LOL
I’ve seen the movie and LMH actually did a really good job, his best acting yet, a far cry from his recent roles. For people assuming KRW is great, maybe you should actually see the work first. I wonder Yuha feels reading KRW complaining about his role reduction. And if any director wants to work with KRW after, knowing if he doesn’t get the screentime he wants, he’ll conplain. Some egos might be at play here.
I don’t really get the outrage over re-editing for China. Again, if you see the movie, you’ll know that for this movie to get shown in Chinese theaters it would need re-editing because it deals with political subject, graphic violence, and explicit sex scenes, all of which are highly restricted under Chinese censorship. And another thing to remember, Korean movies don’t often get wide release in China unless it’s a co-production. China has a quota on foreign films. The big bad brainless Chinese fan girls are not going to ruin Chungmuro like some purists fear because very few foreing productions will even get screened there. If they do get shown, they are often reserved for Hollywood blockbusters.
omg, the tagline, hahaha! thanks for pointing that out!
this person really talks non sense, even Pierce-conran, Korean movie critics praise Lee Minho for his acting in this movie, what a delusional. Go watch the movie, if you dare to say that again with straight face.
*this comment is for @momo
Why we have to compare LMH with other actors?
Can we just once look at him and compare him with his previous roles and performances?
My bias is LMH but I admire many other Kactors .among them KRW who in my opinion is a more experience actor and can not be compared with an actor younger than him and in his first attempt to film a movie.Should not by now KRW left behind him all these things about screentime?
Those are for beginners in my opinion .
Bottom line is again and seeing all ockoala’s articles for LMH and reading comments of posters that they never give this guy a break.
They will find something to blame him.
Basically it’s a fake , nothing to do with the original !!!
In 2009 by watching BBf i became a fan of Lee Min Ho because he was really pretty flower boy he was my 1st in my list, then i liked Lee jun ki because of Arang & Magstr he really has a pretty lips and face. then he became 1st putting Lee Min Ho to the Second. After that Kim soo hyun , he has really cute smile and lips, then yoochun since he is having chraming prince look smile and sharp eyes.but now my top actor is KIM RAE WON because of his acting in PUNCH and it forced me to see his past works, i found who is the real actor means. when you matured you will liking to matured actors and you can recognize what is good acting.KIM RAE WON is ardent actor, no words
lee min ho is best actor in korea. do u forgot his acting ability in city hunter or faith or boys over flowers? i heard that he is great in gangnam 1970. and i know he worked hard for the movie.lee minho haters go from here. we dont need ur comments.
Jealousy is the root of hatred both acted well it was made known from the on set “Leading Roll to LMH!!!why debate with no base?
Lee min ho is a complete actor. His expressions are uncomparable. Everyone was playing his own character in this movie neither highlighting anyone exclusively but if Lee min ho stands out then it’s all because of his mind blowing acting skills.. So stop being judgmental.