The past 12 months have been a time in which politics, history, and economics have all played a particularly central role in the Korean film industry. Three to four years ago, most press coverage of the film industry focused on its commercial growth. But now perceptions of the film industry appear to be shifting. As the narrative of the commercially powerful local industry that dominates its home market, and wins over fans abroad, has started to wear thin, conversation about the film industry is now more likely to focus on its contributions to Korea’s social and political sphere. These days, the image of a commercially successful film director is not just someone who earns a lot of money, but someone who – like Choi Dong-hoon with Assassination or Yoon Je-gyun with Ode to My Father – starts a national conversation on a certain topic. Meanwhile, lighthearted films and lighthearted talk about the film industry are on the decline. These are serious times for Korean cinema.
Admittedly, social and political issues have always been close to the surface in Korean films. In a country that over the last century has experienced colonisation, war, national division, dictatorship, and a turbulent transition to democracy, this is inevitable. But the current political climate in Korea is particularly divisive and harsh. Specifically, the sense of gloom and trauma which fell over the country in the wake of the April 2014 Sewol ferry disaster, which claimed the lives of hundreds of students, has yet to lift. The belief that Korean society is a corrupt and unfair system, where the powerful pursue their own interests at the expense of everyone else, finds expression in many contemporary Korean films.
One among many relevant examples is the political/crime drama Inside Men, which opened in November and enjoyed broad commercial success on a scale that nobody expected. The story centres around three representative figures: an ambitious prosecutor (Cho Seung-woo) whose career is blocked by his lack of connections; a minor gangster (Lee Byung-hun) who vows to get revenge on the politician who betrayed him; and a powerful newspaper editor (Baek Yoon-sik) who plays the role of kingmaker in local politics. This film by director Woo Min-ho resonated strongly with the frustration and cynicism of the mainstream public, leading to extremely positive word of mouth. Despite its strong content and 19+ rating, the 130-minute film sold a massive 7 million tickets, and was then released in an extended 181-minute version that sold an additional 2 million tickets. No 19+ rated Korean film has ever sold that many tickets.
Inside Men may have been a unique box office phenomenon, but the basic concept of a bloodied underdog attempting to bring a member of the country’s financial or political elite to justice has been replayed countless times in recent Korean films. Other examples include the prison drama A Violent Prosecutor (9.7 million admissions), legal drama The Advocate: A Missing Body (1.1 million admissions), and Ryoo Seung-wan’s Veteran, the top grossing film of 2015, in which a steely police detective (Hwang Jung-min) starts a feud with the arrogant son of a business tycoon (Yoo Ah-in).
The mainstream press has also come under the microscope in recent films. After the biased and often incompetent press coverage of the Sewol tragedy drew widespread public condemnation, the role of journalists and media companies in shaping the national conversation has received more attention than ever. One film that takes a poignant look at how media hysteria can grow out of hand is The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo, the second feature by director Roh Deok. The story of a reporter who breaks a sensational story that quickly spins out of control, The Exclusive provides a particularly vivid look at the inner dynamics of today’s media.
Yet of all the recent trends in contemporary Korean cinema, the one that most stands out relates to 20th-century history. In a turn of events that few industry observers predicted, an unprecedented number of films set in the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945) have been released, or are currently in production.
This is surprising because traditionally, this has been a historical era that filmmakers have preferred to avoid. The colonisation was a harsh and authoritarian project which involved Japanese authorities assuming complete control over the Korean economy and public life, with the stated end goal of forcing Koreans to give up their native culture. By the end of the colonial period, use of the Korean language was restricted and Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names.
The colonial period remains a painful topic, in part because the Korean elites who were seen as collaborating with Japanese rule were allowed to retain their wealth and influence by US administrators in the post-war years. In 2005, the makers of the ambitious biopic Blue Swallow, about Korea’s first female airplane pilot, were harshly criticized by some angry netizens who claimed (unfairly, in many critics’ opinions) that the film was celebrating the career of a collaborator. Given these sorts of ideological minefields, why bother setting a film in a time period that evokes nothing but subjugation and misery for contemporary audiences?
