My Sassy Girl Goes around the World

Abstract

My Sassy Girl (Yeopgijeogin geunyeo, dir. Kwak Jae-yong, 2001), a Korean film based on a 33-part Internet novel written by Kim Ho-sik, deserves to be called a global success because of its international popularity and the surprising number of international remakes that it inspired, even if the remakes were not as successful. The original film was wildly success-ful in Korea, selling 4,852,845 tickets in its 10-week run when it debuted in July 2001, making it the second highest-grossing film of the year with $26 million in proceeds.¹ It was also a tremendous sensation throughout Asia, becoming the top box office hit in Hong Kong for two weeks and earning more than $1.7 million in box office revenues.² It also earned $4.3 million even in a limited Japanese release in 2003 and was the best-selling Korean DVD in Japan as of 2006.³ It went on to further success beyond Asia as well, including DVD sales, which cannot be accurately determined because of the number of pirated copies in circulation.

I am grateful to Yasue Kuwahara for her multiple rounds of comments, sugges­tions, and patience. I approach this topic not as a film specialist but as a cultural historian looking at how this particular Korean film has crossed borders and captured the imagination of different filmmakers.