The Midwife, based on Katja Kettu‘s bestseller novel, tells the story about a love affair between a Finnish midwife and a Nazi SS officer, set midst the Lapland War in Finland 1944-45. The Midwife was also shortlisted for the SIFF’s respected Golden Goblet award. The selection of 15 films was made out of a record-breaking 2096 submissions.

The Shanghai International Film Festival, founded in 1993, is China’s only A-category international film festival accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Association (FIAPF). Other festivals in the A-category include for example the festivals of Cannes and Berlin. SIFF is one of Asia’s biggest and the world’s fastest growing international film festival.

SIFF is organized by Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film & TV and Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group. As globalization affects China’s rapidly growing film industry, Shanghai International Film Festival aims to build international platform, and promote the exchange and cooperation between Chinese and foreign film industries.

Photo: Solar Films

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Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Rob Schwartz, Tokyo bureau chief of Billboard Magazine. I’m also a music and film producer based in Tokyo producing content for the international market, which means mainly film in English language. Our production company is called Fusion For Peace Productions.

Please tell about your background, how did you end up in Japan?

I’ve always had an abiding interest in Japanese culture. I went to Japan straight out of university, studied the language and built a career there.

What is the presence of Billboard like in Japan?

Billboard Japan is a joint venture between Billboard Magazine and a Japanese company called Hanshin. They create content in Japanese language and own a couple of venues under the name Billboard Live in Tokyo and in Osaka.

However, I work for Billboard Magazine which is based in New York City and covers the world music business, world music industry in English. I’ve worked with Billboard Magazine for about six years now.

What current trends are you seeing in the music industry in Asia?

The music industry in Asia is certainly expanding by leaps and bounds. It’s very hard to talk about Asia in general after it’s so diverse and every territory is quite different. However, there are certain territories where the music industry is obviously expanding. Korea is the obvious one and K-pop has had huge success exporting its music to different territories around the world. Big Bang, one of the most popular bands out of Korea did a world tour last year including 60 concerts in 15 to 18 countries. It was unprecedented for a Korean band to have such an expansive world tour so there’s no doubt that music industry in Korea is expanding.

On the other hand, Japan didn’t have such a good year in 2013 and their revenue declined. Recorded music revenue has been declining all across the world, maybe less in Japan than in other territories but it declined still.

Are you seeing growth in the touring of international bands in Asia?

There’s far more international bands, for example European, American, Australian touring in China than there ever has been. China with its gigantic population, its growing economy and its music industry is really interesting to a lot of bands and projects. It’s no longer this mysterious, forbidden land and many high-powered international acts are now going into China. Touring in Malaysia and in Southeast Asia is also popular. In that sense, the touring industry is really expanding in a lot of territories in Asia. The Rolling Stones just played in Shanghai last March, Bruno Mars played in Shanghai in April so major world stars are moving through China, it’s now on the circuit.

We just talked here at All That Matters with Robb Spritzer, the director of Live Nation that in China they’re now developing what we call the second-tier cities. These cities have populations like 15-20 million people and they call that a second-tier city in China! There is a huge opportunity to tour in those cities when you have so many people.

Do you think the current trend will continue to grow?

If  you follow the current trend, I think live touring altogether will continue to develop. Live Nation and AEG are the two biggest touring companies and they’re seriously concentrating on Asia. I think the growth in China, Southeast Asia and Korea, is going to continue for a long time.

What kind of challenges are there, culturally speaking, with the expanding touring industry?

Each country is an individual and certain countries are going to have a more of a hard time growing than others. Indonesia is a classic example. There are a lot of national sensitivities because it’s a Muslim country so certain kinds of artists are just not going to be able to tour there. Lady Gaga’s show in Indonesia was cancelled two years ago and other artists like that who have a very outward sexuality and are not willing to compromise that, will not be able to tour in Indonesia, probably not in Malaysia either. Those are both huge countries with lots of people so not to be able to tour in Indonesia is actually a significant thing.

What do the Asian consumers want from a live experience?

In one way I’m tempted to say much the same thing as what the European or American consumer wants; a great show, excitement, not only a great performance but great visuals and everything. I think that’s part of it. Perhaps the Asian consumer may want more value for their money meaning either a lower ticket price or if they pay a high ticket price, maybe get some recorded music or a t-shirt or something along with it. In the West, meaning Europe and the United States, we’re used to paying high ticket prices. For a big name band, you expect to pay 100-150 dollars, at least in the US. That’s not the case in Asian markets. So one, it’s hard for people to pay those kinds of prices and two, if they are paying high prices, they probably expect a lot.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

I’m Chung Shefong and actually I work on a lot of different things. I’m teaching at the National Cheng-chi University and this year my current position is also the Director of the University’s Art and Culture center. I’ve also been working as a music producer and a festival organizer for many years. I founded the music label Trees Music and Art in 1993 and a festival called Migration Music Festival in 2001.

