Chapter 1584 Worries About the Movie

Jiang Wen heard Zhao Fusheng's question, chuckled lightly, then nodded: "He's very interested in my proposal and expressed his goodwill through his agent."

"Is that so?"

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then laughed: "I didn't expect that."

Although he knew the matter had a high chance of success, Zhao Fusheng really hadn't expected that Song Kang-ho would respond to Jiang Wen's invitation so quickly.

"Everyone wants to be famous."

Jiang Wen seemed to notice Zhao Fusheng's surprise and smiled: "Although Mr. Song is already a household name in South Korea, his international fame isn't high. Now that he has a chance to go global, he's naturally very happy."

Zhao Fusheng thought about it and realized that was true.

In the entertainment industry, it's either for fame or for profit—that's beyond doubt.

As Jiang Wen said, for an actor of Song Kang-ho's caliber, almost everyone in South Korea knows him well. What he pursues naturally can't be simple monetary gain.

The reason is simple: if it were just for money, there would be plenty of investors in South Korea waving checkbooks waiting for him. So for an actor like Song Kang-ho, what he cares about is his reputation.

It was precisely for this reason that after Jiang Wen reached out, the actor Song expressed his willingness to cooperate.

"So when do you plan to go?"

Zhao Fusheng asked Jiang Wen.

"After the fifteenth." Jiang Wen thought for a moment and said to Zhao Fusheng: "Korean cinema has developed very quickly in recent years. I thought I'd take a good look this time."

Although he didn't say it, Zhao Fusheng already understood his meaning.

In the end, Old Jiang was going this time with a learning mindset.

That was the truth. Although he was reluctant to admit it, starting from the mid-1990s, the development of Korean cinema had indeed begun to surpass that of the mainland.

Although Korean cinema in the 1970s and 1980s was in a phase of learning from Hong Kong and Hollywood, their learning attitude was indeed one of taking the essence and discarding the dross. This allowed a large number of outstanding Korean filmmakers to grow rapidly, and in the 1990s and after the millennium, they unleashed tremendous power, quickly propping up the Korean film market.

Not only that, but Korean cinema's realist themes are exceptionally outstanding—it's no exaggeration to say they take on heaven, earth, and the air itself. And even if officially banned, they show no fear.

Such a spirit is indeed worth learning from.

"It's good to take a look, learn from each other's strengths."

Zhao Fusheng said to Jiang Wen.

Jiang Wen sighed and remained silent.

Some things, even if Zhao Fusheng didn't say them, he actually understood; they wouldn't cease to exist just because he deliberately avoided them.

So-called realist films, from a professional perspective, refer to films whose creative content uses a specific time and place in history or a particular event as a backdrop to depict the social conditions and people's life experiences of that era. Their core is to confront social issues, reveal the contradictions of social life, and provoke reflection on society and life.

Korean realist films grew and strengthened in the context of the development of Korean cinema, following the abolition of the Korean film censorship system and the support and assistance from the state and society for the domestic film industry. Korean realist films have become a major film genre in twenty-first-century Korean cinema, repeatedly achieving box office success.

The creative characteristic of confronting reality and its significant practical impact on social life, as acknowledged in several previous discussions between Jiang Wen and Zhao Fusheng, have important implications for the development of the Chinese film industry.

At the end of the last century, Korean cinema developed rapidly, becoming a dark horse in the global film industry. Within this, Korean realist films were both a product of the rapid development of Korean domestic cinema and a powerful driver of it.

The culture of a certain period reflects the politics and economy of that period. As a typical cultural carrier, film records and reflects the history and memory of a specific era.

The abolition of the Korean film censorship system and the support from the government and society for the film industry effectively promoted the development of Korean realist films.

The abolition of the pre-screening censorship system was a crucial step in the development of the Korean film industry. During the Park Chung-hee government, Korea implemented a pre-screening censorship system, which greatly constrained the creativity of Korean filmmakers. In 1984, the Korean government began to take measures to abolish pre-screening censorship, and in 1996, the pre-screening censorship system was ruled unconstitutional, ultimately abolishing the system and completely clearing the obstacles on the creative path of Korean filmmakers.

Thereafter, a large number of films involving sensitive topics such as political democracy, crime, and criticism of the current legal system were brought to the screen. It is evident that the abolition of the film censorship system provided essential institutional guarantees for the development of Korean realist films.

The development of any undertaking cannot be separated from government and social support, and film is no exception. The Korean government's support for film is mainly reflected in policy support and financial support. In addition to the abolition of the pre-screening censorship system mentioned above, the Korean government established a film subsidy fund to provide financial support for student film creation, offered interest-free or low-interest loans to commercial films to reduce the difficulty of fundraising, restored the Korean Blue Dragon Film Awards in 1990 to discover a large number of talents for the Korean film industry, and launched the Busan International Film Festival in 1996 to provide a channel for the overseas export of Korean films.

On the other hand, the support of the Korean public was also a powerful driving force for the development of Korean realist films. In the last century, the opening of the Korean Peninsula, the invasion of Japanese culture, and the direct distribution of American films brought huge shocks to Korean domestic cinema from foreign films. The Korean public realized the necessity and importance of developing domestic cinema and also saw the thriving trend of domestic cinema, turning their attention to domestic films and achieving a return from foreign films to domestic ones. It can be said that the support of Korean society, or the public, for Korean domestic cinema is an important mass guarantee for the development of Korean realist films.

Watching a film is like listening to a story. Films use a combination of audio and visual means to vividly tell one story after another to the audience, and realist films are no exception. However, unlike general feature films or documentaries, the 'stories' told by realist films mostly confront reality directly, and from the perspective of 'storytelling,' realist films focus on depicting the dramatic conflicts of events.

