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Since the beginning of the year, the promotion of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between South Korea and the United States has reached an impasse again, and the United States has said that this move seriously violates the spirit of free trade on the issue of domestic film quotas in South Korea, while the South Korean government has firmly expressed its hope that this can be regarded as a "cultural exception"!

Domestic opposition has forced the South Korean government to take a tough stance on the US demands, which is also South Korea's consistent attitude towards foreign countries, such as the FTA signed with Singapore and other countries, which is led by the South Korean side. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The public is also optimistic about the government's toughness, and the signing of the FTA involves all aspects. Behind the zero-tariff preferential policy, it is usually accompanied by the risk of industrial structure reform, one is not good, it may lead to the collapse of the industrial base, and the people believe that the government will continue to be tough for the national economy.

When domestic filmmakers and production companies were immersed in the glory of Korean films, and were still dreaming in the bubble built up by the film quota system, a few months later, in order to speed up the formal negotiations between South Korea and the United States FTA, the government did not hesitate to sell the film industry!

On January 26, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Han Deok-so issued a statement: "In order to cooperate with the smooth implementation of the South Korea-US FTA (Free Trade Agreement) negotiations, the National Assembly has decided to reduce the film quota system from 146 days to 73 days...... As compensation, the government will subsidize 400 billion won to support film shooting, restart the 5% surtax on theaters, and set up a special fund to train filmmakers ......"

On the morning of the 26th, this statement issued by the Ministry of Finance and Economy of South Korea completely turned the calm film circle upside down.

Here, we need to understand the history of the transformation of Korean films, and then we can understand that these two pieces of news are a blow to the weaknesses of Korean films.

The reason why the diffusion scope and influence of Korean films have gradually surpassed those of Japan and Hong Kong in recent years lies in the two changes.

The first change was the 1998 film classification system, which outlawed the decades-long censorship system that ruled South Korea almost like the military junta.

It was also from this day that the clarion call for the revival of Korean films was sounded, and many themes that were impossible to shoot before began to be launched, so in the following years, the box office myth "Life and Death", "Friends", which became a classic of Asian film history, and the thought-provoking "Joint Security Area".

But if there is a change that really pushed Korean films onto the highway of development, it was in 1999, the "skinhead movement" that shocked the whole country and was launched by thousands of filmmakers.

In 1998, when South Korea and the United States held trade talks on joining the WTO, the vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America for the Asia-Pacific region visited the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea, and proposed: "If the Korean government eases the current film quota system, we will invest $500 million to build comprehensive multiplex theaters in major cities." ”

Starting with this proposal, the subsequent trade talks, the US side also included the abolition of the quota system as a condition for negotiations, just as it did when it conquered European films, and in the words of director Kang Di-gyu, he felt that "Korean films are going to die"!

As a result, filmmakers in despair, starting from the female director Lin Shunli in November 1998, have cut their ambitions and staged a sit-in protest in front of Guanghua Gate, until June 1999, the number of directors who cut their hair has grown to 250, and the number of sit-in protesters has grown to thousands, a total of 32 groups.

The protests continued until June 24, when the growing ranks of protesters finally drew government intervention and thousands of people clashed with armed police. On that day, the filmmakers shouted in front of the media to start a ** protest, which won strong support from the people in a decisive way. On that day, a delegation of filmmakers arrived in the United States and presented their opinions and positions on Korean films to the Motion Picture Association of America, which put the Motion Picture Association of America in a passive position.

Also on the same day, Lim Kwon-taek, the "Godfather of Korean Cinema", who was the Minister of Culture and Tourism at the time and has always played the role of a bridge between the government and filmmakers, and Professor Kim Hee-jae, who was the leading figure of filmmakers at the time, and then the vice president of Seoul Central University and the teaching director of the film department, finally became disappointed with the government's mediation after the conflict between the filmmakers and the police, joined the hair-cutting team and shaved his head!

The campaign ended with the victory of the filmmakers, with Kim Dae-jung's government promising not to abolish the film quota system and maintain a 146-day mandatory release period for local films.

Now, 7 years later. It seems that the war is about to start again!

As the overall quality of movies decreased throughout last year, the economic situation at the box office was getting worse and worse. Until the 26th, the government's additional tax conditions to "appease" filmmakers issued a fatal blow!

On February 1, 2006, the fourth day of the first lunar month of the Lunar New Year, filmmakers who had been silent for many days finally took action.

In last year's online vote, Ahn Sung-ki, a "national actor" who was considered by the South Korean people to be the most suitable to be a member of the National Assembly, hurriedly ended his cooperation with Andy Lau in China (ink attack) and returned to China. This dignified-looking and imposing actor, after returning to China to understand the situation a little, he immediately contacted his friends and juniors in the circle, and on February 1, he established the "Filmmaker Countermeasures Committee for Sticking to the Film Quota"!

Then, while the organization made a plan for demonstrations, it also contacted more film actors to join it through the members it currently recruits, and quickly expanded its scale!

