International projection of Korean cinema and culture

Breath (Kim Ki-duk, 2007) main actors in Cannes Film Festival

In the 80s Korea gave its first steps to show to international markets its cinema and culture. However the real international repercussion was during the 90s. The country was facing at that moment an economic crisis. But the boost of cinema production, the first-ever multiscreen cinema (which attracted the interest of a great mass of population), and the emergence of the Korean ‘blockbuster’ phenomenon, were the principal reasons that provoked the promotion of the national cinematography. The quote of screen time in Korea for national cinema reached a rate of approximately 50%.

Dalmaga Dongjjokeuro gan kkadakeun?, directed by Bae yong-kyun and awarded internationally with the great prize of Locarno Festival, was the most representative film talking about the internationalization of the Korean cinema. But probably the most emblematic one was Chilsu and Mansu (1988), for the first time international circuits start to be interested on Korean cinema1. In 1992, it is organized the first great exhibition of South Korean cinema, by Pesaro Festival, in western countries. By this time, Korean film market was the second best one behind Japanese one and, what’s more, now it is considered one of the best film industries in the world. In fact, it is impressive how in the last 10 years, Korean cinema have spread out. Many festivals around the world have proliferated such as NY Korean Film Festival (2001), London Korean Film Festival (2003), one in Australia (2000) and other one in New Zealand (2004).

The rapid increase in the number of festivals denotes the importance that Korean culture products are reaching nowadays. But not just films, also Korean Tv dramas are being spread out to occidental audience, mostly through internet. The seek of the terms “Korean culture”, “Korean films”, and “Korean dramas” in three different languages (English, Spanish, and French) on one of the most popular search web page ‘google’ have offered very disparate results. The greater amount of searches in English than in French, or the small amount of the searches in Spanish, just show how the presence of these products are probably more significant in English-speaking countries.

By the results it seams that the interest about Korean cultures in Spanish-speaking countries is less developed. But in the last 10 years it has been noticeable the growth of the Korean films showed in festivals such as Sitges or BAFF. Sitges started to increase the number of korean films showed in each edition from one film in 2000 (Seom, Kim Ki-duk) to seven movies of 2010. Even, it was created a new section called Orient Express in the festival that just showed asian films. The modest Malaga Fantastic Film Festival also have included in its program Korean movies and, in fact, in 2010 among the activities that were organized it was included a samulnori spectacle.

Also international well known festivals such as Cannes or Sundance have included Korean films in their editions. Cannes has taken in 37 South Korean movies in the last 12 years and Sitges for example has shown 58 films in the last 10 years while Sundance has shown 18 movies since 1995.

These facts just denote the growing impact of Korean cinema and culture in western societies and the increasing interest about them. But the most important point would be how this can affect to the image that western and eastern people have about the country.

1 ELENA, Alberto. Seul Express. La renovación del cine coreano. Madrid: 1st edition, TB.