“Parasite.” As the host calls the title, the audience cheers with thunderous applause. On February 10, director Bong Joon-ho’s sensational thriller Parasite (2019) won Best Picture at The Academy Awards—also known as the Oscars—held in Los Angeles (LA). It was the first time that a production from South Korea had won any award at the Oscars. However, Director Bong showed off his modesty by telling reporters at the Oscars, “I think BTS has 3000 times the power and influence I have. I think Korea produces a lot of great artists because we are a very emotionally dynamic people.” While he has certainly crossed one of the highest barriers that lay in front of Korean cinema, eyes are on to the future of both the arts and entertainment industries of South Korea as they get ready to set even higher records and marvel fans all around the world.
This is not the end of a high-flying march of the Korean art industry. Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS), the Korean-pop (K-Pop) boy group, won the Best Rhythm and Blues (R&B) Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards (GA) once again, surprising people around the world. They are recognized throughout the world for their outstanding musical performance, the artistry of their choreography and their popularity. As such, the Korean film and music industry is not only winning awards globally but also winning people’s hearts. At such a historical moment in time, looking back upon our footsteps in the field of film and music might as well gift us with the necessary insight for a more steady and bright future for all South Korean productions.
Past Trends and Progress in the Film and Music Industry
Due to a relatively low international status and economic growth level, the Korean film industry was gradually forced to open the film market internationally. The dominance of Hollywood movies persisted for a long time, and even additional imports of Chinese movies began to rise. This led to a serious screen monopoly of foreign movies. In addition, Western-centrism and cultural toadyism were widespread among the people, creating an obstacle to the advancement of domestic films.
However, the fifth revision of the Film Law in 1984 eased the strict regulation by the government, allowing independent directors to make films without registration as a film maker and also changing the film censorship system into a film review system. This finally led to the growth of free independent filmmakers. As films based on artists’ creative spirit began to be made, the Korean film industry became more permanent and allowed room for development. The rise of the Korean film industry soon spread overseas to countries in East Asia including China, and this was accelerated by the development of social media to at last begin the Hallyu Wave.
As for the music industry, its circumstances were quite similar to those of the film industry. There was a constant influx of foreign music and rapid changes in media and distribution structure. In the midst of this, however, several management companies continued to struggle and develop, targeting Asia and other global markets. Following H.O.T., a boy group who made their debut in China in 1998, Rain was named as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, having made a huge success overseas.
This process of development has continued steadily and resulted in numerous films and albums making successful inroads into foreign markets. The foreign media and people’s reaction to the movie Parasite and BTS, as well as the winning performances at prestigious awards ceremonies abroad, are clear evidence. It was a breakthrough that led to overseas expansion, while keeping the unique style of Korean art, and breaking away from the closed and stagnant past.
Breaking Records, Building Significance
Korean music’s history of world entry began with boy band H.O.T, the first K-Pop artist to perform abroad, and BoA, whose first album sold a million copies overseas. The world trend made by Hallyu had started to set in by around 2005, with groups such as Super Junior showing rapid growth across Asia. With the facilitation of social media and increased usage of online video platforms such as YouTube, the Korean music and film industry was able to expand its stage to the United States (US). In 2012, the Korean singer PSY’s Gangnam Style rocked the world, topping the Billboard chart and was even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Likewise, the Korean film industry is gradually breaking into markets and awards ceremonies abroad, envisioning the global spread of K-movies. Since director Lee Doo-yong’s film Mulleya Mulleya was invited to The Cannes International Film Festival (CIFF) for the first time in 1984, many other movies have been constantly knocking on the door of foreign film festivals. Among them, the film Parasite by Bong Joon-ho is still showing great success, as distinctly proven by statistical numbers and prestigious prizes it has won so far. The spectacular performance of the film, which also won at the Golden Globe Awards (GGA), not only means its artistry has been internationally recognized but also that the Korean film industry as a whole is finally being recognized as more than just a curious step into the world stage.
The progress made in the film and music industry have been shifting global paradigms with scales much larger than what the average amount of artistic influence would render. According to the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, BTS has raised over two million U.S. dollars (USD) in 2019 towards donations for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), of which seven million was raised by fans alone. Parasite has undoubtedly shaken up the filmmaking industry in a comparable global scale, currently holding a box office value of 126.8 million U.S. dollars (USD). It has even caused the famous Japanese film director Ryusuke Hamaguchi to reflect that “it is incomparable to my work in all respects, but I am still strongly pushed to re-examine my movie making from the ground up.”
Korea’s Soft Power Grows
Apart from these obvious figures and conventional responses, the ongoing wave of Korean film and music seems to now be making important changes to the more relevant areas of economics and politics. In South Korea, the positive effects of BTS’ popularity—coined as the Bangtan (BTS) Effect—is discussed among all generations and at all times. Professor Hong Seok-gyeong (Department of Communication, Seoul National University (SNU)) writes through JoongAng Ilbo that this effect represents the immeasurable social influence of BTS. The band also identify with the younger generation by showing their own struggles with the unstable employment conditions and high competition of the K-Pop industry. The septet has won over fans around the world through simple networking rather than through authoritative intermediaries and have finally broken through the conservative culture of American Pop.