How has the performing arts field developed since you started working in the field?

The music festival and label I’m working with are definitely not mainstream so the development of the industry is not something we would focus on. Nevertheless, I would say that what has changed, is the audience. More people are interested in our music and coming to see the gigs. We are also getting more support and more people trust our brand.

What is the festival about?

I founded the festival called Migration Music Festival eleven years ago. It’s not a big scale festival, it’s something between a small and a medium sized one. Our festival programs vary from film and panels to workshops and storytelling. The year 2013 we concentrated in the storytelling.

Why is the festival called Migration Music festival?

I started from the concept of migration, I’m very interested in all the stories and the music related to it. I’m also interested in the story of diaspora. As the festival is not very big, I really need to focus on the themes and topics of the program and select the artists carefully. During the last few years, we’ve had themes such as accordion new definition, world indigents, conscious, this year storytelling tradition and also we are concentrating on the Asian artists doing something unique.

How does storytelling vary in different parts of Asia?

That’s actually a part of our theme this year. We try to link the singing, bard tradition from each country to contemporary storytelling. I think the contemporary storytelling, the singer songwriter tradition is more connected to the social issues. Taiwan is a part of Asia but we don’t know what is happening in our neighbor countries. In the 60’s and 70’s there were the student movements in Asia and many folk movements rose from the social and political movement. We didn’t know about that at the time so we are trying to introduce these stories through music now.

How did the audience react to the theme?

I try to make the Migration Music Festival a platform or a tool to fix the gaps in people’s knowledge as there is always a gap in understanding others. We don’t always have the will to do that. The most important role for this kind of a festival is to make people know about other’s stories and give them more understanding.

There are a lot of festivals that concentrate on a specific type of music, be it jazz or classical music. I try not to do that, I always start with a theme. It’s not very common nowadays.

What is the future of independent festivals in Taiwan?

I think it will get more and more difficult as the costs of organizing an event are rising. That’s why it’s important to network with other festivals and establish partnerships. Otherwise it will get more and more difficult as also most of the countries are cutting their culture budgets. I try not to think about the future too much, I just try to find more and more new partners so that we can keep on doing the things we want to do.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

I’m Sylvia Xu, the head of Pro Helvetia Shanghai. My job is to promote Swiss contemporary art and culture in China, Hong Kong and Macao. We are a facilitator and a bridge between Chinese and Swiss art institutions and artists.

How has the cooperation developed?

I see that we are now known in the arts sector in China compared to the time say six years ago. Back then people had no idea what Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia was. What we have learned a lot about is that who is a good partner and who is not. Now we can give Swiss artists valuable advice on what to do when they come to China.

How does Chinese audience take the Swiss art?

At the beginning, in 2008, the Swiss government initiated this culture program with us. At that time there was no Pro Helvetia Shanghai office. We just implemented the program for about 2-3 years during the Olympics and the World Expo. At that time the Swiss government did a research and discovered that when Chinese people were asked to tell about Switzerland, they associated it with chocolate, watches, high quality and rich people. Nobody was talking about Swiss arts or culture. Now, after six years, we haven’t really been focusing on PR to the public as we have Chinese partners to do that. Now we are much more well-known along the institutions and they know who we are and where we are when they want to have some collaboration projects. I think that at the moment people are more and more looking into design and architecture projects. And that is a sector which Switzerland is quite known for. That’s why in 2010-2014 we are focusing a lot on these projects. In terms of music, the interests is more in jazz and electronic music.

Could you tell us about a recent project?

In September we had a big solo exhibition of Pipilotti Rist. She is the most well known living Swiss artist in China. The host of the exhibition was Times Museum in Guangzhou and actually ProHelvetia gave only a small amount of funding, most of it came from the Chinese partner. This was quite successful as even tough we support projects, we only support the international costs. That means we are not only looking for a venue partner, we are looking for partners who are willing to contribute in the venue, the management and the money. So this was a good project, in which the partner did almost everything. We had very good media coverage. Another project similar to this one we will have next year in Rockbund Museum with another well known Swiss artist called Ugo Rondinone. In both of these examples the interest comes from the Chinese partners, we are not trying to promote and push the artists to them.

