The movie "April Snow," starring Bae Yong-jun and Son Ye-jin, drew one million viewers in the shortest period of time among all Korean movies ever shown in Japan.
The Japanese daily Sankei Sports quoted UIP, the movie's distributor in Japan, as saying that the number of people who have seen "April Snow" since its nationwide opening at 400 theaters on Sept. 17 had exceeded one million as of Sept. 28, the 12th day of the movie's screening.
So far, only two Korean movies -- "Swiri," starring Han Seok-kyu, and "Windstruck," starring Chun Ji-hyun -- managed to draw more than one million viewers in Japan. Sankei Sports also noted that "April Snow" broke the record of "Windstruck," which took 22 days to draw one million viewers, and once again attested the feat to Bae's unrivaled popularity in Japan.
"April Snow" is well on track to bringing in 1.5 billion yen (about 15 billion won) in ticket sales by this weekend, and is likely to easily meet the distributor's goal of 3 billion yen, said Japanese sources.
UIP is confident that "April Snow" will break the box-office record of "Windstruck," which grossed a total of 2 billion yen, as more young women are coming to see the movie these days.
Meanwhile, the movie's lead actor, Bae, said in a message sent via UIP that he was happy to hear the news that the movie had drawn more than one million viewers, and added that he was impressed to receive a positive response from Japanese audiences, as "April Snow" symbolized a new challenge for his acting skills.