What was the best Korean movie you watched last year?
Someone may nominate Resolve to Break Up.
After being shortlisted for Cannes, Tang Wei won a double film in South Korea, but this movie is not too amazing, let alone the peak of Park Chan-wook's career.
Further back in 2021, the best Korean movie is "Mogadishu".
Represented South Korea shortlisted for the Oscar, the story is good-looking, but it is still slightly sensational and routine, and Douban has just passed 8 points.
We are expecting a blockbuster like "Parasite", but it has never arrived.
Is it the impact of the epidemic?
Or are Korean movies gearing up for the next explosion?
Just when we feel that Korean movies are fully back, this year's news is that not only is it difficult to replicate, but even Korean movies are about to disappear.
This is not alarmism.
Just in March this year, South Korean director Yoon Ji-kyun, who made "International Market" and "Haeundae", said in an interview that Korean films are facing a systemic crisis.
The market gets smaller, the risk gets bigger.
The prospects are bleak.
Actually, I work in this industry
It's not the present that's the future
Until the first half of next year, there are still some films worth shooting during the Covid period
But this year started until now
There are almost no more investors in South Korea who invest in movies, and this is the reality
Starting in the second half of next year:
"How many Korean movies will be released every month? Will there be a Han Ying? ”
It's a very gloomy and deserted situation
Han Ying's future is even less bright than everyone thinks
That's what I'm thinking about the future
△ Weibo @ Watch Korean Movie
Are Korean movies really completely out of rice?
Why has there been such a drastic transformation in just a few years?
We had to start looking anew.
The creative environment that we envy as "daring to shoot anything".
The rising leader of Asian cinema.
Korean movies, don't come unharmed?
01
Let's take a look at what Yoon Ji-kyun said, whether this year's Korean local films are really on the verge of extinction.
According to the real-time box office ranking compiled by the "Korean Film Database", it shows:
In the past week, only one of the top three popular films in Korean theaters was locally produced.
And this youth film called "Rebound" was not only ranked by "Fast Chase 4" and "Journey to the Bell Buds".
The box office gap is several times the gap.
You can say that this is accidental.
But chance can explain isolated cases, but it cannot explain phenomena.
Take the total results of Korean film last year and this year.
In 2022, South Korea will produce a total of 108 locally produced films, including theatrical and streaming media.
Looks like a lot, right?
But only 8 of them were profitable.
△ Source: Weibo @ Watch Han Ying
Data is always intuitive and cruel.
You look at this table.
Although the appearance of Ma Dong-seok "fought" a beautiful turnaround battle for Korean commercial films.
But in addition to "Crime City 2", which is such a shockstorm - the box office is almost the sum of the remaining works.
"Determination to Break Up" and "Broker" won soft, but the number of premieres and the total box office were only passing levels.
Is it that Koreans don't watch movies anymore?
Not really.
"Avatar: The Way of Water", "Top Gun 2", "Doctor Strange 2" and "Jurassic World 3" are extremely popular at the box office:
Yes, it's all Hollywood.
In the past, the Korean film market, which was full of national plots and fully supported the domestic production, has changed its appearance.
In 1999.
After the release of South Korea's first blockbuster "Life and Death Spy", it broke the record of 4.17 million in "Titanic" with a box office of 6.6 million in minutes.
Immediately afterwards, "Shiwei Island" and "Flying the Taiji Flag" were born, and the number of local moviegoers exceeded 10 million.
At the beginning of the millennium, South Korea's population was just over 48 million.
What does this mean?
On behalf of every four Koreans, one in four is attracted by the main theme movie and goes to the cinema to pay for it.
But now.
Under the dumping of foreign films, local films have no box office, and it is difficult to attract investment in the follow-up;
And the Korean film market without investment cannot talk about generating electricity for love and art.
South Korean local films saw that they could not recover the cost after release, so they quickly sold the copyright to streaming media platforms, and they could make a little money.
This is not an unpopular operation, and even "Determination to Break Up", which was shortlisted for the Palme d'Or, cannot escape such a fate.
This year, the situation is even worse.
If there were still eight works that made a profit last year, they could still rely on "Shenma Dongxi" to dominate the top.
So this year, from the beginning of the year to the present, none of the twenty local films released in South Korea have been spared, and all of them have hit the streets.
Profitability, 0%.
If your impression of Han Ying is still stuck in last year's Palme d'Or, the Oscars four years ago, and even Tang Wei who went out of the country.
The Korean movies you see and look up to may have reached a commanding height that it cannot surpass in the short term.
02
Just when Korean movies were not interested.
Korean dramas, set off a round of climax.
For example, not long ago, everyone's favorite villain Park Yeon-jin, aka "beat the Internet mouth of workers".
In 2015, Netflix parachuted into South Korea.