Another successful project we are working with at the moment is the Young Swiss Design Kaleidoscope exhibition. It has attracted a lot of attention in the design field. We’ve had both ups and downs with the project as we had some issues with transportation and promotion but altogether it was a great learning experience and now we know what to look out for when organizing exhibitions. Through this project we collected a lot of good contacts and achieved a broader network. This enables us to do even bigger events next year.

What kinds of challenges do you face in China?

The challenge is that for some European countries, Switzerland for example, many musicians or artists are not known in China. For others, like Brits, it’s easier as their music is much more well-known. What we do is we invite museum directors and curators to Switzerland to festivals, studio visits and director meetings so that they would know more about Swiss art scene. The idea is that they would know which artists to bring to China as they know what the market needs. We have done this quite successfully but it’s still quite challenging. For music, theater and dance, one of the biggest challenge is that most of the festivals can’t give financial support. We expect partners to take part in covering the costs, even with a small amount of money. Still, there is a lot to do. Compared to the time four-five years ago, we are more recognized now within the festivals. We also choose the festivals we work with. In China another challenge is that everything is changing quickly and that is why we can’t plan much ahead. There might be a new festival this year but the following year it’s gone, the festival dates are changing all the time etc. so there are some challenges. Flexibility is one of the most important features when working in China.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Isabelle Glachant and I’m an independent producer based in Beijing. I’ve lived there for more than ten years now, producing Chinese directors like Wang Xiaoshuai, Lou Ye , Lu Chuan. Since January I’ve represented Unifrance, an association that promotes French in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

How did you end up in China?

I was looking for a place as far away from France as possible. China was far enough. I learned Chinese and fell in love with Hong Kong cinema while watching Jackie Chan films. I discovered Chinese cinema and what is called the 6th generation of directors, who started making movies after the events of 1989

How is the Chinese film industry at the moment?

There wasn’t one until early 2000. Movies were made with public financing and were mostly propaganda, with a few artistic directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, whose films were shown at international film festivals. In 2000 the government decided they wanted to help build a Chinese film industry to counter the rising popularity of American films, so they allowed private companies to produce and distribute their own films. Commercial directors like Feng Xiaogang started making films and previously underground directors, like Jia Zhangke, Lou Ye and Wang Xiaoshuai, started having an impact on the legal market. The market continued to grow, so Hong Kong directors and producers moved to Beijing, which resulted in more growth.

The variety of films being made is rich, from very commercial martial arts movies and movies about Shanghai in the 1930s to propaganda movies and small films by indie directors. The indie films are the ones that usually get shown at international festivals or distributed in Europe.

How does the government support the industry and what kinds of films does it support?

Unlike in Europe, there is no jury of writers and directors deciding which films to fund. There’s a government bureau, which is financed out of the tax on movie tickets, so most movies they finance are propaganda, films that the government needs. There might be some sort of anniversary coming up and they want a film made that deals with the anniversary in question.

Some directors want the government to provide movies that are internationally successful with support and special subsidies, which would help produce and sell their movies. No such system exists as of yet, so the films that you see at festivals or movie theaters outside China and Hong Kong are all made with private money.

The production companies that finance Chinese movies are often also talent agencies and distributors, They own theaters and control of the distribution chain provides them with the cash they need to finance movies. Product placement is also a very common way to solicit cash advances during production. Television and internet sales come into the picture after the film has already been produced and distributed, so they are not a source for financing a production.

You’ve worked on art house films. What kind of process is it and how much artistic freedom do you have? How do you finance those films?

In Chinese art house movies the director usually writes the script and often produces the movie, too. Sometimes the director also edits and travels with the movie to try and sell it. The process depends on the director. You have to provide the censors with a treatment or a complete script to get approval. They give you notes on what works and what doesn’t in your submission. Once you have approval from the censors, you can start looking for financing, because people won’t want to get behind a film that is not sure to pass censorship.

If you ask directors, even very commercially successful ones like Lu Chuan, what the key to securing financing is, they’ll say you have to be good at karaoke. Karaoke bars are a popular venue for business negotiations. You need to spend time with the people whose money you need.

It’s a new industry, so a lot of the money comes from other industries. In the case of art house movies, wealthy individuals sometimes help individual directors. Commercial movies usually involve big casts or expensive action scenes, so they rely on different sources.

What kind of problems have you had with censorship?

I usually don’t have problems. You send the script and you’re done with it. It gets complicated if they decide to censor a finished movie. Re-editing, re-recording and re-mixing is expensive. In co-productions, your partners might not understand why you have to simultaneously finish post-production and try and keep it open, in case changes are needed.  These kinds of problems are new to most people working on major international productions.

Do you think the popularity of Chinese films in the West will increase?

I would say their popularity has been on the wane over the last few years. Korean and Japanese movies are gaining in popularity. The local Chinese market has become stronger and the local audience’s taste seems to differ from our tastes. We like characterization and strong, human stories. The Chinese audience right now wants big, escapist entertainment. In Europe we already get that with American movies.

The Chinese box office grows 30 to 40 percent annually. Movie theatres are being built at a rate of about 300 per year and there are still lots of cities that don’t have theaters, so the potential is huge. The growth applies to only one kind of film, however: American-style, 3D entertainment.

Building art house movie theaters is the challenge, to see if Chinese films can survive in that market, too, as well as create a space for European art house movies in China.

What kinds of stories do Chinese filmmakers want to tell?

Period stories are the easiest to get past the censors right now. Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s, before the birth of the new China in the form of the Communist takeover of 1949, is a popular subject. Films about emperors, martial arts and the Japanese occupation are popular, too, probably for the same reason. Some romantic comedies have been successful. Rom-coms cost 2 to 3 million yuan to make and can gross 100 million.

Whether these are the stories directors want to tell is a good question. In many cases, these are the movies they end up making, because these are the movies they are asked to make.

Some commercial genre films are hard to do, like cop films and thrillers, because you can’t scare the audience. Directors try to work around these restrictions, but this year both commercial and art house directors have also approached the censors about opening up some subjects. They feel that the limits placed on them are preventing Chinese films from really competing with foreign productions.

How big a problem is piracy for Chinese cinema?

Piracy is a problem for big productions. A Zhang Yimou film really needs to make the money invested back. The weird thing is that when a Zhang Yimou film comes out, it takes over a month for pirated DVDs to appear. For art house movies, it takes about two days. And we really need to put people in the seats at cinemas to recoup our little investment.

It’s funny that not all films receive the same treatment from the pirates. Piracy provides a lot of Chinese directors with access to European films that they wouldn’t otherwise see in theaters or TV, so there are some positives sides to it, too.

Are there limits to how many foreign films can be imported?

The Chinese government used to limit access to the Chinese market for purely political reasons. They wanted to protect the people in the countryside from images that are detrimental to them. Now the reasons are commercial. They wish to protect the Chinese industry until it’s developed enough to face foreign competition.

Currently, 34 films are distributed on a shared revenue profit program and 30 films on a flat fee program. About one third of films screened are foreign: 100-120 Chinese, 60-70 foreign, annually.

What counts as a Chinese film in co-production scenarios?

Chinese co-productions are very different from the European ones. In Europe, co-production treaties control spending in each treaty party’s country, number of workers, languages used, etc. China doesn’t use treaties, which has allowed the Americans to work in China, as opposed to the Europeans, because they don’t need treaties. The Chinese are more interested in visibility than finances. They want China to be seen in co-production movies, so the films often have to be set in China. They want Chinese leads or, at the very least, some other major characters. They want the movie to promote China. If these conditions are met, they will give you access to the Chinese market and you can release your movies outside the quota for foreign films.

Have international stars acted in Chinese films?

Some Americans stars, yes. Christian Bale acted in a hit Zhang Yimou film that was released last December. It’s a movie set in the 1930s, during the Japanese occupation and the Nanking massacre. It didn’t do that great outside China, though. 10 years ago Feng Xiaogang did a movie with Donald Sutherland, but he said he’ll never do it again. He’d hoped the film would travel better. It didn’t and it was less successful in the local market than his earlier movies.

There have been a few cases, but it’s not a common model.

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My name is Lua Zhou. I’m from China and work for a video website called LETV.com. We offer both free and subscription-based content. We combine the business models of HULU and Netflix.

How does your business model work? How is your company financed?

We’re a group company and LETV.com is our video website. We buy and produce our own content. We secure sponsorship from our clients for the content we produce ourselves. We have an advertising agent, who helps us get product placements. Of course, we get money from subscriptions, too.

How many viewers do you have and what kind of content is most popular?

We have 50 million viewers on a daily basis on our website, with 700,000 regular subscribers. TV programs and dramas are most popular right now. One of the TV dramas we offer is the year’s biggest hit and it had a billion page views.

What are the big trends at the moment and why?

Controversial things and entertaining things. Talent shows, like Voice of China. It’s huge over the internet right now. It generates headlines and discussion: who’s going to win, what the judges do, was it wrong or right… You can also enjoy the music.

What kinds of people use your services?

Video website netizens. There are an estimated 350 million video website users in China. I think all of them are our audience.

Do a lot of people watch programs on mobile phones?

Watching TV on the mobile is very popular. Almost all Chinese video websites have their own mobile app.The number of mobile internet users is expected to hit 600 million this year, surpassing the amount of regular internet users for the first time.

You also produce your own movies. Can you tell us a little about it?

LETV.com is a website, so we produce short films and network TV drama for PCs, tablets and mobile phones. We also have a sister company LEVP, which works in movie production and distribution. It’s one of the biggest of its kind in China. They recently coproduced a movie called Expendables 2 with an American company and took care of the Chinese distribution themselves. It’s a huge hit and made 250 million in the box office.

Who pays for the content?

We buy it from a variety of copyright owners: production companies, movie companies, TV stations… We pay for content with the money we earn. We buy the local content from domestic companies. We own 60 to 70 percent of the Chinese TV programs and movie content. We sell it to other network companies. That’s another source of income.

Do you have foreign content?

We have some foreign content, like Expendables 2, if you can call it foreign… We’re working on increasing the share of foreign content. We’re talking to Japanese companies about animation, which is very big on our site. We’re launching a sports channel this year, so we’re buying rights to sporting events.

Is the Chinese audience interested in watching foreign films or programs? From which countries?

For movies the biggest is still America. For TV drama it varies: Korean, Japanese, British and American soap operas are all popular.

Are the foreign programs and films dubbed into Chinese?

Yes, by professional companies.

Does the content you produce yourself get pirated? Do people share your content illegally? How big a problem is piracy for the Chinese entertainment industry?

We protect our copyrights. Piracy has always been a problem, which is why we have a big copyright department. We track our copyrights. If it gets pirated, we take legal action.

You also have mobile TV services. Can you tell us about that?

We have a mobile application that allows viewers to watch the content from LETV.com. It has all the same content, but no ads before the videos.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Paul Yi. I’m an writer producer and sales agent, and I’m developing a number of feature film projects, ranging from original features to remakes to animation.

What are you doing in Helsinki?

EARS invited me to check out the Finnish film industry. I’ll be looking for potential projects that I can help out, either actively as a producer or on a friendly basis. Mostly I want to understand how Finnish filmmakers make films and check out the potential cooperation or co-productions.

Asian cinema has become increasingly popular in the west. Why do you think that is?

Asian cinema has gone beyond the fan boy, the cult films. In Korean cinema, a wave of savvy producers and internationally recognized directors, auteurs, emerged in the late-90s – early-00s. Their films made it to Cannes, Berlin, Venice and beyond, and made a mark on the international markets. Now you see the directors making the move to English-language pictures. Local markets are strong, too. The market share for domestic films in Korea is 50%, up from 10 to 15% in 1996. All this results in bigger budgets and more ambitious films. The same is happening in China and other emerging markets.

How is the Korean film industry doing at the moment?

Healthy and very competitive. 90% of revenue comes from the box office, so you have to be in the top 3 on opening weekend to break even. It’s risky, but a successful film can make 100 million dollars off the Korean box office alone. The industry has consolidated. Used to be two or three movies opening every weekend, but that bubble has burst. Power has shifted to distributors and financers, but strong producers can still make good movies that do well in the box office.

Why do you think Hollywood has started remaking Korean films?

Hollywood likes an easy mode for commercial films and Korean movies were a flavor of the month. A lot of remakes were bought, a few made, but Korean films have not been artistically and commercially as successful as Japanese horror or Hong Kong gangster flicks. The Departed won Scorsese an Oscar, but it’s been quiet since then. I’m developing remakes, but in addition to Hollywood, I look at an independent model and other partners in Australia and Europe. I believe some Korean films are original enough to stand out and they can be easily made into remakes.

How about financing a Korean film domestically, how does that work?

It’s straightforward. First, a good script, then the director and cast. One of the major distributors needs to commit to the project, since most of the revenue comes from the box office.

What organization supports films in Korea?

The Korean Film Council is the most important. They promote films at all the major festivals and fund some of the distribution of films in some of those territories. They also give money for co-productions and to independent filmmakers, so not only do we have a thriving commercial industry, but we also find ways to support up-and-coming filmmakers. They have a computer system that tracks the box office figures and regulations. There’s also an organization called the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), which promotes everything else, like animations, character design, games, etc. They have offices in several countries. Their job is to promote and advertise Korean content.

You’ve also founded some coproduction markets, how do they work?

I helped create the Pusan film festival, the most important festival in Asia for the film industry from all over the world to meet Korean and Asian filmmakers and people in the industry. Eventually I wanted to establish a co-production market. The difference was that Asian countries didn’t have subsidies and tax rebates back then, unlike now. It was completely market driven, so making non-commercial films was hard.

Our first coproduction market was called the PPP, launched in 1998. Now filmmakers from Hong Kong could sit with Korean filmmakers and say I love your films, I would like to work with you. German producers offered rebates for productions that came there for post-production. It was networking and a learning experience, with a bunch of scripts finding partnerships and financing.

We got buyers from outside Asia to come, even though Asian films were a niche market back then and people weren’t interested in script pitches. But we broke down those barriers and learned how to work with these filmmakers, but we’re still missing a really successful coproduction between Korea and the West, for example. I don’t know why. I know I’m trying. Everybody needs to realize the limit of their local markets and the potential outside. There are stories to tell beyond their borders. I think co-production is a way to make better films.

How much is Korea or Korean companies involved in those co-productions? How involved is Korea or Korean companies co-productions?

There’s been a lot of talk and there have been some announced, but I think the major challenge is that Korean producers focus on the critical local market. This is what I bring to the table. If there’s an international project that they’re interested in, I can provide the network. For example, my Korean partners made their first animated film. They brought me in for the international part. It went on to become the most successful animation in Korea, really the first success of its kind. Over two million emissions is an amazing figure. I sold the film to close to 20 countries all over the world, including in North America. They understood the limits of the local market and brought me in to maximize the film’s potential.

How is the animation scene in Korea?

It’s very active, because Korea has been doing production work for Hollywood, among others, for years. Simpsons are just one example. There’s a very strong infrastructure for CG, computer graphic animation.

There are active partnerships between Korea and European countries.
I think the potential for Korean originated IP in animation is huge, but it has not quite happened yet. You could argue that it’s cheaper to go to India, China or Singapore, but I would argue that, although the upfront cost maybe less you can have much more problems with quality and scheduling. Koreans are very good at delivering things on time and in budget no matter what it takes.

What do you think is the main reason Koreans are so much into animations?

I don’t think Koreans are particularly into animation. Animation is a strong commercial product. You could argue that Lord of the Rings or Avatar are animated films, so the line between features and animation is blurring. Koreans are very good at utilizing filmmaking tools, with strong CG and animation companies. The infrastructure is there, but animation isn’t cheap. You need minimum of 10-15 million dollars, which is much less than a Pixar or Dreamworks animation uses, but it’d be hard to recoup in the Korean market alone, which is why you need an international partner or partners: to cover the budget and market the film in their respective territories. You need at least two three territories. You sell all over the world, of course, but you need those key partnership territories to cover the budget and hopefully recoup in those territories.

What’s the relationship with Korean and Japanese film industry?

Korea was colonized by Japan for many years, but that’s in the past. Before the first Pusan film festival in 1996 Japanese films could not be shown in Korea. They were banned, but I just saw the huge potential for a co-production market. If you combine the populations of Korea and Japan, it’s almost the size of the US. We’ve seen a number of Japanese-Korean co-productions, but no major successes yet.

Korea used to fear that Japanese films would dominate the market like Hollywood films have done, but that hasn’t been the case. Local films will probably do much better in both markets, but I think if the right story comes along, the potential for success in Korea and Japan is huge. Same with Korea and China. There’s a lot of creative collaboration going on, with Korean directors directing Chinese films. I think the potential for collaboration within Asia is huge.

What’s the relationship between Korea and China for film industry?

China has looked to Korea as a model in developing their own industry and the explosion of Chinese films has kind of mirrored that of Korea, perhaps they’ve matched that number. And also in China the majority of income comes from box office. So there is a close relationship. And again there has been a lot of collaborations where a Korean director has directed Chinese language films with mixed cast. China looks to cast some Korean actors.. there will be some remakes of Korean films into China.. and obviously everybody looks to China as the big emerging market so Korean film makers and animation look to China as a key market.  There have been close collaborations on the creative side. Korean staff, postproduction, sound have created offices in China. Animation companies too. So that relationship is growing bigger and bigger.

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