Parleying Culture against Trade:

The rising Korean cinema has inspired a flurry of new understandings of the nation s media and cultural policies. However, there remains a gap in the historical factors leading to this phe-nomenon, regarding particularly Hollywood s long-term negotiations with import and screen quotas. Tms study charts Hollywood’s export activities in Korea and analyzes differences between the U.S. economic approach to film as “ goods and Korean view of films as “ cultural expressions. The Korean government’s perseverance to safeguard film as cultural heritage and its ability to stand-up against relentless trade pressures from the U.S. have led to the contemporary Korean cinema s tangible success. Ironically, a brood of American films, which flooded Korea after 1988, helped raise lÍs tiger from its slumber and the subsequent spread of Hallyu the so-called Korean wave, across East Asia and the globe.