While trying to find what are the most pirated asian films in 2009, I stumbled upon an interesting article about an anti-piracy campaign called ‘I’m a Good Downloader‘, it was launched last October during the Pusan Film Fest.
They took Haeundae (Tidal Wave) as an example. For you information, it’s the biggest success of 2009 in South Korea, it made $68,976,779. And it’s been sold to several countries around the world (France, UK, Canada…). But, few days after its chinese theatrical release, they say it was also illegally downloaded about 10,000 times + DVD bootlegs sold in the streets…
Because this campaign is supported by some famous cool korean stars, one of them said “If we don’t solve this problem of illegal downloading, it will downgrade the quality of filmmaking, which in turn negatively affects moviegoers“. Another one added “Haeundae recently suffered from piracy. This negatively affects our country as a whole, and I hope this can be an opportunity to change our downloading habits“.
Even though some of their points are really bad, it’s the first time I see an anti-piracy campaign bringing the idea of ‘changing habits’, treating users not like a bunch of serial killers murdering the Cinema Industry. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t mention anything about indie films, knowing most of them try to exist but only manage around 10,000 admissions locally. It’d interesting to know if somehow, ‘illegal downloads’ have helped films like Boat, Milky Way Liberation Front… (because indie films can be cool, too).
And here’s a TV spot, fighting illegal downloading has never been so damn cool:
You can watch more of them, and check the website to listen to the nice little song.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh no, not that crap again!
How many people went to theatres to see Haeundae just because they watch it before on their computers in a very bad quality? Nobody knows and nobody cares. People from entertainment industry thinks that 10 000 downloads mean that they lost 10 000 people in theatres. It’s just stupid. I bought many DVD of asian movies (many of them are indies) because I was able to download them. And yes I saw Haeundae in a theatre after downloading. Same thing for Adrift in Tokyo for instance.
Haeundae was released outside Korea because Korean industry realized that People like korean blockbuster. Thanks to what? Cannes festival?
It’s backwards thinking. “my movie did bad because people downloaded it” – eh… hello? Avatar is the biggest box office hit now, and it’s been downloaded tons of times. That means, downloading a movie doesn’t affect your box office… the quality of your graphics and story does.
And this is coming from someone who didn’t think much of Avatar, but I’ve told people to go see it just because it’s so pretty to look at in 3D LOL
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