Coming in at #1 of this weekend's Top Ten (er... Top Eight!) is War of Flowers (타짜), based on a popular manhwa by Heo Young-Man (허영만), and directed by Choi Dong-Hoon (최동훈) of The Big Swindle (범죄의 재구성) fame.
According to the Korea Times, “the film revolves around Koni, an ordinary factory worker at a furniture company, who loses everything overnight at a gambling table and decides to become a top professional gambler to get back what he lost.” The role of Koni is played by Marathon's Cho Seung-Woo (조승우), while the rest of the fine cast includes Baek Yoon-Shik (백윤식), Kim Hye-Soo (김혜수), Yoo Hae-Jin (유해진), Lee Soo-Kyeong (이수경), and Kim Yoon-Seok (김윤석). The Chosun Ilbo gives War of Flowers a thumbs up: Another Cerebral Treat From Choi Dong-hoon.
Ranking / Title [country] - Seoul weekend admissions (Total national admissions):
1. War of Flowers (타짜) [Korea] – 267,200 (1,169,400)
2. Marrying the Mafia 3 (가문의 부활-가문의 영광 3) [Korea] – 92,700 (1,923,400)
3. Radio Star (라디오 스타) [Korea] – 70,300 (210,400)
4. Maundy Thursday (우리들의 행복한 시간) [Korea] – 70,200 (2,441,900)
5. The Fox Family (구미호 가족) [Korea] – 28,600 (101,300)
6. Mission: Sex Control (잘 살아보세) [Korea] – 20,400 (105,900)
7. Project BB (BB프로젝트) [HK] – 18,600 (75,400)
8. The Banquet [China] – 12,000 (314,400)
Source: [FILM 2.0]
Here is a list of some of the films showing during the busy Chosuk holidays, along with a short plot description.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200610/kt2006100416091710970.htm
Wow! No American film on the top 8.
Not surprising, since distributors usually shy away from releasing any new Hollywood films during the Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) holiday.
For those of you curious about the card game played in War of Flowers, Kwang-Woo explains it all at the Koreanfilm.org's discussion board:
http://www.koreanfilm.org/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=101&topic_id=15972&mesg_id=15972&page=
And you can see the original Heo Young-Man's 'Tazza' comic at Sports Chosun: http://sports.chosun.com/enter/cartoon/tazza2/cartoon_tazza1.asp?title=tazza2
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