The latest film starring Hyun Bin, Harbin, has achieved remarkable success at the South Korean box office. In just two days since its premiere, the film attracted over one million viewers. This information was confirmed by the studio CJ ENM, which produced the biographical film about South Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun, on Wednesday (December 25, 2024), based on data from the Korean Film Council.
On its opening day, Harbin sold 380,000 tickets, dominating 63% of the cinema screens, and overtook the film Firefighters at the top of the box office. According to data from the Korean Film Council, the ticket sales generated a revenue of US$2.4 million. This achievement makes Harbin the highest debuting film in South Korea since the COVID-19 pandemic, surpassing the previous record held by Avatar: The Way of Water in 2022, which had 359,000 viewers.
Harbin reached one million viewers faster than Avatar 2, which took three days to achieve the same number. According to a report by Money Today, the premiere of Harbin also outperformed films like 12.12: The Day and The Phantom of the Valley, both of which recently reached significant viewership milestones. When released in November 2023, 12.12: The Day attracted 219,000 viewers, while The Phantom gained 336,000 viewers on its opening day in January 2023.
Harbin is set in the early 20th century, during Japan’s pressure on Korea to accept the Eulsa Treaty, which stripped Korea of its diplomatic sovereignty and made it a Japanese colony. In 1909, the Korean Truth Army group launched an armed resistance against the Japanese colonization. Ahn Jung-geun, one of the leaders of this group, planned an operation to assassinate Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese Resident-General in Korea. With the help of his team, including Woo Deok-sun (Park Jeong-min) and Kim Sang-hyun (Jo Woo-jin), Ahn set out to attack Ito during his train journey from China to Harbin, a region under Russian control at the time.
The film Harbin is directed by Woo Min-ho, who also co-wrote the script with Kim Min-seong. In addition to Hyun Bin, the film stars Park Jeong-min, Jo Woo-jin, and Jeon Yeo-been. Harbin is scheduled to be released in Indonesia on January 1, 2025, giving Indonesian audiences the chance to experience this heroic tale.
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