"I'm meeting you again, I'm Shen Lin. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Thank you again for your support, "33 Days of Broken Love" has been released with a score of 454 million, thank you so much!"

"Okay, without further ado, let's start today's topic, why are Korean movies so abrupt!"

"Let's briefly introduce Korean films, Korean films were like that from the beginning, affected by Japanese aggression, the Korean War, domestic turmoil and institutional constraints in the early days, the development of the film industry was relatively slow. Until 1999, marked by the second revision of the "Film Promotion Act" and the establishment of the Korean Film Promotion Committee, the film industry rose rapidly, with a compound growth rate of 24.3% at the total box office from 1999 to 2004, and after 2004, the film market tended to mature and the box office grew steadily, with an annual box office of $1.09 billion in 2010, becoming one of the world's major film markets. ”

"If we look through the history of Korean cinema, we can see that there are several landmark events that accelerated the rise of Korean cinema: the shift from censorship to classification in 1998, the skinhead movement in 1999, and the mass demonstrations in the film industry in 2006. At present, the better film genres in South Korea can be divided into dramas, horror films, and crime films. The advantage of the classification system is that different types of films can be developed in an all-round way, which is not only conducive to stimulating the creativity of film directors, but also conducive to the diversification of the film market.

Before the classification system, all films had to be censored, and works that were slightly not in line with "political correctness" either could not be released or were deleted beyond recognition, and naturally there would be no "Memories of Murder" that allowed the murderer to get away with it due to the police's own reasons and the general situation.

The skinhead movement is a demonstration launched by South Koreans to protest against the opening of foreign film quotas after South Korea's accession to the WTO. Hundreds of South Korean directors, well-known directors and movie fans staged a sit-in protest in Seoul State Hall, Gwanghwamun Gate and other places by shaving their heads.

Under extreme pressure, the South Korean government decided to continue the ScreenQuota policy (i.e., the film quota system) and insist on 146 domestic film screening days a year to counter the onslaught of Hollywood. Then, in 2006, because Han Zheng cut the number of local film screenings to more than 70 days a year, it caused a riot again!

The film "Flying the Flag of Tai Chi," which caused a sensation in South Korea, has grossed more than $78 million worldwide, but only $550,000 in the United States, of which 77 million have been contributed by local audiences. This means that even in the face of richer Hollywood blockbusters, Koreans are more inclined to local films, and they have always maintained a passion for watching movies that are unique to the landscape.

Koreans have always pursued the principle of "self-in-land", which means that they should "put themselves first" and support their own country's things. Secretly, it is illegal to pirate Chinese films in South Korea, but pirating films from other countries is not illegal! But it is precisely because of this almost stubborn support that Korean films show strong competition. ”

With "Life and Death" as a turning point, dozens of high-quality films such as "Taiji Flag Flying", "The King's Man" and "Shiwei Island" have successively opened the era of unimaginable single films exceeding 10 million viewers in the history of Korean films. According to data released by the Korea Film Promotion Council, in 2010, 112.92 million Koreans watched domestic movies, accounting for 52% of the box office, surpassing the 104.35 million people who watched foreign movies, or 48% of the box office. This is also the fifth consecutive year that the number of viewers of Korean domestic films has surpassed that of foreign films.

You must know that the total population of South Korea is only more than 50 million. I have to admit that both in terms of quality and box office, Korean films have risen.

As many people know, I also said in the last issue when I talked about HK movies that the Korean market was completely the backyard of HK movies in the 60s and 70s! The prosperity of Korean films did not happen overnight. It also had a single plot and a lack of innovation in the past. After a long process of development, it has gradually established a mature film industry system of its own. ”

"Many enthusiastic netizens learned that I would talk about Korean movies in this issue, and specially sent me private messages to explain five reasons. 1. Stable social situation; 2. Resist the pressure of the American Film Export Association and adhere to the screen quota system of 146 days of domestic film screening days (reduced to 73 days after 2006); 3. Completely change the film system from censorship to classification; 4. Establish the "Korea Film Promotion Council", a semi-non-governmental and semi-official organization supported by the government, with the market as the leading factor and respect for the self-discipline of the film industry; 5. With economic support, films have become the key objects of government support. ”

This netizen seems to be a loyal viewer of Korean movies, and he is also very familiar with the relevant history of Korean movies. ”

"But I also want to say that the driving force of external factors is far less than the decisive role of internal factors, the simplest example, the three countries of Argentina, where the film industry is very developed, also have a censorship system, in addition, many countries have also formulated a similar film quota system This kind of protection policy, our country also has a domestic film protection month!

