Thursday, May 07, 2009

Interesting Article from the Pres. & CEO of KeyEast/BOF

I saw an interesting article on BYJGallery today wherein KeyEast / Boundaries of Forest's President & CEO, Mr. Pyo Jong Rok, gave an interview regarding Hally Wave.

With the help of Mariko, I was able to get some of the details of the interview. I'll post them here but I hope that later on we can get the complete translation.

According to Mr.President [PJR], Hallyu is not possible to continue by only focusing on cultural contents. He said that something must be done to continue the Hallyu as part of the Asian Culture. One example is Bae Yong Joon's book that will introduce South Korea and that it will present brand image of South KOrea.

He continued by saying that they've got to continue seeking possibilities so that Asian people will have interest in Korea through drama and other possible ways, not concentrate on single contents.

He even said that Bae Yong Joon's idea is not to have one-sided profit for Japanese market. Mr Pyo said that Yong Joon is thinking to have interaction through Japanese contents being introduced to Korean market as well. In short he wants to create an Asian kind of brand that's is why he decided to collaborate with japanese companies to produce the 'WLS Anime' and the drama 'Drops of God'.

Mr. Pyo was then asked about the production status of 'Drops of God' [liezle : this is exciting]. But Mr. President only said that they are in the stage of free production and deciding the casting. Also, he said that they would like to develop a good story and able to make the work competitive in the market [liezle : geez, he didn't give much info]. But he added that they plan is to concentrate on the original story but with Korean touch. They are planning to rewrite the drama focusing on the wine and to present a different approach to make the drama interesting. [liezle : interesting and i'm getting anxious again...sighs... but we've to wait until next year]. Then he said that they plan to break even domestically and make profit through overseas sales and DVD marketing.

Regarding the Hallyu Stars, he mentioned that Hallyu's image bar should be raised first and foremost more than just depending on a small number of Hallyu star. He cited HK movies as a negative example. They did a mass production without much consideration on the quality that leads to the cooling down of HK movie's popularity in Korea (and Asia as well).

He was then asked about the talent fees of the actors. Mr. President said something like -- it is not just the talent fees that should be considered in order for the South Korean cultural contents to survive. They should focus more on producing good quality works. [liezle : he must be saying that whether the talent fee is high or low what is important is the quality of the finish product of the project so that it can earn recognition not only in Korea but as well as in other countries]. He also said that, there should be a long term planning in order to promote K- culture all over Asia. [except japan where it is already popular but of course they need to maintain the market].

Well, that's all of the details I've got. It's actually a long article and Mariko only gave me the important details. Thank so much dear sis! Like what I mentioned earlier, I hope some kind soul will do the translation for us English speaking fans later.

I've blogged about 'Drops of God' earlier. There might be some who are curious about this Japanese manga that will be made into a drama next year, you may click on the label in this post and you'll be directed to some of my post about it. You may also want to check on 'WLS Animation'. ^^

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