Yu Hae-jin, Park Hae-il & Lee Min-ho's '암살자(들)' tops Korean presales 4 weeks out

암살자(들) is already the most pre-booked Korean film in theaters. Four weeks before opening. As of 2 PM on August 29, it held a 3.8% overall advance booking rate and ranked first among domestic titles—a position it has maintained since four weeks out from its September 23 release.

The film draws from the real-life shooting of the First Lady at a Liberation Day ceremony on August 15, 1974. Yu Hae-jin plays Cheol-gu, a Central Police Station detective who witnessed the incident. Park Hae-il is Jae-hwan, a newspaper social affairs editor pursuing questions the investigation left behind. Lee Min-ho rounds out the leads as Yeong-il, a rookie reporter on the case.

Bae Sung-woo, Uhm Ji-won, Park Ji-hwan, Park Hoon, Ryu Hye-young, Choi Yu-ri, Jang Ryul, Ryu Kyung-soo, Kim Dae-myung, Shim Eun-kyung, Park Hae-jun, Park Sung-hoon, Oh Jung-se, Shin Hyun-been, and Jung Woo-sung fill the supporting roles.

Director Heo Jin-ho—whose filmography includes 8월의 크리스마스, 봄날은 간다, 덕혜옹주, and 보통의 가족—was direct about the film's scope: "It's not a story revealing who the perpetrator of the shooting incident is." Instead, he said, it focuses on characters who witnessed or learned about the event and chase its hidden dimensions.

On the plural suffix 들 in the title, Heo called it "a device that provokes audience curiosity." Viewers will grasp "why '들' is attached" only after watching.

The film screens at the Gala Presentation section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival before its domestic run. It opens alongside 타짜: 벨제붑의 노래, 부활남: 더 레드, 가능한 사랑, and 인턴.