Politics, culture, economics and other external roles can be icing on the cake, but if you really want to have a spring of dead wood, you need to rely on more internal things.

In the middle of Seoul, near the famous business district of Myeongdong, there is a street with a total length of less than two kilometers called Chungmuro. Since the 60s of the last century, it has been bustling here for many years, and out of Song Kang-ho, Xue Kyung-gu and Choi Min-sik, who are known as the "troika" of South Korea's Chungmuro acting school, popular students Lee Jun-gi and Lee Min-ho, as well as well-known directors Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, Kang Di-gyu, etc. Similarly, Chungmuro, known as South Korea's "Hollywood", has also witnessed the change in the direction of Korean films from a downturn to a glamorous reappearance. ”

"Audiences who pay attention to major film festivals may know that South Korea has produced many famous filmmakers in recent years, such as Bong Junhao, who filmed "Memories of Murder" and "Mother", and Jiang Digui, whose masterpieces "Life and Death Spy" and "Taiji Flag Flying", the blasting expert invited by Director Feng to shoot "Assembly Number" was "Taiji Flag Flying" crew; The most famous is Kim Ki-duk, an award-winning professional at major international film festivals, especially the Venice Film Festival, where this guy has been nominated for Best Film for four times; Lee Chang-dong is also a director of a very high standard and has won the Best Director at the Venice Film Festival; Park Chan-wook, a master of violent aesthetics, a crime film director, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with "Old Boy"; plus Kwak Jae-yong, Luo Hongzhen, Kang Hyung-chul, Xu Qinhao, Guo Jingze, Jin Zhiyun and so on, although the Korean market is not large, the demeanor of famous directors is not weaker than that in China, and even far exceeds that of domestic directors!"

At this point, Shen Lin had already said a bunch of people's names.

It also roughly tells the history of Korean cinema, and then gets to the point.

"I'll start with my opinion, I think the genius of Korean filmmakers is that they are really good at storytelling! The Korean film industry pursues the principle of "the book of a drama", where Korean directors write their own screens and then put their own works on the screen. Therefore, in the process of transforming a film from written language to audiovisual language, the director can complete a more accurate grasp. Moreover, there are endless new directors in the Korean film industry, and the competition is very fierce, once the first film is smashed, it is difficult to find investors, and in this regard, generally a work will grind for several years!"

"Korean films have developed to the present, and they initially adhered to the 'take-it-or-leave-it' doctrine and imitated Hollywood. This method seems to be a shortcut, but if it can't be improved from the surface to the inside, it will either break out in "plagiarism" or perish in "plagiarism". If you watch Korean movies in recent years, it is not difficult to find that Korean directors are not just imitating, they will absorb the advantages of foreign blockbusters, carry out localization transformation, emphasize telling their own stories in their own words, understand the audience's psychology and create resonance.

is like the crime film "Chaser", which absorbed the image of American heroes and gangsters of HK, but broke the rules of the police's "three views to be correct", and "de-heroized" the mainstream so-called decency. Although "Monster of the Han River" is not as good as films such as "Jurassic Park", it has excellent performance from the image of the monster, action design to plot design. "Uncle" can be called the Korean version of "Spy Shadows", the plot is not new, and the level of photography and editing is not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters.

Korean filmmakers also try to focus on the clever conception of the story as much as possible, and 'go off the beaten path', such as "Rapid Scandal" and "Wolf Boy", whose stories are both fresh and interesting, and very 'down-to-earth'. Whether it is in terms of genre mixing or plot innovation, Korean movies have long broken away from lame imitations and gradually become more proficient, even better than Hollywood in some places.

"The Korean film industry has so far maintained a reverence for creation, and a look at the resumes of Korean directors shows that they either came from top film schools or have a mentor-apprentice relationship. In South Korea, if you want to become a director halfway, it is not easy, and most people have to start by working as an assistant to a big director and doing chores on the set.

