"I'm meeting you guys again, I'm Chen Lin."

"Thank you again for your support. "33 Days of Love Break" has been downgraded with a score of 454 million. Thank you!"

"Okay, let's not talk much, let's start today's topic, why does Korean movies emerge so suddenly!"

"Let me introduce Korean movies briefly. Korean movies were like that at the beginning. In the early days, affected by Japanese invasion, Korean War, domestic turmoil and institutional constraints, the film industry developed relatively slowly. Until 1999, marked by the second revision of the "Film Revitalization Law" and the establishment of the Korean Film Revitalization Committee, the film industry rose rapidly, with a compound growth rate of 24.3% from 1999 to 2004. After 2004, the film market became mature and the box office grew steadily. The annual box office in 2010 was US$1.09 billion, becoming one of the world's major film markets."

"When we look at the history of Korean films, we can find that several iconic events accelerate the rise of Korean films: the film censorship system changed to rating system in 1998, the bald movement in 1999, and the large-scale demonstrations in the film industry in 2006. At present, the better types of films in South Korea can be divided into drama films, horror films, and criminal films. The advantage of the rating system is that different types of films can be fully developed, which is not only conducive to stimulating the creativity of film directors, but also conducive to the diversification of the film market.

Before the hierarchy system, all films need to be censored. Works that are slightly inconsistent with "political correctness" will either not be released or deleted and modified beyond recognition. Naturally, there will be no story like "Memories of Murder" that makes the murderer get away with the police due to their own reasons and the overall situation.

The Bald Head Movement is a demonstration launched by South Korean people to protest against South Korea's opening of foreign film quotas after joining the WTO. Hundreds of South Korean directors, well-known directors and fans sat in protest in Seoul National Hall, Guanghua Gate and other places through shaving their heads.

Under great pressure, the South Korean government decided to continue the ScreenQuota policy (i.e., the film quota system) and insist on the 146-day domestic film screening day to fight the impact of Hollywood. Then, in 2006, Han Zheng reduced the number of screening days of local movies every year to more than 70 days, which triggered another riot!

The movie "Tai Chi Flag Flying" that once caused a sensation in South Korea achieved a global box office of more than 78 million US dollars, but the box office of the whole United States was only 550,000 US dollars, of which 77 million were contributed by local audiences. This means that even in the face of more abundant Hollywood blockbusters, Koreans prefer local movies and always maintain the enthusiasm for watching movies of "the scenery is the only one here".

Koreans have always pursued the principle of "the body and the land are the same", which means growing on this land, and want to "be self-centered" and support their own country's things. To say secretly, stealing movies in South Korea is illegal, but piracy of movies in other countries is not illegal! But it is precisely because of this almost stubborn support that Korean local films show strong competition."

"Taking "The Life and Death Transformation" as the turning point, dozens of fine films such as "The Tai Chi Flag Flies", "The King's Man", and "The Real Tail Island" have successively opened the previously unimaginable era of over 10 million viewers in the history of Korean films. According to data released by the Korean Film Revitalization Committee, in 2010, the number of Koreans watching domestic movies was 112.92 million, accounting for 52% of the box office, exceeding the 14.35 million people watching foreign movies, and the box office accounted for 48%. This is also the number of viewers of Korean local movies surpassing foreign movies for five consecutive years.

You should know that the total population of South Korea is only more than 50 million. It has to be admitted that Korean movies have risen in terms of quality and box office.

Many people also know that when I talked about HK movies in the last episode, I also said that the Korean market was completely the back garden of HK movies in the 1960s and 1970s! The prosperity of Korean movies did not come into being overnight. It also had a past with single plots and insufficient innovation. After a long process of development, it gradually established a mature film industry system of its own."

