China's high entry barriers for Korean films, dramas

“Oh! My Gran” was the only South Korean movie to hit the big screen in China in the past year. It was also the first Korean film to be premiered in the country six years after the 2015 release of “Assassination,” a Korean action thriller.

The December screening of “Oh! My Gran” had raised expectations of China’s loosening of broadcasting rules against Korean content, as Korean movies and TV series became global sensations such as Netflix’s blockbuster TV series “Squid Game.”

However, China has not yet fully reopened its market to K-content since blocking it in 2016 in retaliation for Seoul’s deployment of a US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD).

And now there are no signs of Beijing easing its stance against Korean culture amid growing political tensions between the two countries.

As for TV dramas, a number of Korean TV series featuring Korean TV stars have been broadcast or streamed in China this year for the first time in six years.  

They include the historical TV series “Saimdang, Light’s Diary” aired on two Chinese TV channels. Two romance dramas “Something in the Rain and “Queen & I” as well as the mystery drama “Bad and Crazy” streamed on OTT platforms iQIYI and Tencent between January and May of this year.

Since South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in May, however, no more K-dramas have been seen on Chinese official channels.

The Yoon administration appears to be joining the US move aimed at countering China’s influence, despite China's protest against the move.  

WEBTOONS FARING WELL

By comparison, Korean webtoons, or digital comics, have been doing well in China, taking advantage of its relatively loose regulations over digital content. Some Korean webtoons have topped the list on Chinese webtoon platforms.

China also has adapted Korean webtoons into movies and TV dramas by themselves, instead of importing their Korean versions directly, and remade some of them to tailor to Chinese viewers’ tastes. But in many cases, they didn’t identify the original work.

“Moon man”, a sci-fi comedy, is a prime example. The film, released last month, is an adaptation of a South Korean webtoon “Moonyou” as the first Chinese movie based on a Korean webtoon. It has garnered $300 million in revenue so far. But it hasn’t identified its original work, either.

Moreover, the chronic problems with China’s illegal distribution of K-content have still to be resolved.

Alongside “Squid Game,” “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” the latest hit TV series distributed by Netflix, is now downloadable on unauthorized Chinese platforms. Netflix has not launched its service in China yet.

Further, a Chinese copied version of the “Squid Game” is understood to have been released.

“Almost all Korean hit titles are being illegally distributed in China,” said a K-content industry official. “But there is no way to stop it.”

Korea Creative Content Agency Director Yoon Ho-jin said that K-content needs to deal with political tensions between Seoul and Beijing, anti-Korea sentiment brewing among China’s youth and Chinese millennials’ shift toward homegrown products.

“But there are still many Chinese who like Korean content. It’s premature to give up on the market,” he added.

Write to Hee-Kyung Kim at hkkim@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.