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6F Sabrina Wong Sabrina Wong F. 6F Hong Kong’s film industry is on the decline while the Korean films are getting more popular around the world. Most of the local films are a flop and only a handful may break even. Write an article for an entertainment magazine discussing why people prefer Korean films and explore the reasons why local films seem to be abandoned by the audience. The whirlwind of Korean films In recent years, Korean films have gained much currency in Hong Kong. This whirlwind has taken the city by storm and many people jump onto the bandwagon to watch Korean movies. Lamentably, local films are gradually forgotten by most of us. In the following, I am going to delve into this issue in depth by probing into the reasons of the aforementioned phenomenon. In fact, there is no shortage of reasons which can account for people’s mania towards Korean films. Probably the first reason is that the themes of Korean films are more diversified. One striking example to substantiate the point is the Korean movie ‘City Hunter’. Unlike Hong Kong films which usually revolve around repetitive themes and genres like ‘official polities’, the City Hunter is a film with a medley of red‐hot topics such as economic doldrums, urbanization and the love between urban and rural families, etc. Thus, it is of little wonder that Korean films have created a sense of freshness and echo among viewers. Another case in point is the movie ‘Dae Jang geum’. This film fully capitalizes on the king‐ruled history of Korean and its unique cookery culture. Supplemented with a lot of twists in the film, Dae Jang Geum is a very intriguing movie for viewers who have an unquenchable thirst to know more about brand‐new Korean culture. Yet, most Hong Kong movies are just modified based on foreign films, making it less appealing to viewers. Under this line of thinking, Korean films are more popular due to its innovative themes. Another reason which attributes to the popularity of Korean films is that they have better post‐ production techniques. Considering post‐production techniques such as the use of background songs, special effects and lighting, Korean films certainly outweigh those of Hong Kong. Take the use of background songs as an example, Korean movies make good use of different styles of music like R&B, blues, hip hop and even their own k‐pop music. On the contrary, the background music of Hong Kong movies is tedious and dull – even for a reputed film like Echoes of Rainbow, most of the songs are not original. A plus is that the Korean government lays undue emphasis on the film industry, thus producers have more resources to develop state‐of‐the‐art special effects like those in the movie of Green Hornet. Sadly, Hong Kong films lag behind Korean ones and it is of little wonder that viewers will opt for Korean movies which have more vivid effects. Yet, these are by no means the reasons that underline Hong Kong films. To commence with, due to the lack of support towards local film industry, there are very few young actors and actresses in Hong Kong. As a result, viewers often see the same faces on screen and they eventually get fed up with the same batch of actors on screen all the time. It is common knowledge that almost all local films cast a same group of actors like Andy Lau, Lau Ching Wan, Koo Tin Lok and Stephen Chow. On the contrary, new faces like Kang Ta and Choi Jin Hyuk can be found easily in Korean films. Rarely do you see the same heads in a movie in just half‐a‐year’s time! Given Hong Kong films resemble one another too much, it is conceivable for audiences not having a liking for a local films. In fact, Hong Kong film industry has once had its heyday during the ‘Bruce Lee Period’. Hong Kong films were so renowned that even foreigners were mesmerized by local martial arts films. Yet, those were bygones. Nowadays, local movies are dwarfed by Korean movies because of the previously mentioned reasons. Moreover, it is my earnest hope that local film producers will evaluate on the shortcomings of local movies and revive the local film industry in the future. .
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