This is just the opposite in our country, many singers can change careers to become directors!

I guess some people will scold me when it comes to this, saying that I am also a writer and a director, I want to defend myself, I stayed with Director Feng's crew for half a year, and spent several years on the set in Hollywood, will I tell you?

Back to the topic, let's talk about the Korean directors.

To give a few examples, Lee Yong-joo, the director of "Introduction to Architecture", graduated from the major in architecture, and after failing to apply for film school twice in a row, he entered the crew of "Memories of Murder" Bong Joon-ho for two years before he started filming. "Secret and Great" director Jang Cheol-so studied art design at university, and when he studied in Japan in 2002, he saw Kim Ki-duk's "Drifting Bathroom", so he returned to China to be his assistant director, and eight years later, Jang Cheol-so directed his debut "The Beginning and End of Kim Bok-nam's Murder".

For example, Chung-Ang University's Graduate School of Advanced Imaging requires students to shoot four short films during their studies and meet at least one of the following conditions in order to graduate: at least one of them must be shortlisted for three major film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, or win awards at film festivals in Busan, Tokyo, Shanghai, etc., or be able to shoot a feature film that will be screened in theaters!

The Korea Academy of Cinematic Arts (KAFA) is South Korea's "film military academy", which has produced many well-known directors, Park Chan-wook and Kim Tae-tae are full-time professors here, and the school requires students to shoot two short films in their first year, in addition, to complete a feature film script at the end of the semester, and of course, excellent students are also recommended to film companies to participate in larger commercial productions.

Not everyone is so lucky, even if someone has been an assistant director for 10 years, they may not get a chance to make a film. Most of the first films directed by newcomers start with a small cost, and high-quality films show a trend of properly controlled production costs, focusing on narrative rather than visual effects, and emphasizing powerful actors rather than stars who are suitable for the role, which can resonate with the audience!"

"The most commendable thing about Korean cinema is that it has the characteristics of a mature industrial system: art and commerce develop in parallel, and this performance is ultimately due to the fact that the film industry is constantly maturing and improving, and directors pay equal attention to artistic pursuit and commercial operation, so as to achieve a balance between artistic level and commercial value. Behind the Korean commercial genre films, you will see the consideration of human nature and the satire of social coldness. The pursuit of independent films will not be lost because of the industrialization of the film system. On the other hand, in our works, commercial films win the box office and lose word of mouth, or they only focus on art and do not look at business, and they are not popular.

"To take the simplest example, "Memories of Murder", released in 2003, was filmed from a plain and cold perspective, showing the social background of the 1980s, and the work has no bad sense of heaviness. In other words, the film has both the structure of a commercial film and a deep reflection!"

"Part of the credit for the integration of business and art in the film is due to the fact that South Korea has a large number of professional actors such as Song Kang-ho and Yoo Ah-in. Their remuneration accounts for less than a quarter of the total production cost, and China, on the contrary, takes care of one or the other, spending most of the money on celebrities, and the more important post-production such as art and special effects is certainly not satisfactory. There is no clear line between commercial and art films. 'The most important thing about a movie is to tell a story about human nature. This is also the principle that Korean directors have always adhered to, on the basis of telling qualified stories, and then pursuing special effects, and finally not forgetting to throw a heavy punch to the society. ”

"Do people still think that our movies are better than Korean movies? If you have to talk about box office results, then I really don't have anything to say!"

"In fact, in the 80s, the whole environment of our country was still very open, and the censorship system was not so strict. In the past two years, the ideological control has become tighter and tighter. To give a slightly inappropriate example, in 1999, the domestic version of "Titanic" was uncut. Ghost stories can't even pass censorship, and the General Administration doesn't allow ghosts to appear in movies, so all the ghost movies made in China are ghost movies without ghosts!"

"Another point is that Korean films seem to be very commercial, but the details of people's business are particularly in place, and the lens language is also very detailed. The actors also have a large number of old drama bones, and it is difficult not to praise such a movie, such as "Shiwei Island". There is no small fresh meat, and the leading actors, who are over 35 years old on average, have stubbornly held up a piece of the sky. Look at the domestic movies again, the movies produced have no details, the lens is the eye, and the audience will not think about something deeper after seeing this shot!"