Seoul, Korea – CJ E&M announced that 20, Once Again! (é‡è¿”20å²), a second film jointly produced with Chinese companies, has raked in 122.35 million yuan (19.75 million USD) at the box office, only four days after its opening on 8 January in nearly 5,500 screens across China. According to Enbase, a Chinese entertainment research site, the figure also surpasses the previous opening-week record held by CJ E&M-China film collaboration, A Wedding Invitation (2013, at 70.66 million yuan).’
Film industry insiders are carefully speculating that 20, Once Again! may even become the highest-grossing film among those jointly produced between Korea and China, by breaking the previous record of 200 million yuan (32.28 million USD) set by A Wedding Invitation a year and nine months ago.
20, Once Again! is a romantic comedy about a 70-year-old widow who accidentally gets transformed into her 20-year-old self and decides to chase her dream of becoming a singer while encountering unexpected love.
The film was directed by Leste Chen, Taiwan’s internationally renowned young director, known for his previous work The Great Hypnotist (2014), and is represented by outstanding actors like Yang Zi Shan who was critically acclaimed for her role in the film So Young (2013) and veteran actress Grace Guei who has starred in about 120 movies and TV dramas.
20, Once Again! is a global project produced and invested by CJ E&M and Beijing Century Media, and other Chinese companies like C2M, Huace Film&TV and Media Asia also financed the film.
“We were confident from the planning stage that the movie’s theme, which is about how mothers in Confucian culture often make sacrifices for their family, can touch many people’s hearts; therefore we thought it’d be worth it to co-produce the film with China. Confucian influence is prevalent in Asia, and both Korea and China have seen rapid industrialization create nuclear families,” said Ki-Yun Lee, Head of Film Production & Distribution in China at CJ E&M.
20, Once Again! will be released in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and North America later on.
