Full Service Cinema: The South Korean Cinema Success Story (So Far)
Fifteen years ago, South Korean cinema was in precipitous decline. It was facing deadly competition from Hollywood as import barriers were dismantled, and had almost no export market. Today, South Korean cinema is widely considered the most successful and significant non-Hollywood cinema anywhere in the world today. It is successful both in the domestic market, and internationally. This essay sets out to understand this phenomenon. First, it attempts to trace South Korean cinema’s comeback story. I feel a need to do this because I find that so many of my South Korean friends and colleagues are reluctant to admit this, or focus solely on the problems the industry is facing in the future. There may be worries about the future and there may be “ifs” and “buts” about the present state of the South Korean film industry. But we should start out by acknowledging its success.
In considering some of the reasons for the recent success of South Korean cinema, two further observations can be made. First, if we pay attention to the international export success of South Korean cinema, we can see that it has carved out a new route. This is based on regional markets at least as much as Europe and the United States. Second, unlike the successes of the Taiwanese and Chinese “new waves” since the 1980s, it is not based on the old European art cinema model. This raises a question about the viability of art cinema, independent feature films, short films, independent documentary, and other less profitable and commercial modes of filmmaking in South Korea. It may even lead some people to believe that those other modes of filmmaking are not an integral part of the new South Korean cinema success story. Yet, my third and final point will be to argue against this and for the importance of what I want to tentatively call “full service cinema,” including a full range of modes of production and consumption. In making this point, I want to challenge another very common assumption not only in South Korea but everywhere—the idea that art cinema and independent cinema are opposed to mainstream commercial cinema. While there may be an aesthetic opposition between them, it is a strategic mistake to translate this into an institutional opposition. Even though their philosophies may be very different, as I will attempt to outline today, they need each other to succeed.
To date, Warner Bro’s has over 6,500 feature films and around 3,000 television series that contains more than 10,000 episodes (“Company” par 5). Every great movie company has a background story to their success. What were then four brothers traveling with a movie projector turned into a successful movie company that has entertained crowds for generations (“Company” par 7). The vitaphone, the talkie, and the first four-legged movie star were introduced during the 1920’s, and helped define the Warner Brother company (Company par 6). Warner Brothers, a company created by four brothers during the 1920’s, revolutionized the film industry by modernizing the concept of cinematography (Company par 6).
The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.
The Australian Film Industry has been around since October 1896. The first full length feature film, in 1906 was ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang’. Australian Cinema has only become a much larger industry in like past 10 years with ‘Sanctum’ being Australia’s 10th largest film in the US Box Office history with its exceptional 3D technology and exquisite photography. ‘The Sapphires’ which also had a strong impact on Australian viewers did not reach the capacity of gross making in the US Box Office. The Australian Film Industry has become in crisis because without the Australian movies having an impact on the Australian viewers as a minimum, the money used to make the film will not have profited from the tickets bought to see the actual movie. In this essay I will explain how ‘Sanctum’ and ‘The Sapphires’ can be used in reference to the Australian Film Industry crisis and reason’s for how and why the Australian Film Industry has hit a crisis in film making.
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Rentschler, Eric. "From New German Cinema to the Post-Wall Cinema of Consensus.'" Cinema and Nation. Ed. Mette Hjort and Scott Mackenzie. New York City, NY: Routledge, 2000. 260-277. Print.
Marchetti, Gina, and Tan Kam. Hong Kong film, Hollywood and the new global cinema no film is an island. London: Routledge, 2007. Print.
Although in shambles, It did not take long for film to make a resurgence in France. Domestic production was boosted following the introduction of The Centre National de la Cinématographe, a government organization that provided assistance to the industry in the form of loans and training. Imported films, especially those from America, began flowing into France following its liberation by Allied forces, and moviegoers were suddenly exposed to years of new films they had been previously cut off from all at once. As the market for films began to heat up, French filmmakers were presented with two choices; continue producing films adapted from relatively outdated literary works in the classic French tradition, or imitate the Hollywood Studio system of production, creating big-budget features for an international audience with the assistance of the CNC. These contrasting styles of filmmaking...
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
Stanley, Robert H. The Movie Idiom: Film as a Popular Art Form. Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc. 2011. Print
Over the years, Bollywood has emerged as its own distinct identity in the global Film industry. Bollywood is the global leader in production of movies with a staggering 27,000 featured films and thousands of short films. ( Pillania 1) However, Hollywood is still the leader in revenues generated. Due to the growth of the Indian market and globalization, Bollywood has made its way to the international markets. Globalization is often misrepresented as the growing influence of the western culture in the world and so we tend to state that Hollywood is influencing Bollywood to a great extent. An argument can be made to justify the validity of that statement. However, this paper aims at presenting the influence of Bollywood on Hollywood in terms of music, dance and visual representation. This papers deals with a specific part of globalization, providing evidence that it
McDonald, Keiko I. Cinema East: A Critical Study of Major Japanese Films. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 1983.
African cinema has evolved in multiple facets since postcolonialism milieu. Post-nationalist African cinema has transformed into a more complex network that simultaneously incorporates both global and national issues alike. Modern post-nationalist films aim to aim to repudiate a homogenized notion African Cinema while highlight the diversities in African cinema, unlike antithetical early nationalist variants which portrayed a generalized African identity. These post-nationalist film makers advocate the need for utilizing new film languages and ideals suitable to the contemporary cultural, social, political and economic situations of different African countries. Certain developments have been instrumental to this gradual cinematic evolution
Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.
Moviemaking is a risky business, for it is not always profitable. Only one in ten films ever recovers its initial investment from theatrical exhibition. In fact, four out of ten movies never recoup the original investment. In 2000, the average studio film cost had a total cost of over $80 million per film. No other industry in the world risks that much capital to make, finance, produce ...
The film industry has always been somewhat of a dichotomy. Grounded firmly in both the worlds of art and business the balance of artistic expression and commercialization has been an issue throughout the history of filmmaking. The distinction of these two differing goals and the fact that neither has truly won out over the other in the span of the industry's existence, demonstrates a lot of information about the nature of capitalism.