It was Choi Dong-hoon’s star-studded Assassination that emerged as the first contemporary Korean film set in the colonial era to enjoy major commercial success. Starring Gianna Jun Ji-hyun, Ha Jung-woo, Lee Jung-jae and many other recognisable stars, the film centered around Korean independence fighters plotting to assassinate a Japanese military figure and a rich Korean collaborator. The film, which sold 12.7 million tickets (ranking as the eigth best-selling film of all time in Korea) quickly became the talk of the nation and led to a revival of interest in the colonial period, and the Korean independence movement, which was largely based in Manchuria (now Northeast China) and China.
Multiple other films set in the colonial era also reached screens in 2015, and they were among the more creative and interesting efforts of the year. Lee Hae-young’s genre-bender The Silenced is set in 1938 at a remote girls’ boarding school where the school administration is hiding something sinister. The film drew particular praise for its young cast, including lead Park Bo-young (Scandal Makers) and breakout young star Park So-dam (The Priests). Meanwhile, Park Hoon-jung’s third feature The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale features Oldboy star Choi Min-sik as a grizzled tiger hunter who gets caught up in a massive, destructive hunt ordered by a Japanese administrator. Packed with symbolism, the film’s tiger represents both nature, which is in conflict with modern development, and something of the native spirit of Korea.
Two lower-budget films from early 2016 that tackled particularly serious topics related to the colonial era also captured significant attention from the public. Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet centers around the famous Korean poet Yoon Dongju, who attended university in Japan, and died in prison after being accused of supporting independence efforts. The first low-budget production by King and the Clown director Lee Joon-ik sold an impressive one million tickets and earned critical praise for capturing the essence of the complicated and painful relationship between Korea and Japan.
Meanwhile, Cho Jung-rae’s Spirits Homecoming, about the “comfort women” who were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese army during the second world war, became a box office sensation with three million tickets sold. Interest in the film was undoubtedly heightened by a recent development in which the South Korean and Japanese governments reached a settlement on the comfort women’s longstanding calls for a public apology. Nonetheless the government never consulted the survivors themselves, who denounced the deal amidst a public outcry.
Looking ahead, the trend of films set in the colonial era is set to continue for at least the next couple years. In addition to numerous mid-sized productions, three of Korea’s best known directors are jumping into the ring: Park Chan-wook (whose novel adaptation The Handmaiden is nearing completion), Kim Jee-woon (whose Secret Agent, scheduled for the fall, stars Song Kang-ho in a story about 1920s independence fighters), and Ryoo Seung-wan (whose Battleship Island, about 400 Koreans who attempt to escape a 1930s labour camp, is scheduled for next year).
A final trend that continues to have a major impact on the film industry is the increasing level of cooperation with China. For the moment, there is a strong mutual interest on the part of the South Korean and Chinese film industries to work together. China sees in South Korea a highly developed and successful commercial industry from which it can learn a lot about production technique, storytelling, marketing, and the technical aspects of filmmaking. South Korean filmmakers, on their part, are attracted by the size of the Chinese audience, significantly higher pay, and the opportunity to find a place within an emerging filmmaking powerhouse.
That said, effective co-operation is not an easy thing to pull off. Misunderstandings and disagreements have led to the collapse of numerous co-productions. Even when such issues are smoothed out, it is rare to find a story that seamlessly blends elements of both cultures. In this sense the comic drama Making Family, about a Korean boy who discovers that his sperm donor father is an artist living in China, represents a small but unusually successful instance of cooperation. The film stars Korean actress Kim Ha-neul and Chinese actor/singer Aarif Rahman.
Amidst the general overall trend towards serious films on weighty topics, there have been very few lighthearted comedies to be found at the Korean box office. Perhaps the one comedy of the past 12 months to stir up significant word of mouth was Wonderful Nightmare by director Kang Hyo-jin. Romantic comedy veteran Uhm Jung-hwa stars as a rich, ruthless single lawyer who, after an untimely accident and a bureaucratic mix-up in heaven, finds herself transposed into the life of a harried mother of two teenagers. Although it’s not hard to predict where the film is going to end, strong performances all around and a clever, well-crafted screenplay helped the film to hang on at the box office far longer than anyone expected.
