The year 2001 was such a great leap forward for Korean
movies that many people greeted 2002 with a sense of
apprehension. Industry watchers were skeptical that local
cinema could continue to capture 49% of the market, as
it did in 2001, or to produce hits on the level of Friend
(8 million admissions) or My Wife Is a Gangster (5.2 million
admissions). Yet film companies were betting on success,
as budgets continued to rise, meaning that many
films would have to sell millions of tickets just to break
even. If 2001 turned out to be a one-year fluke, then the
industry would be in trouble.
With the results in, we can safely say that Korean audiences
continued to support local cinema in 2002. Market
share for Korean films amounted to 47%, just a shade
below 2001, and an impressive 25 films earned at least
$3m at the box-office. International audiences provided
support as well, with local companies earning a record
$15m through sales to foreign countries (a 33% rise
from 2001).
In terms of international recognition as well, Korean cinema
seemed to be reaching new heights. The year 2002
will be remembered for three major prizes won at international
film festivals: veteran director Im Kwon-taek’s Best
Director award at Cannes for Chihwaseon; animated film
My Beautiful Girl Mari’s Grand Prix at the top-ranked
Annecy International Animated Film Festival; and two
awards presented to Oasis at Venice, Best Director for
Lee Chang-dong, and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for
Best New Actor or Actress to Moon So-ri.
Nonetheless, there was a lot of blood spilled in the industry
last year. Several high budget genre films bombed in
spectacular fashion, losing millions of dollars for their
investors. Three movies in particular gained infamy for
their steep losses: the futuristic sci-fi film Yesterday, family
adventure R U Ready? and cyber-action film
Resurrection of the Little Match Girl. Together these three
films cost $21 million to make, and sold only $3.5 million
worth of tickets.
These box-office bombs, combined with other less-publicised
losses, helped bring about a new problem for
Korean cinema, as many investors who supported the
industry in the past began to pull out. The profitability of
local cinema has taken a hit in recent years, as labour
costs, star salaries, and advertising budgets have all shot
up. As a result, even films that did moderately well at the
box-office often ended up losing money for their
investors. With venture capitalists having turned highly
skeptical towards investments in cinema, only a few large
film companies have enough cash on hand to continue
making movies as they wish.
In the coming year, this is likely to shape the character of
the films which get made. Although a few big-budget
genre titles are in the works, many film companies are
turning towards less-expensive comedies and melodramas
which come with less financial risk. One example of
this is director Kim Sung-soo, who brought his lavish production
Musa to last year’s FEFF. For his next project,
after considering a big-budget historical war film to be
shot in China, he decided to shoot his first ever comedy,
titled Please Teach Me English and featuring two up-andcoming
young stars. Shooting starts this April.
Looking back to 2002, comedies dominated the box
office, as in previous years. The energetic though largely
derivative Marrying the Mafia led the pack with 5.1m
admissions, continuing the trend of gangster films which
performed so well in 2001. Other comedies broke into
new territory: sex comedies made their first-ever appearance
in Korea, first with Wet Dreams and then with the
hugely successful Sex is Zero by up-and-coming director/
screenwriter Yoon Je-gyun. Meanwhile, director Kim
Sang-jin, well-known for his previous movies Kick the
Moon and Attack the Gas Station!, returned with Jail
Breakers, a manic tale of two convicts who tunnel their
way out of prison, only to discover a nasty surprise waiting
for them.
One of the year’s top-grossing films stands out from the
others, however. Lee Jeong-hyang’s The Way Home...,
about a spoiled young boy who goes to live with his mute
grandmother in the country, surprised everyone by
attracting 4.1m viewers, more than the combined admissions
of Signs, Men In Black II, and Star Wars: Attack of
the Clones. The outstanding performance of this modest,
low-budget drama gave a measure of hope to producers
working outside of the comedy genre.
Several trends can be spotted in the movies produced
last year. One is the use of the Eighties as a prominent
backdrop. For most of these filmmakers, it is the poverty
of that period, compared to the high-tech Korea of today,
that captures the imagination. The lead characters in
these films tend to be poor, and struggle to get by with
the limited means at their disposal - for most of them,
this means their fists. Champion and Are You a True Guy
both feature lead characters who take up boxing in the
hope that it will lead them out of poverty. “That was an
era when Korea was trying desperately to escape the
poverty of the Sixties and Seventies, to cast off our reputation
as a third world country,” says Champion director
Kwak Kyung-taek.
