Opinion: South Korean Cinema Is Far Superior To BigBudget Hollywood Productions
I was a film critic for seven years and watched hundreds of new films every year. On average 10 to 20 of these films come from East Asia, mainly South Korea.
Ma Dong-seok as Ma Seok-do and Kim Min-jae as Kim Man-jae in The Roundup: No Way Out (2023), ABO Entertainment
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Seeing Korean cinema is a nice change and complements the expensive cinema we are used to seeing here in America. In recent years, however, mainstream moviegoers have noticed a shift in quality within the American film industry.
If you're a movie buff, you may have noticed that the overall quality of movies has declined over the past decade. The quality of superhero movies has declined, the era of action stars is over, comedies are not as funny as they were more than two decades ago, and the idea of a Hollywood drama is just a wake-up call with sick narrative.
Woo-hee Chun as Lee Na Mi and Si-wan Yim as Oh Jun Yeong in Unlocked (2023), Netflix
Long story short, going to the movies isn't as fun as it used to be. What if I told you this is America's problem? During the decline of American cinema, South Korea produced high-quality content that managed to surpass its Western counterparts.
And I'm not talking about flashy anti-capitalist films like Parasite , a film Hollywood claims to love. NO. To properly articulate the contrast between American and Korean cinema, we need to dig deeper.
Min-Hyuk (Park Seo-joon) convinced Ki-Woo (Choi Woo-shik) to continue his teaching job on Parasite (2019), Barunson E&A via Blu-ray
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For decades, South Korea has relied heavily on American culture, including film, television, music – art forms and media that have had a major impact on the Korean region.
South Korean films are not inspired by what the American film industry has become today, but by what it was. South Korea presents films without left-wing political intent.
Seung-ryong Ryu as Captain Ko and Dong-hwi Lee as Young-ho in Extreme Job (2019), Hagrim Pictures
Take for example a movie like 2019's Extreme Job , which is about a group of undercover cops who run a chicken restaurant and eventually discover that they are better at cooking chicken than the police.
As far as modern comedies go, it's refreshing to see a film that doesn't rely on gruesome improvisation, gags, drug use, or pop culture references to make audiences laugh.
Even if the era of action stars in American cinema is over – unless you're Tom Cruise and regularly churn out high-quality films that don't offend the audience's intellect – none of that applies in Korea.
South Koreans love masculine stories and male-starring movies, which is why Don Lee remains one of the top action stars in the country.
Ma Dong-seok as crime boss Jang Dong-soo in The Gangster, The Cop, the Devil (2019), BA Entertainment
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Ma Dong-seok has starred in major action films such as The Gangster and The Cop and the Devil – films about cops teaming up with an underworld crime boss to bring down a brutal serial killer.
The film offers viewers a good stage, interesting characters, strong performances and a world to immerse themselves in for two hours. A breath of fresh air from a big budget Hollywood production.
American cinema dwarfs even what they consider their bread and butter, pioneering films for women. Take last year's The Girl on The Bulldozer , a poignant character study about a teenage girl who is forced to face the harsh realities of growing up and shoulder a burden of responsibility far greater than anyone her age can. handle.
If the movies don't convince you, you'll see a young Korean girl playing Killdozer like a superhero.
Gu Hye-Young (Kim Hye-yoon) gets news about the insurance company from Little Big Pictures in The Girl on a Bulldozer (2022).
The reason South Korea's entertainment industry has been able to shine where American entertainment has failed is because the industry refuses to subvert culture.
Because the industry does not try to destroy its culture, they are able to present inspiring stories, beautiful cinematography and characters that evoke emotion from the audience. What Hollywood takes for granted is considered a luxury in Korea.
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Some of you might assume that the reawakening virus plaguing the West hasn't reached South Korea yet, and you'd be wrong. As an immediate neighbor to the north, South Korea has been plagued by subversive communist organizations for decades.
The same Marxist organizations that seek to disrupt gender, sexuality, and the concept of the nuclear family in the United States are also at work in South Korea, where a wave of anti-feminist resistance in the region has succeeded in "focusing pull". mainstream media.
Full speech: South Korean President Yoon Sok Yul addresses US Congress via NowThis News and YouTube
The South Korean people have developed strong resistance to feminist ideals, leading to the worst relations between men and women. State media even blamed anti-women for the election of conservative President Yoon Seok-yul in the recent election.
It's the same feminist movement that swept across the United States and is now seeing offshoots that have shaped the Perfect Wave over the years. A country suffering from demographic and economic problems sees feminism as a cancer bent on turning South Korea into its western and northern counterpart.
Become a radical anti-feminist in Korea | Stay curious about Asian Boss, YouTube
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While no one knows how long South Korea will last before the pendulum swings the other way, resistance to this trend continues.
So what is the secret that makes the South Korean film industry higher than the American film industry? The answer is actually quite simple: their creators stay true to their own genre, source material and culture. Over the past two decades, this simple concept has slowly disappeared from Hollywood productions.
Park Dong-wook (Yoo Ah-in) made a deal with President Kang In-sook (Moon So-ri) via Netflix in Seoul Vibe (2022).
The rare case where we see South Korean films that don't follow this cardinal rule is when they deliberately produce content aimed at American audiences, hidden under the guise of being what audiences in the West want to consume. .
What sets the two countries apart is that the South Korean film market is incapable of confusing its target audience. Most film studios in the United States have become mere portfolios of multinational corporations. As such, they can ignore a large portion of the American public, assuming that they will find it elsewhere in the world.
Yi Sun-sin (Park Hae-il) looks determined to win the war in Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022) via Big Stone Pictures
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American entertainment studios do not focus on the domestic market, but rather on the global market. This does not apply to South Korea. Although South Korea's entertainment industry has global influence, it still relies on domestic audiences to drive business. Whatever the South Korean people want, they will get it.
Because the mentality of the American film industry is to tell audiences what they want, Hollywood is considering giving them what they want a blasphemous concept.
Lee Jong-Suk as Jang in The Witch: Part 2. The Other (2022), Next Entertainment World
In terms of quality entertainment in the US, the next few months are going to be tough. The best movies that Hollywood can offer us are movies like The Flash , Indiana Jones, Dial of Fate and The Live-Action Barbie Movie. If that's not the first sign of creative bankruptcy, I don't know what is.
If you are disappointed by American films, check out the latest South Korean movies from your area. Not every film will be a success in terms of quality, but the efforts will be more than what Hollywood envisions for you.
Zo In-Sung as Kang Dae-jin in Escape from Mogadishu (2021), Lotte Entertainment
As long as you know where to look, the art of cinematography isn't completely dead.
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