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Taiwan's film industry threatened by WTO entry

Shoot the Sun by Lyric, a documentary film about South Koreans who shaved their heads to show their determination to defend the country's movie industry, was screened yesterday at a forum organized to discuss the protection of domestic film industries at the Taipei International Film Festival. PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Compared with South Korea, Taiwan's local film industry appears more vulnerable to the increase in Hollywood films, film directors and scholars said yesterday.

Speaking at a symposium held yesterday as part of the 1999 Taipei International Film Festival, speakers said the situation could become worse if Taiwan gained entry to the WTO.

South Korea's Kim Dong Ho, the director of the Pusan International Film Festival, and documentary filmmaker Cho Jai-hong shared their experience on protecting South Korean films.

Cho's documentary, Shoot the Sun by Lyric: the fight for Screen Quotas in South Korea, is about the protest and struggle of South Korea's film community against the cancellation of that country's Screen Quota System, due to bilateral treaty talks with the US in the run-up to WTO membership.

As a protectionist measure for domestic films, the Screen Quota system mandated that South Korean films have at least 106 days of screening.

Thousands of members and supporters of the film industry joined protests against the quota cancellation, shaving their heads to make their point.

The demonstration forced the South Korean government to propose a better deal for the local film industry, said Kim.

According to Kim, the market share for South Korean domestic films has grown from 15 percent to 40 percent in the last three years. And a recent South Korean film, Swiri, earned more at the box office than Titanic.

"These all show the efforts of the Korean film community," said Kim.

In Taiwan, the situation is much different, said Taiwanese film director Wang Shiao-di (?y´?p´).

Wang's animated film, Magic Ah-ma (Å]ªkªü¶y´) has won several international animation awards.

But she faced great difficulty in finding theaters in which to screen her film, she said.

"All the theaters were occupied with Hollywood films, and even if I managed to get one theater, my film may still be pulled off once a big-cast movie is showing," she said.

Unlike South Korea, Taiwan does not have a screening quota system for domestic films. The only protection policy for the local industry is found in the Motion Picture Law , which puts a quota on the import of foreign films.

But according to Chen Chun-che, an official from the department of motion picture affairs, restrictions have been loosened every year due to Taiwan's annual trade negotiations with the US.

The law now allows 58 copies for each foreign film.

"The limits have been opened up gradually, and it seems there are no limits now," he said.

As more and more South Korean enterprises become willing to invest in filmmaking, film scholars asked the government to provide more incentives such as tax reduction for those willing to fund local films.

Chou Pei-chi (©P»_®V), deputy director of the Department of Motion Picture Affairs under the Government Information Office, responded that such moves may not actually succeed.

"In the amendment draft of the Motion Picture Law that we proposed to the cabinet last week, the Motion Picture Department proposed a tax reduction plan for businesses investing on filmmaking. But those articles were cancelled because of objections from the Ministry of Finance," Chou said.

According to Chu, the reason for the rejection was the concern that it might affect Taiwan's future entry into the WTO.

"This showed the Motion Picture Department is powerless, and it could not even defend its policy," said Robert Chen (3¯¾§-*), a film scholar at Taiwan Arts Institute. "Let alone an overall film policy for boosting the lethargic local film industry," he said.
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