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So... let's set the tone for what you are going to see
(Is that PACMAN?)
(A Pig Headed Person Doing Nunchucks)
(Yellow Batman kicks someone in the ass so hard they explode)
(Unfinished CGI monstrosity)
(A giant ape giving you a middle finger)
I think that's enough
"And the Oscar goes to..."
"Parasite"
Today, South Korean cinema stands on top of the world
From Oldboy
To Parasite
To Minari
Very few film industries can gather this level of international attention
It seems this industry is truly unstoppable
But Korean entertainment didn't always look this glossy
Just a couple of decades ago
The whole industry was a lot grimier
Wars, censorship, and propaganda cause the film quality to swing wildly
While the top of the industry was making art films
The flipside was...
On some kind of LSD, I think
And that's the kind of weird stuff we are diving into
We are going far down the rabbit hole
To a place even our Korean viewers may be surprised
South Korea used to make terrible movies
And that's a good thing
If an industry managed to pull itself out of this
"Oh sh@t"
Then there is bound to be a good lesson to be learnt here
[S.KOREA USED TO MAKE AWFUL MOVIES]
[CHAPTER ONE]
In our last video
We briefly talked about the insanity that is the world of Brucesploitation
A genre of movies made to capitalize on the sudden passing
Of Bruce Lee
In the films I listed
There is another film industry lurking in the dark
You see, The Clones of Bruce Lee
Was a co-production between Hong Kong
And South Korea
Oh yes, that's the kind of quality we are going for today
That's right, back in the 70s
South Korea produced their own share of Brucesploitation films
For example, "Bruce Lee Fights Back from the Grave"
Now, before you tell Korea to f@ck off
It was actually not their fault
While the main character certainly acts and fights like Bruce Lee
That's where the exploitation begins and ends
The original film was called "Visitor of America"
In which a Korean man investigates the death of his brother
Standard plot for a martial arts movie
The infamous opening scene of Bruce Lee leaping out of the grave
Was added by the US distributors
Otherwise it's just a really slow movie
With occasionally impressive fighting sequences
Just like how Hong Kong had the habit of chasing exploitative trends
South Korea had the same copycat problem
Japan made Godzilla?
Korea has Yongary, Monster of the Deep
Co-produced with Toei Company from Japan
This movie faithfully recreates shots from the Godzilla franchise
From military actions
Urban destructions
To board room meetings
Seriously, rarely is there anything new or original
"Yeah, but you gotta admit it was kinda funny"
He should fight Pulgasari
Even more infamous is A*P*E
Which... is infamous mainly just for this
You know, at least Mighty Peking Man has class
Sleazy as it may be
In fact, in South Korea
The movie is literally called "King Kong's Great Counterattack"
Making its US tagline of "Not to be confused with King Kong"
Just that much more amusing
It's otherwise an unremarkable movie
Just a really lame and low budget spoof
Watch this hairy ass bastard lumbering around for minutes
Because there's not enough budget for large scale destructions
I'm missing Yongary already
If you are a cult movie connaisseur
Or a regular viewer of Brandon Tenold
You might think A*P*E is already the bottom of the barrel
To which I present to you
Behold
Deuraegon Bol
Oh yes, this is the first live-action Dragon Ball movie ever made
Unlicensed, of course
Filmed mostly in a forest and a quarry
With hilariously cheap costumes
As well as animal characters purchased from party city
This is a cheap movie
In every sense of the word
So... what happened?
Well, you see, in the 1970s, following a series of coups
The South Korean government turned authoritarian
Under some of the most strict censorship laws
Advancement in the film industry slowed to a crawl
And when the government relaxed its control of the industry
It was the 80s
South Korea found itself motorboating between two juggernauts
Hollywood and Hong Kong
Desperate for an audience
A lot of filmmakers resorted to making films about sex
Violence
And this...
Still more enjoyable than Evolution, though
F@ck that movie
[CHAPTER TWO]
Enter the 90s
With financial backings from massive companies like Samsung
South Korea began to transform its entertainment industry
Into international cultural exports
Morphing K-pop, K-drama
And of course, Korean cinema
Into its modern form
If you are a mainstream audience
And you remember any Korean movie
Chances are, it's made after the 90s transformation
That said, while the transition was quick
It was not painless
In an attempt to appeal to an international audience
South Korea got stuck inside the Hall of Mirrors mentality
Modeling themselves after someone else's culture
Chief among them, the infamous Yonggary remake
With two "G"s this time
Stand for "Good God"
Yep, this is the main reason why this movie is so infamous
"No! It isn't real!"
I know, it looks fake as sh@t!
Reportedly the most expensive Korean movie ever made at the time
Yonggary was filmed entirely in English
In an attempt to appeal to the US audience
I guess you can call it a "USploitation film"
This explains why the dialogue sounds Google translated
"Wrong"
"We are too close to turn back now"
In the US, it was released under the title of Reptilian
With this poster
How did you rip off Godzilla twice!?
