'The Assassins' Surpasses 2 Million Moviegoers Amid Historical Distortion Controversy

The film 'The Assassins', which deals with the shooting of First Lady Yuk Young-su, surpassed 2 million moviegoers on the 3rd, its 11th day since release, amid controversies over historical distortion.

Distributor Hive Media Corp announced that the cumulative number of viewers for 'The Assassins' exceeded 2 million on the afternoon of the same day.

With this, 'The Assassins' has become the 9th film released this year to surpass the 2 million mark.

The movie is based on the 1974 incident in which Korean-Japanese Mun Se-gwang attempted to assassinate President Park Chung-hee, during which First Lady Yuk Young-su was struck by a bullet and killed.

Director Hur Jin-ho, who made 'Christmas in August' (1998), captures the process of pursuing the truth of the incident centered around police officer Cheol-gu (played by Yoo Hae-jin), social desk chief Jae-hwan (Park Hae-il), and rookie reporter Yeong-il (Lee Min-ho).

Released on September 23, the film drew about 1.407 million viewers during the Chuseok holiday period (September 24 – 27) with its tense narrative, beating works like 'Tazza: Beelzebub's Song' and 'Odyssey' to emerge victorious.

However, the box office performance was affected as political circles and others raised criticisms that the film distorted actual history, pointing to scenes that raise the possibility of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency being behind the incident among the characters in the movie.

Following the controversy, 'The Assassins' surrendered the daily box office top spot to 'Tazza: Beelzebub's Song' on September 28.

Entering this month, it has been reclaiming the top spot and steadily gathering audiences.

'The Assassins' has also maintained a high ranking in reservation rates.

As of 4:00 PM on the same day, its reservation rate stood at 16.9% (approximately 84,000 reserved tickets), ranking second behind the animated film 'Chiikawa the Movie: Secret of the Mermaid Island' (25.7%).

Controversies surrounding the film are spreading.

Protest comments continued to flood YouTube advertisement videos of a fast-food brand and a securities firm featuring Yoo Hae-jin as a model, leading to the closure of their comment sections.

Production company Hive Media Corp canceled movie-related events such as an outdoor stage greeting at the Busan International Film Festival.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.