The South Korean box office sold out 230,000 people! "If Love Is If" hits Netflix with a score of 8.8, setting a new high

The famous South Korean director Lee Chang-dong released his new film "If Love Is If" after eight years. After winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, it was officially launched on Netflix on the 6th. Global audiences finally had the opportunity to see the master's style, and the film's reputation also soared.

"If Love Is If" stars Seol Kyung-gu (from left) Jeon Do-yan, Cao Ru-zhen and Zhao In-cheng. (Provided by the Golden Horse Executive Committee)

China's well-known film rating website Douban has been rising from the initial 8.3 points, not only breaking through 8.7 points, but also reaching 8.8 points, surpassing the 8.7 points of Li Cangdong's previous works "The Poem of Life" and "Oasis", and temporarily ranking the highest score among his feature films.

"Love Is If" brings together four major Korean stars, Jeon Do-yeon, Seol Kyung-gu, Jo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jung. Previously, it only attracted about 230,000 moviegoers in South Korean theaters, creating a strong conflict between the film's artistic achievements and commercial performance. Bad; however, this leads to an interesting hypothesis. If "If Love Is If" is not released in September, but officially enters theaters on a large scale in November with international awards and reputation, how high can the box office go?

In fact, "If Love Is If" showed amazing word-of-mouth strength when it was released in some theaters in South Korea on September 23. According to the Korean media "Asia Daily", there were only 195 screening halls in the first week of the movie's release, which was about one-tenth of the size of competing films in the same period. However, the seat sales rate was as high as 47.4%, ranking second that week. Even the well-known film critic Li Dongzhen (transliteration) rarely gave a full five-star score.

Many movie fans greatly appreciated the acting skills of Xue Jinggu (left) and Quan Daoyan. (Provided by the Golden Horse Executive Committee)

However, due to the release schedule of Netflix's works, the film only had a short theatrical window of about two weeks, and it was not until November 6 that it officially reached global audiences through streaming.

The reason why many movie fans are so fascinated by the movie is precisely because Li Cangdong once again captured human nature in a cruel and tender way; "If Love Is a Love" uses a labor couple who encounter unemployment difficulties and a documentary director couple who live a comfortable life to reveal the insurmountable gap between class, desire, marriage and human nature.

South Korean movie fans praised it as "the best movie they have seen this year", while others thought that although it was extremely artistic, some plots made people angry and tired. Chinese movie fans also had different opinions. Some people thought that Lee Chang-dong once again proved why he is one of the greatest directors in South Korea, while others bluntly said that it was "a 7-point movie and a 10-point performance." They affirmed the acting skills of Jeon Do-yeon and Seol Kyung-gu, but had reservations about the 164-minute heavy narrative.