Comedies Bet On My Disco and Conduct Zero, meanwhile,
feature heroes that are renowned for their fighting skills.
(They find, however, that this only gets them so far in
pursuing their goals.) In general, the Eighties are presented
with a mixture of fond nostalgia and sharp irony
that highlights how quickly the country has developed into
a modern, urban society.
Strong subject matter and controversy also continue to
characterise many South Korean films. Director Park
Chan-wook, following the mainstream success of Joint
Security Area, shocked a lot of viewers with the grim, harrowing
violence of his next film Sympathy for Mr.
Vengeance. Although one of the most accomplished artistic
offerings of recent years, viewers will need a strong
stomach to sit through to the end. Ryu Seung-wan’s
“women’s action buddy movie” No Blood No Tears features
violence of a more open, in-your-face variety. Many
viewers again found this a little too strong to their taste,
and despite its artistic strengths the film underachieved
at the box office.
Debut filmmaker Park Jin-pyo, meanwhile, saw his film Too
Young To Die banned by Korea’s Media Ratings Board for
its sexually explicit portrait of an elderly couple who meet
and fall in love. Although the film eventually made it past
the censors by digitally darkening some problematic
scenes, the incident serves as a reminder of the confrontational
stance taken by many Korean filmmakers
towards mainstream social attitudes.
On the production side, a welcome trend was the large
number of women making their directorial debuts. Prior
to 2001 there were only a handful of women directing in
the Korean industry, but the rapid expansion of film
schools and the efforts of some powerful female producers
have resulted in a new generation of women behind
the camera. For a sense of perspective, in late 2001
Jeong Jae-eun became only the ninth woman in Korean
film history to direct a commercial feature. In 2002, however,
five women directors made their debut, and a further
five new faces will present their first works in 2003.
Apart from Lee Jeong-hyang, director of the above-mentioned
The Way Home..., another female director highlighted
in this year’s program is Moh Ji-eun with her
romantic comedy A Perfect Match. A young graduate of
the Korean Academy of Film Arts, Moh represents the
newest generation of filmmakers in Korea.
The year 2002 was also notable for the large number of
local films produced and released in theaters - 77 in
total. This was the highest level of production seen in a
decade, and it meant not only increased choice for viewers,
but also more competition at the box office. One
result of this was that revenues were much more evenly
spread than in 2001, when the top films controlled a
larger share of the total box-office.
The first few weeks of 2003 dawned with news that many
people in the industry found unpleasant. Korea’s two
biggest film companies, CJ Entertainment and Cinema
Service, announced plans to merge their filmmaking operations.
With essentially one less major studio in Korean
cinema, and with smaller companies struggling to attract
financing, many expect some shrinkage in the industry for
the coming years, and a return to the past level of 50-60
films produced per year.
In terms of releases, the early part of 2003 featured a
large number of melodramas, and one runaway hit at the
box-office. Like My Sassy Girl in 2001, My Tutor Friend is
a romantic comedy based on a story published on the
internet. It has grossed more than any Korean film
released in 2002, and it has provided the industry with a
well-needed boost to start the new year.
The coming year has a large number of interesting projects
lined up, and these films will have to perform well at
the box-office if Korean cinema is to win back some of its
lost investors. Two mega-projects loom on the horizon:
an $11m Korean war epic (the most expensive Korean
film of all time) shot by Kang Jae-gyu, the director of
Shiri, and a $10m action film by Cinema Service founder
Kang Woo-suk (Public Enemy) about a real incident in the
Seventies in which trained South Korean spies revolted
against their superiors and tried to assassinate dictator
Park Chung-hee.
Other upcoming projects include new works by young
generation filmmakers Kim Jee-woon (The Foul King),
Bong Joon-ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite), E J-yong (An
Affair), Ryu Seung-wan (No Blood No Tears), and Kim Kiduk
(Bad Guy). Despite the increased challenges faced by
Korean cinema in 2003, it appears that young filmmakers
and a few more risks will make for a diverse and interesting
year.
Darcy Paquet