• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.53-62
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• 2019

In recent years, South Korean has made a globally acknowledged achievement in movie industry. In terms of Art, films produced in South Korea obtained lots of awards in international movie festivals; in the business field, Korean movies are swiftly occupying the Asian or even the world film market. Extraordinary films with good reputations and high box office records are frequently launched and induced to a trend, which then forms into a cultural phenomenon and attributes to an important, major force in the so-called "Hallyu" culture. This, in part, benefits from the massive support of Korean government's cultural policies, and is also a product of the high degree of cultural consciousness of Korean movie producers. The Korean cultures, customs, and the underlying cultural elements of the East, that are presented in these movies, satisfy the audience and appeal their fondness. The Princess and the Matchmaker is a South Korean period romantic comedy film directed by Hong Chang-pyo and starred Shim Eun-kyung and Lee Seung-gi. The movie was presented on Feb 28th, 2018. It tells a story of Seo Do-yoon, the most proficient saju (fortune-teller) expert of the Joseon Era who selected a husband for Princess Song-Hwa based on her "fortune eight letters" (specifically, the time, day, month and year of her and her husbands' birth, normally in eight letters), in a hope of alleviating the rage of people following years of drought, and thus to resolve a national crisis. This paper takes The Princess and the Matchmaker as an example, from the aspects of cultural state, system, behavior and mentality, to analyze the traditional customs such as "fortune eight letters", "marriage by match" and the cultural concepts behind these phenomena, in order to explore the ways and methods of traditional culture in the modern cultural and artistic form of film.