The "new clothes" of Korean movies have been ripped off.
When it comes to Korean movies, especially in recent years, I think many fans will summarize in two words:
Erupt.
First, "Parasite" won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, and then won the best foreign language film and the Oscar for best picture in the United States.
Combining academic and market recognition, it has become a global hot spot in recent years.
Later, "Squid Game" exploded on the Internet, encroaching on every monitor with a sweeping attitude, and countless people were deeply influenced by Korean culture and imitated Korean childhood games.
At the same time, the starring Lee Jung-jae has won the Emmy Award and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a Drama Category.
Not only did it reach the top of Korea, but it was also second to none in Asia.
Korean movies have gone global!
However, while the train was at full speed and heading towards the North American market, a severe famine occurred in his own den.
Some time ago, a news in the Korean film industry surprised people -
Well-known director Yoon Ji-kyun said in an interview that Korean films are in a situation where no one invests.
This well-known director who has filmed "Color is Empty" and "Haeundae", and won the fifth place at the Korean box office with "International Market".
Facing the camera, it is completely depressed.
He said word by word that behind the seemingly brilliant Korean movies, they are actually devastated.
In February this year, South Korea's domestic box office revenue and attendance hit a record low, with a total of only 1.27 million moviegoers, only reaching 7% of 2019.
A bloody stat:
In 2022, the entire Korean film market will return only 8 films.
At the same time, because of the sluggish market, capital decided to save itself, only promised to invest 20-30% of the cost, and the rest was solved by the film itself.
This made the project difficult and the major sets stopped.
There is a siege in the front, and there are pursuers in the back.
The local market is stagnant, but the filmmakers wiped their mouths clean and chose to leave.
Yoon Ji-kyun also said that at present, the entire Korean film market "leaving Hollywood" has become a trend.
Many super-A-rated celebrities would rather go abroad to shoot series than shoot movies locally, even if they show their faces internationally.
There is no capital outside, no actors inside.
The Korean film crisis is imminent!
For us in neighboring countries, the decline of the Korean market has already been hinted at.
In the past few years, there are one or two blockbuster Korean movies almost every year, and by the way, the starring star Chicken Dog ascends to the sky, so that he can dominate the hot search for a few days.
But last year, the only thing that could be mentioned in the entire Korean film was "Determination to Break Up", "Hunting", "Crime City 2" and other movies with big stars, big IPs, and even mainland actors.
The rating is not even more than 8 points.
This year it was even worse.
Overturned overturn, pounced on the street.
South Korean production, which used to be 8 points + and good quality representatives, has also been reduced to an assembly line of 4 or 5 points.
What's more embarrassing is that since "Assassination" in 2015, not a single Korean film has been introduced into the Chinese market for 6 years.
"Banning Korea" has become a tacit secret for everyone.
Last year, Korean films were finally introduced to China after six years, opening the floodgates for Sino-Korean exchanges.
However, this icebreaker "Oh! Wen Ji" only won 2.9 million box office and ended hastily.
Come to think of it, it's been a long time since we had a big discussion about a Korean movie.
He is like an old man who was once familiar, and occasionally when he thinks about it, he will only think of his infinite scenery.
But when you inquire about his recent situation, you get unbearable news.
The more deserted it was, the more I missed the excitement of that year.
For the Chinese market, the hottest in recent years has made the whole people watch movies.
It is not "Parasite" with countless awards, nor "Determination to Break Up" that blooms inside the wall, nor "Dark Glory" that buys hot searches and brags about itself.
No publicity, no hype, no awards, and can also affect the whole network of China——
I think, only "Legend of the Wicked"
"The Legend of the Wicked" was released in 2019, starring Ma Dongxi, the "one-punch man" who is very familiar to Chinese fans.
At that time, Ma Dong-seok had not yet started his Hollywood journey, but his "cute macho" route in South Korea was almost coming to an end, and "The Legend of the Wicked" broke the ground for Ma Dong-seok to play the boss of the underworld, which should have bullied Ma Dong-seok's fixed role in previous movies.
Let's briefly review the plot:
Jang Dong-so (played by Ma Dong-seok) is a gangster boss in a city in South Korea, who dominates by selling game consoles and opening underground casinos.
One day, after dealing with gang affairs, Zhang Dongxiu drove home by himself, but was rear-ended halfway.
Zhang Dongxiu originally meant that more was better than less, and waved his hand to let the other party go.
When he turned around and opened the car door, he was attacked by the other party and stabbed several times.
Thanks to Zhang Dongxiu's life of licking blood from the tip of the knife, he has been exercising for many years, his body is burly, and the small dagger cannot immediately incapacitate Zhang Dongxiu, so he immediately rose up to resist.
After being stabbed, the murderer found that the combat effectiveness was not at the same level and immediately drove away.
Zhang Dongxiu was injured and unconscious, and finally woke up after several days of treatment.
But because the attack has led to a loss of majesty, his first task now is to find the murderer to punish and restore his strength.
