South Korea: Reason Behind Movie ‘The Attorney’s Box Office Smash · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

South Korean movie ‘The Attorney’ which depicts the early life of ex-President Roh who started as a civil rights lawyer resisting against dictatorial regimes, has drawn over 4 million admissions in just ten days of screening. Movie critics even comment [ko] that its popularity in Korea is more explosive than that of Hollywood blockbuster ‘Avatar’ which made a huge hit in the country. Prominent culture critic Chin Jung-kwon (@unheim) explains via Twitter that the current administration and its multiple political scandals have ironically helped the movie by inspiring people to take interest in democratic values.
이런 영화 크게 흥행하기 힘든데, 변호인의 ‘폭발적’ 수용의 조건을 정권이 만들어줬죠. ‘화려한 휴가'가 민주화라는 낡은 구호를 재소환하려다 실패했다면, ‘변호인'은 그 낡은 구호를 낡은 걸로 여겨서는 안 된다고 가르쳐준 정권 덕에 성공한 듯.
— jungkwon chin (@unheim) December 23, 2013
It is hard for this sort of film to make a big-time (commercial) success, but the government has paved the way for public’s explosive responses to it. While movie ‘May 18’ (which is about the 80s democratic movement) have failed to re-summon the old slogan of ‘Democracy’, this movie was able to gain success as the government taught people that you should not be treating that old value as outdated.