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Recently, the Korean film industry’s entrance to the global market has blown up exponentially. 

Directors PARK Chan-wook, KIM Yong-hwa, KIM Ji-woon, along with actress YOUN Yuh-jung and cinematographer CHUNG Chung-hoon have partnered up with Hollywood on new projects. Investment and distribution companies like Showbox and CJ E&M have also been announcing global co-production news. Out of them all, CJ E&M is the forerunner and pioneer of the global market. They have been knocking on the doors to the international market for 10 years. They’re not only active in North America, but also in China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Turkey, among diverse nations. Ever since romantic fantasy film Miss Granny’s global version was released, they have been working to release their second project, Sunny. We met with CJ E&M’s Head of International Division, Mike IM, to discuss their global strategies and goals.

CJ E&M has been focusing on international businesses for about 10 years. Prior to 2012, we mainly focused on exporting and distributing Korean films. With international films like August Rush, we made partial investments or planned for co-productions, but these initiatives were sporadic. On top of that, global co-productions did not perform very well locally. For the first five years, we were in the early stages. Then in 2012, with JUNG Tae-sung’s appointment as the executive producer of International Sales and Distribution, we started to seriously contemplate how we could make global films successful. Instead of just sending Korean films abroad, we started to look for different ways of approaching the cinematic assets we already possessed, including IP (intellectual property, content property rights), stories, production knowledge, directors, and writers. Out of the regions we had reached previously, we selected and focused on specific markets and appointed them as our priority as we reorganized ourselves. If we focused mostly on USA and Japan before, 2012 became a turning point where we turned our direction to the rising markets like China and Southeast Asia, with ‘glocalization’, a management style where the focus is globalization while being respectful to the local culture, as our main focus. In addition, we prioritized global projects where we could maximize our use of preexisting assets. For example, Snowpiercer used our infrastructure but it was a project that could get great local attention. We decided projects we could easily dissect would be most effective in expanding globally. Ever since we had this change come about, we also saw positive changes at the box office.

I think it’s realistic. We’re currently producing 8 films in different languages. We’re looking to expand to Russia, India, Germany, and Europe soon. If we can keep up with this speed in production, 20 films shouldn’t be a problem. In each Southeast Asian region, we now have the environment to be able to make 2 to 3 films each. Also in China, USA, and Turkey, we’re planning to shoot new films each year.

Out of the titles we have, the number one film which our local partners prefer is Sunny. Each country has a different preference in genre. If it’s a region that likes comedy and horror, Spellbound is preferred. If they like melodrama, they would like A Wedding Invitation. But overall, they all liked Sunny. This film is similar to Miss Granny since they both deal with family and friendship, but what's unique is that it’s set in the past. The film is trendy due to its retro characteristic. Every country longs for a time in the past, so the keyword “retro” becomes very important. On top of that, there’s music, youth, friendship, and a coming-of-age story. The local producers liked Sunny a lot.

A Wedding Invitation, Miss Granny, Sunny, The Spy: Undercover Operation, Spellbound, and local IPs (scripts developed locally) will be produced in different countries. In Turkey, A Wedding Invitation will be released in December, while The Spy: Undercover Operation and Miss Granny are currently in development. In Indonesia, a local film titled Satan’s Slaves had a successful run. A Wedding Invitation, Spellbound, and Sunny are under development. In September, the shooting for Sunny came to an end in Vietnam, and in 2018, a local IP film called Immortal will be going into production. In USA, there will be two versions of Miss Granny. One will be in English, and another in Spanish. The English version is targeted for African-Americans, while the Spanish version will target Hispanic audiences. 

 

The story must contain universal emotions, and its basic bones must be easy enough for people to share. However, the film must be something the country will like when we localize it. For example, films like Quick should be remade in countries that ride a lot of motorcycles, while The Spy: Undercover Operation should be remade in places that like action films. We normally take comedy as the main genre, then we select other diverse genres while trying to look for the fitting IP within it. There’s also a standard when looking for a local IP. In countries that respect the original version, like Vietnam and Indonesia, we try to find local IPs that are famous. That’s why the Indonesian horror film Satan’s Slaves received positive feedback when it was rebooted after 30 years. Vietnam’s Immortal is a similar case.

 

As an entertainment company, the films we want to advocate are films that mainstream audiences will love. That’s why we’re not too ahead of ourselves when touching on stories we haven’t seen before. We try to keep about a step in advance. In addition, we also believe in films that are well-made. We strive to show films that are beyond the quality of that market’s expectation.