On the other hand, Jung Tae-seok (played by Kim Moo-yeol), as a criminal policeman, analyzed that the murderer was committed by the same person by comparing several consecutive homicide cases.
He contacted Zhang Dongxiu privately and found the murderer hiding in the shadows through black and white cooperation.
The criminal police relied on professional forces, and Zhang Dongxiu launched a sea of people tactic, and the two sides should cooperate inside and outside, turning the entire city upside down.
At the same time, the murderer continued to kill randomly without anyone else, wailing everywhere he went.
Killing all the way and escaping all the way also makes the reconnaissance mission more difficult again and again.
Finally, through a car used by the murderer found by Zhang Dongxiu's subordinates, criminal police officer Jung Tae-seok obtained the murderer's fingerprints.
Finally, the murderer was found under the attack of both sides and brought to justice.
At the end of the movie, Zhang Dongxiu did not hesitate to turn himself in and go to prison, but also to enter the same prison as the murderer to implement his ultimate revenge, which also gave the audience an unprecedented sense of refreshment.
Excellent "Korean-Hong Kong film"
The film is adapted from "The 2004 Murder of Yoo Young-chul in South Korea".
The prototype of the incident, "Yoo Yong-chul", was South Korea's number one murderer, killing 19 people in less than a year between September 2003 and July 2004.
He did not seek money or greed, and exclusively killed old and weak women and children, just to satisfy some of his own desires, and even cooked and ate the internal organs of the 4 victims.
The event has also been brought to the screen many times.
In addition to "The Legend of the Wicked", "The Chaser" starring Ha Jung-woo and Kim Yoon-seok is also adapted from this.
From the plot point of view, although the movie is 109 minutes long, the plot of "The Legend of the Wicked" is very straightforward, which is nothing more than the story of two people from different camps chasing the murderer together.
But the brilliance of "Legend of the Wicked" is that it devotes a lot of time to portraying the two protagonists.
The gangster boss Zhang Dongxiu, killing decisively, ruthless on the outside and on the inside.
In the business field, he can fight because of the attitude of the other party, and he will also assassinate unfaithful people in secret, and his ruthlessness is no different from the traditional gangster image.
But the screenwriter's chicken thief is that in addition to showing fierceness, he also quietly embedded a soft heart for Zhang Dongxiu.
For example, when he broke off one of the other party's teeth during the negotiation, he actually helped his brother out of anger.
For example, when it rains, he will also encounter female students without umbrellas, clumsily drinking and asking each other to take their own umbrellas to avoid the rain.
Zhang Dongxiu is not completely bad, and Zheng Tae-seok is also not perfect.
As a criminal policeman, he did not listen to orders, went on a rampage, and even made private deals with the gang boss in order to arrest the murderer.
In the end, he simply killed a criminal and forced Zhang Dongxiu to wipe his butt.
Good and evil are not so pure, but their common goal is indeed to achieve justice in their hearts——
Kill the more evil.
It is not difficult to see that "The Legend of the Wicked" has a very strong shadow of Hong Kong films, or simply the shadow of "Blood Street".
The policeman struggling within the system, the killer who sinks in the rivers and lakes, the two heroes cherish each other and strive for a greater goal.
And in "The Legend of the Wicked", he has transformed into a gangster boss who is also a thief and a criminal police captain, they are like knights in a reinforced jungle, in the handover of result justice and procedural justice, they work together to sanction pure evil.
It's just that "The Legend of the Wicked" has been adapted more commercially, making the film faster paced and clearer.
Especially when the black and white factions break down the barriers and drink and enjoy, this romance exclusive to male hormones overflows.
After the female student was killed, this collective empathy of emotion and anger superimposed on each other was even more cathartic to the extreme.
The current highest box office in South Korea is "Extreme Occupation".
The film was also released in 2019, winning 139.6 billion won at the box office, the film is still "one book and two shots", and the Chinese version is "Lobster Criminal Police" starring Wang Qianyuan.
However, whether it is the Korean version or the local version, the film has little discussion in China.
Only "The Legend of the Wicked", released in the same year, swept all over China.
Although the box office of "The Legend of the Wicked" in South Korea that year was gratifying, it was not a big hit, and the local box office in South Korea was only 1/424.8 million US dollars of "Extreme Occupation", which was only 170 million yuan when it was fully converted.
However, with the Hong Kong-style character setting, clear plot direction and Ma Dongxi's popularity in China, "The Legend of the Wicked" has quickly become popular throughout China since it was launched on streaming media.
Dego still remembers the scene back then.
Take the self-media circle, whether it is writing articles, playing short videos, or engaging in long videos, as long as they are related to movies, they will inevitably catch up with a manuscript of "The Legend of the Wicked".
Open the social media, and all I can see is Ma Dongxi's invincible face.
Some people exaggerate, others angrily denounce, mixed moods, laughter, anger and scolding are all articles.
Even at that time, without publicity and hype, it descended on the hot search list out of thin air, and it really dominated the screen for a while.
To this day, there are still fans who continue to revisit this "Legend of the Wicked", you can imagine what this movie became like in China back then.
