Korean TV show goes big in Japanese cinemas

With Transformers upon us, The Simpsons Movie just over the horizon and Sex & the City big screen adaptation confirmed, it's interesting to see television shows in their original format making it onto the big screen. The show the single-handedly made Korean culture a hit in Japan will be re-screened in cinemas in Tokyo, according to Screen International article:

A special version of Korean hit television drama Winter Sonata will be screened at Toho's flagship Roppongi Hills cinema in Tokyo.

All 20 episodes of the series will be shown on Tuesday mornings from July 10 to September 11, featuring extra footage only shown once previously on NHK's BS satellite channel and unavailable on DVD. BM Inc is handling the theatrical distribution of the series.

As Roppongi Hills is one of Tokyo's key multiplexes, Winter Sonata is fighting for screen space against Harry Potter And The Order Of The Pheonix, a live-action feature based on hit TV anime Saiyuki and the latest installment in the popular Pokemon franchise, all opening on July 14. Seven of the cinema's nine screens will show the episodes on July 17.

All of the multiplex's nine screens had show the last episode of Japanese TV drama Hotelier (a re-make of a Korean series by the same name) and set a one-day record of 2,000 admissions. This is said to be "part of an increasing trend of TV viewership in cinemas" in Japan.

I do not know what they charged for tickets, or even if they could - the article reveals that the screening had sponsors - but it is interesting to see this happening in the home country of high definition, which has been slow to embrace digital cinema.