Confronting reality is one of the most prominent creative characteristics of realist films. In recent years, Korean realist films have focused on social hot issues, showing a characteristic of being isomorphic with social hot topics. A large part of them are based on real events, grounded in social reality, and adopt a serious narrative. Due to the abolition of the film censorship system, Korean filmmakers have considerable freedom in selecting film themes, and many sensitive topics involving politics, law, sex, crime, violence, etc., have been brought to the big screen.

In Korea, many low-budget and restricted films have achieved high box office results, the biggest reason being their取材 and attitude of confronting social reality. Realist themes are always a powerful tool to win over local audiences, because realist themes not only approach the audience spatially but also psychologically, reflecting the dominant opinions of society and aligning with mainstream values.

At the same time, the social 'truth' reflected by realistic films far surpasses artistic 'truth,' not only providing audiences with audiovisual shock but also a spiritual shock, prompting people to reflect on real events and social realities, and to gain a deeper understanding of society and life.

Conflict is an essential element of film, referring to the narrative structure that expresses contradictions between people and inner conflicts within characters. Based on its manifestation, it can be roughly divided into three types: conflict between people, inner conflict within a character, and conflict between a character and their environment. Although most realistic films are based on real events, they do not present events in a straightforward manner; instead, they emphasize plot twists and dramatic conflict. Korean realistic films often convey their themes by vividly depicting the various conflicts and contradictions that exist in society, making the themes deeply resonate with audiences through dramatic conflict.

Korean realistic films, with their creative characteristics of confronting reality and emphasizing dramatic conflict, depict the social conditions and people's life experiences of the time, reveal social contradictions or problems, and inspire people to reflect on social life. They balance emotional expression and rational thought, holding significant practical significance for Korean society on both emotional and rational levels.

On an emotional level, Korean realistic films play an important role as a 'social pressure release valve.' For example, the film *Hope* (also known as *The Crucible*) focuses its narrative on the father's love for his daughter, depicting the warmth between family members, allowing audiences to release pressure amidst the heavy real-life events, feel the warmth between people, and achieve emotional catharsis. By adopting a unique narrative perspective on real events or social conditions, Korean realistic films transfer or amplify certain emotions, enabling people to release and alleviate the pressures they feel in real society through the experience of watching the film.

Meanwhile, in China, after a new round of film reforms, the government issued a series of regulations to lower the entry barriers for the film industry, actively attract capable social forces to participate in the film industry, reduce government approval procedures, encourage innovation in film products, and make film products better serve the public and the market. These regulations have achieved significant results since implementation, with rapid growth in recent years, record-breaking total box office and single-film box office figures, and a continuously expanding film market.

However, the quality of Chinese films seems to lag behind the pace of development of the film market, far from the level of Hollywood, and even inferior to the film standards of neighboring countries like South Korea and India.

Where exactly does the problem lie?

In the view of Jiang Wen and others, the reason lies not in funding, but in attitude—the attitude toward the entertainment value and depth of films.

The Chinese film industry certainly has no shortage of excellent serious films, but it is not hard to find that the screens are filled with more commercial films that are 'popular but not critically acclaimed,' made for profit and to amuse the audience, with almost no depth.

Of course, Jiang Wen does not know that in a few years, so-called variety show films will even appear.

What are variety show films?

Such films require only about a week of shooting and a short two months of post-production; they are completely derivatives of variety shows, with no cinematic quality whatsoever.

Of course, film is a popular art and should be created for the public. Entertainment is one of the important elements of film, but the degree of entertainment is debatable—excessive entertainment while neglecting the educational function of film may yield short-term high box office profits, but it is difficult to sustain the long-term development of the film industry.

…

…

Perhaps because they were talking about the development of film, both Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen were in low spirits, which made Fan Baobao and Zhou Yun, who had just returned from shopping, think something was wrong with them.

"What's wrong with you two? Did you have a fight?"

Fan Baobao asked Zhao Fusheng curiously.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head: "We didn't fight. We were talking about some things and both feel worried about the future of the film industry."

"Worried?"

Hearing Zhao Fusheng's words, Fan Baobao was taken aback.

"Yes, worried."

Zhao Fusheng smiled bitterly and recounted what he and Jiang Wen had discussed, finally saying: "Do you believe that maybe within ten years, our film market will become chaotic, and even our audiences will have to face a choice—before you enter the cinema, you have no idea what kind of crap you're going to see..."

"But that's their business."

Fan Baobao looked at Zhao Fusheng speechlessly, and after a while said: "Don't you think you two are worrying unnecessarily?"

"What do you mean?"

Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen looked up, somewhat surprised.

Zhou Yun explained from the side: "What she means is that no matter how film develops, as long as someone makes films, the audience will judge with their own eyes. Whether it's a bad film or a good one, it will definitely go through market testing."

Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen looked at each other. Although they wanted to deny it, they had to admit that the two women seemed to be right.

Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.

By the same token, whether a film is good or bad ultimately has to be judged by the market.

Moreover, word of mouth is not something that can be easily faked; no matter how high the box office, reputation cannot be easily manufactured.

In other words, their worries were indeed a bit alarmist.

Exchanging glances, Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen decisively chose to shut up—after all, this was not something to be proud of.

Two men who prided themselves on understanding the rules of film were lectured by two women who now spend most of their time looking after children and are semi-retired. Tsk, how embarrassing!

"It's all your fault!"

Jiang Wen glared at Zhao Fusheng and said grumpily.

Zhao Fusheng looked completely innocent, thinking to himself, what does this have to do with me? It's clearly you who are being sentimental.