Filmmakers from China, South Korea and Japan gathered at a seminar yesterday during the Busan International Film Festival to discuss cooperation between the three countries, the Qilu Evening News reports.
South Korean producer Lee Joo-ick, Japanese producer Satoru Iseki and Chinese director Wang Ping were present at the event to share their understandings of filmmaking. Among the topics they discussed was how to compete with Hollywood blockbusters.
Lee, who produced "The Warrior's Way" and "Late Autumn," confidently said the center of the world's film market would shift to Asia within five years.
"Hollywood films are like a very popular restaurant," Lee said. "We are a restaurant with more than 1 billion potential customers. Most of all, our chefs (filmmakers) are getting better and better."
Iseki, producer of Akira Kurosawa's "Ran," warned Chinese filmmakers that imitating Hollywood films was not a solution.
"Chinese films can hardly compete with Hollywood because Chinese filmmakers are copying their ways," he said. "The difficulties you are facing are what we had to deal with 20 years ago. I hope our Chinese peers can learn from us. The only thing we can depend on is the great characterscharacteristics of our culture."
Director Wang agreed that Chinese filmmakers had a lot to learn from Japan and South Korea and that the three countries should stick together in their filmmaking endeavors.