Korean wins at Cannes a tribute to entertainment giant CJ ENM

Los Angeles, May 29 : Coming only three years after the Palme dOr for Parasite, the two Cannes prizes for Park Chan-wook as best director and for Song Kang-ho as best actor are further proof of the strength of Korean cinemas originality, its elevated skills and its resilience, reports Variety.

Korean movies have been temporarily overshadowed by K-pop and Korean TV dramas -- think BTS and Squid Game -- both of which flourished during the Covid era, while Korean film was struck down by the pandemic.

Closed cinemas and disrupted release schedules meant that the film sector was not fully able to capitalise on the 2019 Cannes and multiple Oscar successes of Parasite and Minari.Korean film producers revenues crumbled between 2020 and early this year, and talent shifted across to the more vibrant streaming sector.

In an insightful report on the creative forces at work behind the efflorescence of Korean cinema, Variety notes that the Cannes prize for Parks Decision to Leave is particularly satisfying for a core group of filmmakers that also includes Parasite director, and Parks younger brother, Bong Joon Ho, "who have engaged with streaming platforms, but see themselves as filmmakers first".This particularly tight cluster of leading names consists of a group who are friends rather than rivals.

ఒక అమ్మాయి వల్లే జీవితం నాశనమైంది... లవ్ స్టోరీ బయట పెట్టిన నటుడు హర్షవర్ధన్!...

Saturdays Cannes wins, according to Variety, are also a vindication for Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM, which was partly responsible for Korean cultures modern incarnation, and which has been in the Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho business for more than 20 years.CJ ENM was a founder investor in Steven Spielbergs DreamWorks SKG in 1995 and then found itself doubling down in the sector as a pioneer distributor in Korea and builder of the countrys first multiplex cinemas.

"Having created the distribution capacity and exhibition infrastructure, the company found itself increasingly pulled into production and production finance, needing to keep the feature films flowing, meet the governments content quotas and industrialize a business that barely existed a decade earlier," writes Variety,CJ Entertainment was a producer of Parks 2000 breakout film Joint Security Area, and financier of his astonishing 2003 picture Oldboy, which won Cannes second prize, the Grand Prix.CJ was also aboard Bongs second title Barking Dogs Never Bite in 2000 and his Memories of Murder in 2003, Variety adds.

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