Attempted Warner Bros. Korean Blockbuster Film Flops at the Box Office

Warner Bros. tried to create a Korean blockbuster film and failed miserably:

When Warner Bros. Korea’s “V.I.P.” was criticized by the internet last year over its inappropriate depiction of its female characters, the film company thought things could not get any worse. But its latest release, “Illang: The Wolf Brigade,” proved that it had yet to hit rock bottom.

Featuring high profile actors, including Gang Dong-won, Han Hyo-joo and Jung Woo-sung, joined by the award-winning director Kim Jee-woon, “Illang” is an adaptation of the 1999 Japanese animated film “Jin-Roh,” which is known as a seminal sci-fi movie. With a star-studded cast and a massive production budget that exceeded its first locally-produced hit, “The Age of Shadows” (2016), which sold 7.5 million tickets, Warner Bros. Korea had high hopes for “Illang.”

However, “Illang” sold merely 897,000 tickets and was forced out of theaters in three weeks – a shockingly poor performance for a film that cost 19 billion won (＄17.04 million) to make. The film needed to sell six million tickets to break even.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

So why did this movie fail?  I would start with the stupid plot:

The Korean adaptation relocates the story from post-World War II Japan to South Korea in 2029, a period after the two Koreas have declared a five-year preparation for unification. Fearing rapid growth in Korea following the planned unification, the world’s superpowers impose economic sanctions against the country. The economic difficulties lead to public outrage and result in the emergence of an armed terrorist group named Sect, which opposes the formation of a joint government between South and North Korea. In response, the government launches a special police unit to quell Sect. Feeling threatened by the growing influence of the special police unit, the national intelligence agency plots to bring the unit down.

Got all that?  Is it any wonder the audience ratings for this movie were bad especially when it involves significantly changing the plot of a high respected classic Japanese anime.