Today is December 31, the last day of 2022. After today's twists and turns, 2022 has completely passed. This year's domestic entertainment market, the variety show and Chinese music market are still in the midst of nostalgia, and although domestic dramas are constantly criticized

text | Linghu Boguang

Today is December 31, the last day of 2022. After today's twists and turns, 2022 has completely passed. This year's domestic entertainment market, the variety show and Chinese music market are still in the midst of nostalgia, and although domestic dramas are constantly criticized, they are actually quite prosperous.

Among these, only movies are particularly bleak because theaters are directly affected by the "epidemic".

2022 will be over soon, and it will be 2023 soon. As long as the epidemic is completely over, the audience's confidence in movie consumption will gradually return, especially as long as the management is not so strict but relaxed, and film and television companies will gradually release those stocks.

may have said that many people don't believe it. The level of domestic movies in 2023 can completely surpass Korean movies. This is indeed a bit counter-intuitive, but it is true. The "epidemic" has had a great impact on the domestic film market in three years, and this has led to stricter management above, which has left domestic films with too much backlog of inventory.

Domestic movies only need to release these stocks. Due to restrictions, some themes are not as rich as Korean movies. But when it comes to the artistry of art films, the exploration and stylization of genre films, even the entertainment aspects of commercial blockbusters are difficult for Korean films to match.

won the Oscar and became popular all over the world? How strong are Korean movies?

In recent years, Korean movies have really made a big impact in the world. First, " Parasite " won the Cannes Palme d'Or and then the Oscar. This year Gun Chan-wook won the Best Director at Cannes with " Determination to Break Up ". Song Kanghao won the Best Actor for another movie.

Korean movies, especially commercial blockbusters that dare to be shot, are very rich. However, if you analyze Korean movies carefully, you will find that Korean directors are actually in serious decline. In the past few years, the ones who have made big hits in the world are all veteran directors.

If this Korean director is calculated in terms of seniority, their Lim Kwon Taek is probably equivalent to directors such as third generation Xie Fei and Wu Tianming from mainland China. Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo, including the deceased Kim Ki-duk, are equivalent to the fifth generation of mainland directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang, as well as the late half-generation directors such as Jiang Wen and Feng Xiaogang.

You must know that Park Chan-wook's Revenge Trilogy was made from 2000 to 2005, and Bong Joon-ho's "Memories of Murder" was made in 2003. The same goes for movies by great directors such as Kim Ki-duk, Lee Chang-dong and Hong Sang-soo.

From the perspective of film art, it may be "Parasite" or "Determination to Break Up". There is no way to compare it with the earlier films of Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho. In the past two years, Korean filmmakers have finally received recognition from the Western Film Festival .

In other words, the Korean filmmakers who have shone brightly in the world in the past two years are still the same old people from the 2000 era. Equivalent to the fifth generation such as Zhang Yimou, the sixth generation such as Jia Zhangke have also produced films that have been recognized in foreign film festivals. We can say that they are getting stronger with age, but this may not be a good thing for an industry.

So are there any outstanding young filmmakers in Korea? The answer is that there are some but they are severely dated.

Let me tell you another cruel fact that many people have not paid attention to. The great Korean directors and the directors from Hong Kong and Taiwan are almost exactly the same. That is, there were world-class directors at their peak, but they stopped abruptly after that.

Hong Kong directors have no great masters since Johnnie To and , and Taiwanese directors have disappeared since Ang Lee. Korean directors also have no world-class directors since Park Chan-wook and others. In this regard, they are far inferior to Japanese film directors and mainland Chinese directors.

There have been no world-class directors in the Mesozoic era in Korea, especially in terms of literary and artistic film directors. The great directors of this type of film are Luo Hongzhen of "The Cry", which is not bad. Other great directors are basically directors of commercial genre films, used to meet the entertainment needs of the audience. There are also some top directors, but in fact they are becoming more and more routine.

Like "Train to Busan 2" is to "Train to Busan", this director's new science fiction film " Jung Yi " is also a Netflix movie. " Agent ", "Ministers of Nanshan", "Mogadisha", " Witch 2", "Co-Aid 2" and other directors are like this. They are quite lively, entertaining and quite commercial. Movies like

can support the market, but they do not have much effect on the stylized exploration of film art and genre films.

If these movies are released, Chinese movies in 2023 are expected to beat Korean movies.

Many people may not understand what the above means. It means that Korean movies are indeed prosperous, but the movies are mainly concentrated on the commercial and entertainment level. In fact, literary and artistic films and genre films are just like that. They are very entertaining.

In 2019, Chinese films were originally in full bloom. A new generation of literary and artistic film directors have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and stylized genre films have also begun to emerge. At the same time, modern military action films represented by " wolf warrior " and Operation Red Sea , science fiction blockbusters " The Wandering Earth ", commercial suspense blockbusters such as " Tang Detective " and "Manslaughter", etc.

Including animated blockbusters such as " Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World ", anyway, the rise of commercial blockbusters is obvious.

As a result, the "epidemic" came and had a serious impact on the film industry. For example, China's top commercial special effects blockbuster, " The Gods Trilogy" by Wuershan , died violently. If this film is not suppressed, its breakthrough in the film and television industry may challenge " The Wandering Earth 2". It is not yet known when it will die suddenly.

At the same time, the above-mentioned policies have been tightened. Regarding many literary and artistic films with sensitive themes, as well as genre films, the market has been flooded with main themes.

This is a literary and artistic film with some realism and sensitive subject matter. According to the fact that "Into the Dust " was shortlisted at the Berlin Film Festival, they may not have failed to win. After all, the quality of "Into the Dust" is only that high among literary films.

For example, Tian Zhuangzhuang publicly complained about "Birds Singing" which he submitted for review for a year or two without even replying to the letter.

