Sponge seeks to soak up cultural variety

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Sponge seeks to soak up cultural variety

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David Cho

For David Cho, president of Sponge, a film importer and distributor, his business and personal life have no distinct boundary.
He says he has never taken vacation since founding the company in 2000, not because he has been terribly busy, but because work is play for
him.
“I think my calling is collecting good films from all around the world,” Cho said. “I would call myself a creative collector. Apart from the fact that I personally respect directors, I don’t envy them in that I can own as many films as possible, whereas they can produce 10 films at the most in their life.”
The relatively small-sized film importer owns films by some world-famous art movie directors: Wim Wenders of “Paris, Texas” and “Buena Vista Social Club,” Takeshi Kitano of “Zatoichi,” Michel Gondry of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Science of Sleep,” and many more. As an avid fan, Cho has built a solid relationship with directors by sometimes signing purchase contracts for their films even before completion deals impossible without trust ? and holding a movie festival solely devoted to their films. Earlier this year Sponge invited Wim Wenders to his film festival, offering a rare opportunity for Korean audiences to meet him and discuss his
films.
Sometimes his eagerness to gather “quality
movies” goes beyond the norm, he admits, often
finding himself being dissuaded by employees
from buying more. That happened at the recent
Cannes Film Festival.
That turn of events naturally evolved into
external credibility for Sponge, giving the company
a competitive edge in bidding among Korean
film importers at international film markets.
“Simply showing the list of movies that we
own facilitates deals with overseas film producers,”
Cho said.
Sponge emerged from near-obscurity in late
2004 after “Jose, Tiger and Fish,” a Japanese movie
by Inudo Isshin, attracted a viewing audience of
more than 40,000, a huge success for a smaller distributor.
From that point, the company accumulated a
reliable fan base, mostly consisting of women in
their 20s and 30s.
“I would say about 80 percent of those fond of
movies from Sponge are trendsetters with a
refined taste for culture,” Cho said. “Somehow, our
movies seeking diversity clicked with that demographic
audience.”
Last year Sponge released 57 movies across
Korea and this year it is expected to see 70 films
from the company. Starting with sales revenue of
500 million won ($539,000) in 2002, the company
anticipates revenue of 10 billion won next year.
Despite that success as a business, Cho does
not hesitate to express deep concern over what he
called the staggering movie industry of Korea.
Korean audiences have turned away from some
blockbuster movies that producers poured more
than 10 billion won into, not to mention budget or
independent movies.
“Koreans moviegoers don’t have the slightest
interest in small-sized films,” he said.
“It’s just that they have this extremely whimsical
taste, and it’s very difficult to find consistency.”
Given the current situation, Korean movie
industry insiders have begun to consider alternatives
to going belly up with Korean films by
spending 500 million won to 1 billion won for
production. One option is importing and releasing
foreign movies that cost less, according to Cho,
who has watched the film industry for more than
a decade.
For several years now, Sponge has also been
involved in budgeting or independent film production,
but he has now reached a point of possibly
giving up. Korea’s movie industry has almost
hit bottom, Cho said, and at the same time it is in
the middle of a restructuring period.
Although somewhat depressed due to today’s
bearish market in the film industry, Cho nonetheless
has a handful of projects he wants to accomplish
in the coming years.
He hopes to establish a cultural complex building
that would feature movie cinemas, concert
halls, drama theaters, restaurants and galleries.
Sponge already runs two theaters called
“Sponge House” in Seoul after acquiring facilities
that had went out of business.
On top of that, Cho wants to import thousands
of bottles of wine and sell them at “reasonable”
prices to those who know about Sponge.
Another goal is creation of a Sponge record
label for independent pop musicians.
Ironically, he denies that he is an ambitious
person.
“I have no intension of making a lot of money
with my business,” Cho said. “I have no ambition,
no plans to grow Sponge into a huge company. I
have no house and no insurance policies. I am living
the way I am now.”


By Seo Ji-eun Staff Writer[spring@joongang.co.kr]
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