Korea-China Film Co-production in the 21st century

Korea-China Film Co-production in the 21st century

Introduction

In this paper, we would examine 4 movies Bichunmoo (2000), The Promise (2005), My Wife is A Gangster 3 (2006) and Dangerous Liaisons (2012). The study would further discuss the historically de-colonized and de-westernized perspective, approach from political economy of the penetration of global media in Asia Korea and China and the politics of liberalization/neoliberal globalization in Asian media context. The study would further investigate the changing landscape of political regimes and media policies.

Ever since, the turn of the new millennium the world has entered the next stage of regional integration and globalization. East Asian countries started to look for new ways of cooperation, and South Korea's cultural industry benefited from state policy support and is now at the forefront. After censorship was lifted, collaboration between Korean and foreign filmmakers has grown in both extent and visibility. In China, as the Chinese economy booms and competition in the domestic market gets fiercer, more companies look overseas for collaboration. In this context, Korea and China have begun to collaborate in multiple fields in the cultural industry, including film, TV, games and music.

Discussion

Korean Cinema has been considered unique in terms of market share of films and these are gaining more success as they are able to attract new audience globally. Hybridity is often used to define globalization by the interaction of global and local (Dal, 2009). The Chinese movie industry has changed since 1980s when the directors began to shift their attention from propaganda films to more personalized ones of everyday life among the Chinese citizens. Many movies, at present, have redirected their attention to urban characters and themes, but films which have gained success are those which include legendary characters such as warriors, martial arts heroes and emperors.

Bichunmoo (2000) is a romantic film which describes the story of racial conflict between Mongolians (Koryo and Hans) and Chinese continent. The movie describes the love relationship between the daughter of Mongol general and son of Koryo migrant. They suffered from tragic times and this story discusses that although racial conflict existed but love relationship depicted in the movie could be clearly seen. This movie also served as considering positive relationship between the Chinese and Koreans while ignoring the history. The Promise (2005) was another movie which is a legend, fantasy/sci-fi/action-adventure movies that were booming in Hollywood during the '80s.

In late 1990s, Japan expanded its cultural penetration globally in 21st century. Japan comprises of culture which is vast and is connected to resolute construction of technological power and its economic growth. Japanese cultural production is increasing at a high rate. It is innovative and forms a dynamic and unique cultural empire. Expansion of Japanese in the Asian market is not new, but the influence of culture is ahead of Asia. Some Japanese cultural products such as television programs have been received in many countries and world since 1980 such as Singapore, China, U.S, Hong Kong, Belgium, Thailand, Iran and ...