I don't know if you have a feeling that Korean dramas in the past two years have become more and more unbearable.
From the perspective of ordinary viewers, what most of us see is just a decline in the quality of Korean dramas. But from the perspective of South Korea's national cultural industry, this is no longer a question of quality or not, and the Korean film and television cultural industry is now at a critical juncture of life and death.
In our simple impression, with South Korea's slogan of "cultural nationhood", the global influence of Korean film and television drama culture industry and Korean K-pop is indeed rising rapidly. With a booming and rapidly growing market, South Korea has given birth to a large number of excellent producers of cultural products.
In 2019, the South Korean film "Parasite" was released and won the Palme d'Or for Best Film at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival that year. In 2020, "Parasite" won the Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards. In 2021, the Korean drama "Squid Game" became a global hit.
It stands to reason that in terms of normal industrial logic, the Korean film and television drama industry, which has achieved a bumper harvest of word of mouth and market, is in a period of rapid growth, but only 2 or 3 years later, what we actually see is the sudden collapse of the Korean film and television industry.
More than 100 Korean dramas have been filmed and produced, but have not been broadcast. Small investors and producers who are unable to withdraw funds are faced with a broken capital chain and are naturally unable to continue production. Some Korean drama production companies predict that the Korean drama market will reduce the filming of new dramas by 50% in 2024.
The data for the Korean film industry is even more alarming. In 2019, the number of moviegoers in South Korea was 227 million, and in 2023, the number of moviegoers in South Korea will only be 125 million, a decrease of 45%, and in the past few years, the box office of Korean domestic films is only about half of the total box office.
Why is this happening?
The answer is actually quite simple.
On the one hand, there is the dismal data of the Korean film and television industry, and on the other hand, there are Netflix and Disney+ in the United States, as well as South Korea's local streaming imitators Wavve and Tving, etc., and the local Korean subscription market alone has reached 19 million. Considering that South Korea's total population is only around 50 million, this number is quite staggering.
Once regarded by the Korean film and television industry as a big financier of "only giving money, regardless of content", and seeing it as an opportunity to go international, American-funded streaming media platforms such as Netflix are now firmly stuck in the neck of the Korean film and television industry.
Netflix and other American-funded streaming media platforms have completed their control of the Korean film and television industry in just a few years with a new model and the capital logic of industrial chain competition and integration.
How did Netflix win over the Korean audience?
Let's talk about Netflix's market logic and industrial chain competition model.
The U.S. film and television industry is a screenwriter-director creator-centered system, and South Korea is also a screenwriter-director creator-centered system. Netflix has signed more prestigious and marketable writers, directors and production companies in the United States with more money to beat traditional American dramas, and the same model has been replicated in South Korea.
Korean audiences are very concerned about who the screenwriter is and who the director is. Netflix signed heavyweight producers, and Korean audiences naturally began to subscribe.
There is a saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. Netflix used more money to sign a large number of excellent Korean screenwriters and directors. What about people who haven't been signed by Netflix? A hit "Squid Game" is not only the production team and actors of this drama, but all employees in the Korean drama industry are asking for a salary increase.
But the question is, after the overall production cost rises, who will pay for it?
South Korean TV stations, which are already facing the loss of viewers and the decline in advertising revenue, will of course reduce their investment. As a result, more than 100 Korean dramas have been filmed and produced but cannot be broadcast.
The investors of these TV series can't get back the funds, and the production team naturally can't get new projects. As a result, the Korean drama industry has become what we see now.
The Korean drama industry is miserable, but Netflix is not a loss. After all, they have subscribers all over the world, the plate is big enough, and the ability to resist risks is strong, and this is a little wind and waves.
If the Korean dramas produced by relying on the local Korean film and television industry in the past followed the 28 rule, that is, the investor earned 80% of the big head, and the remaining 20% of the small head was left for the producer, then now that Netflix is here, the Korean drama producer can get a share of the achievement, and sometimes there is not even 10%, and half of it will be made after working for a long time. Pure is the hard-earned money, not even drinking soup, at best, it is just a soup residue to eat.
China has also gone through the path of cooperation with the Korean film and television industry in the past. Basically, it is co-investment, advertising placement. But to be honest, compared with the current play of Netflix and others that can leverage the entire industry with one lever, our industrial cooperation model is really too tender. Obviously, we are all Party A, but the money we make in the end is not as much as a fraction of the Netflix.
In addition to the logic of the market and the industrial chain, what Netflix is even more powerful is that it fully grasps the little ninety-nine in the hearts of Koreans.
What do Koreans want? South Korea's influence in the international community will increase, and they hope that South Korea will become a major power in the world. In the real world, South Korea is a vassal of the United States economically, politically, and militarily, and although the South Koreans refuse to admit it, they are still quite eager to be recognized by the United States psychologically.
Why is Park Chung-hee in the film so obsessed with asking the US ambassador to South Korea to come to the Blue House to kneel under the Taiji flag? In the final analysis, it is not because of the expansion of self-confidence brought about by the increase in strength, but just the inferiority complex and distortion caused by long-term demand.
The reason why Netflix has been able to eat so deeply in South Korea is not only because they have a deeper understanding of business and industrial chain than other competitors, but also because they are more proficient in political calculations and psychological calculations than other competitors, so that Korean audiences take the initiative to embrace them.
