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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, 06:07:17 PM)
I just wanted to reiterate, that I think chinese films has had a very big influence on korean movies and dramas, but chinese music isn't very big in Korea.
Canto-pop is probably considered too late 80's early 90's -ish slow ballad songs, that is no longer popular with Korean people. If you listen to Korean radio, most of it is hip-hop and rap. When Japanese youths were following american alternative scene, Koreans were following black youth culture. This all started from Seo Tae Ji. I think for the most part, Korean music listerners seem to prefer more dance oriented music. Even if you listen to old school Korean music like the rhythemic "bbongjjak" or Korean blues, it sounds nothing like Hong Kong music--but this old school Korean music would go into Japan as Enka. This makes sense, since traditional Korean music probably flows from old Korean Shaman pracitices and "Nong-ak" or folk music heavily into percussions--very much like African music traditions.
I think if you watch Korean movies like, "Shiri" you probably can see the gun toting genre of films that John Woo used to make(although not as extreme). But if you listen to the music in Korean movies like, "Attack the Gas Station"(which incidentally did well in Hong Kong), it definitely has nothing to do with ballads.
I wonder what Chinese/Taiwanese people think about the Korean movie JSA, which is about the separation of one people, by two different political systems. Have any Chinse viewers seen this movie? What you think of it?
ka
Friday, April 12, 2002 at 09:13:07 (PDT)
i'd have to agree with tsj. i live in k-town, and almost every time i visit a korean bar or club, they play at least a couple songs that have the same melody as really old chinese pop songs.
penelope
Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 10:44:56 (PDT)
"Just to set the record straight, Chinese popular culture has NEVER been popular in Korea. It's true that most Koreans Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, but so does the rest of the world. Other than a few prominent actors, Koreans simply don't any Chinese entertainer. How would they know? Korean media has never shown Chinese dramas (not even Japanese dramas). In fact, most Koreans don't even know the definition of "Canto-pop". So sorry to disappoint you, but I can safely tell you that Chinese popular culture has not exactly captivated Koreans' attention."
Okay, I'm no expert on Korean entertainment, but I'll just chime in with what I have seen. I watch MVH (Korean video show) on the International Channel, and a lot of the music videos appear to be Chinese influenced. Some songs with ancient tragedy themes often show Chinese style kung fu backgrounds. Other songs also have that old traditional Chinese melody. Also, there are some collaborations between Chinese and Korean singers, such as Can't Hardly Wait by Yuki Hsu and Yoo Seungjun. Well, that's my take.
Toi San Jai
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Tuesday, April 09, 2002 at 12:16:02 (PDT)
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