Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 47

47

The new film [Forever Green], by master of Korean thriller films, Director Yeom Gwang-ho, was released.

“I killed them because the country wouldn’t.”

Police Officer Hwang In-beom.

He begins to punish criminals with his own hands to change the world.

But the scales of justice are fair.

No country in this world allows private sanctions.

The unprecedented serial murder case targeting criminals in Korea, the clues to which begin to be revealed.

Will the killer Hwang In-beom be able to remain a police officer until the end?

A rare picaresque [a genre of fiction that depicts the adventures of a roguish hero] film featuring a killer as the protagonist.

Looking at the critics’ reviews, the mainstream opinion was that it was a typical Yeom Gwang-ho-style, well-made thriller.

[Yeom Gwang-ho is predictable]

[Icarus flying towards art wearing the mask of a commercial film]

[Predictable. But that predictability will work as an advantage.]

The press who attended the premiere had this to say.

Originally, it is customary to say good things at a premiere, so unless it’s a rave review, there’s no big promotional effect.

The only thing to consider is that the top-notch actors [Kang Do-won] and [Choi Yu-chang] appeared as the two main characters.

And.

[Isn’t that Lee Min-ki guy handsome?]

[I saw the teaser, and his visuals stood out a bit]

It was just that the rookie actor’s visuals were unusual.

That was all.

Few people predicted that it would be a big hit at the box office.

Not only did it overlap with the release of a blockbuster movie at the same time, but basically, R-rated movies carry a risk in terms of audience numbers.

In addition, due to the nature of the picaresque genre, it was expected to barely exceed the break-even point at best.

[Forever Green production cost approximately ‘6 billion won’ (about $4.5 million USD), break-even point estimated at 1.3 million viewers]

The average production cost of a Korean film is 3.5 billion won, including marketing costs, but the total production cost soared due to the cost of the two actors.

Even considering the subsequent secondary market, it had to exceed at least 1 million viewers.

But.

[It’s fun?]

The evaluation was reversed in an instant.

[It’s kind of fun]

[I went to see it without much expectation because they said it was predictable, but this kind of predictability is good]

[A thriller filled with tired clichés. But there’s a reason why clichés are clichés. Because they sell well.]

The evaluation of the work itself was good.

The critics’ reviews were nothing special, so why did this result come about?

The answer is as follows.

Critics are originally the stingiest people in the world when it comes to giving harsh reviews to mediocre movies.

[You can always trust Yeom Gwang-ho movies, lol]

[I liked that it didn’t try to sell cheap sentimentality and ran straight to the end]

The evaluation of the work itself is good.

Despite the characteristics of the picaresque genre, it was unremarkable, so there was little preference among the audience.

Here, the acting skills of the two top-notch actors were, of course, beyond words.

Behind these three evaluations, there was a calm evaluation that followed one step away.

[Was it Lee Min-ki? The actor who played Detective Gu Hak-jin did a good job acting]

It was the story of Lee Min-ki.

[For real]

[I thought they just cast him for his looks, but he was surprisingly a good actor]

[He had quite a bit of screen time. I thought he was the main character.]

[The lines are good, but the action scenes are very realistic.]

[That’s right. His movements were surprisingly good]

The completeness of the acting itself was high.

Many people didn’t have high expectations for his acting skills because he was a rookie and his visuals stood out, so the reversal effect was even more pronounced.

[If he grows up well, he’ll become a big actor later]

[For real, he’s a scene stealer in every scene.]

Moreover, there was a scene where his stock price jumped even higher.

[Did you see the torture scene in the middle?]

In the second half, Detective Gu Hak-jin is tortured by Hwang In-beom and eventually killed.

In the meantime, he leaves traces to create an opportunity for Hwang In-beom to be arrested, and at the same time, it is a highlight that reveals that he was just a killer.

This scene is secondary to acting skills.

[His body was really good]

[His abs were like sculptures]

His body was good.

It was a scene that showed the rewards of spending as much time exercising as acting, unlike other actors.

Strictly speaking, Lee Min-ki’s body was still lacking to be a real health enthusiast.

