The Shift from Big Screen to Small Screen of Korean Cinema

At the 2025 Cannes International Film Festival, Korean cinema had no films in the official competition list. This is the first time in 12 years that Korean cinema has been absent from the nominations, although Korea has previously made a splash with international awards. At the same time, this is also the first time in 26 years that Korean cinema has been almost completely absent from this festival. While in the past, at the festival, although not competing for awards, this country's cinema still participated in side activities.

Professor Shim Eun Jin said: "The number of Korean films is decreasing. A large number of films are now shifting to streaming platforms. Changes in audience awareness and production environment have led to this result."

Sharing the same view, cultural critic Kim Hun Sik said: "This is part of the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic broke out, many films were postponed for 2-3 years and now when they are released in theaters, they have lost their topicality and become out of tune with the rising wave of online content."

Audiences are no longer interested in theatrical films and are shifting strongly from the big screen to the small screen. Accordingly, many famous directors, screenwriters and actors tend to choose to cooperate with online platforms. Because this platform suits the tastes of the audience, has great influence, flexible costs and less constrained production time. Investors are also increasingly hesitant to invest in theatrical film projects.

It is easy to see that in the summer movie season of 2025, the number of online movies aired continuously, while the number of movies shown in theaters was only a few: "Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy", "My Daughter is A Zombie" and "Pretty Crazy"... Movies shown in theaters were almost submerged by the whirlwind of online movies, from "Low Life" (photo), "Twelve" of Disney Plus to "Wall to Wall", "Squid Game" season 3, "Trigger" of Netflix were all hotly discussed on movie forums.

Film critic Kim Heon Shik believes that the quality of current theatrical films is lower than that of films produced by streaming platforms. This is because streaming platforms have larger budgets, better filming techniques, diverse film content, and better meet audience needs.

However, film critic Kim Heon Shik also pointed out that independent, small-scale but well-invested films are still making their mark. For example, "Noise", which was released in theaters last June, has a low budget but good content, quickly broke even and is even chasing Hollywood blockbusters.

Mr. Kim Heon Shik emphasized: "Creative works with their own identity are still enough to retain audiences."

BAO LAM
(Synthesized from Chosun, Korea Times)

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/su-chuyen-dich-tu-man-anh-rong-sang-man-anh-nho-cua-phim-anh-han-quoc-a188937.html