Movies and Culture

1
Movies and Culture

• Pressure to be Thin The Plague of Hollywood
• The Korean Wave among Asian Countries
• The great decrease in Markets and Box Office
  Earnings in Taiwanese Cinema
• Caribe Social Implications in Costa Rica

2
Pressure to Be Thin The Plague of Hollywood
3
Some Facts

• The average American woman is 54 and weighs 140
  lbs.
• The average television icon is 57 and weighs
  100 lbs.
• The average American model is 511 and weighs
  117 lbs.
• Most fashion models are thinner than 98 of
  American women

4
An Infectious Disease

• Todays Hollywood places a considerable amount
  of pressure upon its actresses to be extremely
  thin and waif-like. As a result, most American
  women experience a similar pressure the
  pressure to look like Hollywood stars.

5
Yesterdays Hollywood

• 1930s Bette Davis illuminates Hollywood at 52
  and an average weight.
• 1950s Marilyn Monroe becomes Americas top
  pin-up icon at 55.5 and roughly 130 lbs.

6

• The shift toward rail-thin models and actresses
  began in the 1960s when Twiggy, 57 and 91 lbs.,
  emerged on to the scene.

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Todays Hollywood

• Today, many female Hollywood stars are extremely
  thin.
• Exposure to such unhealthy and unrealistic ideas
  of body image negatively affects young girls and
  women through depression, the loss of
  self-esteem, and the development of eating
  disorders.

8
Kirsten Dunst 57, 115 lbs.
Kate Bosworth 55, 100 lbs.
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The Results

• 80 of women admit that they are insecure about
  their bodies compared to those in the media.
• In the U.S., 5 to 10 million people suffer from
  eating disorders
• Of those with eating disorders, more than 90 are
  women between the ages of 12 and 25.

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The Bottom Line

• The National Eating Disorders Association lists
  as one of the contributing factors to eating
  disorders cultural pressures that glorify
  thinness and place value on obtaining the perfect
  body.
• While Hollywood continues to promote these images
  through its movies, American women will continue
  to suffer the consequences.

11
Korean Wave among Asian Countries
12
Korean Wave among Asian Countries

• Many Korean movies and TV dramas are very popular
  in Asian Country, including China and Japan.
• Most Asian countries share Confucian culture
• Korean culture professes nonviolence
• The quality of Korean culture and communications

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Korean Wave among Asian Countries

• Korean cultural products convey similar Asian
  Ideas.
• Implicit way of love in Asian Culture.

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Korean Wave among Asian Countries

• Korean Drama and Movie
• Winter Sonata Fairytale Love story.
• Dae Jang Geum Korean Traditional Drama.
• The Host Current Popular Movie in Korea.

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Korean Wave among Asian Countries

Source Korean Film Council (KOFIC).
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Taiwanese Cinema

• Introduction
• Over the fifty years the Taiwanese cinema has
  experienced the germination, growth, maturity,
  and decline.
• Current Issues The great decrease in markets and
  box office earnings.

• History
• 1. Propaganda tools against communism.
• 2. The early 60s Most movies emphasized the
  morality and ethics of humanity, and avoided
  darkness in the society.
• 3. The 70s Patriotism became the major theme
  because Taiwan withdrew from the united nations
  and broke off with Japan and U.S.A..
• 4. In the middle of 80s The freedom of speech
  had been achieved. The diversification of movies
  was developed and movies were not political tools
  any more.

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Issues

• Commercial movies made in Taiwan lacked
  creativities and concrete stories. (1) The lack
  of new ideas during the late 80s cause the decay
  of Taiwanese cinema. (2) The globalization and
  convergence, large number of foreign movies crowd
  into Taiwan and carve up most markets. Thus,
  Taiwanese cinema turned into a new era of art
  movies.
• Foreign films reached 98 of the total
  earnings this year. (Government Information
  Office Taiwan Cinema 2006)
• Art movies win many awards all over the world and
  gain a lot of international attention. However,
  these art movies of brilliant results still have
  a small market in Taiwan. They only increase the
  reputation of Taiwan but do not bring economic
  benefits.

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Comparison of two kinds of movies

• Art movies
• 1.Director-centered
• 2.Overspending easily because of the persistence
  of the director.
• 3.Too conceptualized and hard to achieve wide
  acceptance.

• Commercial movies
• 1.Lack creativity
• 2.Because of the strong support of government,
  quality of the products is neglected.

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The government policies and current situation

• Critique
• The government on the one hand actively supports
  the Taiwanese movies through funding on the
  other hand totally opens up the import of foreign
  movies.
• The development cannot rely only on money, and
  the government should realize the impact of their
  policies.

• (1)To support cinema industries through funding.
• (2)To set cinema industry development as one of
  the 13 sub plans of the Challenge 2008 National
  Development Plan.
• (3)To join WTO, Taiwanese government signed an
  agreement to remove the restriction of the screen
  numbers of foreign movie imports, which deprived
  the protection of movie industries in Taiwan.

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Evaluation of the government policies

• In 2005, the government information office spent
  over 3.9 million US dollars on funding Taiwanese
  movies (Government Information Office Taiwan
  Cinema 2005), but the total box office earnings
  of Taiwanese movies are less than 1.5 million
  (Government Information Office Taiwan Cinema
  2006).

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Conclusion

• The major problem is not the capital.
• The producers of art movies need to understand
  the markets and do proper promotions.
• The producers of commercial movies need to have
  more original and creative ideas in making each
  movie.

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Critical thinking

• To analyze more deeply, the attitude of the
  producers and the audiences is the root cause of
  the development of Taiwan cinema industries.
• (1)The lack of talent. In Taiwan, arts and
  cultural related subjects are not respected
  because people do not think they have economic
  benefits.
• (2)The cinema education in Taiwan still focuses
  on the theory, rather than the technology
  (personal interviews, October 15, 2006).
• (3)To improve the cinema education is more
  significant.