Beyond Asia

South Korean movies even surpass Hollywood movies

By Kwangsu An

Do you know what “Hanryu” is? Hanryu (or Hallyu) is the Korean wave which refers to the popularity of South Korean popular culture in other Asian countries. The “Hanryu” or Korean wave began with the export of Korean TV dramas such as Winter Sonata across East and Southeast Asia; The growing success of Korean drama was shortly matched in the fields of movies and popular music. Korean movies are especially successful not only between Asia countries but also the other continents. At the 2007 Santa Barbara Film Festival several Korean movies (The King and The Crown, The Host, and so on) were screened. Now, this Korean cultural wave has spread beyond Asia.

From the late 1990s until now, South Korea has been one of the few countries where domestic movies are more popular than Hollywood movies. The film Shiri (1999) was the first in Korean history to sell more than 2 million tickets in Seoul alone. It surpassed the famous Hollywood movies such as Titanic and The Matrix. In 2000, the film JSA (Joint Security Area) and in 2001 the film Friend even surpassed the remarkable record of Shiri. In the same year, the box-office record of the romantic comedy film My Sassy Girl exceeded the record of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which was screened at the same time. This trend continued until 2004. The film Silmido and Taegukgi (The Brotherhood of war) were both watched by more than 10 million people, which is a quarter of the Korean population. But this outstanding box-office record were surpassed in a short time by The King and The Crown in 2005 and The Host in 2006. Besides, even though it couldn’t exceed those striking record, the film Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005) was one of the wonderful movies.

Unfortunately and also naturally, there were many criticisms about limited materials and a copying doubt of the Hollywood movie. Concerning the material, undoubtedly many Korean movies handled Korean’s political and social situation. The film Shiri is about a spy from North Korea and Silmido is about a secret special force to attack North Korea, based on a true story. Moreover, Taegukgi and Welcome to Dongmakgol tell the story of the Korean War. However, it is a self-evident truth that cultural production, not only movies, is a result of the expression of one nation’s identity, and that indicates who the nation’s people are. The problem is how many nonnative Koreans can understand that typical history and Korean’s own feeling. How many people know that Shiri means a divided country? How many people shed tears while watching JSA? Inevitably, those Korean movies didn’t win over foreigners, even though they were incredibly successful in Korea.

One fortunate thing is that, notwithstanding these criticisms, the cinema industry of Korea has developed diverse stories. The most successful example is the sequence film My wife is a Gangster (2001) and My Sassy Girl. Moreover, although the Korean movie was criticized bscause it was a copy of a Hollywood movie, now many Hollywood firms bought and buy the right to remake the Korean movies such as Il Mare (remade as The Lake House), Oldboy, My Sassy Girl, and JSA. In addition, Dreamworks paid $2 million for the right to remake the suspense thriller film Janghwa, Hongryeon (2003), and this topped the 1$ million paid for the Japanese movie The Ring. Still, the problem is how many people can aware that the completely remade Hollywood movie is Korean movie, to tell the truth.

I remember that when I was junior-high student, about 20 years ago, Hong Kong films were hugely popular in Korea, and then many teenager imitated Hong Kong movie stars costumes and hairstyles. In other words, selling cultural productions means penetrating into the subject of the country and their culture. Yes, needless to say, it is harder than selling cars, and also it demands more responsibility for our culture. What we need is to try to sell our culture with high responsibility and pride, not to try to earn big money.

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