hankyoreh

June 24. (by Park Jong-sik

By Song Hyo-jin, staff reporter

On Saturday at Indiespace, a privately-run independent film theater in Seoul’s Jongno district, all 110 seats in the auditorium were full. Even after the film finished and the director’s talk began, the audience members remained glued to their seats. People waiting for the next screening, which was also sold out, squeezed in behind the back row to listen. Other Seoul theaters screening the film at the same time, including Indieplus, Megabox, Coex and the Daehangno branch of CGV, were all sold out. Joint director Kim Il-ran told the audience, “Every day since the film opened has seemed like a miracle.”

Independent documentary “2 Doors” (Dir. Kim Il-ran, Hong Ji-yu), which depicts the Yongsan Disaster of January 20, 2009, is proving a hit, selling out in its first week.

The Yongsan Disaster occurred when residents of a Seoul neighborhood that had been bought up for redevelopment clashed with police and private security forces. The residents demanded additional compensation before vacating their properties and staged a sit-in protest when developers refused. Five evictees and one member of a police SWAT team lost their lives in a late-night clash during which a large fire broke out. The full details of the case have never been found out. 8 residents were sentenced to terms in prison.

After opening at only 16 theaters nationwide last June 21, the film had been watched by around 5,600 people by June 24. Seoul theaters screening it were sold out from the first day onward, placing 2 Doors at the top of the ranking for highest audience figures on the opening day in the independent and art film category.

“To be screened [25 times daily] at 16 theaters, and sell out and attract 5,000 viewers from the first week onwards, is extremely rare for an independent film,” said Kim Il-gwon, CEO of Sinemadal, the film‘s distributor. “This week, it seems it will set the record for the shortest time to pass the 10,000 audience mark for a film released on this scale.”

It is hard for independent films, which are screened at small numbers of theaters, to pass the 5,000 audience mark. Last year’s documentary “Miracle on Jongno Street” only passed the 5,000 audience mark in the fifth week of its release. “Bleak Night,” popular from the day of its release, drew 3,977 viewers in its first week. “Old Partner,” which was watched in theaters in 2009 by a total of 2.96 million people, drew only 7,020 viewers in its first week while being screened at around 30 theaters.

“2 Doors” has risen to sixth position in the Naver and Yes 24 box office rankings, which include both Korean and foreign commercial films. According to Indiespace, “A lot of people have turned up thinking they don’t need to book in advance because it’s an independent film, and had to leave.”

Many believe the reason the film has become so successful lies in the strength of its directing, which takes a calm and composed look back at the Yongsan Disaster. Using images taken at the time, legal statements from the police and opinions from lawyers representing evictees, 2 Doors reconstructs the terrible events of the day of the disaster.

Jeong Ji-yeong, a well-known Korean film director said, “Its unique production method approaches the truth of the matter in the manner of a fictional film, tracing the progress of the incident through testimonies made in court rather than interviews with the families of the deceased.”

Just as “Silenced” and “Unbowed,” two other films with strong social messages, proved popular, 2 Doors is bringing audiences into theaters due to a desire for justice and reflection upon what would otherwise have been forgotten. “It seems this film has touched upon people’s desire to change desperate [political and social] situations into energy of hope, and ignited something,” said 2 Doors co-director Kim Il-ran. 29-year-old Hwang Ji-hun, watching the film at Indiespace, said, “I felt sorry that the Yongsan Disaster was gradually being forgotten, then I heard that this film had come out so I came to see it with nine of my friends.” Many Twitter users and netizens are saying that the film has given the strength and courage to face the truth.

The 834 members of the film’s distribution committee, including director Byeon Yeong-ju, who provided the entire sum of approximately 30 million won (about US$25,800) for the film‘s theatrical release, are taking their friends and acquaintances to theaters to watch it or taking part in the active Twitter publicity campaign that is accompanying it, adding to the film’s strength. Securing a stable schedule of two or three screenings per day at dedicated independent film theater Indiespace, which opened on May 29, has also aided its success.

A further source of support has been applications for group viewings via the film’s website (http://blog.naver.com/2_doors). Groups from Homeless Action, the National Human Rights Commission and the parliamentary offices of opposition parties have watched the film, while the New Progressive Party has hired an entire screen at Yongsan CGV to watch the film on June 30. Fans of idol group JYJ are due to hold a group viewing at Indieplus on the same day.

From this week, the film will be screened at 21 theaters nationwide, a slight increase, but the internet is inundated with demands for it to be screened at multiplexes too. As of 2011, there were 1,974 theater screens in Korea. “Ultimately, multiplexes like CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox must open more of their doors [to give screening opportunities to independent films],” said Kim Il-gwon.

The producers of 2 Doors wanted the film to prompt the release of the eight evictees currently behind bars as a result of the incident and the revelation of the truth about the suppression that took place. “I hope the film will bring public attention to the petition to have [the imprisoned evictees] pardoned on Liberation Day this August and to ensuring that a parliamentary investigation to determine the truth about the Yongsan Disaster takes place in September [when the next session of the National Assembly opens],” said director Hong Ji-yu.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]