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Hi-Five (하이파이브) (2025 film)

Hi-Five (하이파이브) is a 2025 South Korean comic action film directed and written by Kang Hyoung-chul, in which five strangers who receive organ transplants from a single mysterious donor gain superpowers and form a team to fight a cult leader who received the donor's pancreas and can drain life energy.1 It was released in South Korea on May 30, 2025, runs 119 minutes, and was rated 15 by the Korean rating system.2

Key factDetail
Director / writerKang Hyoung-chul, his first commercial feature in seven years2 • 3
ReleaseMay 30, 2025 (South Korea); June 20, 2025 (North America, per Well Go USA)2 • 1
Running time / rating119 minutes; rated 15 in South Korea2
Main castLee Jae-in, Ahn Jae-hong, Yoo Ah-in, Ra Mi-ran, Kim Hee-won, Oh Jung-se, Shin Gu, Park Jin-young2
Box office1 million admissions in 9 days; 1,893,717 total admissions and $12,750,695 gross on 1,343 screens (as of Sep 16, 2026)4 • 2
ProductionAnnapurna Films; music Kim Jun-seok; cinematography Choi Chan-min5
FestivalFantasia International Film Festival 2025 selection2

Spoilers

Premise

The film opens with a donated body disintegrating into ashes on its way to organ harvest. Five recipients of that donor's organs, a heart, corneas, lungs, liver, and kidneys, then develop supernatural abilities: a teenage girl gains immense strength, a hipster manipulates electromagnetic waves, a novelist summons powerful gusts of wind, a factory manager can heal others, and a woman develops a strange, initially unidentified ability.1 The recipients recognize one another through mysterious tattoo-like marks that identify transplant recipients with supernatural gifts.6

The five characters are Park Wan-seo (Lee Jae-in), a taekwondo-trained teenager with the heart; Park Ji-sung (Ahn Jae-hong), an aspiring writer with enhanced lungs; Kim Seon-nyeo (Ra Mi-ran), a yogurt seller; Huh Yak-seon (Kim Hee-won), a factory manager with healing powers; and Hwang Ki-dong (Yoo Ah-in), an unemployed hipster who controls electronics with finger snaps.3 • 6 Their antagonist is the cult leader Seo Young-chun, played by Shin Gu and later Park Jin-young, who received the pancreas and gains the power to drain life energy; he hunts the other recipients to steal their abilities.1 • 7

Production and release

Kang Hyoung-chul had earlier directed the box-office hits Scandal Makers (2008) and Sunny (2011); Hi-Five was his first commercial feature in seven years.6 • 3 The film was produced by Annapurna Films, with Anna Lee as producer, Choi Chan-min as cinematographer, Nam Na-young as editor, and music by Kim Jun-seok.5

The release was delayed because of a drug scandal involving lead actor Yoo Ah-in, along with his film The Match; both films were eventually released and performed respectably.8 Hi-Five opened in South Korea on May 30, 2025.2 Well Go USA's North American release page lists June 20, 2025.1 The film was selected for the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, where it had its Quebec premiere, and was later screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026.2 • 9 • 5

Box office

According to the Korean Film Council, the film drew 383,334 viewers nationwide in its first three days and briefly topped the Korean box office, overtaking Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.10 It surpassed 1 million admissions on June 7, 2025 at 4:12 p.m. KST, nine days after release, making it the fifth Korean film of 2025 to reach that mark, after Hitman 2, Dark Nuns, The Match, and YADANG: The Snitch.4 Cumulatively it recorded 1,893,717 admissions and a gross of $12,750,695 on 1,343 screens, as of September 16, 2026, ranking eighth among 2025 Korean releases with a gross of 17.55 billion won.2 • 11

Reception

Audience scores in South Korea were strong: CGV and Lotte Cinema average ratings both exceeded 90 out of 100, though critics noted the visual effects as a weak point.3 Festival reviewers at Fantasia responded warmly. The Contra Zoom Pod review rated it 4/5, praising writer-director Kang's use of modest, oddball powers closer to Mystery Men than X-Men, and highlighting the theme of family, both the found family of the five and the dysfunctional family at the heart of the cult.7 Reviews on Reels gave it 3.5/5, calling it proof that a superhero film does not need a $200 million budget to entertain, while noting weaker effects and familiar plot beats.12 A Korea Herald review was more critical, describing a goofy superhero ensemble whose greatest virtue is its refusal to dawdle, with the protagonists discovering their powers and finding each other in under 10 minutes of runtime, but judging the comedy uneven.6

The film has been available on streaming and digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Rakuten Viki, Apple TV, and free ad-supported services, with rental prices starting at $3.99 on Rakuten Viki as of October 2026.13

References

  1. Hi-Five – Official Movie Site, Well Go USA
  2. HI-FIVE (2025), Korean Film Council / KOFIC database
  3. HI-FIVE (하이파이브), KBS WORLD
  4. "Hi-5" Becomes 5th Korean Film Of 2025 To Surpass 1 Million Moviegoers, Soompi
  5. Hi-Five, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2026
  6. Review: 'Hi-Five' struggles to find its superpowers, The Korea Herald
  7. Reviews: Hi-Five from Fantasia Festival 2025, Contra Zoom Pod
  8. Korean Movie Reviews for 2025, koreanfilm.org
  9. Fantasia 2025: Hi-Five, Josh At The Movies
  10. Hi-Five film page, Indonesian Film Censorship Board (LSF)
  11. Top 10 Films in Korean Box Office (2025), Asian Contents & Film Market
  12. Hi-Five (Fantasia 2025) Review, Reviews on Reels
  13. Hi-Five – Where to Watch, Moviefone

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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Hi-Five (하이파이브) (2025 film)

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