South Korea therefore faces new and welcoming options to lift its economy, as more of its overseas expeditions bring about financial attention such as tourism and investment into its various industries. The media industry of South Korea is now regarded as one of the most developed in the world. The American business magazine Forbes shares that in the year 2018, “the South Korean music market experienced a 17.9% increase in revenue growth,” being described as “shifting from potential to a power player.” The film industry is already experiencing positive deals with the exporting of other films, says South Korean entertainment company CJ Entertainment, which is interpreted as a derivative effect of Parasite’s success.
Besides economic value, the Hallyu of the 2010s has shifted paradigms across the international and political relations of South Korea. The perceived image of South Korea is progressing towards that of a truly advanced country—gracious, formidable and record-setting. The growing popularity of K-Pop and Korean films is providing appropriate soft power, more diverse mediums to conduct both domestic and international affairs. Artists have been taking global action through their speeches at the United Nations, and the National Assembly of South Korea stays attentive to celebrity scandals and their roles in spreading our culture. Parasite successfully created a sense of unity and awareness among citizens, as well as a background for foreigners to explore our societal challenges and deep-rooted customs in the frame of artistic entertainment.
Changes Made by the Wave
The influence does not stop there; people’s tastes and perception toward Korean art are changing as well. In the past, cultural toadyism and Western centrism had downgraded domestic productions as having relatively low quality. However, the fact is that seven out of ten previous box office films in Korea are Korean films, and the same goes for the music industry. High sales of Korean artists’ concerts and records prove that the domestic trend is changing in the direction of recognizing and preserving Korea’s unique artistry. This made a new representative national trait of Korea and defined the country in a new way, further increasing people’s pride in their country.
Movie companies and film distributors are also changing, in contrast to the past when foreign films tended to have a screen monopoly and have continued their attempts to expand the number of Korean films to Western culture beyond Asia. “We are targeting the American market based on the brand image and network we have built since launching our direct distribution business in the US in 2009 and on the original intellectual property that enables us to take the lead in joint film productions,” explained Koh Gyeong-beom, the head of the overseas business division at CJ Entertainment’s Film Business Headquarters (CJ EFBH).
Companies are also making practical use of the popularity of Korean culture abroad for the purpose of broadening their market. For example, according to The Hankyoreh, LG Electronics has been bringing Korean concerts worldwide and hiring popular Korean stars to endorse their products so that they can increase their brand awareness globally. The government’s policies are also showing signs of transition, integrating the domestic cultural industry into the international market by encouraging Korean film and music industries amid the trend of globalization. It is also boosting national patriotism and attracting public support by providing more active back up toward the Korean art industries. Positive responses are also being clearly observed by records of winning and being nominated for great prizes at prestigious awards ceremonies, which makes Korean culture more prominent on the world stage.
Risks in Disguise
The blessings that the Korean film industry met have been kept inside disguised tribulation. Although film industries overseas shed new light on Korean film, the Korean industry itself has had its illnesses for a long time. The Korean film industry has been in a vicious circle of a decrease in profitability and the resulting shrinkage of investment. The rise of film production costs and decrease of public support at the same time aggravated profitability, which led to passive financial investment. Low investment causes noticeable adverse effects on film contents, lowering their quality of work and competitiveness.
Since 1967, Korea has been implementing a screen quota, a compulsory screening of domestic films which has been adopted out of a concern that the domestic film industry is being eaten by Hollywood blockbusters. However, in the early 2000s, the contradiction in the screen quota rose to the surface as major large film distributors such as CJ Entertainment and Lotte Cinema were established and invested large amounts of capital in domestic films. Along with the improvement being shown in the quality of Korean films and the sea of Hallyu waves getting bigger, the concentration of capital toward the Korean film industry intensified. Small and medium sized film production companies were merged into large- scale production companies, bringing about a screen monopoly of large capital and enterprises.
Director Doh Dong-joon of the Film Policy Research Institute at the Korean Film Council shared a similar view on this matter. “The growing influence of capital and the hegemony of small and medium-sized production companies that used to lead the film industry have now been reduced to subcontractors of large companies. The film market is being dominated by a handful of large commercial films, and the audience of course flocks to them. The market is losing ground for films that are smaller and less commercial, but more meaningful.” With South Korea considering an audience of 10 million as an indicator of a successful movie, the swaying and supremacy seems to be influencing the whole industry more than anywhere else in the world.