"Compare to this guy, Godzilla is a pussy"
Anyway, the film employs heavy use of computer-generated visuals
Something that even Hollywood was struggling with at the time
Supposedly, the theatrical version made use of traditional suitmation
But that wasn't well-received
So they quote-unquote "improved the VFX" for their home video release
So, yes, you are looking at the better version
Coupled with its uninspired plot
And Resident Evil quality acting
"You're my creation!"
Yonggary ends up feeling like a worse version of a Hollywood movie
And, if you are an American filmgoer
Would you rather see an actual American film?
Or an "I Can't Believe It's Not American®" film?
From the same director
Also reportedly the most expensive Korean film at the time
Also filmed entirely in English
Is Dragon War
Or D-war, if you are feeling kinky
The CG is much improved
But the cinematography is still bad
The acting is still terrible
But most importantly
The story is still uninspired
The saddest part is
We can see a glimpse of what could've been
The first 20 minutes is a Korean folktale sequence
And it is hands down, the best part of the movie
Not because of its Korean setting, mind you
But because its theme, style, and narrative
All express a sense of culture and philosophy
Even if it's all watered down
But when the film tries to imitate the Hollywood aesthetic
The story becomes a checklist of things to do
Destructions, love story, giant monsters
The film mimes these clichés
Without capturing the American spirit of it
Or showing the magic of a traditional Korean folktale
Godzilla represents nuclear destruction
King Kong represents nature being corrupted by the greed of men
These are social and cultural imprints from the filmmaker's heart
The dragon doesn't feel like a mystical being
Because the movie fails to inject culture into it
It is a hollow shell of a movie
Luckily, South Korea figured out how to sell their movies pretty soon
We love South Korean entertainment
Precisely because they are always undeniably South Korean
With a Korean flare that's not found anywhere else
And that's something I wish my country would learn
And by that, I mean Canada
Stop trying to be America, dude
[CHAPTER THREE]
When Japan was making kickass animations in the 70s
Both China and South Korea looked on with envy
I guess deep down
We are all weebs
While China was struggling to revive its past glory, though
Korean animation was...
Doing some questionable stuff
For example, 1976's Robot Taekwon V
Oh wait, sorry, that's Mazinger Z from Japan
This is Robot Taekwon V
Yep, big difference
By 1976, the Japanese mecha series
Was already popular in South Korea
And director Kim Cheong-gi openly admitted that Robot Taekwon V
Is basically just his take on making a Korean version of Mazinger Z
Unlicensed, of course
Although, if you are willing to judge the film on its own merit
It's actually pretty decent
It has some genuinely entertaining action sequences
Primitive as the animation may be
It was a massive success at the time
Spawning quite a few sequels from the 70s to the 90s
With each film taking inspirations from a different series
1982's Super Taekwon V looks more like Transformers meets Gundams, for example
This will never fly in this day and age
In fact, despite its iconic status in the country
In recent years, many younger Korean animation fans begin to
Distance themselves from Taekwon V
With better information access
Many begin to detest plagiarized works
A sentiment I can totally relate
Outside of Taekwon V
There is Savior of the Earth
Often referred to as "Korean Tron"
Because It is virtually an unlicensed remake of
The 1982 Disney cult classic
It tells the story of a gamer being suck through the #GamerGate
And is forced to play deadly video games
Truly a #GamerMoment
Written by Rick Ashley, by the way
Beyond that, there is "Run, Wonder Princess"
A rip-off of the Wonder Woman TV show
And then there is Black Star and the Golden Bat
A rip-off of, obviously, Bible Man
So, why all these knock-offs?
Well, during the Japanese occupation
Korean culture was being aggressively assimilated by Japan
So, when WWII came to an end
South Korea enacted a decades-long restriction on foreign media
Mainly but not exclusively aimed at Japanese stuff
This turned South Korea into a culturally isolated country
A country where people had limited access to Japan's Golden Bat
Or America's Batman
Thus, opportunistic filmmakers would swoop in and fill that niche
A situation I'm, again, all too familiar with
Luckily, after decades of this
And decades of doing outsource work from Japan
The South Korean animation industry finally found its foothold
Producing underrated gems like Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs
But there are also success stories like Studio Mir
Who became an outsource legend
Producing series like The Legend of Korra
Voltron
As well as feature films like Big Fish and Begonia
The studio is currently trying to fund their first original feature: Koji
Hopefully, it'll mark a bright future for the industry
[CONCLUSION]
So, what did we learn today
Well, lesson one
There is hope for the rest of us
In the years of making video essays
I have read an endless amount of frustrated comments about Bollywood
Or Philippines
Or Malaysia
Or Hollywood
Look, you get the point
Of course, even today
South Korea still makes bad movies on a regular basis
But even when a Korean movie is bad
They are still dignified
They feel Korean
Instead of hiding behind someone else's facade
Because, lesson two
Knock-offs go nowhere
Turns out when people want to check out South Korean movies
They want something that look and feel like it's from Korea
Who would've thought
Copying others can, at best, impress yourself
And at worst, impress no one
And finally, lesson three
Copying is bad, but maybe not that bad
We all have our embarrassing histories
Growing pain is part of the process
But it's not about the low point in life
It's about how high we can climb from there
Do we find contentment
In chasing trends and copying others
Or do we keep on marching forward
And out-grow ourselves?