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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Corean (Korean) Cinema the New HK Cinema?
t the peak of its Golden Era between the mid-80s and early-90s Hong Kong cinema was defending nearly half its domestic box office turf against Hollywood imports, thanks to an unusual concentration of mega-talents like John Woo, Chow Yun-Fat, Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark. No other film industry in the world had been able to claim that for a half century. What's more, some HK kung-fu and gangster flicks outdrew Hollywood thrillers in many international markets.
Corean heartthrob Won Bin
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Hollywood's strategy for coping with the HK threat? Simple and devastatingly effective -- buy up the biggest box-office draws. The result has been an epic shift: the top HK talents have been reduced mostly to coolie-ing on Hollywood formulaics while HK cinema has become a parched gulch with bounding tumbleweeds and half-hinged screen doors banging forlornly with every hot gust.
Corean American Shiri star Kim Yoon-jin
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But just as Asian Americans resigned themselves to having screen images hijacked by a remarkably Asian-unfriendly Hollywood, Corean cinema began throwing off heat. Beginning in the early 90s a hardy new generation of Corean filmmakers made themselves fixtures at the award ceremonies of Cannes, Venice and other international film festivals. By the turn of the century Corea's Pusan Film Festival emerged as Asia's premiere celluloid bazaar. But that was small potatoes, not enough to catch the notice of an industry whose real lifeblood is box office.
Then came Shiri (1999), Kang Jae-gyu's lovingly-wrought, haunting thriller about a deadly North Corean female terrorist who falls in love with exactly the wrong guy. It became the first domestic film in history to break the 2 million ticket mark for the Seoul metropolitan area (which accounts for about 25% of the Corean market), and went on to outgross Hollywood blockbusters like The Mummy, The Matrix, Titanic, Star Wars Episode One and Toy Story. Its $5 million budget is less than a tenth of what Hollywood spends at the drop of a dime but was considered a daring gamble. It paid off. Domestic box office receipts ultimately spiked past $60 million, ensuring an unexpected profit for the film's backer Samsung Entertainment -- and more importantly, whetting the appetites of investors for more "big-budget" projects.
Director Kang took pains to point out that Shiri's success was founded on a painstakingly crafted screenplay -- something few Corean directors had bothered with before then.
In 2000 and 2001 alone, two Corean films surpassed Shiri's box office benchmarks: Joint Security Area (DMZ military mystery/drama, 2000) and Friend (male-bonding, 2001). These blockbusters have stimulated a general upsurge of interest in domestic films. Films like Friend and My Sassy Girl (romantic comedy) outgrossed Hollywood megapics like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. They helped make Corea the only market in which domestic films captured over 50% of box office receipts, with Hollywood fare attracting 40%.
As the saga of Hong Kong cinema has shown, nothing yanks Hollywood's chain like being kicked at the box office. Major studios have begun importing Shiri, Musa (co-starring Zhang Zhiyi as a Ming princess rescued by Corean swordsmen) and other Corean films for limited U.S. theatrical release and video distribution. More significantly -- or ominously, depending on your perspective -- they have begun signing Corean talent. One is actress Shin Eun-kyung who starred in the popular comedy My Wife Is a Gangster (2001) which outgrossed Lord of the Rings. Shin will play the female lead opposite Andy Garcia. Miramax even paid $1.1 million for the remake rights to My Wife Is a Gangster.
Is Corean cinema the new Hong Kong cinema? Or will an Asian version of Hollywood ultimately emerge in Corea?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:07:25 PM)
>Woohoo! More headaches for Hollywood.
>They should try to introduce this Won Bin guy here. I wonder how many North American guys would feel threatened by him?
What Won Bin is good-looking?!?! I think Westerns will never find him attractive or hot. Brad Pitt and Josh Hartnett and tons of White guys are far better-looking than him. Asian men are generally feminine looking in the eyes of Westerns and not handsome at all. If there are Asian males that Westerns may find attractive that would be Russel Wong and this popular Japanese actor named Takeshi Fujimori (I'm not sure of his name). These 2 actors are very masculine looking and really handsome by *world standard* of male attractiveness.
Takeshi is HOT
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at 19:09:32 (PST)
This should play out very interesting in the next few years. I would definitely like to see some Korean movie make it big state side. Hope they don't fall into the Kung-Fu master, bad-ass gangster pit HK stars sometime fall into.
AC Dropout
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at 14:02:17 (PST)
Won Bin has gotten a sudden, large influx of new Japanese female fans after the recent drama "Friends" that he did with Fukada Kyoko aired in both Japan and Corea. It was the first Corean/Japanese TV co-production to be shown in both countries. It did pretty well in Japan. The pic on this page is taken from a press conference in Korea about this drama.
Korea still uses the quota system, but local films are killing US films there in terms of attendance and profit. More Korean movie goers seem tired of the same tripe that Hollywood puts out every month. Of course, Hollywood is pressuring the Korean government to drop the quota system, but I don't think that's really why Korean films are doing a lot better than the Hollywood junk. You can only go see something blow up so many times before you get bored of it all. Three major Hollywood studios have already bought rights to some of the more successful Korean films for either distribution or rights to remake them for a more white audience, I guess.
Asian Hauptsturmfuhrer
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at 12:21:00 (PST)
Just hope that Korean cinema won't turn out to be like Japanese cinema.
FOP
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 at 07:41:19 (PST)
Does Korea still operate the "quota system" (requiring local cinemas to screen local films for a certain proportion of the total hours of operation in order to promote the local filmmakers), or has Hollywood used the WTO and "free trade" (i.e. submit to cartelisation) rhetoric to rip that away?
T.H. Lien
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 22:11:19 (PST)
Woohoo! More headaches for Hollywood.
They should try to introduce this Won Bin guy here. I wonder how many North American guys would feel threatened by him?
huu76
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 21:36:37 (PST)
won bin it very handsome.
he's very good looking.
men of korea seem very good.
XenWei
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 21:03:55 (PST)
I have yet to see any of these movies. I have never even heard of them. I doubt they will be big players anytime soon. HK movies have a cult following amongst white Americans. They have a long, storied history, dating back to the campy kung fu flicks. It will take a very long time for anyone to catch up.
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 19:13:33 (PST)
Won Bin is HOT.
Angelique
Monday, March 11, 2002 at 18:19:15 (PST)
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