champion

Review: In CHAMPION, Don Lee Reigns Supreme

That Warner Bros. has been branching out into Korean film productions lends a certain continued appeal for folks interested in seeing foreign imports on the big screen. Indeed, smaller banners have done the same but it’s especially nice when a major Hollywood label expands itself to another market and backs what would normally be a niche film without a huge audience overseas. It’s especially why it’s so pleasing to see a company like Well Go USA become so prolific in this effort as recent years have shown efforts to achieve the same both coming and going. Nowadays, fans and followers of Asian movies can take pride in such endeavors, especially when films likeiy Champion enter the fray spotlighting an actor as fruitious as Korean film star Don Lee, locally known as Ma Dong-Seok. Some of his credits include Kundo (2014), The Chronicles Of Evil (2015) and Kim Yong-Hwa’s two-part fantasy […]

Well Go USA Dates Crime Actioner BELIEVER And Arm-Wrestling Drama CHAMPION

Lee B. Golden III

Just shy of an actual release date, Well Go USA sparked the interest of their consumer base with a U.S. trailer for upcoming action crime thriller, Believer. Since then, the company’s official website has now bestowed a June 8 release to follow the film’s South Korean release on May 24. Believer stems from Johnnie To’s 2012 smash hit, Drug War, this time with Lee Hae-Young at the helm for the story of a low-level drug dealer forced to comply with a dangerously ambitious cop to take down a powerful kingpin. Ryu Jun-Yeol and Cho Jin-Woong star along with Kim Sung-Ryung and Park Hae-Joon, and a posthumous villain performance from actor Kim Joo-Hyuk. Seperately, Well Go USA has also listed a special May 14 screening and subsequent select May 18 release in New York City for Kim Yong-Wan’s directorial debut, Champion. Train To Busan and The Outlaws star Don Lee leads […]

Look Out For Well Go USA Arrivals In Sports Drama, CHAMPION And Crime Thriller Redo, BELIEVER

Lee B. Golden III

It’s always a good day when Well Go USA delivers, and the Texas-based niche distributor has apparently snatched up two titles for U.S. release. The first hails from sales agent, Finecut which reportedly sold Kim Yong-Wan’s Sylvester Stallone-inspired freshman debut, Champion, has also found a home with multiple territories, U.S. included. As Lee Hyo-Won writes at The Hollywood Reporter, the film made number two at the local box office this week on Tuesday after its May 1 open. Don Lee (Train To Busan, The Outlaws) stars as an L.A. nightclub bouncer whose redemptive underdog rise in arm-wrestling with the help of a schemer serves as a means to reunite with his long lost family in South Korea. Champion, the latest production from Warner Bros. Pictures Korea, reportedly also sold to Hong Kong and Macau (Edko Films), Malaysia and Brunei (Clover Films), Philippines (Rafaella Films International), Taiwan (Sky Films Entertainment) and Vietnam […]

CHAMPION: Don Lee Arm-Wrestles His Way Onto A New Poster

Lee B. Golden III

Finecut Freshman director Kim Yong-Wan is eyeing a theatrical release next month for his latest, Champion. The film is billed as a sports comedy but its clear, distinct homage to Sylvester Stallone’s classic, Over The Top has certainly garnered the film as something much more with a touch of heart. It has also graced lead actor Don Lee (Train To Busan, The Outlaws, Along With The Gods) with some worthwhile attention on top of his rousing performance caliber. Mark is a disgraced arm wrestling champion who was adopted by an American family when he was a boy. He’s a bouncer at a club and befriends a Korean student named Jin-ki, who has a knack for schemes to make money from any situation he’s in. Lured by an arm wrestling tournament in Korea and Jin-ki’s scheme to make a fortune from it, Mark comes back to his native country for the first time […]

CHAMPION: Brad Inglesby-Penned Thai Martial Arts Prison Thriller Moves Forward At Studio 8

Lee B. Golden III

YouTube More martial arts movie news this week revealed word from Deadline about upcoming action thriller, Champion. The film hails from Studio 8 whose latest acquisition as of Friday comes in the wake of current movement Graham Moore’s sci-fi pic, Naked Is The Best Disguise, as well as Hypnotic and Steve Soderburgh’s Planet Kill. John Graham and Rishi Rajani are overseeing progress for Studio 8 on Champion which centers on two American brothers who are forced to mitigate their freedom in a deadly underground Thai boxing tornament after being wrongfully imprisoned in Thailand. Run All Night and Out Of The Furnace scribe Brad Inglesby penned the script from The Fast And The Furious writer Gary Scott Thompson’s original spec. Storyscape Entertainment’s Bob Cooper and Richard Saperstein are producing with Pioneer Picture’s Robert Kravis and Karl Hermann with Tyler Mitchell and Marc Fiorentino executive producing. Marc Fiorentino brought the project to […]

CHAMPION: Don Lee Arm-Wrestles For Over-The-Top Glory In The First Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Along With The Gods actor Don Lee is an absolute joy on screen. And rightly so. Fan buzz seems to be circling him of late likening him to that of Dwayne Johnson whose own celebrity far from mires his renowned work ethic – such fandom that now lends Lee his own momentum for film roles that seem to grace local film lore as Korea’s answer to the bygone Hollywood superstar. Take, for example, the new movie Champion – its narrative displaying a clear and fond homage of sorts to Menahem Golan’s 1987 arm wrestling sports drama, Over The Top which starred Sylvester Stallone. Kim Yong-Wan sets forth his directorial debut here with Lee and A Special Lady co-star Kwon Yool for a story centered an amateur arm wrestler whose sister, a mother to two children, enters his life just as he’s wagered a potential success into the professional circuit with […]