"Many enthusiastic netizens learned that I would talk about Korean movies in this episode, and specially sent me a private message to me for five reasons. 1. Stable social situation; 2. Withstand the pressure of the American Film Export Association and adhere to the screen quota system for the 146-day domestic film screening day for 146 days (after 2006, it was reduced to 73 days); 3. Movies completely changed from censorship to hierarchical system; 4. Being dominated by the market, respecting the self-discipline of the film industry, and establishing the "Korean Film Revitalization Committee" a semi-public and semi-official institution supported by the government; 5. With economic support, movies have become the government's key support targets."

"This netizen seems to be a loyal audience of Korean movies and is also very familiar with the relevant history of Korean movies."

"But I would like to say that the driving force of external factors is far less than the decisive role of internal factors. The simplest example is that the Sanguo, whose film industry is very developed, also has a censorship system. In addition, many countries have also formulated protection policies similar to the film quota system, and our country also has domestic film protection month!

The external roles such as politics, culture, and economy can be icing on the cake, but if you really want to have a dead tree to meet the spring, you still need to rely on more internal things.

In central Seoul, near Myeongdong, a street with a total length of less than two kilometers is called Chungwu Road. Since the 1960s, it has been bustling for many years, and has walked out Song Kang-ho, Xue Jing-gook and Choi Min-sik, who are known as the "three horses" of the Korean Chungwu Road acting school, popular young actors Lee Jun-ki, Lee Min-ho, and well-known directors Bong-joon-ho, Park Chan-woo, Kang Di-gyu, etc. Similarly, this Chungwu Road, known as the "Hollywood" in South Korea, has also witnessed the change in the wind direction of Korean films from a sluggish depression to a glamorous reappearance."

"Audiences who pay attention to major film festivals may know that in recent years, there have been many famous filmmakers in South Korea. For example, Bong Joon-ho, filmed "Memories of Murder" and "Mother"; Kang Di-gyu, whose representative works "Life and Death Spies" and "Tai Chi Flag Flying". The explosion expert invited by Director Feng to film "Assembly" was the crew of "Tai Chi Flag Flying"; the most famous one is Kim Ki-dok, a professional award winner at major international film festivals, especially the Venice Film Festival. This guy is this guy

Nominated for Best Film for four times; Lee Cangdong is also a director of extremely high standards and has won the Best Director of the Venice Film Festival; Park Chan-yu, a master of violent aesthetics and a director of crime films, won the Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival for "Old Boy". In addition, Guo Jae-rong, Luo Hongzhen, Jiang Hyung-chung, Xu Qinhao, Guo Jingze, Jin Zhiyun, etc. Although the Korean market is not big, the style of famous directors is not weaker than that of domestic directors at all, and is even far superior to domestic directors!"

At this point, Shen Lin has already said a lot of people's names.

It also roughly tells the history of Korean movies and then goes to the main topic.

"Let me talk about my point of view first. I think the cleverness of Korean filmmakers is that they are really good at telling stories! The Korean film industry pursues the "Book of a Drama". Korean directors themselves write their own screenwriters and then bring their works to the screen. Therefore, in the process of a movie transforming from a text language into an audio-visual 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 shot, it is difficult to find investors again. In this regard, a work will usually be polished for a few years!"

"To this day, Korean films have been developed, and initially adhered to the 'take-to-take-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-

For example, the crime film "The Chaser" absorbs the images of American heroes and HK's gangsters, but breaks the police's "three views" rules and "de-heroicizes" the mainstream so-called decent. Although "Hanjiang Monster" is not as good as films such as "Jurassic Park", it has excellent performances from the image of monsters, action design to plot design. "Uncle" can be called the Korean version of "Spy Shadows". The plot is not new, and the photography and editing level is not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters.

Korean filmmakers will also focus as much on the clever conception of the story as possible, "not taking the ordinary path". For example, the stories of "Quick Scandal" and "Wolf Boy" are both fresh and interesting, and very "down-to-earth". Whether in terms of genre mixing or plot innovation, Korean films have long since broken away from the clumsy imitation and gradually become familiar with them, and some places are even better than Hollywood.

"The Korean film industry still maintains awe of creation. Looking through the resumes of Korean directors, they found that they either come from top cinemas or have a master-apprentice relationship. If you want to become a director halfway through South Korea, it is not easy. Most people have to start by being an assistant to a big director and doing odd jobs on the set.

