Film and TV
A movie theatre in Sinchon, Seoul
Main article : Korean Cinema
Since the success of the Korean film Shiri in 1999 Korean film has become much more popular, both in South Korea and abroad. Today South Korea is one of the few countries where Hollywood productions do not enjoy a dominant share of the domestic market.
Shiri was a film about a North Korean spy preparing a coup in Seoul. The film was the first in Korean history to sell more than 2 million tickets in Seoul alone. This helped Shiri to surpass box office hits such as The Matrix or Star Wars. The success of Shiri motivated other Korean films with larger budgets.
In 2000 the film JSA (Joint Security Area) was a huge success and even surpassed the benchmark set by Shiri. One year later, the film Friend managed the same. In South Korea the romantic comedy My Sassy Girl outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which ran at the same time. The director of JSA has gone on to direct many popular films in Korea and abroad especially the cult film of 2003, Oldboy. Kim Ki-Duk is also a well respected filmmaker and is known for using minimal dialouge between characters to create an emotional response from the audience. he is known especially for 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...Spring. As of 2004 new films continue to break records, and many Korean productions are more popular than Hollywood films. Both Silmido and Taegukgi (The Brotherhood) were watched by over 10 million people, which is a quarter of the Korean population. Silmido is a film based on a true story about a secret special force. The other is a blockbuster movie about the Korean War directed by the director of Shiri. The Host(2006) part monster movie, part social satire broke Korean box office records and has become fairly popular in the United States as well.
This success attracted the attention of Hollywood. Films such as Shiri are now distributed in the USA. In 2001, Miramax even bought the rights to an Americanized remake of the successful Korean action comedy movie, My Wife is a Gangster.
Many Korean films reflect the unique circumstances of the division of Korea. Many of the critically acclaimed films focus on subtle emotions, inviting comparison to French films, but with the recent international successes and growing budgets, the Korean film industry has also been criticized for mimicking Hollywood blockbusters.
Dramas
Main article: Korean drama
Korean television and especially the short form dramatic mini-series colloquially called "dramas" by Koreans have become extremely popular outside of Korea. Dramas were foremost among cultural exports driving the Korean Wave fad in Asia. The trend has driven Korean stars to fame and has done much to boost the image and prestige of Korean popular culture. Korean dramas are popular in China, Taiwan, Japan, South East Asian countries, and even America (especially Asian-American communities).
Dramas showcase a wide range of stories, but the most prominent among the export dramas have been romance ("Autumn Fairy Tale", "Winter Sonata", "All About Eve"), and historical/fantasy dramas ("Dae Jang Geum" or "Jewel in the Palace" and "Goong").
