Filmmaker Kwak Jae-yong fears that melodrama is a dying genre.
"I used to love watching Hollywood love stories — they were one of the things that sustained me during my youth," says the 58-year-old director in an interview with The Japan Times. "But now, Hollywood seems far less interested in melodrama, because that's not where the money is going. Science fiction extravaganzas and stories about social injustice, murder and intrigue and, of course, action thrillers are the money-makers in Hollywood.
"But outside the U.S., it's another story. Surprisingly, the British are still making them. And thankfully, East Asians are still crazy about hankie-wringing melodrama."