For most filmmakers, An Shengji is probably the savior in their eyes now, and the filmmaker's actions are finally about to blow the horn! Many people think of the "skinhead movement" in 1999 that shook the country and saved the Korean film industry, and it makes people's blood boil when they think about it!

In the same way, An Shengji did not live up to the expectations of these people, and the "Die-hard Committee" was established on February 1, and on the afternoon of February 2, the committee decided to launch a demonstration on February 8 through the selection of opinions from various parties. However, Ahn Sung-ki felt that the protest was like marching to war, and that the troops should be swift, so he privately advanced the march plan to February 4.

When many people optimistically estimated that the filmmakers would repeat the grand occasion of 1999 and shock the Chinese people again, reality gave them a heavy blow on the second day of An Shengji's march.

In an interview with the media during the demonstration, when asked by the media why he took the second baton and what he thought about the impact of the quota reduction on Korean films, he said happily: "I don't have any opinion, Ahn Sung-ki asked me to come, he is my senior!" ”

"Poof~" An Yuxi, who was drinking strawberry milk, squirted out in one gulp, making the guy on TV look confused, is this guy invited by the monkey to tease?

Don't think about it, An Yuxi turned off the TV directly, such a pig-like teammate, it is simply a farce to stick to something, and he can't make much waves, he originally wanted to see the grand occasion of the legendary "bald head movement", but when he saw the previous information, he was still enthusiastic.

Prior to this, Ahn Woo-seo also saw their so-called invitation letter - the letter was very concise, just expounding the original intention of the organization's establishment, its current and future responsibilities, and calling on him to join the team to work hard for the survival of Korean film and Korean culture.

If it was 1999, when a committee was set up by Kang Di-gyu and Lim Kwon-taek, how could such loose regulations be made, and how could artists be given so much freedom, in that era, all filmmakers would either join the protest team and fight for the future, or get out of this circle!

It is with such courage and the spur of being cornered that filmmakers can unite like never before, clash with the police, and single-handedly create a shocking team of thousands of bald heads!

Since they want to defend to the death, they don't even have the courage to kidnap people into chariots, and when the parade is really held later, how can they forcibly twist the inside into a ball and unanimously turn it out to the outside?

Sure enough, the atmosphere of the demonstration that Ahn Sung-ki painstakingly rendered on February 4 was almost turned into a farce by his answer, the so-called sworn resistance, the so-called slogan of stubbornly adhering to Korean culture, just started to shout, and before it began to exert its power, it was turned into a joke by his "I don't know, it was Ahn Sungji who asked me to come", and there was no serious atmosphere, and the "tragedy" of the bald movement that An Yuxi wanted also came to an abrupt end!

Park Joong-hoon's words, after being said in a morning interview, quickly became the target of media ridicule and caused netizens to besiege it on the Internet.

"Is there no one for Korean movies? Today, when I saw a newspaper comparing this march to the 1999 skinhead movement, I suddenly felt that I couldn't laugh or cry when I heard Park Joong-hoon's words. ”

"These filmmakers shouted loudly, but in fact, it was not for Korean movies and Korean culture at all, besides. Why do those actors make a lot of money and drive foreign sports cars, but they oppose us watching foreign movies? ”

The original silence was suddenly broken on this day, but unlike the initial estimate of the Death Guard Committee, the people did not stand on their side, but vented their anger on them because of Park Joong-hoon's words.

The third stick is the popular actor Zhang Dongjian, but unfortunately he only appeared for 3 minutes, turning the movement into a farce completely.

The rigid-a-stick committees are once again on the cusp of the storm, and the farce has spread from sticking to the film quota to all aspects to a jaw-dropping degree.

Later, the Rigidity Committee formulated a second ** plan, perhaps enough of the lessons of the first two times, this time the stroke will be much bigger, not only An Shengji himself, that day, many film and television superstars in South Korea who are still staying in China, such as Kim Hee-sun, Cha Tae-hyun, Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, etc., a total of more than 100 star actors gathered in front of the filmmakers' holy place "Gwanghwamen", and held a "Filmmakers Conference to Prevent Cultural Aggression and Stick to the Film Quota", and several main actors who were filming "The King's Man" also had to participate, Otherwise, it will leave a bad impression on the seniors, the future is worrying, and Li Junyi has no choice, so his plan is once again stranded, and once the crew moves, it will cost a huge amount of money!

In the time that followed, every day in the newspapers, on TV, on the Internet, as long as it was a public opinion platform, there was a mess, fans of artists and opponents scolded each other, artists and the media scolded each other, and the media scolded each other, and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a statement every day to discuss various countermeasures to appease the filmmakers.

In short, in February 2006, South Korea was so lively that it was like another New Year.

Hollywood!

A few months later, this piece of pure land, which is barely maintained, will repeat the tragedy of European films, and will begin to face the impact of Hollywood blockbusters.

In fact, this is also what An Yuxi is willing to see, because only after the change, the old film system collapses, and new things have a chance to emerge.

It just so happened that they seized the opportunity.