Korean Animation Thrives, but Lacks Local Identity
The recently released animated feature
Wonderful Days took more than five years and a record-setting 13 billion won ($11 million) to make it to the big screen. But despite a huge marketing and merchandising campaign, the futuristic epic about an environmental dystopia failed at the box office. It opened in fifth place, behind the second week of
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and was gone from theaters in just two weeks. Nevertheless,
Wonderful Days, which grossed a disappointing $1.9 million, was actually one of the more successful homegrown cartoons in Korean history, according to
The Hollywood Reporter. Over the past couple of years, several animated releases have come up short at the box office. It's not that Koreans don't like animation--such foreign animated films as
Spirited Away and
Finding Nemo routinely perform well. And the success of local live-action films, which sell as many tickets as Hollywood fare, shows that Korean filmmakers know how to make and market popular films. So if local films do well, what is wrong with the Korean animation industry? Story line is the most common answer. One of the biggest complaints about
Wonderful Days is that, despite the quality of the animation, the film's plot is not nearly as compelling as the visuals. "Even [
Wonderful Days] director [Moon-saeng] Kim has said that directors shouldn't write their own screenplays," says Stephen Kim, one of the producers on
Days. Observers believe the problems plaguing animated films in Korea are a direct result of the industry's troubled history. Although the local sector began to thrive in the 1980s, that work was almost exclusively from foreign contracting, which has led to creativity taking a back seat to original content as foreign animators dictate every detail to a cell. "Koreans' technique is OK, but they don't know anything about creation," says Nelson Shin, founder of AKOM, one of Korea's biggest animation houses, where programs like
The Simpsons get made. In addition, for years Korean companies depended on cheap prices to maintain their competitive edge. Animation houses would bid on many projects, then farm out their contracts if they acquired too much work. But those subcontractors usually received no credit for their work, giving them further incentive to do a fast, serviceable job. Peter Chung, creator of MTV's popular
Aeon Flux, says discount drawing is not a formula for long-term success. He points to the rising competition around the world, especially from such countries as China and the Philippines. "You can't keep basing your success on being cheaper," he says. "You have to make people think you're doing a better job or else you're just digging a hole for yourself." The need to move beyond foreign contracting and produce more original content has been recognized by the government, leading to the creation of the Korea Culture and Contents Agency (KOCCA) in August 2001. "The Korean government regards the culture and contents industry as the core strategic industry of the knowledge-economy society," says KOCCA in a press release. Observers see this as a time of transition, with Korean animators in the process of developing a signature style, like Disney or Japan's anime industry. Lee Sung-gang, who won the top prize at 2002's Annecy International Animated Film Festival for his psychological fantasy
My Beautiful Girl, Mari, thinks the key for Korean animation is simply time and the chance to grow. "There have not been many animated works produced and directed by Korean directors," he says. Lee thinks short-term business thinking has created an unfair impression that Korean animation is not doing well and feels there is too much emphasis on business and box office. "It clearly shows how people think of animation--it's a kind of gambling, not a cultural industry," he says. "Culture not founded on 'art' is weak, and no industry without culture will last long. One more important thing about being young," Lee adds, "is that Korean animation can go forward in various ways while avoiding the typical way of Japanese and American animation, since they have almost reached their limits of originality."
The Darkest Soul
Originally Posted by Drewbacca
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