Pyongyang International Film Festival

I suspect the common stereotype of North Korea’s cinema is one devoid of any creative or foreign input. Why not? After all, we hardly know anything about the world’s most recluse regime. Thus, I was struck with surprise when I discovered the Pyongyang International Film Festival. Yes, a film festival. This biennial international film festival is not infested with state-propaganda films but features actual foreign films. Like any other film festival, there are also prizes up for grabs. A crowd-pleaser in 2004 was “Bend It like Beckham,” which won the “Best Music” prize (I don’t particularly remember anything in the scoring worthy of an award of any kind).

But in reality, the Pyongyang International Film Festival is not like any other film festival. It goes against our imbedded prejudice of North Korea, the product of years of media, government and family brainwash. How can North Korea allow foreign cultural input? Is it a signal of gradual, real liberalization? A tool to rally international support? A litmus test for possible greater cultural exchanges in the near future? Nothing conclusive can be advanced at this point. But as we delve into the history of the Festival, we can observe a general trend of “opening up,” although it must be emphasized that this is speculative as best.

The Pyongyang Film Festival was first held in 1987, but was called the “Pyongyang Film Festival of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries.” Founded on the ideals of facilitating cultural exchange between nations of the non-aligned movement, the Festival featured documentaries and short films. These features were also judged for competitive awards. Since 1990, the Festival has been held regularly every other year. Admittedly, the first 10 years of the Festival was dominated by domestic and foreign themes of revolutionary resistance and leadership glorification. But the Festival injected new breadth in its selection in 2000, when officials screened Japanese films for the first time (six films by legendary Japanese director, Yoji Yamada). The subsequent festivals continued this trajectory of increased cultural breadth by displacing some of the revolutionary fervor with novel, “Western” themes that include the perils of adolescence and woman empowerment (Bend it like Beckham) and racism (Cry, The Beloved Country). Apparently, Whoopi Goldberg’s Serafina and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 also made it into the list of “luminous” features.

What can we make of the Pyongyang International Film Festival? It is intriguing, that’s for sure. Compared to South Korea, the Pyongyang Festival was established almost 10 years before the Pusan International Festival. But of course, the quality divide between the two is no matter for debate. However, the trend of thematic expansion seemingly embraced by the Pyongyang Festival is worth looking into deeper. As emphasized earlier, the real intentions of the North Korean state is speculative at best. Our innate bias is to dismiss it as a tool of garnering favorable international opinion. Admittedly, there is state-exercised control over the featured films’ content. All films are dubbed in Korean, and according to journalist Ron Gluckman, are “adjusted” to ensure social propriety. Ideology control? Plausible, but a German filmmaker - who speaks Korean – dismisses the lost of content and nuances in the “adjusted” dubbing (“Slowly, Strangely, Pyongyang Changes.” Far Eastern Economic Review, vol. 168:4 (2005), Pg.46). Perhaps more importantly, the Pyongyang Festival is a publicly accessible event - not a hyper-exclusive event dripping with nauseating glamour (tsk tsk Cannes et. al.). Apparently, Festival tickets are being sold in many North Korean neighborhoods (http://www.gluckman.com/NKFilmFest.html).

Clearly, the dichotomy of real change vs. mere face-time will permeate discussions on this Festival. But one thing is clear – North Korea no longer fits comfortably into the stereotype of a hardcore Communist recluse devoid of any Western cultural breadth or accessibility.