His definition (muscle clarity) is good, but his volume (skeletal muscle mass) is far short.

But that level was more than enough to be taken care of with directing and makeup.

[He’s a physical actor]

[I heard he used to work as a model, and he built his body while doing that]

[Come to think of it, there was a scene in Campus Story where he came out wearing a sweater and he was a shoulder gangster [someone with broad shoulders]]

[I thought it was the coat, but it was the physical, lol]

Now and then, actors with striking visuals tend to receive enthusiastic cheers, especially from female audiences.

Lee Min-ki’s body was now known as something to see at least once.

* * *

There is a common saying about movie scores.

[The success of a movie is determined in the first week.]

The first week of release is key.

So much so that the number of viewers during that period exceeds 50% of the total number of viewers, so there is no need to explain it separately.

Unless it’s a long-running work, this formula was common sense.

But.

[Forever Green] was a rare exception.

‘It’s lasting a long time?’

It had a long run.

‘Why?’

He was originally the type to organize and memorize movie scores.

Of course, he had memorized the score of [Forever Green], but the aspect flowed similarly but differently.

[Yeom Gwang-ho’s new film ‘Forever Green’ surpasses 800,000 viewers in its first week]

The first week went almost identically to Lee Min-ki’s memory.

He remembered it as roughly 900,000, so it was roughly within the margin of error.

At this point, Lee Min-ki was already relieved.

‘At least the score didn’t drop because I appeared in it.’

He was secretly nervous.

He was worried that unlike the original, the score would drop because of his involvement.

He decided not to be shaken by the score, but would that be easy to do as he pleased?

He secretly had some worries left.

“I’m alive…….”

He was able to shake off the tension with a sigh.

Trainer Kim Ah-seong nodded happily at the first week’s score.

“This is good enough.”

“I agree.”

Surprisingly, even Kim Tak agreed.

“It’s not a huge hit, but it’s a hit. Hmm, it’s not bad for a rookie’s work?”

“Tak, you haven’t even debuted yet, so it’s annoying to say that.”

“Eek.”

“Seon-ah is right.”

“Even the teacher…….”

Soon he became a loser.

At this point, Lee Min-ki had no regrets about the work’s score.

But.

The reversal started from the second week.

[Going to run for the second time]

[I heard it’s fun]

[The rookie actor is pretty good at acting]

Was it thanks to word of mouth?

Or was it because the number of theaters didn’t decrease for some other reason?

[Forever Green (#3)]

Even though the first week after the release had passed, the ranking didn’t drop at all and was stuck in a certain position.

It was the beginning of a long run.

‘Was the box office trend originally like this?’

Lee Min-ki’s head was dizzy.

He roughly remembers the score, but it’s not perfect because it’s just a memory.

But.

“Min-ki, the ranking didn’t drop today either.”

Continue.

“Oh, it’s the same as yesterday.”

Continue.

[Actress Joo Ha-na: Actor! Did you see the ranking!]

Continue.

“What does our director think?”

“Hmm, it’s good. We can judge that it’s a successful work.”

Again, continue.

[Manager Park Han-mo: Did I tell you? This kind of acting suits the actor better.]

It continued to not fall from a certain ranking.

Like the coastline rising and falling with the moon’s gravity, it solidified its position.

At this point, he couldn’t doubt it anymore, whether it was a memory or not.

It was truly the beginning of a long run.

‘What is it?’

So, in the third week of release, when more than 95% of the score was determined.

Lee Min-ki couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the reality before his eyes.

[‘Forever Green’ finally surpasses ‘2 million viewers.’ Overcoming the R-rated risk and joining the ranks of hit movies.]

The fact that his appearance did not merely maintain the status quo but led to even better results.

‘It’s 200,000 more.’

The score he remembers is 1.8 million.

Exactly 1.86 million.

It was a significantly increased number from there.

The proportion of [Detective Gu Hak-jin] played by Lee Min-ki increased by about 30%, and he showed his face even more in promotions.

That change was reflected in better results.