By the numbers, one can certainly say that 2015 was a strong year. For the fifth year in a row, overall box-office admissions (including both Korean and international films) set a new record. The total of 217.3 million tickets works out to an annual average of 4.3 films per citizen, which is believed to be the highest in the world. Although Korean films now occupy a slightly smaller percentage of the pie compared to a few years ago (local market share in 2015 was 52 per cent), the fact that the pie keeps growing means that money keeps flowing into the film industry.
Yet these days, it’s the quality and originality of Korean films that concerns observers more than their profitability. Particularly compared to the more freewheeling era of a decade ago, current films feel more predictable and conventional in their storytelling, casting and cinematic style. The filmmaking system has developed into such an efficient machine that proven formulas, rather than creative and crazy ideas, have a much easier time attracting finance. That said, it’s still possible for unusual and surprising films to occasionally slip through the cracks. This year’s case in point is Sori: Voice from the Heart, a film about a US spy satellite with artificial intelligence that intentionally crashes to Earth and ends up helping a grief-stricken father look for his lost daughter. Although not a box-office hit, it charmed critics with its unexpected narrative touches and its heartwarming but realistic message.
Observers have also been paying attention to some efforts to develop alternative filmmaking models that might support more creativity. One that has attracted both praise and criticism is CGV Arthouse, a division of Korea’s leading multiplex chain which is also owned by its largest distributor, CJ Entertainment. CGV Arthouse locates itself in the middle of mainstream commercial cinema and low-budget independent film. Although in some cases it has helped independent filmmakers to shoot films on a slightly larger scale and reach a larger audience, in other cases it has produced works that are essentially mainstream genre films, but made in a way to give more creative space to the director. Two relevant examples of the latter include Coin Locker Girl, a hard-edged drama starring Kim Hye-soo that screened in Cannes’ Critics Week last year, and Fatal Intuition, a smart thriller by sophomore director Yun Jun-hyeong that was warmly received by audiences during its fall release.
Yet it remains true that directors enjoy the most freedom when working on low-budget projects set up outside of the mainstream system. One particularly exciting debut from early 2016 was by director Yoon Ga-eun, who had already made a name for herself in the preceding years with award-winning short films. The World of Us is an intimate portrait of an ostracized young girl who becomes friends with a troubled student who moves into her neighborhood. With surprisingly solid acting and a well-observed story, the film is sure to linger in the memory of its viewers.
Fourth Place, a feature by veteran director Jung Ji-woo (Happy End, Eun-Gyo) was one of the highlights of the 2015 Busan International Film Festival. Produced by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, the film considers various issues around education and abuse as it relates to a young swimmer and his overbearing coach.
Finally, this year marks the directorial debut of an actor who will be familiar to many fans of Korean cinema. Cho Jae-hyun, a regular collaborator of Kim Ki-duk’s in films like Crocodile (1996), Bad Guy (2002) and Mobius (2013), proves to have an instinctual talent for character and storytelling in his film A Break Alone, about a married man who continues to obsess over a woman from his past. Starring Park Hyuk-kwon and Yoon Joo, the film has a style and rhythm that is all its own.
Looking ahead to the coming year or two, Korean film fans can look forward to some major works from the abovementioned Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee-woon, and Ryoo Seung-wan, as well as the highly anticipated mystery thriller Gokseong from Na Hong-jin, which opens in Korea this May. Leading director Bong Joon-ho is also preparing the highly ambitious global project Okja for 2017.
But given the huge numbers of films currently in production or development, we can also expect some lower-profile surprises to emerge. While it’s true that the average Korean film has become more predictable in recent times, the fact that so many films continue to be made is one of the industry’s strengths. It also makes it more likely that an unexpected discovery will turn up out of nowhere.
Darcy Paquet