The United States and the West have given some awards to South Korean film and television works, and Netflix has also helped promote Korean culture and give it corresponding traffic tilt to help Hallyu culture create a hit. Two years ago, when Korean film and television works were well received in the West, Koreans were so proud that they talked about it every day. The posture is like that of an old mother, and she finally hopes that her unlucky child who has been hanging the back of a car in East Asia for hundreds of years will get ahead, and she can't wait to shout all over the world at the top of her voice, hoping that everyone will know that South Korea has been recognized by the West.
The way of using soldiers, attacking the heart is the top, and attacking the city is the bottom. Psychological warfare is the top, and military warfare is the bottom.
This is true of the way of war, and the same is true of the way of business. It doesn't hurt to spend a little more time figuring out the mind of the target of the strategy, this thing is like a pulse, the pulse is right, and you can prescribe the right medicine. From this point of view, Netflix's group of old Western doctors really understand the pulsating frequency of Koreans.
Finally, let's talk about the impact of Netflix on the Korean film and television industry in terms of the content of their works.
Netflix has the same rhetoric in its propaganda around the world. Netflix only gives money, and does not control the content.
But is that really the case?
The simplest logic, as a supply side, whether it is the production of physical goods, or the production of literary and artistic works such as films, television, novels, etc., the needs of the audience must be considered. To put it simply, who will I sell my product to after it is produced?
Netflix is a global streaming platform with American capital. Do audiences all over the world taste the same? The answer is clearly no.
Before Netflix entered South Korea and choked the throat of the Korean film and television industry, many Korean dramas were very suitable for the whole family to watch at 8 o'clock in the evening, and the scale was not large. At that time, many popular Korean dramas highlighted family elements. For a long time in the past, the Korean film and television industry highlighted and emphasized the local Korean culture, even the unique Korean culture.
There is also the dialogue of Korean dramas, because of the factors of Korean language and expression habits, the dialogue of Korean dramas in the past was relatively verbose, and if you are not patient, you may not be able to watch it.
Comrades and friends who are about the same age as me, especially lesbians and friends, should have seen "Da Jang Geum" starring Lee Young-ae back then, right? "Da Jang Geum" is very much in line with the elements I mentioned earlier. Although from the current point of view, there are actually a lot of hard injuries in this drama, but in the context of the time, I have to admit that "Da Changjin" was really well filmed. Once so popular that "Foreign Daughter-in-law Local Lang" was using it as a meme. "The house next door finished watching "Da Chang Jin", and when it was over, he named the newborn child Jin Da Chang. ”
Now looking back at the current Korean dramas, especially those that Netflix and other streaming media have invested in, you can't actually see much with Korean characteristics. Replace the Korean faces in the cast, and what you see is an assembly line product assembled strictly according to the formula of American dramas, with a relatively independent story in one episode, with a fast pace, many bloody and violent scenes, and many strange and chaotic things. finally talked about some short things in the parents, but it turned out that the family is still a superpower who can fly away.
Now watching a lot of Korean dramas invested by Netflix on the net disk, it feels like eating an American-style burger that replaces lettuce leaves with kimchi leaves. It does taste like Korean kimchi, but it's essentially an American burger.
Netflix has an advantage, that is, it is especially good at playing big data. Because they can play big data, they know very well that a series should have a breaking point every few minutes, how many breaking points appear to better attract the audience's attention, and what kind of content can attract the audience.
"Squid Game" is a typical series produced through big data analysis. I don't think it's possible to say how much technical content this film has, but it just can be popular, why? Because all the elements in this drama are carefully calculated in advance by Netflix through big data analysis. I knew you were going to eat it, so I fed it to you.
Now Korean screenwriters and directors are producing dramas, and in many cases, the focus is no longer on how to tell a story well, but more on serving traffic and designing plots for traffic. Using big data to find the breaking point and designing the plot by chasing traffic, in the long run, the Korean film and television industry may no longer be able to create a work like "Please Answer 1988".
Netflix is not our coal boss in China, how can it only give money when investing? Content is money, if you don't care about content, what do people rely on to make money?
When a country's film and television literary works no longer tell the story of their own society, and no longer tell stories with their own narrative habits and narrative modes, is the story they tell still the story of their own country? Is the story they tell still the story of their own culture?
I don't think so.
Whoever is willing to pay and is willing to watch, then tell whose story. South Korea's movie-watching scale is only tens of millions, and it is impossible to compete with the 330 million people of the United States in any case. Netflix borrowed Korean film and television chickens to lay eggs, and the last eggs must be the eggs of Lao Wang's family next door, no way, who let Lao Wang afford to pay for it?
South Korea is politically, militarily, economically, and psychologically vassal of the United States, and South Korea, which seeks a breakthrough in cultural communication, eventually fell at the feet of Netflix.
For the time being, we in China do not have such a crisis in the Korean film and television industry. What we have to think about is whether we can learn their industrial competition model from Netflix and American capital.
Making products is about making money. However, relying on new technologies to replace the industrial chain is a big business that can really change the ecology of the industry. Don't hold on to the domestic fan economy anymore, there will be no big profit in the long run, and our film and television capital has to adapt to Netflix's gameplay. After all, engaging in the cultural industry is still mental work, not that labor is wrong, but hard work is the key. Don't try to cover up strategic laziness with tactical diligence, the laborer governs the man, we don't bother to study the things at the top, and in the end we will only be governed by others.