<p>On the 4th of this month, the movie &#8220;THE FIEST SLAM DUNK&#8221; (&#8220;Slam Dunk&#8221;) was released in Korea. The anti-Japanese movement under the Moon Jae-in administration has &#8220;blown over&#8221; and Japanese animation continues to enjoy strong popularity in South Korea.</p>
<p> The number of viewers has already exceeded 1 million, and the country will enter the Lunar New Year holiday period on the 21st of this month. At this rate, it is possible that it will surpass the 2.15 million viewers for &#8220;Blade of the Demon&#8221; Infinity Train,&#8221; which was released in Korea two years ago.</p>
<figure id="attachment_291252" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-291252" style="width: 1044px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="942806e3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/smg_re_tougou_re.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-291252" class="wp-caption-text"> The official Korean Instagram post of &#8220;THE FIEST SLAM DUNK&#8221; celebrating the 1 millionth viewer. Shown are the dubbed cast members of the Korean-language version (from the official Korean Instagram of &#8220;THE FIEST SLAM DUNK&#8221;).</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Slam Dunk&#8221; has a high rate of repeat viewers.</h3>
<p> It has been 26 years since the &#8220;Slam Dunk&#8221; anime ended. Even so, &#8220;Slam Dunk&#8221; has been attracting a lot of attention in Korea. and it is still attracting a great deal of attention in Korea. Even a Korean woman in her 40s, who had forgotten all about the original, praised it highly.</p>
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<p><strong> Not only the generation that was hooked on &#8216;Slam Dunk&#8217; when they were in school, but also middle-aged couples are taking their children to the theater to see the movie. Many of the younger children have not seen the anime in real time and are learning about &#8220;Slam Dunk&#8221; for the first time at the theater, but the fast-paced story is interesting and they seem to enjoy it even if they don&#8217;t know the original story.</strong></p>
<p> The overwhelming majority of supporters are in their 30s and 40s, and many are nostalgic for their youth. Young people who do not know the story are also hooked after seeing the movie with their parents at the theater, and word of mouth is spreading. The film has a high rate of repeat viewers, with many viewers seeing both the subtitled and dubbed versions.</p>
<p><strong>Those who have seen both the subtitled and dubbed versions say, &#8220;I was so impressed, I&#8217;ll see it one more time!</strong> &#8220;Many people who have seen both the subtitled and dubbed versions say, &#8216;I was so impressed I <strong>watched it three</strong> times!</p>
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<p> Although &#8220;Slam Dunk&#8221; has been controversial in Japan due to changes in the voice actors, many Koreans have praised it.</p>
<p> One of the appeals of the film is that it &#8220;can be watched like a sport,&#8221; and, like the &#8220;Blade of Demons: Infinity Train,&#8221; which was released two years ago, a Korean male said <strong>he was &#8220;moved by the story with a deep message</strong>.</p>
<p> Meanwhile, there has been a slight change in the Korean film industry.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The &quot;100 Million Actor&quot; Song Gang-ho is in an unexpected situation. ......"></div>
<h3>Box Office Slump for Song Gang-ho&#8217;s Starring Film!</h3>
<figure id="attachment_291031" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-291031" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="06662aa0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/78a4bc1a84096a36ffd8ca869ef5a6bb.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-291031" class="wp-caption-text"> Emergency Declaration&#8221; © 2022 SHOWBOX AND MAGNUM9 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</figcaption></figure>
<p> In Korea, an actor is called a &#8220;100-million actor&#8221; when the total number of viewers for the films in which he has starred exceeds 100 million. The most famous &#8220;100 Million Actor&#8221; is Song Gang-ho, who has been in the industry for three years since he starred in &#8220;Parasite: Family Under the Half-land&#8221;. Last year, he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Hirokazu Kore-eda&#8217;s &#8220;Baby Broker,&#8221; but since &#8220;Parasite,&#8221; he has not starred in a major hit film.</p>
<p> His historical drama film &#8220;The King&#8217;s Wish: The Beginning of Hangeul,&#8221; which depicted the process of creating Hangeul, ran into the issue of historical awareness over the creation of Hangeul in historical fact. The director had to give an explanation. Audience numbers were only 960,000, a lonely result for a film starring Song Gang-ho.</p>
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<p> The following film, &#8220;Baby Broker,&#8221; also failed to attract a large number of viewers in spite of its high profile. The dialogue was full of discomfort for Koreans, and the characters and storyline were difficult to sympathize with. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, the film drew 1.26 million viewers, not as many as &#8220;Parasite,&#8221; which drew 10 million.</p>
<p> Song Kang-ho, who had failed to deliver results with &#8220;The King&#8217;s Wish: The Beginning of Hangul&#8221; and &#8220;Baby Broker,&#8221; was involved in an unexpected uproar in the following &#8220;Declaration of Emergency&#8221; (released on January 6).</p>
