Three Year-End Korean Films Share One Thing… The Power of Originals Reimagined with K-Sentiment

As global hits like Zootopia 2 and Avatar: The Seed of Fire dominate theaters, three Korean films set for a December relay release aim to touch audiences by trusting in the power of their original source material.

These new releases reinterpret their originals through a Korean emotional lens. From the Spanish film adaptation The People Upstairs, to the Japanese film adaptation Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight, and the Chinese film adaptation Once We Were Us, each title meets K-sensibility in its own way.

The People Upstairs / Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight / Once We Were Us. Photo by VAIPOEM Studio, Showbox.

Released on December 3, The People Upstairs follows an unpredictable situation in which the upstairs couple (Ha Jung-woo, Lee Ha-nee) and the downstairs couple (Gong Hyo-jin, Kim Dong-wook) end up sharing a dinner together due to nightly “different kind” noise disturbances. Based on the Spanish original Sentimental, the film depicts bold emotional collisions within the setup of four people sharing one dinner in a confined space.

The vivid performance synergy of Ha Jung-woo, Gong Hyo-jin, Kim Dong-wook, and Lee Ha-nee, along with director Ha Jung-woo’s sharp dialogue and comedic tone, is elevated with a uniquely Korean rhythm.

Opening on December 24, Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight is a youth melodrama following Seoyoon (Cynthia), who loses her memory every day, and Jaewon (Chu Young-woo), who fills those memories for her. Adapted from the Japanese novel that sold more than 1.3 million copies worldwide, the film maintains the original’s core premise of “a youth love story in which memories disappear daily,” while reworking character settings and locations to resonate with Korean audiences.

Finally, opening on December 31, Once We Were Us follows Eunho and Jungwon, once passionately in love, who reunite by chance ten years later and revisit the traces of their memories. Based on the Chinese box-office hit Us and Them, which ranked No. 1 among Chinese melodramas in 2020, the film stars Koo Kyo-hwan and Moon Ga-young, drawing significant attention. Portraying both the radiant days of their twenties and the emotional shifts when they meet again a decade later, the film brings K-emotion to the year-end box office with a lasting resonance.

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