February 19, 2003

Over the past few years, South Korea has emerged as one of the centers of local film production that still thrives in the shadow of Hollywood's global cultural dominance. In contrast to the view that holds that colossus America will stand astride the world and impose its brand on every culture, this industry continues to regularly produce movies worthy of international acclaim.

Now if you haven't noticed that I am a huge fan of the Korean movie My Sassy Girl, then you haven't really been paying attention. But this sweet romantic comedy is in no way an aberration; instead it's just a representative snapshot of what continues to be a vibrant and creative local film industry. In Korea during the year 2002, local productions were still good for raking in 47% of the box office dollars spent, giving Hollywood much less of a toehold here than they have in most countries. Additionally, both local production and attendance seem to be on the increase - 2002 saw 77 Korean films released compared to 65 the previous year, and 107 million tickets were sold to patrons, the highest number since 1973.

The high quality of some of the productions coming out of this country recently have brought the Korean industry to the attention of many film critics and fans across the world. And in fact there is some indication that amongst those who like to imagine themselves as the critical taste setters that it has become a lot trendier today to champion the solid work coming out of Thailand or elsewhere as the "next big thing". But there seems little reason for this kind of flavor-of-the-month critical bias to obscure that the world of Korean film continues to produce great work at an impressive pace. There were a number of Korean films that managed to crack the United States art house circuit during the past year (Lies, Chunyang, Tell Me Something, Nowhere To Hide, et al), and one - The Way Home - was even distributed by Paramount, a major Hollywood studio. At present, both this film and Im Kwon-taek's Chiwaseon are playing on screens in New York City.

Also of note is that four successful Korean films have been optioned for remakes under the Hollywood rubric. One is the aforementioned My Sassy Girl that was picked up by DreamWorks, but in addition MGM has acquired the rights to the martial arts comedy Hi Dharma, Warner Bros. will redo Lee Hyun-seung's Il Mare, and Miramax has captured privileges to My Wife Is a Gangster. Here's hoping the latter film doesn't just get buried for all eternity like certain other interesting Asian projects that Harvey and company have hidden from view, but regardless, this interest in Korean product by some of the global industry's dominant players belies the top notch caliber of the work being done there.

But even beyond the more commercial properties that interest the swarming vultures of Hollywood, Korea's studios continue to crank out notable and interesting projects. There are some directors in the country today who are as accomplished as any working anywhere on the globe; and the industry even seems poised to branch out into areas such as animated film, in which it has yet to make much of a noticeable contribution. A perfect example of this is a recent film by Lee Seong-kang, My Beautiful Girl Mari. Though criticized by some for being too artsy and Miyazaki derived (and, in fact, it did not perform well on a box office basis in its native country), the beauty of the animation seen in this film gives optimism that there remains a very bright future for local attempts at this burgeoning genre. The swirling and colorful style of the graphics demonstrates openly that Korea has the ability to excel internationally in this lively genre and so future efforts in this area should be watched for.

But the cartoon film is hardly the only place where Korean filmmakers can compete. With filmmakers such as Kim Ki-duk, Hur Jin-Ho and Park Ki-yong working, the industry has plenty of talent active in the making of films. Additionally, some of the films that have come out of Korea in the last couple seasons prove just how vivacious this area of the world is when it comes to the creation of exciting work. Just this past year or so brought Kim Tae-gyun's Volcano High (an epic genre hash with heavy Matrix overtones), Moon Seung-wook's Nabi (a shot-on-digital moody sci-fi piece), Jung Jae-eun's Take Care of My Cat (a coming of age story about five young women), Ryoo Seung-wan's No Blood No Tears (a Korean women on the run tale), and Park Chan-Wook's grim Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (a beautifully shot, tragic outing).

But all of the above doesn't even touch on two of the most impressive works that emerged from Korea over the past twelve months. There were two other films that came out in Korea that deserve to be considered as works of world-class caliber: Lee Chang-dong's Oasis and Hong Sang-soo's On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate. The former is a love story between a sweethearted man and a woman with cerebral palsy, making it almost a sort of Korean reverse version of the Hollywood film Pumpkin. However, unlike the tepid and insulting tone of that film Oasis presents its characters in a reflective light that isn't condescending or cloying. One last point of interest here is that the film's director is rumored to soon be named as the Minister of Culture for South Korea, an act that some observers feel will be extremely positive for the industry.

The Turning Gate, on the other hand, is a fairly simple story of an actor and his relationships with those around him. Somewhat (but not overtly) reminiscent of the work of Tsai Ming-liang, this work is certainly not for those looking for smash up excitement in their films. Subtlety and restraint are the order of the day here, as the director chooses to display people and their relationships at a measured, almost languorous pace. The movie is a visual poetry of the commonplace, a filmic universe where the simplest of gestures may take on the weightiest of meanings; here the dance of life is depicted with all its complications intact. But in any case, this stands as a film that is the equal of any made anywhere on the globe during the year 2002 - proving that the country of South Korea is no mere hand maiden when it comes to the creation of first class cinema.

While we undoubtedly live in a world where Hollywood reaches its vast tentacles into local industries all over the world, the example of Korea demonstrates that these appendages have not yet choked the life out of smaller scale operations. In fact, given the preponderance of properties being optioned and the number of Korean films appearing in domestic art houses, one can see that in fact the process of globalization is in no way simply the one-way process that some of its critics may portray. Now, to be sure, the South Koreans have engaged in some governmental protection of cultural product that has helped to keep local flavor intact; but as the focus of the present piece is a celebration of what continues to exist rather than an examination of the complicated processes of a more borderless world, then we'll have to set that point aside for the present time. Regardless of how it has gotten there, the Korean film industry today stands as one of the world's centers of artistic creation in the world of film; both successful commercial properties and art projects of international stature are being made there on a regular basis. Given the impressive number of high quality projects that have emerged in Korea over the past five years, the interested viewer is likely to be well served by keeping at least one eye cocked for whatever excellent work will come forth from this country in the years to come. For today, it seems, there are few countries on the globe that can match the overall quality of cinematic output that is now being created regularly by this roaring Asian tiger.

Special thanks to Darcy Paquet whose excellent Web site on Korean cinema was invaluable to the writing of this piece.