The Battleship Island

• Hwang Jung-min as Lee Kang-ok[6]

A bandmaster at a hotel in Gyeongseong, who chooses to take his only daughter to Japan in order to keep her safe. But they get sent to the Hashima labor camp instead, and there he'll do anything that's asked of him, as long as he can protect his daughter.

• So Ji-sub as Choi Chil-sung[6]

The best street fighter in Gyeongseong, a coarse man who constantly stirs up troubles in the labor camp. Under his harsh and rough exterior, he has a good heart.

• Song Joong-ki as Park Moo-young[7]

A member of the Korean independence movement who infiltrates the island in order to rescue a fellow independence fighter being held captive there.

• Lee Jung-hyun as Oh Mal-nyeon

A comfort woman who gets moved to Hashima after going through endless troubles under Japanese occupation, but never loosens her strong grip on hope.

• Kim Su-an as Lee So-hee

Lee Kang-ok's daughter. She was being captured by Japanese general because of her talents in singing and dancing.

• Kim Bo-yoon as Joseon girl
• Kwon Han-sol as Joseon girl
• Ham Sung-min as Bok-jin's group
• Lee Geung-young
• Lee Jung-eun
• Yoon Kyung-ho as Dauber
• Bae Seung-cheol
• Jang Sung-bum
• Kim Jun-han
• Kim Won-hae
• Kim Ye-eun
• Bae Je-gi
• Kim Dong-young as a gambler.

On July 25, 2017, a special pre-screening was held for foreign diplomats in South Korea.[14][15]

On July 28, 2017, a special screening was held for UNESCO officials and diplomats in Paris at the headquarters of Metropolitan Filmexport. The aim was to raise awareness into the hidden history of Hashima Island and shed light on the harsh labour and living conditions imposed upon Koreans at the underground coal mining factory on the island during Japan’s rule of Korea.[16]

The film was released on 26 July 2017 in South Korea.[10] According to the Korean Film Council, The Battleship Island created a new record with reaching 970,516 viewers on its opening night.[17] During the first weekend (July 28 to 30) since the movie was released, an audience of 2.5 million was attracted.[18] This resulted in box-office earnings of USD 18.57 million from 2,027 screens, representing 37.1% of total movie theaters in the country.[19] This marked the first time in the country that a movie had been released on more than 2,000 screens, creating controversy over screen dominance by conglomerates.[20][21]

Over 4 million tickets were sold in the first five days, earning USD 27.9 million in total and exceeding the production costs of approximately US$21 million.[22]

In its second week of release, the film was surpassed by the historical action drama film A Taxi Driver. By the end of the eighth day since the film was released, it was playing at 1,108 venues for a total of 5.18 million viewers.[23][24] The number of admissions surpassed 6 million on the 12th day of its run.[25] As of September 26, or two months after opening in the box office, overall admission was 6.58 million.

In its application to UNESCO for World Heritage status for Hashima Island, Japan acknowledged that Korean and Chinese forced laborers were used there during World War II.[40] The acknowledgement, which was only made after South Korea opposed the bid, stated "large number[s] of Koreans and others [...] were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites [including Hashima island]".[41][42] However, once Hashima Island was approved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2015, the Japanese reverted to whitewashing history. Two months later Fumio Kishida, then-Japanese Foreign Minister, contradicted the earlier acknowledgement that forced laborers were used at Hashima by saying that "[forced to work under harsh conditions] by the Japanese government representative did not mean forced labor".[43][44] Although UNESCO's World Heritage Committee stipulated that a monitoring mechanism to measure the degree to which the victims of Hashima Island are remembered be a prerequisite for the successful bid,[45] the island's official tourism website and tour program - operated by Nagasaki City - makes no mention of forced laborers and currently does not make any efforts to comply with UNESCO's requirement.[46]