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<p> The production cost of &#8220;Declaration of Emergency,&#8221; which features a star-studded cast including Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Do-young, is said to have been 25 billion won (approximately 2.5 billion yen). The film is a panic movie, a specialty of the Korean film industry, in which a bio-terrorist attack occurs on board an airplane bound for Hawaii, infecting and killing passengers one after another. The passengers on board the plane are not only infected with the virus, but also face the danger of crashing.</p>
<p> Despite high expectations before the film&#8217;s release, it failed to reach the break-even point of 5.2 million viewers and drew only 2.05 million. The reason for this was the &#8220;reverse viral suspicion.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The police were even mobilized to investigate the alleged organized word-of-mouth campaign."></div>
<h3>Manipulation by word-of-mouth websites to control the box office?</h3>
<p> Reverse viral&#8221; refers to the act of intentionally spreading malicious word of mouth.</p>
<p> The film &#8220;The Emergency Manifesto&#8221; received mixed reviews regarding its storyline and ending. While some audiences enjoyed it as entertainment, others criticized the ending. However, it was pointed out that there were too many low-praise word-of-mouth reviews.</p>
<p> The company suspected of orchestrating the &#8220;reverse viral&#8221; was BY4M Studio (hereinafter referred to as BY4M). The company invested in several films, including &#8220;Hansan&#8221; (March 17), which was released around the same time as &#8220;Declaration of Emergency.</p>
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<p> Hansan&#8221; is a historical spectacle depicting a decisive battle at sea against the Japanese. During Hideyoshi Toyotomi&#8217;s invasion of Korea, Yi Sun-sin (Lee Sun-shin) tries to defend the Korean peninsula, while Wakisaka Yasuharu attacks, and an epic battle unfolds on the sea.</p>
<p> This historic battle does not end with mere &#8220;hatred of Japan&#8221; because Wakisaka Yasuharu, played by Pyeon Yo-han, is portrayed in an unexpectedly charming manner. Yi Sun-sin is a &#8220;quiet&#8221; character, and Wakisaka, who is supposed to be an enemy general from the Korean point of view, is a &#8220;dynamic&#8221; character. From a Japanese point of view, it is fascinating.</p>
<figure id="attachment_291033" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-291033" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4a50f39d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/d5142f08770ec074d4d29c560c53fa07.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-291033" class="wp-caption-text"> Han-sang: The Rise of the Dragon&#8221; ©2022 LOTTE ENTERTAINMENT &amp; BIGSTONE PICTURES CO.,LTD.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.</figcaption></figure>
<p> Hansan&#8221; is another blockbuster with a production cost of 30 billion won (approx. 3 billion yen), and is said to have a profit/loss share transfer of 6 million people.</p>
<p> A week later, &#8220;Declaration of Emergency&#8221; was also released, making it a direct confrontation between the two blockbusters, but BY4M invested in &#8220;Hansan&#8221; but not in &#8220;Declaration of Emergency. One of the film critics defined &#8220;reverse viral suspicion,&#8221; and the distributor of &#8220;Declaration of Emergency&#8221; asked the police to investigate.</p>
<p> However, BY4M also filed a complaint against the film critic, claiming that it had nothing to do with &#8220;reverse viral. In addition, a person claiming to be from the film industry now claims to have written a high evaluation of &#8220;Declaration of Emergency,&#8221; and &#8220;viral allegations&#8221; have surfaced.</p>
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<p> Although it has been a problem for some time, word of mouth on movie websites is opaque. It is said that the box office of a movie is influenced by the rating points of those who are called &#8220;commenters.</p>
<p> In response to a commenter who praises a film that has not been rated at all, another user sarcastically remarks, &#8220;Good job, part-timer!</p>
<p> The ticket price, once 10,000 won (about ³,000), is now 15,000 W (about ³,500). Audiences spend not only money but also their precious time to see a single movie. It is no wonder that many people believe word of mouth and buy tickets.</p>
<p> As a result, &#8220;Hansan&#8221; drew nearly 7.3 million viewers in Korea, winning over &#8220;Emergency Declaration Live&#8221; with 2.05 million, and &#8220;Hansan&#8221; will be released in Japan following &#8220;Emergency Declaration.</p>
<p> The &#8220;Declaration of Emergency,&#8221; set in the skies above, also depicts a confrontation with the Japanese government, while &#8220;Hansan&#8221; clashes with the Japanese military at sea. With the continued success of &#8220;Slam Dunk&#8221; in Korea, which Korean film will win in Japan?</p>


 Aiko Kodama is a Korea watcher who plans, interviews, and writes for Korean entertainment magazines and guidebooks. <br /> <br /><br />
In addition to introducing Korean films in the media, she contributes a column on Japan-Korea relations.

 Aiko Kodama (Korean columnist)

 The movie "THE FIEST SLAM DUNK" (Slam Dunk) is making great strides in South Korea. On the other hand, there is something unusual going on in the Korean film industry. What is the "reverse viral scandal" that Song Gang-ho is also involved in? ......

While “Slam Dunk” is a blockbuster hit… An anomaly in the Korean film industry

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