Over five years, about $700 million was spent on Korean content, licensing and producing about eighty Korean films and TV series.
By the year before, that figure had risen to $500 million a year.
Just like Jin Yinji's famous saying:
As the world's top streaming media, the emergence of Netflix almost perfectly matches the development needs of Korean dramas and Korean movies.
The scale is unlimited, and the actors can be picked at will;
The content is not interfered with and the funding is not capped.
With a good script and good actors, it is almost a matter of minutes to make a hit.
In 2019, "Kingdom" became popular all over the world;
In 2021, "Squid Game" set a global viewership record;
This year's "Dark Glory" also crushed non-English dramas in the same period, ranking first in the world.
Compared to the bleak operation of the movie.
Isn't it fragrant to shoot a drama for Netflix to ensure income from drought and flood and creative freedom?
△ Data shows that Netflix's investment in South Korea has generated economic benefits of 5.6 trillion won (about 4.2 billion US dollars) in the past five years
Last year's Emmys.
When Lee Jung-jae won the TV Emperor, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, and the American Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor through "Squid Game" as the first non-English drama actor.
At present, the only work he has confirmed to star in next year on Douban is "Squid Game 2".
Its salary was also exposed.
From 300 million won in the first quarter, it directly skyrocketed to one billion won.
Topping the Korean actor's salary list.
△ The director officially announced that Lee Jung-jae starred in the second season
The floodgates of desire are thus opened.
When everyone else becomes a Krypton Gold player, are you willing to continue to be an NPC?
And know.
Actors get not only sky-high salaries through streaming, but also global influence that local films cannot match.
Don't believe you see.
After Lee Jung-jae, the Korean gang of Chungmuro actors "went to the sea" one after another.
Even if the special effects are chicken ribs, even if the plot is degraded (many people have not also complained about "Squid").
But whether it is a drama or a large network, Korean actors who have been successive in the past two years have joined one after another, for fear that they will not be able to catch this fast train to make money.
Take South Korea's Chungmuro group of actors who can carry the box office:
There is Choi Min-sik, who just left Disney+, and by the way, he promoted Sun Seok-jiu, who has just become popular;
"Troika" Xue Jingqiu took over Netflix and was ready to move to the small screen with Jin Ai;
Huang Jung-min partnered Cannes actress Jeon Do-yeon, starring in the action network "Kill Fushun";
After the scene, Kim Hye-so is preparing for Netflix's "Juvenile Court 2";
Jun Ji-hyun is confirmed to participate in "Kingdom Season 3";
Although Liu Yaren took drugs, he also joined "Seoul Operation" and "Doomsday Fool";
Not to mention Ma Dong-seok.
As the only iconic figure who could carry the box office last year, he also threw himself into the arms of capital with the stream.
Not only did Netflix's bad film win the first place in this year's webcast.
also decided to cooperate with Paramount after "Eternal Group 2" to remake his famous work "The Legend of the Wicked".
Everyone knows the quality of these works.
How many of them can score nine points, how many can surpass "Squid", and how many can help actors break through the ceiling of their acting careers?
No, neither.
But no need to carry the box office, no sponsorship, no market pressure, this is attractive enough.
In the past, the funds of a movie/TV series could only carry the salary of a big-name actor are gone.
No matter how outrageous the plot is, there is a cost of trial and error, and no matter how many big names can come together.
Look back at Korean movies that swim in a bubble.
Leave you, what will you choose?
△ "Suriname": Ha Jung-woo, Hwang Jung-min, Park Hae-so, Jang Jin, Cho Cera-hyun
Some people may wonder.
Forget about the departure of Korean actors, but what about the others?
Truly.
If it's just the absence of actors, it's not enough to hit Korean movies hard.
But the problem is that in the post-pandemic era of Korean films, almost the entire industry has been uprooted.
The actors all ran to make money without saying.
Even the great directors who represent the face of South Korea have left one after another:
Bong Joon-ho filmed "Mickey No. 7" in the UK, and the actor he worked with was Robert Pattinson.
Park Chan-wook directed "The Sympathizer" in the United States, and the co-actor was Robert Downey Jr.
Li Cangdong, who just returned from filming a personal documentary in France;
Even Yoon Ji-kyun, mentioned at the beginning, his next project is to go to the United States to shoot K-POP...
Everyone's footsteps.
They are all running towards a future that "looks like Korea" but is "no longer Korea".
03
If you compare Korean movies to a tree.
The runaway filmmakers are like lost water and soil, and the box office is like green and yellow branches.
So what is left now.
Only the middle crackling sounded, and when it was opened, it found the shell that had long been empty.
What does that mean?
Sir gives an example.
There are only two recent nationalist films, one "Ghost" and one "Idle Mountain".
The former is a remake of "The Wind", changing the original script kill to an anti-Japanese god film, Xiti Douban 4.7.
