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Whither the Korean Film Industry?1 ACTA KOR ANA VOL. 14, NO. 1, JUNE 2011: 213–227 WHITHER THE KOREAN FILM INDUSTRY?1 By DOOBO SHIM In the past decade, the Korean film industry has enjoyed never-before-seen success at home and abroad. With the high domestic market share of local movies (recording more than 40% market share continuously from 2001), it has been reported that Korea is “the only nation during the post-Vietnam War history that would regain its domestic audiences after losing them to Hollywood” (Kim, 2004). Based on this domestic achievement, Korean cinema’s foreign exports have also drastically increased, from 14 movies that generated revenue of US$173,838 in 1993 to 202 movies that reached about US$75 million in 2005 (Korean Film Council, 2010). Despite this achievement, trade headlines and popular news reports have continued to rave about these external figures while ignoring significant internal changes from within the Korean film industry. In addition, there is a tendency among scholars to interpret this commercial achievement simply as successful resistance against American cultural imperialism within the local vs. global paradigm. In order to understand the cultures of production (du Gay, 1997) of the current Korean film industry, this study examines the changing industrial formations and ownership concentration processes in the Korean film industry of the 2000s against the backdrop of distinct media globalization processes. It relates this finding to larger discussions concerning the overseas development of the Korean Wave or Hallyu. From this political-economic approach, it is expected that readers can gain a more holistic understanding of the Korean film industry and the Korean Wave. Key words: Korean film, film industry, Korean Wave, Hallyu, Asian film 1 This research was made possible by a Research Grant from Sungshin Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. The author wishes to thank his three research assistants, Choe Hana, Song Bo-kyung, and Jang Sang-a, for their help with this article. All Korean film industry data was referenced from the Korean Film Council website: www.koreanfilm.or.kr 214 Acta Koreana Vol. 14, No. 1, 2011 INTRODUCTION In the period circa 1999–2006, the Korean film industry enjoyed its never-before- seen success both at home and abroad. With the high domestic market share of local movies (recording more than 50 percent market share continually from 2001), it was reported that Korea was “the only nation during the post-Vietnam War history that would regain its domestic audiences after losing them to Hollywood” (Kim K., “Movie Power.”).2 Based on this domestic achievement, the foreign export of Korean films drastically increased, from 14 movie exports for US$173,838 revenue in 1993 to 202 movies for over US$75 million in 2005. Some scholars interpreted this commercial achievement as a successful resistance against American cultural imperialism within the local vs. global paradigm. If we naïvely stick to the above line of interpretation, we ignore the corporate concentration process in cultural production. Even Herbert Schiller (1992) revised his thesis of American cultural imperialism in the 1990s, arguing that the modern juggernaut in global culture was transnational corporations with U.S. know-how in production and marketing practices. As such, the issue today is not so much whether there is global or local control of the media, but how the implications of corporatization are manifested in cultural productions in each locale. In fact, the Korean film industry has been through many upheavals and trials in the past two decades. Local big business conglomerates, or chaebŏl, including Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo had been important players in production and investment in the 1990s, and largely withdrew from the cinema scene during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Then, venture capital and investment firms became the major financiers of local film production in the late 1990s and early 2000s (Shim, “South Korean.”). With the rise of Korean popular culture overseas in the early and mid 2000s, characterized by the Korean Wave phenomenon, the Korean film industry was flooded by diverse forms of money. After this bubble burst in the late 2000s, however, vertical integration and concentration processes in the industry deepened, casting important implications on the nature of cultural production. Going through this process, many small and mid-sized production companies went out of business. Despite more critical raves from abroad, and more invites to the top international film festivals, those in the Korean film industry, ranging from film- makers to critics, these days are surrounded by crisis-consciousness. In order to understand the discourse of the Korean film industry crisis, this study applies a multi-layered analysis with foci ranging from cultures of production (du Gay et al.) and ownership concentration to audience culture. It is expected that we would 2 Except for 2002, when the figure was 48.30 percent. Shim: Whither the Korean Film Industry? 