This is exactly the opposite in our country. Many singers can change careers and become directors!

I guess someone will scold me when I talk about this, saying that I am also a writer and a director who has changed careers. I want to defend myself. I spent half a year with Director Feng’s crew and stayed on the Hollywood set for several years. Will I tell you?

Let’s get back to the topic and talk about the Korean directors.

To give a few examples, Lee Yong-joo, the director of "Introduction to Architecture", graduated from the major of architecture. After failing to apply for the film academy twice in succession, he joined the crew of "Memories of Murder" Bong Joon-ho, the director of "Secret and Great", before starting filming. Zhang Zhe-soo, the director of "Secret and Great", studied art design at university. When he was studying in Japan in 2002, he saw Kim Ki-dou's "Drifting Bathroom" and returned to China to be his assistant director. Eight years later, Zhang Zhe-soo directed his own Virgo "The Beginning of the Kim Fu-nam Murder".

‘Practice’ is the secret to the training of students in professional colleges in Korea. Take the example of the Central University of Science and Technology University. It requires students to shoot 4 short films during their studies and meet at least one of the following conditions before they can graduate: at least one of them will be shortlisted for the three major film festivals of Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, or win awards at the same level of film festivals as Busan, Tokyo, and Shanghai, or be able to shoot a feature film that enters theaters!

The Korean Academy of Film and Arts (KAFA) is a South Korean "film military academy" and has emerged with many well-known directors. Park Chan-woo and Kim Tae-jo are full-time professors here. The school requires students to shoot two short films in the first year. In addition, a feature film script must be completed at the end of the period. Of course, excellent students will also be recommended to film companies to participate in larger commercial productions.

Not everyone is so lucky. Some people may not get a chance to make a film even after working as an assistant director for 10 years. Most new directors’ first films start at a small cost. High-quality films show this trend: proper production costs are controlled, narrative rather than visual effects, and emphasis on powerful actors rather than stars who are suitable for the role can resonate with the audience!”

"The most commendable Korean films is that they have the characteristics of a mature industrial system: art and commerce are developing in parallel; this performance is ultimately due to the continuous maturity and improvement of the film industry, and the director attaches equal importance to the pursuit of art and commercial operations, and achieves a balance between artistic level and commercial value. Behind Korean commercial films, you will see considerations of human nature and a satire of society. You will not lose your pursuit of independent films because of the industrialization of the film system. On the contrary, our works, commercial films win the box office and lose their reputation, or they only focus on art and not look at business, which is very popular.

"To give the simplest example, "Memories of Murder" released in 2003 uses a plain and cold perspective to show the social background of the 1980s. The work is heavy and not bad at all. In other words, the film has both the structure of a commercial film and profound reflection!"

"Some of the contribution of the integration of business and art in movies is attributed to South Korea's large number of professional actors such as Song Kang-ho and Liu Ya-in. Their pay accounts for less than a quarter of the total production fee. China is just the opposite. It is a waste of money and spends a lot of money on celebrities. More importantly, art, special effects and other post-production are not satisfactory. There is no obvious boundary between commercial films and art films. 'The most important thing about movies is to tell human stories.'! This is also the principle that Korean directors have always adhered to. On the basis of telling qualified stories, they pursue special effects, and in the end they still don't forget to throw a heavy blow to society."

"Does anyone think our movies are better than Korean movies? If you insist on box office results, then I really have nothing to say!"

"In fact, our country's overall environment was still very open in the 1980s, and the censorship system was not that strict. Chinese movies were blooming at that time. Those movies that year must not even pass the censorship, such as "Furong Town". In the past two years, ideological control has become increasingly tighter. To give a slightly inappropriate example, in 1999, the domestic version of "Titanic" was released without a single knife. Even censorship was not passed. The General Administration did not allow ghosts to appear in the movies, so the Chinese films were all ghost movies without ghosts!"
Chapter completed!