Woody Magazine — Film Edition
Why 14 Million Koreans Cried in a Theater
— The Man Who Lived with the King
On this Sunday, we look at the year's biggest Korean box office sensation, which just crossed 14 million admissions two days ago.
A film that opened quietly during the Lunar New Year holiday on February 4 has, in less than two months, climbed to 5th place on the all-time Korean box office chart. That film is The Man Who Lived with the King (μκ³Ό μ¬λ λ¨μ), directed by Jang Hang-jun. As of March 20, cumulative admissions stand at 14.1 million, with a seat occupancy rate still holding above 45%.
The story is set in 1457 at Cheongnyeongpo, a remote riverside enclave in Gangwon Province. Young King Danjong (Park Ji-hoon), dethroned and sent into exile at sixteen following the Gyeyu Political Upheaval, crosses paths with Eom Heung-do (Yoo Hae-jin), the village headman of a struggling mountain hamlet who actively schemes to have the royal exile relocated to his village — hoping the royal presence will bring in resources and foot traffic. What follows is less a political epic than a portrait of an unlikely bond forged over shared meals and small misadventures. That human-scale warmth is widely cited as the engine of its extraordinary word-of-mouth run.
For Yoo Hae-jin, this marks his fifth film to cross the ten-million threshold — but with a crucial distinction. His previous entries on that list (including Veteran and A Taxi Driver) cast him in supporting or ensemble roles. The Man Who Lived with the King is the first film where he carries the lead to ten million. Park Ji-hoon, an idol-turned-actor, has earned significant critical reappraisal, and his earlier drama Weak Hero subsequently re-entered streaming charts.
For director Jang Hang-jun — known for smaller comedies — this is both a first foray into the historical genre and a first film to reach the ten-million mark. The project was originally conceived in 2019, with a first draft completed in 2020, before COVID delayed production until 2025. Six years from concept to screen. The film has since opened in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan, with social media posts from Korean-American audiences describing multiplex screenings where three out of ten auditoriums were playing the same Korean film on a Sunday afternoon.
CGV's audience satisfaction index sits at 97%; the verified viewer rating is 8.89 out of 10. Critics have largely described it as "technically unassuming but without a wasted scene, carried by two exceptional central performances." Historians have raised questions about certain dramatic liberties taken with the record of Danjong's death. Audiences, for the most part, seem unbothered. "I already knew the ending. I still cried," reads a representative comment section entry. The four films still ahead of it in the all-time rankings: The Admiral: Roaring Currents (17.61M), Extreme Job (16.26M), Along with the Gods (14.41M), and Ode to My Father (14.25M).
The Man Who Lived with the King succeeds not as a history lesson but as a story about two people — and the fact that Yoo Hae-jin, at 56, is only now carrying his first ten-million film as a lead character may be the most dramatic arc in the whole production.
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