The Box Office Disaster of 'Noryang: Sea of Death' in Korea

Despite selling a significant number of tickets in its opening week in the Korean box office, ‘Noryang: Deadly Sea’ (2023, 노량: 죽음의 바다) struggled in its second week and is now predicted to fail to even break even. The film attracted a cumulative audience of 2.3 million in its first week but quickly lost market share, and as of its third week, it has recorded a cumulative audience of just over 4 million.

The film's failure at the Korean box office holds several implications. First, ‘Noryang’ is a sequel to ‘The Admiral: Roaring Currents’ (명량, 2014), the highest-grossing film in Korean box office history. With a population of slightly over 50 million, the film achieved a cumulative audience of 17.6 million in theaters alone. Considering subsequent streaming viewership, it's safe to say that most Koreans have seen the first film in the series. However, less than half of the viewers of the first film went to theaters to watch the sequel.**

Secondly, the box office failure of this film, which features Korea's most famous war hero, is an unexpected outcome. The film series follows the journey of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, a 16th-century Korean naval commander. He won numerous victories against the invasion led by the Toyotomi shogunate of Japan. The Japanese samurai army occupied Seoul, Korea's capital, but Yi Sun-sin's navy cut off their supply lines. This resulted in the Japanese forces withdrawing from Korea without achieving their objectives. Due to Korea's colonization by Japan in the early 20th century, Yi Sun-sin holds a more symbolic meaning than other war heroes.** However, despite depicting Yi Sun-sin's last battle, this film was largely ignored by audiences.

Spoiler Alert! (Historical facts are spoilers, but it might be a spoiler if you are not Korean.)

A Bland Film

‘Noryang: Deadly Sea’ is the least memorable film in the Yi Sun-sin trilogy directed by Kim Han-min. While ‘The Admiral: Roaring Currents’ (2014) was criticized for its excessive emotionalism, and ‘Hansan’ (2022) received criticism for its poorly written script, both films had scenes that audiences remember. Director Kim Han-min put a lot of effort into creating visually stunning scenes in his previous two films. The film showcases his extensive research into medieval weapons used by both Japan and Korea, and his deep contemplation on how to create impressive naval battles.**

However, ‘Noryang’ simply repeats what was presented in the previous two installments. Although the film features significantly more sea battles than its predecessors, it offers nothing new and is filled with repetitive scenes. The first half of the film also struggles to portray the protagonist's inner psychology. In the film, Yi Sun-sin (Kim Yoon-seok) learns that his son was killed during the war, a scene that fails to elevate the tension but rather induces drowsiness in the audience.**

Failed Motivation of Characters

The film mainly focuses on the Battle of Noryang (1597), where Yi Sun-sin's fleet attacked the Japanese forces attempting to return to Japan. Those familiar with medieval warfare will understand Yi Sun-sin's motives for engaging in this battle. In medieval times, reducing the enemy's numbers was believed to decrease the likelihood of future invasions, and historically, Yi Sun-sin likely held this belief.

However, as if forgetting that the audience is modern, Director Kim Han-min fails to provide a clear explanation of why Yi Sun-sin must continue to fight. The Japanese daimyos trapped in Yi Sun-sin's naval blockade emphasize that the war is 'over' and request a passage. However, Yi Sun-sin takes significant risks to completely eliminate them. Numerous lives are lost, and he eventually dies from a gunshot wound, but the film offers no explanation for his actions.

The actions of other characters are also inexplicable. The Japanese daimyo Konishi Yukinaga, trapped by Yi Sun-sin, requests help from another daimyo, Shimazu Yoshihiro. Shimazu promised that he would also attack Yi Sun-sin if he came to his aid. However, while Shimazu's fleet is completely destroyed by Yi Sun-sin, Konishi disappears entirely from the film. The film provides no explanation for his failure to break through the blockade with Shimazu's assistance. Konishi's rescue was a significant element of the plot, yet he suddenly vanishes and never returns.**

Constantly Changing Actors

Director Kim Han-min's Yi Sun-sin trilogy features a cast change in each installment. The first film starred Choi Min-sik, famous for ‘Oldboy’ (2004), while the second featured Jung Hae-in from ‘Decision to Leave’ (2022). The director explained that he aimed to showcase different aspects of Yi Sun-sin's character, but the film trilogy has never successfully highlighted or portrayed Yi Sun-sin's character.**

This film marks the end of the journey with Yi Sun-sin that Korean audiences have been on for the past decade. However, the actor portraying Yi Sun-sin has changed again, and instead of accepting the series' conclusion, we must adapt to a new Yi Sun-sin. And just as we begin to adapt to him, he dies.

The same is true for other supporting characters, leading to more questions of 'who is that?' than feelings of welcome. The death of Junsa, Yi Sun-sin's Japanese subordinate who accompanied him throughout the long journey, lacks emotional impact. Junsa was the only character with a developed narrative in the series. However, many viewers **may not even recognize him in his final moments.**

Inappropriate Release Date and Fatigue

Repeated portrayals of Yi Sun-sin don't necessarily guarantee box office failure. Given his popularity, he has been featured in numerous TV series. However, the aggressive marketing of this poorly-made film has led audiences to experience fatigue.

Released in 2014, ‘The Admiral: Roaring Currents’ received negative reviews from critics, but it achieved success due to Yi Sun-sin's popularity, its dominance in theaters, and an overwhelming marketing campaign. At the time, the Korean film industry was in a state where even Marvel Studio's hit film ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (2014) struggled to secure screens.** This type of box office success went beyond marketing and felt like **‘coercion’** towards the audience. People who went to the theater with friends on weekends were forced to watch ‘The Admiral: Roaring Currents’ without even having the opportunity to watch a Marvel film.

The second film, ‘Hansan,’ released eight years later, barely managed to recoup its production and marketing costs with a cumulative audience of 7 million.** Although ‘Hansan’ showed improvements compared to its predecessor, it was still far from being a well-made film. **The characters continued to exhibit incomprehensible actions and deliver nonsensical dialogue throughout the runtime.** Those who were fatigued from the ‘coercion’ of the first film stayed away from theaters, and even those who went to see Yi Sun-sin's naval battles left the cinema realizing that it was not a well-made film.

With audience fatigue and disappointment with the series at a high, the sequel ‘Noryang’ was released just 17 months later. This film offered no improvement over its predecessor. Even the action sequences, which were a strong point of the series, showed a decline. Especially with the release of ‘Spring in Seoul’, another historical tragedy film that also had high completion and popularity around the same time, ‘Noryang’ was further ignored.

The production cost of ‘Noryang: Deadly Sea’ was 34.6 billion won (approximately $26 million), and it needs to sell over 7 million tickets to break even. It is currently estimated that the film will incur losses of over 10 billion won ($7.6 million). While this is a small loss compared to Hollywood, where $100 million is a standard production budget, it represents a box office disaster in the context of the Korean market.