And they are quite different markets, particularly in the case of Asian film. The situation in the past where a festival would screen over twenty Japanese films and a token Korean film are over, and that's thanks to Pusan, the centralisation of Korean film sales to a handful of companies, and the availability of more subtitled fare via the Hong Kong VCD market, etc. I still have doubts about the lack of Eng. The HK movie industry began to prosper thanks to the existence of a large group of Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. However, in my view, Korean movie industry people should see that the only way to survive in an age of economic globalisation is by means of gaining direct access to more movie watchers scattered all through East and Southeast Asia.
English subtitles become ever more important.
A movie like Christmas in August can both win the hearts and minds of those coming from HK and Japan, it won't be that difficult for the miracle to be repeated with movies like Attack the gas Station, The Foul King, Nowhere To Hide, The Quiet Family, Art Museum By The Zoo, Bi Chun Mu, or Ditto. In My Hometown can surely find audiences coming to artsy theatres. In My Hometown VCD with Eng. In my view, the movie never loses its grip on the audiences' attention. They are used to provide a grand view of the likes or not of the rural countryside of South Korea during the Korean War.