By Park Jin-hai
Local food and entertainment giant CJ made a series of big-budget films in an effort to mend fences with President Park Geun-hye, according to the independent counsel team Monday.
An investigation by the team revealed that President Park called in CJ Group Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik for a private meeting on Nov. 27, 2014. In their first meeting after Sohn took the helm of the group, Park complained that “CJ’s films and shows have been anti-government.”
Sohn offered several apologies and said, “I’ve cleaned up everything. From this moment, our direction will change. We are currently making movies such as The Admiral: Roaring Currents that give priority to the national interest.”
In response, Park reportedly said, “Since CJ has a talent for making great movies, only if it changes direction, it will be a great help for the sake of the country.”
Previously, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office found out that Park’s then-senior presidential economic adviser Cho Won-dong pressured CJ Group’s former Vice Chairwoman Lee Mi-kyung to resign in July 2013.
The vice chairwoman, who was leading the group while her younger brother, CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun, was in jail, allegedly irritated President Park by producing films such as “Masquerade” and broadcasting comedy programs like “SNL Korea” which satirized politicians, including Park, with skits like “Yeouido Teletubbies.”
After Sohn’s meeting with the President, CJ made a series of moves to cater to the government. CJ’s cinema chain affiliate CGV began to air three-minute-long promotional videos supportive of the administration’s creative economy policy prior to film screenings, while it invested a hefty amount of money to make blockbuster movies such as “Ode to My Father” and “Operation Chromite” that appealed to patriotism.
In 2015, the company also pledged to invest 1.4 trillion won to build the government-initiated K-Culture Valley project. Soothed by CJ’s changed attitude, Park in January 2015 watched the film “Ode to My Father” which dealt with Korean coal miners and nurses sent to Germany between the early 1960s and late 1970s to earn money for the country abroad. The deeply touched Park was reported to have shed tears.
Industry insiders say the beleaguered Sohn, who has seen the imprisonment of his nephew and the forced resignation of his niece, had been left with no option other than to make government-friendly cultural content.
“Since CJ’s main business is film production and broadcasting, Park’s pressuring of CJ can be viewed as a breach of the constitutional right of freedom of press, freedom of publishing and freedom of the arts and sciences,” a legal adviser said.