And what about the latter.
Even South Korea's once best naval warfare theme has now been reduced to a backdrop for patriotic slogans.
You know, Korean movies make their fortunes by relying on the main theme.
Sir gives an example.
In 2004's "Flying the Taiji Flag", there was such a bridge.
Decades after the end of the Korean War, people cleaned up the battlefield sites and dug out the bones of soldiers.
A body... Two bodies... Three.
The skulls are neatly arranged and the relics are numbered.
The reporters on the side sprinted with long guns, flashing lights, and looked like an exhibition from a distance.
So is the film commemorating the collective sacrifice of the soldiers?
Not.
Because although the title of the film is "Taijiqi", the protagonists are a pair of brothers.
The older brother wanted his younger brother to be exempt from military service.
For a medal, he had to rush to the front line and desperately kill people, and in the end, he was so crazy that he couldn't even recognize his brother.
And the younger brother?
He didn't understand why his brother was so greedy for fame and fortune, and only wanted to end the war and flee the battlefield.
After all, people at that time simply did not understand why they were at war and why they were killing each other.
Because even if he becomes a war hero in the end, he cannot escape the fate of becoming a puppet.
It's like that fleeting shot in the movie.
A harmonica.
A harmonica buried deep in the earth.
Perhaps any scene of plasma splattering and flying limbs will not make you hate the existence of war more than it.
The best war movies must be anti-war.
Ultimately.
Korean movies are not understood, not will not.
But if you look at these two movies this year, you can clearly feel the gap.
Spies hit ten, bullets fly all over the sky.
There is an anti-Japanese shell in the void, but there is less close-up of people, close-up of reflection.
Not to mention not feeling the hatred and regret for national pain buried deep in the bones of Koreans.
Even if it's the subject I've been best at.
In the end, it is just consuming the self it used to be.
△ Spy Network Big "Ghost", Korean version of "Li Yunlong" "Idle Mountain"
Korean cinema certainly doesn't die.
But in today's movie/drama market, it's hard to admit that this is the "Made in Korea" we are familiar with.
When the actors go out to make money, the directors travel the world.
It seems that "Made in Korea" has become a label that can be peddled.
It seems that by adding familiar faces and symbols, you can quickly create a replicable hit.
Emotions can certainly come as they come.
But how does that kind of drama compare with the exposure of green tendons in the past?
△ "Suriname" vs "Horror Live"
Attacking the system, satirizing the system is not for nothing.
But hardening the value in order to grab the eye is far weaker than the resistance that radiates from the heart.
△ "Hell Minister" vs "The Defender"
And those actors who have been in Korean movies are like needles in the sea god.
Often the skill of one person can drive the emotions of the entire work.
But now what?
It seems that whoever plays it is the same, and there is no "must be him" unique.
△ "Killing Fushun" vs "Mints"
At the end of the day, the more you emphasize something, the easier it tends to be to draw a trap.
When the same image is repeated too many times, it becomes a slogan, and there is no more the most primitive impact, the most authentic grasp.
Because the audience is not only tired of watching, but also sees through.
When the expression itself is not for the expression, but for something else.
Then no matter how powerful the expression is, it is just an outdated performance.
- finally.
Something else.
"Squid Game" director Hwang Dong-hyuk previously said that his sequel will be launched next year.
Looking forward to it.
Sir couldn't help but think of that intriguing ending.
When Cheng Qixun, as the biggest winner in the game, took away the 45.6 billion that fell that day.
The first thing he did was dye his hair.
Straighten your naturally curly black hair and dye it into eye-catching red hair.
The reason seems simple.
He saw posters in hair salons and went to meet his daughter and ex-wife more decently.
In the narration of "South Korea's household debt ratio has risen significantly", a hair color that makes him look new is chosen.
He thought so.
It will seem that he will be separated from the current environment of South Korea's gray fall, and will be in the upper class from then on.
But in reality?
In the eyes of others, he is also nothing more than a puppet of the system, a cannon fodder of choice.
A change in appearance does not reverse the facts.
The funny redhead makes him a pure joke.
It was only at this moment that he finally understood.
The real winners will always be those standing behind the mask, not themselves.
Anyone who watched the show knows that he won the game, more or less luck.
But he doesn't care.
He thought he had won the game, understood the game, and had the strength to win a second time and even change the law of the jungle.
He wants to get back into the game and win bigger.
It doesn't matter if it's shame before the snow, or change the rules.
Anyway, I always have to prove my worth, and I am always unwilling to leave the market.
In a trance, he always felt that there should be a greater reward ahead, waiting for him.
Even if victory is a thing of the past.
Even if the game is upgraded, even if the player refreshes.
But these people who have won and want to win, they can't stop, they can't go back.
The picture of this article comes from the Internet
Editorial assistant: Wear Prada's pumpkin