Korean cinema has now become an excellent representative of Asian cinema. The Oscar-winning "Parasite" has added a lot to the international color of Korean films.
But don't look at the Korean movie now in terms of cultural output is unlimited, in fact, it has also gone through a crazy cottage road.
Hollywood, Hong Kong, Japan and other developed film countries and regions have been "good teachers" on the road to the development of Korean films, and many excellent works have been imitated and remade by Korean filmmakers.
In this process, Korean filmmakers have tasted a lot of sweetness, and it has also enabled Korean films with shallow roots to quickly keep up with the pace of the world.
Korean film copycats are generally those hot films with global influence.
In the 1970s, Bruce Lee was a kung fu superstar who swept the world, but unfortunately he died in 1973.
Fans around the world set off a fiery campaign in memory of Bruce Lee, and the global box office reached a staggering $90 million when "Dragon Fight" was released that year. Korean filmmakers immediately sniffed out business opportunities and began to shoot various "pseudo-Bruce Lee" works.
South Korean taekwondo masters such as Hwang In-sik, Tang Long, and Ji Han-jae have all participated in Bruce Lee's works. Later, this group of people came out of the shadows, and with the admiration of Bruce Lee, some of them also began to participate in the production of "pseudo Bruce Lee" works.
South Korean taekwondo black belt 7-dan master Hwang Jeong-ri, who starred in "Tower of Death", Jackie Chan's "Snake-like Executioner" and "Drunken Fist", has participated in a "pseudo Bruce Lee" film called "bruce lee fights back from the grave". The film also has a very fashionable Chinese called "Bruce Lee's Grave Counterattack".
The film, directed by South Korean director Lee Doo-jung, is rather shoddily made and tells the story of a South Korean man investigating the cause of his brother's death in the United States.
Although the quality of the film is not good, the distributor is very good at gimmicks. In order to attract Western audiences, they not only marked the poster with the name bruce lee, but also made a clip of Bruce Lee's dog blood jumping out of the grave, which was really surprising.
What's even funnier is that the lead actor's name is Bruce lea, which is only one letter away from the real bruce lee.
This has made many Western fans who love Bruce Lee a good fool.
In order to dig deep into the value of Bruce Lee's IP, Korean filmmakers at that time also praised a North Korean action actor named "Dragon" as Bruce Lee's successor, and remade "The Last Jingwumen".
Unfortunately, it is not called a dragon that can replace the dragon, and this simple imitation can only be reduced to mediocrity in the end.
In addition to Bruce Lee, Korean filmmakers are also very fond of copycat monster movies.
Since the 1950s, the Japanese have successively made a series of feature films "Godzilla", setting off a wave of monster movies around the world.
South Koreans felt profitable and co-produced "The great Monster Yongari" with Toei in 1967.
This monster film, which claims to have a production cost of 130 million won, basically reproduces Japan's "Godzilla", from the monster shape, the urban environment, and even the sub-shots are copied.
But I didn't expect that this film took advantage of the Godzilla fever to make a big profit in the European and American markets, and became the "originator of Korean science fiction movies".
The director of this film is Kim Ki-duk, who later made a famous literary film.
In addition, Godzilla's famous rival King Kong, the Koreans did not let go.
In 1976, South Korea and the United States came up with a copycat version of "King Kong" "ape man".
The entire film is said to have cost only $20,000, so the South Koreans have a lot of brains in the production.
The scenes of King Kong vs. Sharks, Warships, and Monty Pythons advertised on the posters do appear in the movie.
The warship is a miniature model, the shark is shot holding a small shark that is really dead, and the python is also an ordinary python that is not thick enough to be wrists.
Although the special effects of the film are a bit rudimentary, there are still some great things. For example, the U.S. military in South Korea actually supported the filming of the film, providing tanks and helicopters.
American actress Joanna Coens, who starred in "Growing Pains" and "Soul Shifter", specially came from the United States to star in the film, playing the woman of King Kong in the film.
But the film is still too bad. Probably afraid that Koreans will destroy their own IP, when the film was released in the United States, the distributor marked the subtitle of "This King Kong is not another King Kong" at the beginning of the film, which is very ironic.
There are also Japanese anime that are popular around the world, and Koreans also like to copy them.
In the 1970s and 1990s, Japanese anime began to take the world by storm.
Korean filmmakers immediately saw this business opportunity and began to make a big deal without official authorization.
In the grove, they made a live-action version of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball.
The characters and art effects are still very eye-catching, and many props are even Dragon Ball derivatives bought directly from the store.
I don't know if Akira Toriyama cried to death after seeing it.
In addition, many works such as "Magic God Z", "Wonder Woman", "Batman" and so on have also been imitated and copied by Korean filmmakers, and some have become classics in the memory of a Korean generation.
However, after 1998, the South Korean government began to take the cultural industry as the foundation of the country, established a strict copyright protection system, And Korean filmmakers no longer copied works from other countries and regions at will, but this habit of borrowing from popular works is still difficult to change in the short term.
Now in Korean movies, you can still see the shadow of many other countries' movies.
Like "Baekdusan" is called the Korean version of "2012"
"Monster" is regarded as a low-end version of "The Great Wall"
On the other hand, they have also begun to buy copyrights to adapt and remake, like many classic Hong Kong movies "Hero Nature", "Tracking", "Infernal Affairs" have been purchased by South Korea for remake.
However, it is worth learning that Korean filmmakers are not satisfied with simple copycats and imitations, and they continue to inject unique Korean genes into their works in the process. Because of this, many viewers think that even if Korean movies are copied, they are copied at a high level and do not lose the original.
Now when we talk about Korean movies, we will find that it has very typical Korean regional characteristics. The subject matter is bold, the genre is rich, the presentation and expression of real life are extremely deep, and the dare to satirize and expose the dark side of all social things, but there is no lack of humanity and warmth.
From the horror film "Sopranos Strange Talk" and "Rose Red Lotus", to the pure love film "Love Has Providence", "August Photo Studio", the war film "Taiji Flag Flying" and "Life and Death Spy Change", the crime film "New World", "Memories of Killing", the monster film "Han River Monster", the disaster film "Haeundae", "Flu", the zombie film "Busan Trip"...
Korean films have accumulated and made achievements in each popular commercial genre, which may be the accumulation of Korean films after decades of continuous imitation and borrowing, and finally make Korean films have a unique charm that is different from other countries' films.