Hyun Bin's new movie, "The Point Men," is now making it big in Korean theaters. A week after its release on January 17, the film has now amassed more than a million moviegoers.
"The Point Men" follows the story of a diplomat and a National Intelligence Service (NIS) agent who put their lives on the line to save Korean hostages who have been abducted in the middle east. The film is based on an actual event in Afghanistan in 2017.
AllKpop noted that the film is expected to continue its box office success during its run. It has been topping the box office for about a week already since it was released.
The Korean Film Council noted that the movie had already reached over 1 million moviegoers as of January 24, ruling the Korean box office at No. 1 over the Lunar New Year holiday.
"The Point Men" is the first Korean movie ever filmed in Jordan. But besides the Korean release, international fans also have the chance to see Hyun Bin's new film. Soompi revealed it would also be out in the U.S. and Canada on January 27.
Talking about the movie, director Yim Soon Rye, who's also behind "The Whistleblower" and "Little Forest," described the film as the "story of the desperate situation of people saving people." She explained how the movie focused on the stories of people who did everything to rescue others.
Meanwhile, as inspired by real-life events, Hyun Bin's film tells the story of the innocent South Korean missionaries abducted and held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2007. The incident occurred when the ministers, composed of 16 women and seven men, traveled through the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan for a mission sponsored by the Saemmul Presbyterian Church.
They were on a bus heading to Kabul from Kandhar when the driver let two locals, the Taliban who disguised themselves, get inside. After they boarded, they started shooting to stop the vehicle.
The Taliban abducted the Korean passengers and traveled through several locations in a group of two or three people over the next month. The group took further steps to execute their hostage plan and demanded the South Korean government withdraw its armed forces from Afghanistan within the next 24 hours.
As the Taliban killed two people and threatened to do the same to others, the negotiation began. Finally, 19 hostages were eventually released after over a month.
