Read More
When Lee Hee Tae told his parents he was going into the porn business, he urged them not to worry about social disapproval and to think about the money instead.
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
The financial case, he said, was clear: built-in domestic demand plus a growing global fascination with South Korea, thanks to booming K-pop and K-drama exports.
However, due to deeply conservative social mores, South Korea's adult industry is a minnow compared to Japan.
It makes 2,000 adult movies a year, compared with what Lee's research indicates is 2,000 a day from Tokyo's US$36.5-billion (HK$285 billion) behemoth. That, for Lee, is not only a lost opportunity but a snag for many South Koreans who are unable to properly discuss sex, desire and sexuality due to its "taboo" nature.
"I'd like South Korea to be more open about sex," said Lee, whose company Play Joker recently moved from making movies toward hosting live events.
While not illegal, porn production is closely regulated, with Seoul requiring that images of genitalia be heavily blurred.
The country is also grappling with a molka, or spycam, epidemic of illicitly filmed videos that include everything from women in public restrooms to leaked sex videos from K-pop stars. Lee said allowing a local adult content industry to thrive would help prevent spycam crimes.
Lee said some people might "watch molka because they don't understand adult content," and so don't understand there is a difference between professional pornography and illicit footage, he said.
Lee's company has produced 500 adult films so far, the majority filmed in Japan using Japanese actors.
On South Korea's adult cable channel "a surprising trend has emerged where viewership from 11 am to 12.30 pm has significantly increased," he said. "It turns out women tune in after sending husbands to work and kids to school."
Lee said South Korea has a web of social taboos and regulations that are "keeping the industry from reaching its full potential."
For example, putting a porn actor in a school uniform violates child-protection laws. Or featuring a flight attendant uniform guarantees the production can "expect full-blown protest from the unions."
Lee's attempt to hold South Korea's largest sex festival in April encountered online vitriol and legal challenges.
Women's groups branded the proposed festival in Suwon a "sex-exploitation event." Suwon officials canceled the event amid the backlash and when he found a new site in Seoul, officials threatened to shut off the power and cancel the venue's licenses.
Lee is taking Suwon authorities and some women's groups to court. The fallout has prompted some new lawmakers to question whether officials were right to cancel.
"What is wrong with hosting an adult-only festival?" said Chun Ha-ram, who won office in April elections. "Authorities should take their hands off this. Unless it's blatantly illegal, state power has no right to interfere in the cultural sphere."
Lee is planning another, larger event this month and said this time he won't back down. "I would like to remind people that we are all created through sex."
