The movie "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds," which stars Ha Jung-woo, Cha Tae-hyun, Ju Ji-hoon and Kim Hyang-gi, has sold 2 million tickets in just four days to set new Korean box office records.
It debuted at No. 1 at the box office when it was released on December 20 and gained 1 million viewers in three days.
As of December 23, "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds" sold 2.28 million tickets and earned US$16.82 million, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).
This surpassed the record set by "Ode to My Father" in 2014, which passed the 2 million mark in 12 days and the 2013 movie "The Attorney," which achieved it in 10 days.
"Having died unexpectedly, firefighter Ja-hong [played by Cha Tae Hyun] is taken to the afterlife by 3 afterlife guardians. Only when he passes 7 trials over 49 days and proves he was innocent in human life, he's able to reincarnate, and his 3 afterlife guardians are by his side to defend him in trial," KOFIC wrote about the storyline of "Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds."
When asked how does he feel about his new movie, Cha Tae Hyun said, "I really don't know about my movies. I can't help but feel a little regret over my part."
"I think it's also partly because I saw the movie with my son, Su-chan. We didn't have much time to talk about the movie yesterday, and this morning I asked him, 'Was it okay? Was the movie too long?' and he said, 'It was kind of long, but it was okay.' I didn't mention this to him, but I caught him wiping away a tear or two during the film (laughs)," he said.
The movie is based on a webtoon but the script was different.
"I think almost all movies that are adaptations go through this situation. Especially if the original is a popular webtoon, people want the films to depict the original story as they remember it. I guess from the fans' perspective, they want the characters to come alive through the actors," he said.
But he said he "liked that the story was different from the original because I've never thought of combining two characters into one. I was intrigued by the way the film combined the characters into one instead of taking out the whole storyline. I think it has its own appeal. The second movie is much more fun (laughs)."