- ARC

Dong Bang Shin Ki music review

Riding the success of Hallyu, a number of Korean singers have attempted to expand outside of their home country into East Asia. One arguably successful group is Dong Bang Shin Ki. Dong Bang Shin Ki is a male pop group consisting of five members: Kim Jae Joong (김재중 or HERO 在中), Jung Yun Ho (정윤호 or U-know 允浩), Park Yoo Chun (박유천 or Micky 有天), Kim Jun Su (김준수 or Xiah 俊秀) and Shim Chang Min (심창민 or MAX 昌珉). They are part of SM Entertainment, the pop machine that has represented artists such as Boa and HOT. They have so far released three albums, including a Christmas one, and three singles.
Though Dong Bang Shin Ki is a typical Korean pop group with good, slightly androgynous looks, and a passable singing and dancing ability, I chose to review this group because they represent SM Entertainment’s, and therefore the wider Korean music industry’s, struggle to have its artists appeal to a wider audience in East Asia. In this review, I want to specifically focus on two of their hit songs, “Hug” and “I Believe,” not only because of their wide popularity, but also because these songs have been translated into multiple languages.
I have so far found four versions of the song “Hug,” in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English. “Hug” is a typical pop song with a catchy beat. Too sugary to be compared with N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys, it is more reminiscent of the style of 98 Degrees and Savage Garden. The music of “Hug” remains the same in all the versions, but of course the language, and therefore the lyrics, is altered. I found the Chinese version of the song to be a direct translation of the Korean version, with some lines slightly altered in order to fit the beat. A simple example is the lyric “I’m so curious to how much you really love me” changed to “Would you love me, I really want to listen to you say, if it’s as much as I love you.” One problem I find is that a direct translation leads to some of the lyrics sounding, for lack of a better word, strange. Chinese songs don’t usually include lyrics about warming up beds and feeding cats. Wisely, the record company decided for the English version to have completely different lyrics. The new lyrics are much more standardized, such as, “We talk on the phone every night and so came closer day by day.” I find the lyrics overly simplistic, and devoid of the original meaning, but I’m sure the song will be more easily accepted, because it fits into the formula that the Korean-American audience is looking for. I couldn’t find the Japanese lyrics of the song, in any language, so I will refrain from commenting on that version.
“I Believe,” which is more of a smooth ballad, has only two versions, in Korean and Chinese, but is significant in the fact that this song led to the explosion of Dong Bang Shin Ki into the Chinese pop scene. Once again, the Chinese version of “I Believe” is a direct, if rather awkward, translation of the Korean one. Because this song is much slower than “Hug,” it is easier to concentrate on how good, or bad, the group’s pronunciation is. I find that without looking at the actual lyrics, it is almost impossible to understand what the group is saying in the Chinese version. Their Chinese is atrocious, and I believe that if SM Entertainment wants to market its artists in China, they should spend more time teaching the artists pronunciation. For awhile, there were rumors that SM actually wanted to separate the group, and send one contingency to China, with the addition of a Chinese member. Lucky for the group and the country, the idea didn’t pan out. In the performances (that I’ve noticed) Dong Bang Shin Ki has done in China so far, they have only sung in their native Korean, which I believe is wise. Conversely, I actually find the English versions of Dong Bang Shin Ki’s songs rather easy to understand, if only because one of the members grew up in the US.
I believe that Dong Bang Shin Ki is a good example of the way that Korean bands will be marketed in the future, as both a regional and possibly global force. Other artists, such as Bi, have also taken similar paths, performing around East Asia, and collaborating with artists of other ethnicities. I took two songs of Dong Bang Shin Ki’s as a case study of the progression of the group. However, I also want to show that while Korean artists have gone far in spreading K-pop around China and Japan, they still have a length to go in order to fully integrate their music with wider East Asia.

Note: Korean lyric translations were taken from the website http://www.aheeyah.com/index.htm. The Chinese lyrics were translated by me.

YYZ

My Lovely Sam-soon

I know it's a random post.. This is my review for the drama "My Lovely Sam-soon."
I really liked this drama, but it was pretty interesting that many Korean females still had ambivalent attitudes toward the "lookism," which means the pre-discrimination or prejudice on people based on their appearance. They want to fight against it, but still prioritize appearance.




During the summer of 2005 on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, it was hard to find women of age from 20 to 30 on the streets in Korea. They were watching “My Lovely Sam-soon” on TV, instead of hanging out with friends. With the popularity of having the audience rating higher than 50%, this drama created the “Sam-soon syndrome,” which criticized the lookism, the pre-discrimination or prejudice on people based on their appearance. However, the female viewers’ ambivalent attitudes toward this syndrome show a twisted point of view on the lookism scattered all over Korea.

A 29-year-old single, Kim Sam-soon, is an ordinary woman. Unlike other typical female main characters who are unrealistically beautiful, feminine, and passive, Sam-soon is a more realistic character. When she was hula-hooping in the backyard for her diet, crying in the restroom after having got dumped on Christmas Eve, many women wholeheartedly understood how Sam-soon would have felt then. Having the same or at least similar experiences, female viewers got to love Sam-soon, who became their representative.

However, this realistic character attracted more female viewers by adding an ideal love story. Sam-soon’s accidental, even embarrassing meeting with Jin-heon in the men’s restroom began this story. Jin-heon, an owner of a hotel as well as of a fancy restaurant, also having an attractive appearance, is an ideal guy in every woman’s daydream. Getting employed by Jin-heon, pretending to be his lover, and finally falling in love with him, Sam-soon, an ordinary woman becomes a Cinderella. Women viewers felt vicarious satisfaction watching Sam-soon’s love story with Jin-heon, a modern prince. The fact that it was Sam-soon who became a Cinderella, not other typical beautiful women characters stimulates and encourages ordinary female viewers, who are not confident in their appearance.

Besides Sam-soon, this drama created three other heroes, Jin-heon, Hee-jin, and Henry, showing the other side of the “Sam-soon Syndrome.” Although this drama was loved because of the brand-new approach by using a realistic main character, these three people gained sudden popularity with their extraordinarily beautiful appearance. Although encouraged by Sam-soon, and feeling the same way as her from the similar experiences, many female viewers still want to be like Hee-jin who is beautiful, skinny, and stylish. The streets were filled with countless numbers of her wannabes after this drama. Moreover, if Jin-heon were just an ordinary person without money or an attractive appearance, women viewers would be apathetic to this drama. They are happy to see their own experiences on TV, recreated by a familiar character Sam-soon. However, they are happier to see their own stories weaved with other beautiful characters, giving them a fantasy that could be happened to their own lives.

