Former comedian produces film in Vietnam
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Geong Seong-han
By Kim Jae-heun
Comedian-turned-CEO Geong Seong-han dreams of becoming an entertainment mogul in Southeast Asia and plans to remake Korean films into regional versions.
Geong is more familiar to Koreans as a TV personality and a member of the popular comedic team Cultwo with Jung Chan-woo and Kim Tae-gyun. However, in 2002, Geong left the team to concentrate on his career as an entrepreneur.
Geong did not originally start out to export or produce Korean movies. He first established an entertainment company called ShowBT in the Philippines, where he debuted the K-pop group Off Road. Currently, he has 18 trainees there and plans to form a Philippine idol group.
However, after watching “Miss Granny” (2014) topping Vietnam’s box office, Geong saw the potential market there for other popular Korean films as well.
“When Miss Granny entered the Vietnamese film market, it topped the box office,” Geong said during an interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday. “I realized audiences there have big interest in Korean films and decided to remake other Korean movies there.”
Geong consulted a local movie market expert and decided to produce a Vietnamese version of “200 Pounds Beauty” (2006). The romantic comedy is about an overweight ghost singer who becomes a pop sensation after undergoing plastic surgery.
“As Vietnam became a more developed country, women there have begun to find interest in plastic surgery. Also, Korean movies are praised for their solid scripts and many Vietnamese like K-pop and hallyu, or the Korean wave,” said Geong.
Geong capitalized on his six years of experience as a musical producer in producing the Vietnamese version of “200 Pounds Beauty,” which is set for release in Vietnam on May 19. The CEO not only participated in producing the film remake but also shared his knowledge in small details such as camera walking, moving lines and acting.
The biggest challenge he came across was that the film had to be shot within a month in Vietnam to meet the break-even point. Therefore local production people first suggested casting two different actors to play the overweight ghost singer and the pop star who rose to stardom after undergoing plastic surgery.
“I had to convince them many times that the special effect make-up is the highlight of this film and we cannot have two actors portraying one character just to reduce costs,” Geong said. “In the end, I had to beg Korean special makeup artists to come to Vietnam for us.”
Geong hopes his movie can continue the success that “Miss Granny” achieved in Vietnam and sell over 1 million tickets.
“Some 760,000 people watched Miss Granny in Vietnam and I want to beat that record,” Geong said. “I hope I can make another successful case for more Korean movie producers who wish to work in the local movie industry there in the future.”