In a native saying, it is approximately:
If you didn't watch "The Legend of the Wicked", then you are out.
However, after "The Legend of the Wicked", there is no Korean film that can inspire such a scene again.
Korean movies, what's wrong?
After analyzing the success of "The Legend of the Wicked", now the decline of Korean films, the answer is about to come out.
In 1998, in order to cope with the financial crisis, South Korea specially introduced the strategy of "cultural governance" and vigorously developed the film industry, which not only fully supported films, but also introduced the rating system to make films more possible.
Immediately after 1999, a "Life and Death Butterfly" kicked off the Korean film era, defeating Hollywood's "Titanic" with 6 million people, which boosted the morale of Korean movies.
However, it was already the millennium.
Korean films themselves started late, and the art category of movies needs cultural precipitation, but Korean history in the words of netizens, that is, "my grandmother is older than him", which leads to Korean films can not develop in the general direction.
Then, Korean films found new ideas.
One, is the sword going off-the-beaten.
South Korean films have always been known as "daring to shoot", and with the help of the rating system, they can scold the government for its incompetence, flog the system for corruption, and even scold everyone again.
After the scolding, led by Kim Ki-duk, Lee Cangdong, Park Chan-wook and other "great directors of human nature", they will target themselves again, analyze the dirtiness of human nature, and play with ethics and carnal desire.
Over time, those exaggerated, bloody, and even disgusting images became a fixed impression of Korean movies.
And Korean films have also relied on this "heresy" to challenge the taboos of human nature and society countless times and enter the historical stage.
However, this kind of routine is not interesting to play all the time.
In recent years, "Korean movies are boring" has become a new consensus among fans.
Although they are still roaring loudly, slashing and slashing, stripping and sinking, but the threshold of the audience is repeatedly raised, Korean movies can only stay in the same old tune of mechanical repetition.
The advertised "exploration of human nature" is just an unconventional and sensational grandstanding in the picture and subject matter.
Moreover, the so-called "daring to shoot" of South Korean films is just self-deception, because it is not the government that really affects them, but the chaebols.
South Korea's top 10 chaebols control 75% of the country's GDP, and Samsung, which ranks first, is even more involved in everything from the birth, old age, illness and death of South Koreans to clothing, food, housing and transportation.
The chaebol is unscrupulous, covering the sky with one hand, ironically -
The president of South Korea is the most dangerous profession.
The "chaebol control of the government" shown in South Korean movies is only the tip of the iceberg, and all the irony stops at the point.
They cursed all over the world, but ignored the elephant in the room, which I don't know whether they "dare" or "instigate".
The second is imitation.
Fans who have seen works such as "Please Answer" should know how much influence Hong Kong films have on South Korea.
"Life and Death Butterfly" has no shadow of Korean movies at all, and has succeeded by imitating Hong Kong films and Hollywood.
Later, Korean films developed this into an important industry, of which Hong Kong films were the top priority.
As early as the 70s, Hong Kong filmmakers liked to go to South Korea to co-produce films, and in the exchange, Hong Kong films were accepted and absorbed by Koreans.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Extreme Escape", "Veteran", "Uncle" and other works can see the shadow of Hong Kong films, "Poison War", "The True Color of Heroes", "Infernal Affairs", "Tracking", "Rescue Mr. Wu" These works are simply remade directly.
And they have also evolved and improved on the basis of the fast-paced, bright characters and strong conflicts of Hong Kong films, and developed their own "Korean-style police and bandit films".
When it comes to "The Legend of the Wicked", when it is violent, when it is funny, when it intensifies the contradiction, it is considered a master of integrating all the elements of commercial films.
We like to watch Korean films, largely because they are "the add-on version of Hong Kong films".
But now, these two axes in Korean movies don't work.
On the one hand, directors such as Lee Cangdong, Hong Chang-so, Park Chan-wook and other directors are old, production has plummeted, Kim Ki-duk has simply died, emerging directors are anxious, and Korean films have long lost the most basic cultural foundation.
Hollywood's poison apple, on the other hand, began to attack.
A large number of Korean resources have been transported to the Western market, and even the entire Korean creative atmosphere is flattering Western aesthetics.
In the past, South Korea was a human ethic and a gunman bandit.
And now he has become an alien, a superpower, a witch and a monster man.
However, this kind of subject matter needs to be based on national hard power to be credible.
Behind China's filming of "The Wandering Earth 2" is the basis of countless space work achievements and the Tiangong space station, but you in Korea in the movie, this is a little funny.
At the same time, when Korean films blindly flattered Western aesthetics, they also discarded their basic plates, and even the most basic crime films could not be filmed, which was really a loss of watermelon and sesame.
Last year's only film "Vice City 2"
Behind the glitz, it is already full of messes.
Korean movies are not like their own country, seemingly bright, but in fact, they don't even have military command.
Whether it is the barrel of a gun or the barrel of a pen, in the end, it cannot escape the fate of being controlled by the United States.
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