CANNES - The Hollywood Reporter

SOUTH KOREA SPECIAL FEATURE
whose Fists of Legend received a limited release in the
U.S. in April, “but now Hollywood is watching the Korean
film industry. It’s amazing that a Korean director, Kim
Ji-woon, directed Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand.”
Since more than 80 percent of Korean films rely on
digital release for revenue, most U.S. theaters don’t
clamor for foreign product, and American advertising
costs are sky-high, Kang is thrilled at the growing VOD
market offered by Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube.
“Digital has made it easier for us to find all kinds of
audiences,” he says. “Two years ago it was a dream, now
it’s an ordinary day, business as usual.”
When Netflix began accepting 20 titles from Choi
Joon-hwan, CEO of CJ Entertainment, Korea’s biggest
studio, he asked all his employees to click on at least five
to 10 Korean films a day to add more to Netflix numbers.
It turned out he didn’t have to: “I thought 100 clicks a
day would help! Tens and twenties of thousands came
up. Even Netflix was surprised.”
Choi has bigger plans still for China, where CJ has
patiently navigated its notoriously tricky film bureaucracies.
“We’ve been working with China for 10 years,” says
Choi. “We have theaters, production companies, home
shopping in China. They have a lot of money, so it’s hard
to compete with them sizewise. So we focus on a kind of
niche market, concentrating on high-level films.”
CJ’s latest Chinese co-production is the comedy
A Wedding Invitation, in Mandarin with English subtitles,
produced by CJ and five Chinese companies and distributed
by China Lion Film Distribution. The film opened
April 12 in China and already has grossed $35 million.
It bows May 24 in the U.S. “It’s not our first Chinese coproduction,”
says CJ svp of marketing Angela Killoren,
“but it’s our first to hit number one there.”
China’s cap on foreign films is an obstacle to Korean
exports, and co-production with China is a dicey art. In
an effort to streamline negotiations, the Korean Film
Council (KOFIC), has ramped up efforts to showcase
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Korean film talent overseas, particularly China. Last
year KOFIC spent about $1.5 million launching an International
Co-production Team, a highlight of which was
setting up the Korean Film Business Center in Beijing in
April. KOFIC has sponsored trips to the Chinese capital
so South Korean film talent can meet with local producers
to establish the all-important relationships that are
necessary for doing business in China.
This year the organization has allotted just over $1 million
to support international collaborations in China,
the U.S., France and Japan. “KOFIC has been supporting
international co-productions since five, six years ago,
but it is now much more systematic, and meetings are
held every three months,” says Kim Young-gu, manager
of the International Coproduction Team.
Whether or not the South Korean expansion succeeds
as planned, Lee — one of the first Asian actors to leave
hand and footprints in front of TCL Chinese Theatre
(formerly Grauman’s) — admits to being a bit starstruck
about more collaborations with Hollywood in the future.
“It still feels new to me,” he says. “To be working
alongside these big Hollywood stars I grew up watching
in the movies, I can’t believe it.”
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1 Kim Ji-woon on the set of The
Last Stand. 2 Snowpiercer director
Bong Joon-ho. 3 Lee Byung-hun,
the “Brad Pitt of Korea.”
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THE DICAPRIO OF SOUTH KOREA SAYS NO THANKS TO HOLLYWOOD
Superstar Jung Woo-sung says filmmaking in Asia is so hot he has no desire to cross over in the West
The “Leonardo DiCaprio of Korea” has
been expanding his horizons in Asia, and
says the region has matured so much that
for established stars like himself, the lure
of Hollywood is not what it once was.
Early in his career Jung Woo-sung drew
comparisons to James Dean thanks to
his breakout role in the coming-of-age
blockbuster Beat in 1997, but his career
increasingly has drawn comparisons to
that of DiCaprio.
Like the Great Gatsby star, Jung —
once known primarily as a heartthrob
— has delivered on his early promise by
taking on a challenging array of roles,
from romantic leads to action heroes, to
There definitely seems to be more
demand for Asian actors in Hollywood,
but I think debuting there just for the
sake of debuting there would be wrong.”
dynamic character studies. But his next
part — in the upcoming thriller Cold
Eyes — is sure to give his loyal, pan-Asian
female fan base a bit of a shock: For the
first time Jung will play an unambiguously
evil character, carrying out several
disturbingly violent acts.
“In the past I’ve played romantic assassin
types, but this time he really is a bad
guy — he does some horribly violent
things that are definitely going to earn the
film an R rating,” the 40-year-old actor
says. “Quite a few mainstream Korean
movies are experimenting with new types
of characters, especially those that are
not so typical.”
Although Jung’s recent work has given
him increasing exposure to non-Asian
audiences — most notably the John Woodirected
Reign of Assassins, Asia’s answer
to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in which he appears
John Woo’s
Reign of
Assassins
(2010)
opposite Michelle Yeoh — Jun says he’s
not particularly interested in attempting
the risky high-wire act of a Hollywood
crossover, as some of his A-list Korean
contemporaries have recently pursued,
such as Lee Byung-hun (G.I. Joe 1 and 2,
Red 2).
“There definitely seems to be more
demand for Asian actors in Hollywood,
but I think debuting there just for the
sake of debuting there would be wrong,”
he says. “Besides, there are so many
intriguing projects here in Asia right now,
I don’t necessarily feel compelled to
look beyond.” — H.L.
SOUTH KOREA CREDIT: GI JOE: ©PARAMOUNT/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 46