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The Golden Holiday (국제수사)

The Golden Holiday (국제수사, Guk-je-su-sa, literally "international investigation") is a 2020 South Korean action comedy directed by Kim Bong-han, in which a countryside detective takes his family to the Philippines for his tenth wedding anniversary and becomes entangled in a murder case surrounding the legendary treasure known as "Yamashita's Gold".1 It was released in South Korea on September 29, 2020, over the Chuseok holiday.1 • 3

Key factDetail
Original title국제수사 (Guk-je-su-sa), released in English as The Golden Holiday1 • 8
DirectorKim Bong-han; his third film, after The Hero (2013) and Ordinary Person (2017)2
ReleaseSeptember 29, 2020 (South Korea); rating 151
Runtime105 minutes per the KOFIC film database; 106 minutes per KOFIC's news release and most international listings1 • 2
Lead castKwak Do-won, Kim Dae-myung, Kim Sang-ho, Kim Hee-won2
Box office537,570 admissions on 1,074 screens, total gross $3,285,2681
FilmingMore than 80% shot in the Philippines in 2018, then under the working title Package3

Spoilers

Plot

Hong Byeong-soo (Kwak Do-won) works as a detective in the countryside, in Daecheon.1 • 3 For his tenth wedding anniversary he takes his wife and daughter to the Philippines, the family's first trip abroad, but he has a hidden agenda: years earlier his old friend Yong-bae (Kim Sang-ho) scammed him out of a large sum of money and vanished, and Byeong-soo means to find him.1 • 3

In Manila, Byeong-soo runs into Man-cheol (Kim Dae-myung), a crook from his most-wanted list who has settled there with a Filipina wife and son and now works as a tourist guide.4 Through him he finds Yong-bae in a Manila prison, serving a sentence for murder.1 Yong-bae tells him about a local murder case surrounding "Yamashita's Gold", a legendary treasure hidden in the Philippines, and offers him a share; tempted, Byeong-soo involves himself in the case.1 The gangster Patrick (Kim Hee-won) had framed Yong-bae for murder to make him reveal where the gold is hidden, and Byeong-soo himself is framed for the murder of another Korean criminal, so he investigates his own case to prove his innocence.4 • 3

Production and release

More than 80% of the film was shot in the Philippines in 2018, at that time under the title Package, with many local residents taking part; the crew ran into typhoons and heatwaves and struggled to find locations and personnel.3 Scenes were filmed in Manila, including Intramuros, and in El Nido and Coron, Palawan.5 • 6

Delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic moved the film's debut out of the first half of 2020, first to August and then to the September Chuseok holiday, and the editing was reworked so that events took priority over the characters' emotions in keeping with a family film.3 The film opened on September 29, 2020, on 1,074 screens.1

Filipino actors appear in supporting roles. Mon Confiado, a veteran Filipino character actor, made his debut in a South Korean film with this movie, playing police lieutenant Martinez; Loren Burgus, an actress and former beauty queen, played Stellar.6

Reception

The film drew 537,570 admissions and a gross of $3,285,268 in South Korea.1 Its IMDb rating stands at 5.4/10.7 Rotten Tomatoes lists no critic reviews for the film and fewer than 50 audience ratings.9

Reviewers generally treated it as light, undemanding entertainment. The AsianMovieWeb review called it a mediocre action comedy that lacks depth and character development but does not pretend to be more than it is, praising Kwak Do-won's performance and Manila as a filming location.4 A Filipino reviewer on Letterboxd noted that, despite the Philippine locations, the film does not paint the country in a good light, implying it is a hideaway for Korean criminals and showing pickpocketing and corrupt police.5 The PinoySeoul review made the same point while welcoming the filming of Korean productions in the Philippines and the casting of Filipino actors.6

Title

The Korean title 국제수사 means "international investigation". A corpus-based study of Korean film title translation lists The Golden Holiday as an example of a complete retitling (새로쓰기), in which the English title abandons the literal meaning of the Korean one.8

References

  1. The Golden Holiday (2020), KOFIC Korean Film Database
  2. The Golden Holiday, Korean Film News (KOFIC), October 5, 2020
  3. The Golden Holiday (2020) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com
  4. The Golden Holiday (South Korea, 2020) – Review, AsianMovieWeb
  5. The Golden Holiday review by Fred Hawson, Letterboxd
  6. The Golden Holiday, a 2020 Korean Movie Shot in the Philippines, PinoySeoul
  7. The Golden Holiday (2020) – Ratings, IMDb
  8. 이지민, 김다은, 한국 영화 제목 영어 번역 전략의 코퍼스 기반 통시적 고찰 (KCI journal)
  9. The Golden Holiday, Rotten Tomatoes

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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