Lotte Unveils Anticipated Second-Half Lineup with "Hansan," "Life Is Beautiful," and "Confession"

Ranked First in Domestic Distributor Market Share Last Year

[Asia Economy, reporter Lee Isil] The film "The Roundup" is on the verge of surpassing 10 million viewers, signaling a revival in the theater industry. On June 7, Lotte Entertainment announced its lineup for the second half of the year, including "Hansan: Rising Dragon," "Life Is Beautiful," and "Confession."

"Hansan: Rising Dragon" is the second installment in director Kim Hanmin's "Yi Sun-sin Trilogy Project," following "The Admiral: Roaring Currents," which drew 17.61 million viewers in 2014 and set the record for the highest audience in Korean cinema. The cast includes Park Haeil as Yi Sun-sin, Byun Yohan (Wakisaka), Ahn Sungki (Eo Yeongdam), Son Hyunjoo (Won Gyun), Kim Sungkyu (Junsa), Kim Sungkyun (Kato), Kim Hyanggi (Jeong Boreum), Ok Taecyeon (Im Junyoung), Gong Myung (Lee Eokgi), Park Jihwan (Na Daeyong), and Jo Jaeyun (Manabe).

Korea's first jukebox musical film, "Life Is Beautiful" (directed by Choi Gookhee), presents the joys and sorrows of life in a delightful and beautiful manner. The story follows Seyeon (Yum Jungah), who makes the outrageous request to find her first love as her last birthday present, and her reluctant husband Jinbong (Ryu Seungryong), who travels with her across the country on a journey into the past.

"Confession," which has been invited to several international film festivals for its intricate story surrounding a locked-room murder case, will also hit theaters in the second half of the year. Director Yoon won the Best Director award in the Directors' Week section at the Fantasporto - Oporto International Film Festival this past April for "Confession." The film tells the story of Yoo Minho (So Jisub), a promising businessman accused of a locked-room murder, and Yang Shinae (Kim Yunjin), a lawyer with a 100% win rate, as they piece together the hidden fragments of the case to prove his innocence.

Lotte Entertainment ranked first among domestic distributors last year. At that time, Korean films accounted for only 30.1% of total theater admissions, and Lotte was the only Korean distributor to rank within the top three in market share. Since the pandemic in 2020, Lotte has consistently attracted over 13 million moviegoers to theaters with releases such as "#Alive," "Steel Rain 2: Summit," "Escape from Mogadishu," and "Miracle: Letters to the President." Notably, Lotte has also distributed F (Female)-rated films like "Samjin Company English Class" and "I," which feature strong female characters, as well as content that highlights various social classes.

Additionally, Lotte Entertainment is accelerating the expansion of its portfolio by building a comprehensive studio model, including performances, dramas, and online video service (OTT) content production. Its first planned drama, "Thirty-Nine," concluded successfully, and "The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure," which premiered in January, became the first Netflix-invested film to have a theatrical release prior to streaming.

Content development that bridges theaters and home viewing is also active in the rapidly changing market. In collaboration with Climax Studio, the production company behind "D.P." and "Hellbound," Lotte is developing super IPs (intellectual properties). Starting with the film "Concrete Utopia," adapted from the second part of the webtoon "Pleasant Neighbors," which follows "Pleasant Outcast," Lotte is expanding its universe by producing works such as "Wasteland" and "Pleasant Outcast" (working title) in various film and series formats.

Lotte Entertainment is also preparing the "Money Game" project in collaboration with Studio N, based on a popular webtoon that gained buzz as a YouTube variety show. Directed by Han Jaerim, this eight-part drama adapts two Naver webtoons, "Money Game" and "Pie Game." To cater to audiences who prefer short-form video content, Lotte is planning new challenges such as "4 Minutes 44 Seconds," a horror short-form series distributed digitally.

Furthermore, Lotte is partnering with Dexter to develop NFTs (non-fungible tokens) utilizing its content library, and is collaborating with SLL (formerly JTBC Studio), which has strong drama production capabilities, to jointly discover and develop content IPs. Through these efforts, Lotte aims to build an IP cluster with leading companies in the content industry, broadening the utilization and formats of its content IPs.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.