Kim Sun-ah, who acted Sam-soon, swept all the awards at the end of the year, being applauded for her enthusiastic performance as well as her personal effort to gain weight to be the “real” Sam-soon. Not only her appearance, but also her cynical tone against the lookism in the drama was a hot issue of the “Sam-soon syndrome.” Although female viewers were satisfied with Sam-soon’s cynicalness and criticism against the society which prioritizes people’s appearance, they still wanted to be like Hee-jin, dreaming a love story with a guy like Jin-heon or Henry. Despite the success of “My Lovely Sam-soon,” it seems like the lookism is still unavoidable in Korea. Today, every Sam-soon all over Korea is hula-hooping to be Hee-jin, wating for Jin-heon.

Korean Music Videos

I am not a huge fan of music videos. I watch MTV for Next and Parental Control, but never for their music videos. Times have definitely changed from my middle school years. Artists today no longer promote new singles with a mere radio broadcast or a TV appearance, but have recruited music videos into their packaging tool.

I can see where people are coming from when they charge Korean music videos for being formulaic and predictable. Blogger, David Chun, laments this predicament in his latest blog entry, but unlike us, he actually decided to make his own music video  (http://www.davidchun.com/archives/000156.html). A simple explanation would be that these seemingly formulaic music videos work. Like a drama series, which some of us might dismiss as cheesy or predictable, it appeals to the masses as it exploits our emotional vulnerabilities and flirts with the unattainable (I say masses because Chinese and Japanese music videos do reflect these “formulaic” stereotypes).

Admittedly, we are dealing with a rather young industry here. MTV Singapore, Indonesia, etc. have a sizeable but not a statistically significant audience base. However, industry veterans are noticing the market changes. MTV recently extended its scope with MTV Korea.

Even skeptics have to argue for the inevitable sophistication Korean music videos will demonstrate over time. Sophistication not only in terms of thematic material, but also in technical execution (angles, location, editing, etc.). Take a look at the보고싶다 music video. Although it is based on a reasonably simple theme of love, not everything is straightforward. The director manipulates musical interludes to not only better convey the entire story but also to accent the emotional heights of the video. For example, at the moment before the Chinese man is arrested, the music goes through tonal modulation and suspense to reflect the moment building towards his arrest before the singer finally sings the last phrase of the song. On the visual side, the myriad of camera angles capture the most extreme of emotions with gripping sequences of events. Most might discard this as superfluous, but it definitely diverts from the mechanical and formulaic “verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus” methodology that one comes to except of music videos. Unpredictability is also reflected by Big Mama’s Breakaway, which cleverly diverges from the “predictable path” with a very surprising twist at the very end.

With the rising importance of music videos, producers are receiving larger production budgets, which not only enable exploration of exotic locations, but also more hours for editing (We did watch a music video based on the Vietnam War, which apparently was produced on a rather generous budget).

Although claims of Korean music videos as being predictable or formulaic are not completely unfounded, they are increasingly inapplicable with the advent of the more innovative music videos we see in Korea today. Yes, they do dabble on the over-exhausted themes of love and heartbreak but it is no longer as straight forward as one might expect – no walks on the beach, exchange of love letters or a kiss under a tree. Some music videos do subscribe to these stereotypes, but others have demonstrated careful and creative manipulation of elements of vision, music and time.

- ARC

Korean's Decline in Japan Due to Bad Marketing?

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2006/03/31/200603310013.asp

I recall last week there was a post saying that the Halyu Wave was slowing down in East Asia, primarily that of Japan. The article link above discusses this problem. 2005 was probably a slow year for Korean movies in Japan because the industry tried a different approach. In the past, Japanese TV stations would buy the shows directly from Korea and distrube them domestically within their own markets. Basically, the article states that while Bae Yong Jun and Winter Sonata proved to be a HUGE money maker in Japan and fueled interest in the Korean pennisula, MBC did not actually make a lot of money of his success. Thus, riding on the Halyu craze, Korean companies began selling the rights to their shows at a higher price. That is probably why their are less Korean dramas on Japanese television. It is also interesting to note that the Korean megahit (#1 movie in Korean history), King and the Clown, will be the first movie that Korea will try to release by itself in the Japanese market.

I am a bit unsure about this plan. Obviously, it would mean a higher gross for the companies by distributing the films/ dramas on their own. However, they have to realize that the Japanese market has a different taste than Korea. Will the Korean companies be able to succesfully market their media to cater to other audiences? By succesfully doing this, the Korean companies can be more self sufficient and not so dependant on selling rights etc. I think a good example of this would be Asian movies and the American market. The ones that make it to American screens are the ones that are distributed by Hollywood companies such as Miramax etc. Needless to say, that is why we see so few. If the Korean media can succesfully distribute their films on their own, it will mean a stronger Hal Yu.

On a side note, I was in Hong Kong during Christmas time. During this time, the Korean movie, Typhoon was playing. While clearly a bad movie, I was suprised on how little advertising Korean movies get in the Hong Kong market. Most people had never heard of the movie etc. By distributing their movies on their own in foreign markets, the Korean industry can make themselves a staple of other cultures and not merely a fad.

- Alex Liu