‘Battleship Island’ director Ryoo, producer Kang walk away from showbiz guilds
SEOUL: The director and producer of South Korean blockbuster The Battleship Island have quit from several filmmakers’ guilds, according to sources, amid a screen monopoly controversy surrounding the movie.
Director Ryoo Seung-wan and Kang Hye-jung, head of production company Filmmaker R& K, have withdrawn their affiliations with the Directors Guild of Korea, Korean Film Producers Association and Women In Film Korea, industry sources with inside knowledge told Yonhap News Agency.
Since its late July release, The Battleship Island, which sheds light on the dark history of Japan’s Hashima Island during World War II, has stormed the local box office, shattering the previous opening- day box office record and selling 6.17 million tickets to date.
But the film has rekindled a years-long dispute over bigbudget films’ monopoly of screens that stifles competition and impedes diversity. Battleship Island on its opening day took up about 80 per cent of 2,758 movie screens around the country, receiving the biggest screen allotment for a single film.
Kang said she withdrew from the guilds on concerns that her latest work could become an impediment in the discussion surrounding box office monopolies.
“I bolted as I was concerned that The Battleship Island could be troubling when each organisation is issuing official statements on the screen monopoly issue,” Kang said over the phone.