TenAsia reporter Choi Ji-ye tells the story of the movie. We analyze every aspect of movies through live on-site reporting and write fun articles with sharp perspectives. The slump in Korean movies is prolonging. Although 'The Owl', which was released on November 23 last year, achieved outstanding results by exceeding the break-even point, a series of highly anticipated films such as 'Negotiation', 'Ghost', and 'Confidential', which are scheduled to be released in theaters in 2023, suffered crushing failures.
The bigger problem is that Korean films show no signs of escaping from this deep recession. Currently, films such as 'Rebound' and 'Killing Romance' that are on the screen are not able to exert much power, being overshadowed by the American action film 'John Wick 4' and the Japanese animation 'Suzume's Lockdown'.
Currently, the film industry is looking at 'Dream' starring actors Park Seo-joon and IU, which was confirmed to be released on the 26th, and 'Crime City 3', which is scheduled to be released on May 31st. Director Lee Byung-hun's new work, which attracted 16.26 million viewers with 'Extreme Job', and 'Crime City 3', which recorded 10 million viewers from season 1 to season 2, are returning, but as the atmosphere toward Korean movies is cold, the industry is also There is no optimism about the box office success of these films.
The second half of the year is also foggy. The lineup of highly anticipated movies scheduled to be released in late July and early August is also unclear. Fortunately, the film production company ‘NEW’ was the first to confirm the schedule. Director Ryu Seung-wan's 'Smuggler', starring actors Kim Hye-soo, Yeom Jeong-ah and Jo In-seong, announced its release on July 26 and made a confident statement.
Other films are waiting to see the light of day from the warehouse. Some film officials warn that this situation of so-called 'warehouse films' piling up could lead to a long-term stagnation of Korean films. ‘Warehouse movies’ refer to works that are piled up in warehouses and cannot be released in theaters for more than a year after completion of cranking.
It is understood that there are currently about 50 Korean films that have completed cranking up. Most of these are works that began filming in 2021 during the COVID-19 period and completed filming that year or the following year, 2022. The oldest movie is the movie 'Virus' (working title) starring actors Kim Yun-seok, Bae Doo-na, and Son Seok-gu. It started cranking in July 2019 and cranked up in October 2020, but it is still not ready to meet the audience.
The biggest reason why the piled up ‘warehouse movies’ are problematic is because of ‘investment capital’. If the release of a movie that has already been produced is delayed or canceled, investment companies will not be able to recover their capital, and in this case, investment circulation will not occur, leading to difficulties in producing new movies. Since there is no money flowing into the film industry, which requires a lot of capital, the speed of film development is bound to slow down accordingly.
A film official said, "The phenomenon of 'warehouse movies' piling up is like a blockage of the lifeblood of Korean films. Isn't it only when the process of investing and recovering investment capital is done quickly that challenging films can be released and blockbuster films can be produced?" “We need to ensure that ‘warehouse films’ can see the light of day and make some profit, even if it means targeting a niche market or making unconventional attempts,” he said.
Another problem is that, regardless of post-production, 'warehouse movies' give an old impression if the end of filming is far from the release date, so there is a high possibility that the message or theme contained in the film will fade. There are not many masterpieces that do not look outdated even with the passage of time. When you accidentally watch an old movie, you may have experienced at least once that the memory of the emotion you felt at the time is destroyed.
An official related to this said, "Traditionally, warehouse movies have overwhelmingly more failures than box office successes. There may be exceptions, but works that lack freshness are often not chosen by the audience." He added, "The trend of the times is changing rapidly. Because of this, it may feel old, and in severe cases, ideologies or ideas may clash,” he said.
However, industry officials emphasized that it may be difficult to classify it as a warehouse movie simply based on the physical period, as theaters have been shut down for the first time in history due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An official said, "It is appropriate to use the expression 'warehouse movie' only in cases where the release is delayed due to poor quality or lack of completion compared to the initial plan."
Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia Reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr