Asian movies target overseas markets

Significant contribution

South Korea is the world's fifth-largest film market in terms of box office admissions, according to The Korea Herald, citing data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics.

Last year, box office revenue for films made in the country reached $823 million, up from $203 million 15 years earlier, according to the consultancy Statista. While modest compared with the $11.3 billion movie industry in the United States, it is nonetheless a significant contribution to the global film landscape.

The domestic market share of films made in South Korea in 2018 was 51 percent, based on admissions, according to the Korea Film Council. Meanwhile, 603 South Korean films were exported that year, with a total value of $41.6 million.

Yu Wanying, senior researcher at the Sungkyun Institute of China Studies, or SICS, at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, said, "With a bigger market share in the domestic market, the influence and popularity of the country's films can even equal those made in Hollywood."

South Korean movies have long had a huge impact in Asia, pioneering the third-generation of hallyu or the Korean Wave－the rise in global popularity of South Korean culture. The first-generation of hallyu is often considered to be led by dramas and the second by K-pop.

Yu said, "Behind the success of Parasite is the huge amount of investment poured by the South Korean government into developing and promoting hallyu, including all kinds of preparations made for its globalization."

In a budget plan released in December, the South Korean authorities allotted a record-high 6.48 trillion won ($5.3 billion) to the culture ministry for this year to promote the country's promising content industry, according to Yonhap News Agency.

With a larger presence in the global market, South Korean films, through interaction with the country's drama, beauty, pop music and food markets, will be a key element in the nation's cultural strategy, Yu said.

In particular, Yu said that while many South Korean films take a deep look at social issues, they are not that hard for foreign viewers to understand, and thus become widely accepted. Productions such as the action horror movie Train to Busan have provided international audiences with a new taste of the country's movies.

Cai Gongming, president of the Beijing film company Road Pictures, said Parasite's success in the global film industry, which has been largely dominated by the West, will give confidence to the industry in China and the rest of Asia.

The movie's achievements at the Oscars showed that "international audiences can actually accept things not considered as mainstream in Western culture", Cai said.

In China, the majority of domestic films tend to focus more on the home market, due to its size, Cai said. He added that unlike the way in which South Korea pushes its commercial movies, Chinese filmmakers can explore international opportunities through literary films, which have always been popular with overseas audiences.

Cai also sees opportunities for collaboration between the film industry in both countries. "China and South Korea have cooperated widely in the movie industry, including post-production or through South Korean celebrities featuring in Chinese films," he said.

Yu, from SICS, said deeper cooperation and communication between the Chinese and South Korean film industries should be promoted further to jointly explore other markets.

With the success of Parasite increasing international demand for Asian films, Yu said this will provide opportunities for the region's movie industries to use their mutual strengths to achieve better results.

However, Magnan-Park, from the University of Hong Kong, sees challenges for South Korean films. He said there will be a natural rush to replicate the success of director Bong Joon-ho's quadruple sweep at the Oscars with Parasite, especially through "whitewashing"－the intentional replacement of non-white characters with white actors.

"For South Korean cinema to expand its global reach, especially across English-speaking nations, it needs to gain mainstream distribution and exhibition opportunities in markets that are reluctant to devote time and energy to foreign films with subtitles," Magnan-Park said.

He added that streaming platforms such as Netflix can offer an alternative route for South Korean films to be distributed and shown globally.

Cai, whose company imported the Japanese film Shoplifters to China, said it will consider buying more South Korean movies, if market conditions allow.

Shoplifters, which in 2018 won the Palme d'Or, the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival, is the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film to hit the Chinese mainland.

Cai said Road Pictures paid close attention to Parasite and was interested in bringing the film to the mainland, but in the end, the company did not strike a deal.

"We have been in close contact with different institutions in South Korea, including major filmmakers and industry bodies," Cai said, adding that he looks forward to other opportunities for cooperation, such as co-productions and remakes.

Noting the impact that the pandemic has had on the global movie industry, Cai said that as film production in the US and Europe has largely been suspended, there could be new opportunities in the second half of this year or the first half of next to fill the gap caused by a lack of movies.

Magnan-Park said, "Once the international medical emergency is over, filmmakers will restart stalled projects and find inspiration to make more compelling movies, including those focusing on COVID-19."