(CJ Entertainment)

"The Battleship Island," a big-budget South Korean movie, surpassed 5 million in attendance in its home country Wednesday, the eighth day of its run, the film's local distributor said.

The historical action written and directed by Ryoo Seung-wan hit the milestone at 9:30 a.m. in the fastest pace among all films that opened this year, according to CJ Entertainment.

The pace is three days faster than the Hollywood film "Spider-Man: Homecoming" in surpassing 5 million views and two days faster than Ryoo's previous box office hit "Veteran." It, however, is three days slower than "Train to Busan," seen by more than 10 million people last year and two days slower than "Roaring Currents," the most-viewed film ever in South Korea.

"The Battleship Island" is inspired by atrocities and ordeals faced by hundreds of forced Korean coal miners and sex slaves on Hashima Island, located off the coast of the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

Many South Koreans still harbor deep resentment against Japan for its harsh colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, when many young Korean women were forced to serve as sexual slaves for Japanese soldiers. Several million Koreans were forcibly taken to Japan as laborers during the period. (Yonhap)