For example, "English" directed by Chen Chong was obviously very taboo in that era.

At the same time, the young director Gu Xiaogang filmed the second part of the "Landscape Trilogy", "The World of Plants and Trees". " Yong'an Town Story Collection " has not yet been released, and the director has made new films "White Crane Spreads Wings" and "Children" starring Zhu Yilong.

Speaking of this literary film that has been made but not released, "Forever" by sixth-generation director Wang Xiaoshuai was a hit at the Berlin Film Festival. It is the first part of his "Homeland Trilogy", and the second part " Fertile Ground " has already been filmed.

There are still many literary and artistic films that cannot be released due to the above tightening. Winning awards is really not as difficult as everyone imagines. Especially for domestic filmmakers in the field of literary and artistic films, realism, magical realism, modernism, postmodernism are really not that difficult, but they can't come out.

At the same time, there are many films that are unable to produce genre films that explore stylization. In fact, most of these films go further than Korean films in terms of film aesthetics and genre film style exploration.

It was said some time ago that Zhang Yimou's anti-corruption "Sturdy as a Rock" has passed, but what about Cao Baoping 's " Crossing the Angry Sea "?

Cao Baoping is a great director who has never failed. His rating is stable at around 8 points. This is probably another " scorching sun and ".

The martial arts film director Xu Haofeng has been making movies, but the movies have not been released. From " hid behind the knife " to " the poem is tired of the world " to "the treasure in front of the door", I don't know why it has been suppressed.

also has not been finalized, but there are obvious breakthroughs such as " Unknown " by Cheng Er, and " Deep Sea " which has made huge breakthroughs in the technology, aesthetics, and even the subject matter of domestic animation.

I won’t list other movies. In the past three years due to the epidemic, too many movies have been inexplicably withdrawn, inexplicably suppressed, and inexplicably not released. Even if the movies listed above are released normally in 2023, they will really be far superior to current Korean movies in every aspect.

Korean movies are too arrogant in the world? Don't be envious, domestic films have more important responsibilities.

Finally, Korean films have won two or three awards in the world in the past two years. Not to mention that "Parasite" itself is the product of the internal strife of the chaebol family. The chaebols control Korean society, but the chaebols can not hide the dark side of society related to themselves. The film was broadcast in South Korea and did not have any impact on Korean society. This itself reflects the tragedy of Korean society and the country!

South Korea can win very few European and American film awards, but this film that exposes the dark side of Korean society has won unprecedented honors in Europe and the United States. What does this mean? The best films in Hollywood over the years are rich in subject matter.

For example, the love-themed "Shakespeare in Love" and "A Beautiful Mind", the war-themed "General Patton" and " Platoon ", the family ethics-themed "Rain Man" and "Million Dollar Baby", the fantasy-themed "Lord of the Rings 3" and "The Shape of Water", the inspirational-themed "Forrest Gump" and "The King's Speech", the western theme "Dances with Wolves" with a gangster theme, "The Godfather" with a gangster theme, "The French Cartel" and "The Departed" with a cop theme, "Braveheart" and "Gladiator" with a historical theme...

When it comes to non-Western countries, the best Hollywood movies all reflect the gap between rich and poor or the dark side of the country. "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Parasite", do you think this is a coincidence? The ruling class of European and American media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film institutions and websites are extremely clear and sensitive to national ideology.

Do you think this is a coincidence? The Chinese historical theme "The Last Emperor", Western Europe did not film so many glorious Chinese history and characters, but chose the dark era and tragic characters of Chinese history to film, and then Hollywood selected this film as the best film? Why can't " hero ", which promotes China's unified empire, win the award?

With such rich themes in movies, how come non-Western movies can focus on dark or gloomy themes in the country? Do you think this is not Europe and the United States trying to create cultural awareness of non-Western countries through movies and culture?

Don’t you need to express your feelings about the overseas expansion of Hallyu after China’s Korean ban? Hallyu also gradually grew in China. The Chinese market, a market with such scale and growth, was originally the basic base of Hallyu's overseas market. When the base was lost, South Korea found the U.S. market to take over, which is support.

South Korea lost its fundamental incremental market (high growth), and then developed the existing market (the country's economic growth is slow and the market is mature). Isn't this the end of the Korean Wave? Originally, the epidemic had an impact on the whole world, but South Korea is following the path of the United States, which looks pretty good on the surface.

The impact in China was already severe, and the management became more and more strict, which eventually led to what it is now.Is there a problem with

domestic movies? But the good days of Korean movies are numbered.

Finally, cultural development is a continuation of economic development. If you look at economic development and market size, no matter how you look at it, the rise of Chinese movies in 2019 is obvious. On the contrary, Korean movies have already reached their peak. Because of the "Korean Restriction Order", they lost the Chinese market and finally found the US market to take over before rebounding.

If Korean movies decline, it will depend on when the funding breaks.

For example, in the 1990s, it once arrogantly claimed that it was the of Eastern Hollywood. However, due to the opening up of the mainland, the trend of economic development was reversed. How are Hong Kong movies now? Now with the Western support policy, South Korea has a disobedient heart. South Korea's capital will soon be in danger due to the chokehold with China and careful guidance from the United States.

It won't take long. I guess it will coincide with the time when the United States is overwhelmed on both fronts in Asia and Europe and chooses to shrink and return to its homeland. At that time, Hallyu also had to rely on the trend of the mainland market to survive, and the madness would be cured immediately.

At that time, as long as some restrictions were lifted step by step, even Hollywood would establish joint ventures in China and invest a lot of resources in making genre films that Chinese audiences would like. Korean films were really not worth mentioning.

Of course, this is a bit far-fetched. If the domestic movies listed above are released normally in 2023, there will really be no problem with Korean movies. There are really too many movies that have not been released for some reason.