Globalization's cultural Americanization? Here, Asian tastes--not values--matter

ARTICLE: "South Korean Films Hit Records at Home, Despite Relaxed Quotas," by Lina Yoon, Wall Street Journal, 27 December 2006, p. B2.

Earlier this year, South Korea relaxes the quotas that for decades decreed that the bulk of screens showed mostly Korean films. The fear was that U.S. films would swamp all, like it was Canada or something.

So like, all of South Korean cinema was, like, reduced to two guys in plaid swilling beers and going on aboot hockey and moose, eh?

Not exactly a Second City parody yet.

Instead, new box office records for Korean language films and more local productions than ever.

Of course, more time is required, but South Korea's government was right to show some confidence in the economy's growing media content clout. South Korean culture is very hot right now in Asia. The spillover effect from all those videogame producers is being felt, as special FX films are hitting their stride in the local market, exploiting the locals' still strong taste for monster movies (Americans moved on to slasher films a long time ago).

Yes, foreign films account for roughly 40% of the total box office receipts, but frankly, the case in most of the world, with America as a non-too-strange exception (after all, we basically made the industry in its modern form, reinventing it many times along the way). But even here, Hollywood has come to recognize that global markets are roughly half its markets, so we're seeing--almost like a McDonald's altering its menu country by country--U.S. films increasingly tailored more and more for global audiences vice simply American ones. So again, as the South Korean spokesman for a theater chain said in the piece, that "what matters most is what the audience wants."