Movies and Culture

Movie and Culture

Movies and Culture
Pressure to be Thin: The Plague of HollywoodThe Korean Wave among Asian CountriesThe great decrease in Markets and Box Office Earnings in Taiwanese CinemaCaribe: Social Implications in Costa Rica

Pressure to Be Thin: The Plague of Hollywood

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Kirsten Dunst: 57, 115 lbs.
Kate Bosworth: 55, 100 lbs.

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 disordersOf those with eating disorders, more than 90% are women between the ages of 12 and 25.

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.

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 nonviolenceThe quality of Korean culture and communications

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


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


Source: Korean Film Council (KOFIC).

Good

8020

5050

6040

7030

Korea

Usa

Top Ten Films Ratio Between Korea and USA

Sheet1

1998200220042006

Korea80506070

Usa20504030

Sheet2

Sheet3

Taiwanese Cinema
IntroductionOver 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.
History1. 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.

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.

Comparison of two kinds of movies
Art movies1.Director-centered2.Overspending easily because of the persistence of the director.3.Too conceptualized and hard to achieve wide acceptance.
Commercial movies1.Lack creativity2.Because of the strong support of government, quality of the products is neglected.

The government policies and current situation
(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.
CritiqueThe 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.

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).

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.

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.

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