Korea Briefing: 2000-2001: First Steps Toward Reconciliation and Reunification by Kongdan Oh & Ralph C. Hassig

Author:Kongdan Oh & Ralph C. Hassig [Oh, Kongdan & Hassig, Ralph C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies), History, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9781315290751
Google: tJYYDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-09-16T10:32:26+00:00

The Screen Quota System and the Opening of Korea to Japanese Popular Culture

From a policy standpoint, the problem the Korean movie industry faced in 1997 and 1998 was the possibility of the abolition of the screen quota system and the admission of Japanese popular culture into Korea. Under the screen quota system, local movie theaters were required to show Korean movies at least 146 days a year. This law was enacted in 1966 to protect the Korean film industry. In 1997, however, the system became an issue of contention in the ongoing Seoul-Washington bilateral investment treaty talks. The U.S. government claimed the screen quota violated the principle of free trade and thus needed to be eliminated. When Han Dok-Su, the trade minister and chief negotiator with the U.S. government, raised the possibility of repealing the law, people in the movie industry protested in front of the U.S. Embassy and signed petitions to block this perceived threat to the Korean film industry.

The screen quota may appear to be counter to Korea's globalization policy, but the film industry warns that removing it could cause the collapse of the Korean movie industry, which operates on a much smaller budget and with less-advanced technology than its Western counterparts. The ratio of imported to domestic films is still unbalanced. In 1997, 380 films were imported, but only 60 were made in Korea. If movie theaters were to choose between showing a Korean film and a U.S. film produced with ten times the budget, the result would be obvious.

Despite the intense opposition of the film industry, the government saw the screen quota as a stumbling block to concluding the bilateral investment treaty with the United States, and in early June 1999, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced a plan to reduce the allotted number of Korean film days gradually.

Opening the Korean market to Japanese popular culture is another issue that was long debated. On October 20, 1998, the Korean government finally permitted the importing of Japanese films into Korea. Initially, only movies that have won an award in one of the four major film festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and the Academy Awards) and ones that are coproduced by Korea and Japan will be allowed. Eventually, the range will broaden according to the agreement reached by the Korea-Japan Cultural Exchange Committee. Only movies and videos will be imported in 1999, but publications, music, and animation will soon follow. For now, there are fewer than twenty movies that can satisfy the award condition and there is little likelihood that a movie will be coproduced by the two nations in the near future.

The two Japanese movies shown in Korea since the lifting of the import ban are Kitano Takeshi's Hana-bi (Fireworks) and Kurosawa Akira's Kagemusha (A Shadow Warrior). Considering that there are supposed to be many fans of Japanese film in Korea, the audiences for these films were surprisingly small. Hana-bi sold some 60,000 tickets, and A Shadow Warrior sold fewer than 100,000. Some say the low turnout

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