'Deliver Us from Evil' soars at local box office

The crime-action film “Deliver Us from Evil” topped the local box office after its release on Aug. 5. Courtesy of CJ ENM

By Lee Gyu-lee

The crime-action film “Deliver Us from Evil” has topped the local box office for a week since it hit theaters on Aug. 5.

The film, which opened with 2.9 billion won ($2.4 million) in ticket sales, has sold about 2.6 million tickets as of Wednesday, grossing 22.2 billion won ($18.8 million).

A poster for the movie. / Courtesy of CJ ENM

The hard-boiled action thriller, directed by Hong Won-chan, whose work includes the thriller “Office,” revolves around hitman In-nam ― played by Hwang Jung-min ― who is about to retire.

But before he can carry out his last hit, he learns that he has a nine-year-old daughter and she has been kidnapped in Thailand.

Searching for his daughter in Bangkok, he gets pursued by contract killer Ray ― played by Lee Jung-jae ― who is seeking revenge on In-nam for killing his brother.

The palm-sweating action ― car chases, gunfights and hand-to-hand combat ― develops as the hitman and the contract killer play a cat-and-mouse game.

This is the second action flick that veteran actors Hwang and Lee have worked in together, after the mafia saga “New World” in 2013.

Noting that Hwang influenced him to take the role, Lee said during a recent interview that they “wanted to top their performance from 'New World' with this film.”

And as he said, the two show incredible chemistry through the edge-of-the-seat action scenes.

A poster for the comedy-action film “Okay! Madam.”/ Courtesy of Planit

Meanwhile, comedy-action film “Okay! Madam” landed in second spot on the box office chart on its opening day, Wednesday.

The film had over 111,000 ticket sales on the day, collecting 919 million won ($776,000).

The flight-hijacking comedy, directed by Lee Cheol-ha, follows a married couple ― played by Uhm Jung-hwa and Park Sung-woong ― on a free trip to Hawaii.

A supposed to be a refreshing getaway becomes a nightmare when a terrorist group hijacks the aircraft and holds the passengers hostage. The couple then take up the fight against the terrorists to save fellow passengers.

As “Okay! Madam” took second place at the box office, action blockbuster “Steel Rain 2: Summit” slipped to third with about 18,000 ticket sales on Wednesday.

The film, which topped the chart for a week after premiering on July 29, has sold about 1.6 million tickets, grossing 13.3 billion won ($11.2 million).

The standalone sequel to the 2017 action film “Steel Rain” is about the leaders of North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. being kidnapped amid a three-way summit to sign a peace treaty of the Koreas.

Directed by the series' filmmaker Yang Woo-suk, the movie stars Jung Woo-sung as the South Korean leader, Yoo Yeon-seok as the North Korean leader and Angus MacFadyen as the U.S. president.

The 15.4 billion won-budget film was highly anticipated before its release because of its unique concept of kidnapped leaders in a coup and undersea thriller in a submarine. However, it seems that the film has fallen short of meeting the success many expected.