Earlier this year, the Sisa Journal, a major weekly news magazine in Korea, published an article entitled “Cinema has a hangover”. Here are a few comments about this article and its author, U Sok-hun (우석훈), an economist who wrote the bestseller 880,000 Won Generation.

The “880,000 Won Generation” is a popular coinage that refers to low-paid non-regular workers who earn about $650 (net pay) a month, a new lost generation in South Korea as it were. What it means for a lot of young people is the complete failure of an educational system in which graduating from a good university was as good as getting a blank check for a well-paid career in one of the big local corporations.

For U Sok-sun, it is clear that this general job insecurity is also affecting the film industry:  South Korean movies saw their worst sales figures in eight years in 2008, which fell by more than 20 percent from the previous year. Only eight films topped the 2 million mark in ticket sales last year compared to 16 in 2006 and 10 in 2007.

His article is quite the buckshot attack against the Korean financiers and filmmakers who he pretty much accuses of incompetence: according to him, they were unable to endow the industry with adequate structures, conducive to the formation of new talents and funding of new productions. Instead, the professionals of Korean cinema have maintained the “mirage” of the so-called Korean Wave, and have been demanding more and more flexibility, or indulgence, from their collaborators and business partners.

Nothing really earth-shattering there, but the debate took a new dimension in March with the unexpected success of an ultra low-budget indie film, Daytime Drinking, which costs the trifling sum of 10 million wons ($8,000) was shot in 13 days but raked in about 170 millions wons ($135,000 ). This shows that it is actually possible to make quality films without inordinate (Hollywood-style) amounts of money at hand (which Chungmuro doesn’t have anyway) and still draw a large audience.

In the light of the recent commercial performances of the documentary Old Partner and Daytime Drinking, one is tempted to think that South Korean audiences have changed and are ready for something else (better). An artistically ambitious cinema with more modest financial means, perhaps that is the future of Korean cinema?

Another blog freeze: I was taking a much need break in Morocco, away from all things Korean, so to speak.

Faithful to their annual custom, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) has published a preamble to their Korean Cinema 2009: Korean Film Guide 2009 - Cannes Special Edition, a sort of guidebook that lists the theatrical releases of the first half of the year as well as upcoming films.

Here are the 9 films presented in Cannes this year:

From woman filmmaker to woman filmmaker: Yunah Hong and Yim soon-rye

Director Yim Soon-rye was here at The Korea Society last night for a screening of her documentary Keeping the Vision Alive (on the role that she and her fellow women directors play in the industry) and her short film The "Weight" of Her (a satire of the expectations Korean society places on women). She discussed the role of women filmmakers in Korea today in a no-nonsense conversation moderated by Yunah Hong. An interesting discussion overall, except that I was hoping for more comments on her first two feature films, Three Friends and the brilliant Waikiki Brothers... Regardless, some very insightful remarks on the women, filmmaking, and the Korean film industry in general.

 It's easy to tell what the marketing tean had in mind on this one.