215 have a more holistic understanding of the Korean film industry and its efforts to open up new markets. KOREAN FILMS IN 2010 In 2010, important directors whose films had been critically praised at home and abroad tasted the bitters in theaters. Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry (Si), which won the Best Screenplay Award at the 63rd Cannes, only brought in 220 thousand admissions at home, throwing the Korean film community, to say nothing of its production company, Pinehouse Film, into despair. Hong Sang-soo, another auteur who won the Un Certain Regard Award at the 63rd Cannes, released his 11th movie Oki’s Movie (Okhŭi ŭi yŏnghwa) in September 2010. However, it was only able to secure 20 screens across the country for four to eight weeks, and attracted just around 40,000 admissions. Ascribing this exhibition problem to the financial and distribution control by an oligopoly, Hong is said to have decided to keep the major investors/distributors at a distance. Kim Ki-duk who won Best Director Award at Berlin and Venice also tasted a bitter experience a few years ago. His films, including 3-Iron (Pin chip), Samaritan Girl (Samaria) and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring (Pom yŏrŭm kaŭl kyŏul kŭrigo pom), have impressed many Western viewers with their exotic themes and shocking images. Considered a bore, however, his film Time (Sigan) flopped badly at home in 2006. Shocked, Kim announced that he was quitting filmmaking, although he made a comeback afterwards with Breath (2007) and Dream (2008). In his new film Arirang, which was screened at Cannes in May 2011, Kim strongly criticized the corporate- controlled film industry. Meanwhile, it is reported that the film’s exhibition in Korea is not yet decided upon because few if any distributors have an interest in this film (Min, “Director Kim.”). On the other hand, The Man from Nowhere (Ajŏssi) became the most commercially successful Korean film in 2010 by selling 6.22 million tickets at home. Many critics and popular opinion uniformly attribute The Man’s success to two factors. Firstly, The Man followed the recent trend of the thriller genre. Secondly, it cast a heartthrob Won Bin who has massive loyal female fan bases (Kim, “Kim Hyeong-ho’s movie.”). These factors are important points to start a discussion. According to veteran actor Park Joong-hoon, “There is an epidemic in Chungmuro.3 When a certain movie hits, then all the ensuing movies follow its style and genre” (“Sisa Gihoek.”). In 2010, local theaters were flooded with more 3 A street in Seoul, Chungmuro refers to the Korean film industry. Chungmuro used to host hundreds of film production-related companies in the period of 1950s and 1990s, although many film companies have since moved to the Kangnam area in Seoul. 216 Acta Koreana Vol. 14, No. 1, 2011 than 10 thrillers including The Man from Nowhere, Bedeviled (Kim Pongnam sarin sagŏn ŭi chŏnmal), Bloody Innocent (Sarin ŭi kang), I Saw the Devil (Angma rŭl poatta), and Man of Vendetta (P’agoedoen sanai), to name a few. This thriller trend started with the success of Chaser (Ch’ugyŏkcha) which pulled in around seven million admissions in 2008. Since then, many Korean movies are being made to compete to provide audiences with shocking, destructive, and sensational scenes, featuring stars with sex-appeal. In order to understand this strange divide forming in the theaters, we need to examine the industry-wide changes of Korean film in the past two decades. CHANGES AND CHANCES Up until the early 1990s the average Korean film cost less than a million dollars. Film producers were satisfied with “low risk, OK return” projects like romance stories and adult films instead of venturing on epic films. One of the reasons leading to this situation was that their films were financed, not by banks, but by film distributors and usurers who lent money at excessive rates of interest on a short-term loan, around three to five months, so that filmmakers had to make puny films within a short period of time. The Gingko Bed (Ŭnhaengnamu ch’imdae. 1996) was the first film financed by a legitimate financial institution, Ilshin Investment. It ended up a huge hit, with 452,000 admissions in Seoul alone, becoming the second most successful Korean film of the year. Not only Chungmuro, but also the Korean press and the Ministry of Culture were excited over the success of The Gingko Bed when the cultural industry development was the buzzword of the era (Bae, “Young film.”; Bae, “Large corporations.”). Since then, the new financing system took root in the Korean film industry, improving transparency of cash flow in film production, and therefore attracting more legitimate financiers (Shim, “South Korean.”). The Asian economic crisis in 1997 worked favorably for some Korean film companies.
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