Jeon Do-yeon won the Best Actress award at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, which ended on Sunday, for her role in Lee Chang-song’s “Secret Sunshine.” Jeon is the first Korean and second Asian actress to win the award for best actress at the prestigious international film festival.
– original article here

I haven’t seen the film “Secret Sunshine” - or Miryang in Korean - but I’m pleased to hear that Do-eyon Jeon’s won this thing. She’s been consistently good.

(original image from the above article)

The above article says that “Jeon’s achievement suggests the global film industry is paying attention not only to Korean movies but finally to Korean actors.” I don’t agree with this completely, but it’s been pretty hard not to pay attention for the industry to what’s happening in Korean cinema/entertainment scene, particularly with the Korean Wave (otherwise known as Hallyu or Hanryu). At its peak in 2004, the Korean Wave contributed to 0.18% increase in the national GDP of Korea. Pretty impressive, especially when Korea’s been known for long as a heavily, boringly, and undeniably industrial country with the brand of OEM.

The big shake-up came with a government report in mid-90s, urging then the president Young Sam Kim to make ways for the AV industry to flourish as one of the national strategic industry. The report presented a comparison between Jurassic Park and Hyundai cars (proud national symbol of globalisation ;) ) and showed how the film had generated two years’ worth of Hyundai car exports. ALARM BELL RINGING FURIOUSLY IN KOREA AT THIS POINT… “WHAT? HOW IS SUCH A THING POSSIBLE? WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED ENTERTAINMENT (SOME CALL IT CULTURE) BUSINESS??” Subsequently, globalisation or segyehwa became the national agenda. And voila the Korean Wave, money, better diplomatic relations, and growing national pride.

Unfortunately for Korea, recent years have seen a dimishing of the Korean Wave. I, for one, have been critical of the same formulaic stories and sense of humour that have been apparent across different fields of pop cultural production. As many claim - and I agree - a lot of that great success came directly from celebrities, perhaps more so than from the quality of production, promotion etc. (Yon-sama is a living example). Celebrities fade away. Very quickly in the case of Korea (I’ve mentioned a couple of times about the paripari - hurryhurry- mentality in this blog).

And it seems that Korean films are not having a wonderful time at this year’s Cannes, just like their cousins (Korean dramas).

Business was locked in slo-mo for Korean sales companies this week in Cannes. Most confessed to having had a miserable time, despite their high-profile booths and well-backed promotion campaigns … Korean films have had a pretty rotten time at home too. Market share this year has slipped from the 60%-plus enjoyed last year.
– original article here

Ah- trouble. There was a survey done by Cetizen, a mobile community site (in Korean) - about the reasons behind changes in the frequency of cinema going last year. 51.6% of the participants attributed the decrease to the fact that they no longer were getting discounts with their mobile subscription (see this article - in Korean). It used to be the case that once you become a subscriber to a particular provider, then you get a membership card, which gives you discounts at various venues such as cinemas, theme parks, restaurants, and shops. It appears that these big telcos haven’t been diligenly keeping their promises, and as a result, many previously available benefits are disappearing… quickly. The consequences of this disappearance? Appearing quickly.

I just can’t understand why silly things like this are happening in Korea. Once in a (nation’s) life-time opportunity’s going, or perhaps already (almost completely) gone.

KOREA, please let the mobile culture (mobile technologies and all inter-related domains) grow - organically, complexly, and strongly. And please do your best to keep your much-celebrated screen quota in place; please remove those re-introduced download limits on broadband; and multiple pleases for you to take creativity seriously and encourage people to be more free in their creative expressions and interactions - eventually they will generate financial profit, if not immediately (paripari). People, technology, and culture. Please get this amazing connection and do something about it… quickly. Now.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 1:46 am and is filed under stories - old & new, korea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.