Korea can, why can't Taiwan?

This week, the heatedly discussed romantic comedy My Sassy Girl had a bustling release in Taiwan. This Korean film's director, Kwak Jae-yong, and his young actors, Cha Ta-hyun and Jun Ji-hyun, all visited Taiwan and created considerable media hype. In the following week, JSA, a film about North-South Korean tension, is also knocking at the door of Taiwan's market, with the highest paid actor in Korea, Lee Byung-hun, planning to visit Taipei. Lee's many Taiwan fans (for his TV dramas) are also expected to stage another frenzied welcome for this film.

There seems to have been a Korean surge in the past three weeks. Not only on the football pitches at World Cup games, but also in the movie theaters.

"This is the third Korean film [to show] in Taiwan's market. Now everyone [local distributors] is waiting to see if this film can sell well. If it can, there will be more and more Korean films coming to Taiwan," said Rex Kuo (郭志成) from Group Power Workshop, distributor of My Sassy Girl.

Earlier in May, at the Cannes Film Festival, Korea's Lim Kwon-taek was awarded Best Director for the film Chihwhaseon, a portrayal of a 19th century Korean painter. He is the first Korean director to win the honor at Cannes after years of Korean film nominations.

Power surge

"In recent years -- especially this year at Cannes -- you see so many more Asian faces on La Croisette. Most of them are Koreans," said film producer Peggy Chiao (焦雄屏), a regular film festival participant for the past 10 years. "When we were promoting Hou Hsiao-hsien's (候孝賢) films, there weren't so many Asians at Cannes or in Berlin. Most of us were Taiwanese or Japanese," Chiao said.

For Chiao and many producers who accompany acclaimed directors such Hou, Edward Yang (楊德昌) or Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) at international film festivals, it is not a good feeling to see Taiwanese now embrace Korean films.

"To be honest, I myself don't have a single answer as to why Korean films have taken off in the past three years. I guess everything was in place," Korean Film Commissioner Kim Hong-joon, told Taipei Times during his visit to Taiwan earlier this year.

Everything, for Kim, means the audience's enthusiasm, the flourishing local film industry and strong government support.

According to Kim, the market share of Korean films in their domestic market is 50 percent. And among the 10 best-selling films last year, six were Korean films, including the No. 1-selling male-bonding drama Friend. But in Taiwan, Hollywood films took a 98.4 percent share of the market. Chinese-language films claimed only 1.6 percent, with locally made films accounted for a mere 0.3 percent.

In the early 1990s, giant Korean enterprises like Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo began investing in films and filmmaking. "In the beginning, they did quite a few Hong Kong-style action films. Koreans then discovered what their weaknesses were, so they strove to imitate and improve on their stunts, visual effects and action," said Taiwanese filmmaker Yu Chi-wei (于記偉), who was educated in Korea.

In 1997, Shiri, a film which combines action, suspense and romance, created a big commercial success both in and outside Korea. "We realized that we could make films as good as Hollywood's," said Kim. In other words, a good-looking cast, dramatic scripts, action and good production quality.