ABSTRACT
Filmmakers from mainland China and South Korea have been actively collaborating with each other since the early 2000s, and the long-established network was finally offered a formal framework by the inter-governmental co-production agreement signed in July 2014. This chapter aims to discuss the “win-win” rhetoric surrounding Chinese-Korean film co-production, paying special attention to what the partners respectively “won” at the expenses of others’ interest. Predated the official agreement, Chinese and Korean filmmakers had developed their informal co-production networks since the early 2000s, resulted in a number of “pan-Asian big pictures”. The development of Chinese-Korean film co-production through the 2010s, which featured an ever-stronger orientation toward the Chinese market, only further affirms his remarks. Korean manpower and expertise, foremostly, are brought to China by a belief that they can enhance the quality and thus profitability of Chinese stories. Two Chinese-Korean films Tik Tok and Scandal Maker are to be drawn for case studies.
