[News] "My Way" to open in Japan.

[News] "My Way" to open in Japan.
Cr. - www.koreanfilm.or.kr/

Kang Je-gyu's World War II drama "My Way" is due to open in theaters in Japan on January 14, 2012. Leading Korean distributor CJ E&M says the film will be released on 300 screens. Starring Jang Dong-gun and Joe Odagiri with a strong supporting cast which includes Chinese star Fan Bingbing and Korea's Kim In-kwon, the film is Korea's most expensive– made for US$25 million.

Based on a true story, "My Way" follows the strange story of a Korean man drafted into the Japanese imperial army to fight in China. Taken prisoner, he ends up in a snowy Russian labor camp, and then eventually on the beaches of Normandy working for the German army when the Americans land. Jang Dong-gun plays the lead, who is at heart first and foremost a marathon runner. He shares a longtime rivalry with Joe Odagiri's character who is from a Japanese colonial family. Through the chaos and insanity of battles, the two men discover a friendship that takes them to an unexpected fate.

Directed by Kang Je-gyu, whose "Shiri" in 1999 and "Taegukgi" in 2004 became record-breaking hits in Korea, the film was anticipated to be a major contender at the year-end box office. It opened in South Korea on Dec. 21 to face massive competitionfrom the Hollywood film "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" (released Dec. 15). Although "My Way" has been doing less business than expected, the film has so far taken in more than 1.17 million admissions for co-distributors CJ E&M and SK Planet.

CJ remains optimistic about the film's chances in Japan. The company's 3D sea creature thriller "Sector 7" previously only took about 2.2 million admissions in Korea, but recently clocked up CNY20 million (US$3.1 million) after a week on release in China.