S. Korean movie theatres refuse to screen Netflix film

SEOUL, North Korea — South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho says Netflix never pushed for the theatrical release of his Okja — he did so himself, so people could see it on the big screen. Now the top three movie chains in South Korea are refusing the film’s simultaneous theatrical and Netflix debuts.

Okja, by the internationally acclaimed director of The Host and Snowpiercer, was one of two Netflix titles that competed at the Cannes Film Festival last month for the first time, along with Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories.

After an outcry from French exhibitors, Cannes changed its rules to require that films in competition be distributed in French movie theatres.

The debate over the Netflix movie’s theatrical release was renewed in South Korea after Cannes closed.

South Korea’s top three largest movie chains, which control 90 per cent of screens in the country, refused to release Okja unless Netflix holds off streaming for three weeks.

In South Korea, movies are offered online or on other platforms about two to three weeks after their big-screen debuts.

“Usually, Netflix movies have not pushed ahead with theatrical releases in other countries,” he told reporters in Seoul. “It was a controversy that started because of me. As a director, it’s natural to have a desire to show the movie both on streaming and movie screens.”

Bong said Cannes should have sorted out the rule before inviting Okja and that it was “unexpected” to see an international film festival adopt domestic law in France. Directors are too busy making films to study French law, he said.

“It would have been preferred if Cannes would have put the rules in order before inviting us. Inviting us and then creating a controversy was an embarrassment to us,” he said.

Produced by Brad Pitt on Netflix’s $50-million US budget, Okja features Tilda Swinton as a scion of a multinational food corporation and Jake Gyllenhaal as a zoologist.

Their world in Manhattan stands in stark contrast to that of a farm girl who lives on remote mountains in South Korea with a genetically engineered animal named Okja. Part family movie and part political fantasy about the relationship between human and animals in capitalist society, the movie was well received among critics.

Netflix said it continues to work hard with a local distributor to give more opportunities and choices to South Korean viewers to watch Okja. Its Netflix streaming starts on June 28, or June 29 in South Korea.

But no breakthrough with multiplex movie chains is in sight, unless Netflix delays the streaming debut.

“It is against the rules of the movie distribution system,” said an official at CJ CGV, the biggest multiplex movie chain in South Korea. The person was not authorized to speak to media about a deal under negotiation and asked to be anonymous.

While big movie theatre operators might boycott, independent movie theatres have agreed to screen Bong’s political fantasy on June 29, giving Okja screening time, but on few screens.

Bong said he is happy the movie will appear in movie theatres that have been eclipsed by the multiplex chains.

“It’s a good chance to revisit movie theatres that we have forgotten for a while,” he said.

“I’m satisfied with the current situations.”