In fact, a few large enterprises have a vertical sequencing structure, being in charge of the entire process, from film making to film screening. Such major enterprises came up with a strategy of producing tentpole films, those pursuing a box-office hit by investing famous directors, celebrated actors and large amounts of capital. The fact that the current domestic film industry has a high level of dependence on these tentpole films has been making a grave situation in which endless monotonous films monopolize the screen, rather than various independent films showing various colors of light. Getting farther and farther away from coming up with a ‘culture’ which considers audiences’ diverse and unique tastes.
Prescription for the Risks
In order to resolve this situation of screen monopoly, the current structure of the whole film industry dominated by large enterprises and their capital should be changed. Regulations regarding large enterprises’ film market share should be flexibly and rigorously applied. Last but not least, a new but original way of viewing and considering film is necessary, viewing it as a cultural art, before an industrial production.
Structural, financial sanctions on creative and critical films hinder the pursuit of diversity and freedom of speech. In an interview done by Variety, Korean representative director Bong Joon-ho mentioned that the younger generations of filmmakers are going through a difficult time, since studios and financiers have become more particular and controlling, making it harder for directors to take bold and creative decisions. Professor Byun- hyuk (Department of Visual Science, Sungkyunkwan University) mentioned the necessity of enhanced support for independent film, saying that “The problem of independent film distribution has been pointed out as much as the difficulty of securing the budget. It is not easy for independent films to set more than 30 theaters, thereby increasing the quota of independent films screening is needed,” also adding that a negative tendency of financially successful independent film makers changing into commercial film makers can be resolved by making a normal financial circulation through activating the distribution of independent films.
Although the current state of the Korean film business has shown great growth in quantity, both at home and abroad, there are major obstacles to overcome when it comes to qualitative growth. “Only considering absolute commerciality will result in a decline in the quality of film art and an absence of art. Likewise, the rejection of unconditional commerciality will be a hindrance to the healthy development of the film industry,” said Professor Byun, emphasizing the balanced recognition of positive attributes of film, art and commerce.
Moving Beyond Asia Extreme
“Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films,” said Parasite director Bong Joon-ho at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards. Through such a concise and resonating remark, director Bong certainly made many moviegoers and critics look back on the conservatism of the Hollywood scene. The Los Angeles (LA) Times interprets that the speech refers to Hollywood “effectively keeping certain pictures in their place—on the margins—and preventing them from competing in any meaningful sense for bigger accolades.”
Director Bong’s comment exactly pinpoints the direction in which the film and music industry—especially in the U.S.—should flow. It highlights that what matters in film, or in any form of entertainment for that matter, is in its core. Awards should be based on the message it gives, or the sentiment it brings. But there are countless incidents where non-American films are excluded from mainstream talks or even labeled as exotic, just because they come with subtitles to account for their non-English language.
The Metro UK’s reporter Emma Kelly carries this issue further into the realm of K-Pop, commenting, “The entire K-Pop industry is discussed extremely differently to the Western pop industry, despite having many of the same issues, and you are kidding yourself if [you think] it is not because it is foreign.” The American listeners’ unfamiliarity with the Korean language may also have contributed to the 2010 failure of the expansion of Hallyu into the U.S.
However, BTS, Psy, Parasite, and even the popularity of the Educational Broadcasting System’s (EBS) penguin character Pengsoo have restyled the norm. Listeners and viewers are becoming more comfortable with Hangeul. In fact, according to The Hankyoreh, international fans of BTS have been showing immense support for the Korean language, even celebrating the national Hangeul Day with Korean citizens on October 9. The article elaborates, “Because of the passion of its members for studying Hangul, ARMY (BTS fans) was selected by Hangul Cultural Solidarity on October 7 as its Korean language aficionado for 2019.”
The commercial success of Korean film and music have made it possible for fans to find joy in something they were once not, or are still not, fully comfortable with. Even if one fails to learn Korean and has to enjoy media through translations and subtitles, they should realize that it is only a “one- inch-barrier.” What matters most is the experience one gets out of the film or music anyway; the aversion to subtitles should not stop one from that encounter. Director Doh shares that Darcy Paquet, who translated the English subtitles for Parasite, “emphasized the importance of the system and stressed that it is important to create education programs to train professional video translators through systems in which creators and translators can share information with each other.” Such infrastructure may help brighten the future for all international, subtitled films.
In that manner, Korean productions are leading the way in the global promotion of self-love and finding value for all types of situations. BTS and their Love Yourself extended play-project are helping listeners find their self-worth and find joy in the smallest things in life. Non-Korean viewers of Parasite will have most likely earned a strangely warm sentiment and experience from pushing through the barrier of subtitles and the prejudice against Asia Extreme films. The efforts continue and once again show the importance of the Korean film and music industry in spreading positive change around the world. Song Gang-ho, the main actor in Parasite acclaimed that the film is “the culmination of the Korean film renaissance,” but there are high hopes that further influence through Korean film and music will prolong the culmination into a record-setting, paradigm-shifting future of dominating Hallyu.