Anime Charm Beats Political Thriller in Korea’s Weekend Box‑Office Showdown

When the weekend of October 9‑11 rolled around, Korean movie‑goers seemed to split their loyalty between a whimsical animated adventure and a gritty historical drama. In the end, the tiny, wide‑eyed hero of Toho’s new anime, Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island, slipped ahead by a hair‑thin margin, taking the top slot on the South Korean box‑office.

According to the Korean Film Council’s KOBIS tracking, Chiikawa raked in about $3.13 million from 407,895 tickets on 1,067 screens – that’s roughly 29.7 % of all weekend receipts. The film, directed by Kei Oikawa and based on Nagano’s beloved manga, tells the story of the eponymous critter and its friends as they wander onto a secluded island, only to discover a mysterious mer‑folk danger.

It wasn’t a landslide, though. The home‑grown political thriller The Assassin(s), a period‑crime piece by director Hur Jin‑ho, fell just 215 tickets short, earning $3.03 million from 407,680 admissions across 1,312 screens, which translates to a 28.78 % share. The drama dramatizes the 1974 attempt on President Park Chung‑hee’s life, casting Yu Hae‑jin, Park Hae‑il and Lee Min‑ho as investigators probing a murky official narrative.

The tension around The Assassin(s) goes beyond numbers. Since its September 23 debut, the film has sparked protests, legal complaints and accusations of historical distortion from conservative groups and even relatives of the victims. Demonstrators gathered outside Yu Hae‑jin’s home, and several cast members quietly ducked public appearances at the Busan International Film Festival. A coalition of 19 Korean film guilds later issued a statement defending artistic freedom.

Even with the controversy, the movie has pulled in $21.8 million from nearly three million viewers, hovering just shy of the three‑million‑ticket milestone. It’s a solid performance for a film tackling a sensitive chapter of modern Korean history.

Below the top two, the weekend’s rankings continued to reflect a diverse palate. CJ ENM’s crime drama Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub held third place with $1.4 million from 190,080 admissions on 949 screens. Universal’s blockbuster The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s sprawling sci‑fi epic, slipped to fourth with $979,402 and a 9.2 % market share, bringing its Korean total to $103.1 million – now the highest‑grossing foreign release in the country.

In fifth, Lotte Entertainment’s fantasy action Reawakened Man earned $398,045 from 49,345 tickets. The film follows a man who keeps coming back to life three days after dying, battling crime syndicates in a wild web‑toon adaptation. Sixth place went to Hirokazu Kore‑eda’s tender live‑action manga adaptation Look Back, which made $339,468 from 41,423 admissions. Finally, Japanese horror director Takashi Shimizu’s new chill The Mouths opened in seventh, pulling in $256,120.

All told, the Korean box‑office landscape this weekend was a blend of family‑friendly animation, politically charged drama and big‑budget spectacles – a reminder that audiences still crave variety, even when the headlines are anything but quiet.