Hollywood in Korea

With the recent debate over the wisdom of pursuing a free-trade agreement with the United States there was a renewed discussion of the so-called “screen quota“, a somewhat ham-fisted way of lending the government’s support to the domestic film industry. I’ve always regarded that debate as pretty much driven entirely by the media, as I’ve never heard a Korean express to me any support for the quota at all, and some were quite fierce in their arguments against it. And not without good reason — South Korea is one of just three countries in the world where domestic films sell more tickets than foreign imports. Check out the box office numbers and Korean films reign over Hollywood fare, collecting well more than half of all ticket sales. Korean films have grown in quality by leaps and bounds in the last decade with no end in sight.

Now we have two of the biggest directors in the States, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg, coming to Korea to promote their new film. This trip, reported in the Joongang Ilbo, is a testament not only to the importance of the Korean film market, as Bay says, but also that it’s now one where Hollywood cannot take success for granted anymore.

“When I was 20 I went on a trip with my mother to Korea. I’m really happy to have come back after 20 years, since Korea is a place that loves my movies and is a growing market.”

Michael Bay (42), genius director and producer of such entertaining films as “Bad Boys” and “Armageddon”, came on the 11th to Korea. The occasion was to do PR for the Korean premiere of “Transformers” on the 28th, the first place in the world for it to be shown after America. “Transformers” is about thinking, living robots from space who come to earth to battle. Originally they were children’s toys made into a 1980s animated TV show, then an animated movie and now a live-action film. For this film Spielberg secured the copyright as the producer, and presented the project to Bay. The director said “At first I figured it would be just a toy movie and wasn’t impressed” but “then I thought how much fun it would be to tell this kind of cartoon-like story in live action.” And just as he said, the robots, created with computer graphics, are perfectly presented with brilliant execution in a live-action film.

The special thing about these robots is that they can take on the forms of various automobiles, from pick-up trucks to sports cars. I was curious why all the vehicles have a special connection with General Motors. The director immediately laughed, answering “Transformers 2 will use Hyundai cars.” “At GM’s R&D production plant I saw their ‘Bumblebee’ and immediately wanted it. So the contract was on condition of not showing any non-GM cars,” he explained.

It was his first time to join hands with Spielberg, but Bay had long worked with Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer. At a request to compare the two directors, he was furtively inclined towards Spielberg. “Bruckheimer is the person that scouted me out at movie school and trained me as a director, and a person with an ability that no one can differ on,” but brought up the subject of his longer relationship with Spielberg. “When I was 15 I worked part time making at Lucasfilm making the storyboards for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (directed by Spielberg). At the time I didn’t think it would turn out well, but the completed film turned out to be my favorite work.”

As to the rumors of a remake of Bong Joong-ho’s “The Host”, the director said “We still haven’t decided yet.”