ktown konnection #37 | Global Top 10: "No Gain No Love," "Officer Black Belt"

IN THIS ISSUE:

• “Officer Black Belt,” “No Gain No Love” among global Top 10 titles

• Hyun Bin, Lee Dong-wook make buzzy appearance at TIFF

• PUBG is investing $89M in Kdramas

• Food delivery in Korea is up 23% - largely driven by one food item

THIS WEEK: No new U.S. premieres.

Happy belated chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving. Kim Woo-bin starrer “Officer Black Belt” took the top spot for Netflix’s Top 10 Non-English Films (Sep 9-15) this week.

Korea’s premieres While Park Shin-hye’s “The Judge From Hell” (Sep 21) and Shin Hye-sun’s “Dear Hyeri” (Sep 23) are premiering, neither appears to have a US distributor yet. Will give a shout if+when.

Wednesday-Thursday September 18-19
“Perfect Family” (KBS) (Viki)
“Seoul Busters” (Disney+)

Friday-Saturday September 20-21
“Good Partner” (SBS) (Viki)
“Bad Memory Eraser” (MBN) (Viki)
“Pachinko 2” (Apple TV+)

Saturday-Sunday September 21-22
“Beauty and Mr. Romantic” (KBS2) (Viki)
“Love Next Door” (tvN) (Netflix)
“DNA Lover” (TV Chosun) (Viki)
“Cinderella at 2AM” (Coupang Play) (Viki)

Monday-Tuesday September 23-24
“No Gain No Love” (Amazon Prime Video)

(*Streaming platforms shown are for U.S. only; distributors vary by country.)

KDRAMA/FILM/TV/ETC.

Top Global Titles 🌎 “No Gain No Love,” “Pachinko,” “Love Next Door,” and feature film “Officer Black Belt,” FlixPatrol. On Viki: “Cinderella at 2AM,” “Good Partner.”

Korea’s watching 📺 “Beauty and Mr. Romantic,” “Good Partner,” “Black Out” (Sep 9-15). dramabeans

At the box office  “Veteran” sequel “I The Executioner” took the top spot over Korea’s holiday weekend. ”Heartsping” became the 2nd highest grossing K-animated film.

About Amazon Prime Video Post-sleeper hit “Marry My Husband,” it seems Amazon is taking steps to actively promote original Korean content - the below for “No Gain No Love” is one of the first original promos for exclusive Korean content I’ve seen them produce (aside from clips and trailers).

How will it distinguish how it promotes its exclusive Korean titles going forward, compared to its competition (Viki, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+) ? Let’s wait and see.