In the form of achieving twice the break-even point.

“…….”

From some point on, Lee Min-ki felt a hot flame in his heart.

A flame he wanted to unleash with a loud shout.

At first, he didn’t know what this flame meant.

It felt awkward.

Because he hadn’t felt it in a long time.

That’s right.

Lee Min-ki finally came to clearly feel a sense of accomplishment.

“I did it!”

He shouted alone in his small studio apartment.

He shouted as if squeezing out every cell in his body, as if grasping the greatest joy of his life.

At night it’s a nuisance, so during the day.

At a time when no one is there.

Lee Min-ki stretched in his studio apartment and freely enjoyed his sweet success.

Freely for a few seconds, a few minutes, a few tens of minutes.

‘To commemorate, I should work out my lower body today.’

……In a somewhat distorted direction.

* * *

Han Kyeong Pharmaceutical, a pharmaceutical company in Incheon.

The executives there were racking their brains over the performance of a product they had recently released.

“Should we increase the amount of whey protein?”

“Consumers are surprisingly not very interested in ingredients.”

“Then the design or trademark?”

“I don’t think anything better will come out than what we have now.”

That is.

“There are no particular problems with the marketability of our supplements.”

It was a protein supplement.

Han Kyeong Pharmaceutical recently succeeded in manufacturing high-quality protein supplements that it had been researching for several years in order to reach out to the rapidly growing health industry.

They were confident in the quality.

‘Other pharmaceutical companies buy things and just put their names on them, but we, Han Kyeong Pharmaceutical, manufacture them directly.’

That’s because they focused on quality from the product planning stage.

They thought consumers would recognize it if they made it well.

But it just didn’t work.

‘I feel like I’ve done everything I can, but I can’t believe the results aren’t coming out like this.’

The company had invested a lot, but the sales weren’t coming out, so they were about to jump.

What’s the reason?

In fact, the reason was very simple.

‘Could it be a marketing problem?’

That’s right.

That marketing problem was right.

It was a pharmaceutical company’s delusion that if the product was good, it would sell well.

Protein supplements are different from what they seem on the surface, and marketing is more important than product quality.

That’s why they even mobilize crude viral marketing in every corner of internet communities to spread promotions.

[Are you guys having a hard time finding good supplements?

https://www….. <- If you go here, there are really well-made supplements. It's manufactured by Ventos Pharmaceutical, an American company, and it's made with Ethiopian whey protein, so you can trust the ingredients. But it's a bit expensive if you just buy it, but if you enter the referral code, you can buy it 30% cheaper. I'm only giving this to you guys. You don't have to thank me, and if you're really grateful, please let the people around you know. Then get some gains.] It's safe to say that marketing is 90%. Why else would bodybuilders be advertising supplements like billboards? This marketing-centered ecosystem was unfamiliar to Han Kyeong Pharmaceutical, which valued product quality. "Shall we increase advertising?" "We already hired a model last quarter and filmed an advertisement." "They don't eat our products." "Then what about Beom-gi, who won Muscle Korea [a bodybuilding competition] last time……." "They signed an exclusive contract with another company for 3 years." "It's not easy. It's not easy. Is it because we're a latecomer? It's not easy to get a foothold." The unproductive meeting continued for a long time. There was a situation where the direction could be fixed to withdraw from the business. "It's not too early to give up yet." Section Chief Han jumped up from his seat and shouted in a loud voice as if he was confident. "I have a trick." A voice full of confidence. The directors who were surrounding the table and only engaging in attrition warfare sharpened their eyes at the sight. He's acting up. Let's see what kind of show he's going to put on. Another guy is showing off. Eyes filled with implicit messages such as, 'You're dead if there's nothing special.' "Tell me." At the end, one of the directors signaled. The section chief who stood up was sweating, but he forced a bright and confident smile and said. "I'm asking, but have you seen a movie that was recently released?" "A movie?" The president opened his mouth as if he was interested in the word. I'm really going to die now. The section chief felt his lungs constricting from the pressure, but he forced a bright and confident smile and said. "It's a work called Forever Green."