Filmmakers call government decision 'cultural coup d'etat'
By Kim Ji-hyun
Starting in July, local theaters will be required to fill only 20 percent of their schedule with homemade flicks following a government decision to halve the screen quota.
Consequently, theaters will be showing Korean movies for 73 days a year instead of the current 146 days.
An official announcement is scheduled for Jan. 27 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
"We support this choice for a myriad of reasons, with the foremost being that Korean films are now equally competitive as foreign ones. Another is the pressing need to embrace the global trade liberalization trend", said Finance Minister Han Duck-soo in a weekly press conference.
The export-oriented local economy has been under mounting pressure from Washington which preconditioned an easing of the screen quota for striking a bilateral trade agreement with Korea.
The World Trade Organization sides with the United States as it considers film as an "industrial", rather than "cultural" product that can be subject to all free trade agreements.
Another requisite was to assume imports of American beef, which the government recently agreed to.
The local film industry responded explosively to yesterday's decision. Filmmakers and actors gathered shortly afterwards for a press conference denouncing the ministry decision.
"The government's move signifies a cultural coup d'etat", said Yang Ki-hwan of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity in Moving Images.
He also stressed that despite WTO standards, cultural products should not be negotiated on the same level as other industrial items.
First implemented in 1966, the 40-year-long screen quota system has been given much credit for the Korean film boom which started in 1998.
Echoing the success, $76 million worth of homemade films were shipped abroad last year and accounted for more than half of the local market.
However, because the screen quota was one of the main obstacles impeding the trade talks with the United States, the local government has increasingly voiced stronger support for a reduction. Last Friday, Vice Finance Minister Kwon Tae-shin denounced the local film industry as "selfish" for being opposed to a reduction.
Filmmakers, however, are convinced that a smaller quota would eventually lead to a self-destruction of the Korean cinema - possibly over the next decade or so.
They refer to the Mexican film industry which neared meltdown after government support was withdrawn as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Along with Korea, seven other countries including Spain and Brazil operate screen quota systems.
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