CJ Entertainment

Background

CJ ENM, formerly known as CJ Entertainment (CJ 엔터테인먼트) and CJ E&M, is a South Korean film and television company that acquires, produces and distributes over 3,000 titles for the Korean market and the world, and a branch of Korean food company and conglomerate CJ Group. Being South Korea's largest entertainment company, it played an important role in the rise of the South Korean film industry. The success of their own films after the 2000 film Chunhyang, most notably Joint Security Area that broke the Korean box office records previously set by Shiri, helped the company in becoming one of the two largest film companies in the country along with Kang Woo-suk's Cinema Service.

The company was formed in 1995 after CJ invested in DreamWorks Pictures and acquired select distribution rights to DW's titles in Korea and Asia. Initially, the company distributed acquisitions but in 2004, the company started producing local productions. After DreamWorks was spun off into two in 2004, DreamWorks Animation would have their titles distributed by CJ in that region and distribution of DreamWorks Pictures titles would move to UIP.

In 2007, CJ began distributing titles from Paramount Pictures in that region. CJ's deal with Paramount lasted until 2015 when Lotte Cultureworks took over distribution of Paramount titles in Korea and the DWA arrangement would last until late-2017 when Universal's Korean branch would take over distribution rights of DWA titles in that region from CJ due to Universal's purchase of DWA being completed the year prior.

Contents

1st Logo (1996-2000)	2nd Logo (January 8, 2000-December 5, 2003)	3rd Logo (January 16, 2004-June 24, 2022)	4th Logo (June 8, 2022-)

1st Logo (1996-2000)

Visuals: On a space background, there are two comets colored red and blue respectively, flying and spinning. When the stars reach the center, they make a sparkling explosion that reveals the Cheil Jedang logo from the 1990s with two circles colored red and blue appearing up and down the text. The logo zooms in and reveals a huge light that becomes a green line. On the top-left corner is the company logo, while on the low-right the text "CJ ENTERTAINMENT" wipes in via a light. Under that is the Korean translation.

Variants:

A filmed variant exists for films distrbuted by the company.
On several Asian prints of DreamWorks titles, the Korean text is absent.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A synth orchestral tune.

Availiability: Used to appear on early movies distributed by the company and some educational VHS tapes.

2nd Logo (January 8, 2000-December 5, 2003)

Visuals: There is a starfield with a comet flying across. Suddenly, all stars fold into a glowing silver bundle, which then moves and spreads them out. The stars form the 3D blue name "CJ ENTERTAINMENT" seen in perspective, while the bundle goes to the far end and freezes there. The red dot flies over the logo and colors it into silver, stopping above the bundle and coloring it red.

Variants:

There exists a short variant that begins with the bundle moving.
Some films like Symphathy for Mr. Vengeance have the plain colored logo in an in-credit fashion.
A few prints of Memories of Murder have a thinner sepia coloration that makes the text a gold color. The bundle is colored in orange.
Blu-ray releases of the aforementioned movie have a green tint instead. In this case, the animation has an aqua green color for the forming text.
A 4:3 open-matte version exists.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A synthesized woodwind and bell theme.

Availability: Can be seen on early films by the company, debuting in The Happy Funeral Director and later appearing in titles such as The Way Home and Memories of Murder. The short variant is more common and was spotted on VCD releases of its productions.

3rd Logo (January 16, 2004-June 24, 2022)

Visuals: The sequence starts at a night sea landscape, colored in deep blue. Three children jump around and play with fireworks on a rocky peninsula. Three colored splashes blast from their fireworks and proceed up, while the camera follows them, then stops and lets the splashes to pass on. We then have a view from below, watching these splashes reaching the sky and exploding there, forming three oval figures - red, blue and orange. The company name (set in Bernhard Modern) poses around it and it glows with the background later clearing out.

Variants:

A later variant exists where the background does not clear out and stays dark blue all the time.
On The Little Penguin: Pororo's Racing Adventure, the logo is stretched vertically.
Starting in 2013, the text is now in the parent company's corporate font, all capitalized, and a byline appears in the same font saying "A CJ E&M CORPORATION COMPANY". Since 2018, the byline reads "A CJ ENM CORPORATION COMPANY" due to the parents' rebranding. The font was introduced two years earlier in 2011.
On Belok Kanan Barcelona (Turn Right Barcelona) (2018), an Indonesian-South Korean co-production, the wordmark of the enhanced logo is black, does not animate and is on a beige background, the same color as the opening credits.
On the Indonesian films Satan's Slaves (2017) and Perempuan Tanah Jahanam (also known as Impetigore), the logo starts when the fireworks fly to form the logo.
Starting with On the Line (2021), the text simply reads "CJ ENM". Also, it now clears out like the early variant.
A short version exists, which starts when the company name fades in.

Technique: Live-action and CGI.

Audio: A short string entry as the children giggle and the fireworks pop, progressing into a massively beautiful, rising orchestral tune. We then hear some fireworks sparkle, followed by another string note and a five-note chime sounder. The short version only has the final string note and the five-note chime sounder.

Audio Trivia: The rising part of the theme is actually a piece of production music from EastWest's "Scoring Tools" sample CD, used in many cartoons, Nine Network's 2001 "Still the One" campaign, and Tyne Tees Television's "Millennium" ident.

Audio Variant: A few films, such as Parasite, have part of the opening theme from the film.

Availability: No longer in use since 2022, but still common on Korean releases, which can be on sale worldwide, such as Sophie's Revenge, A Man Who Was Superman, and I'm a Cyborg but That's OK.

For original Korean distributions, it is usually replaced with its local publisher, but some films directly produced by CJ retain the logo.
On English versions of their output, the logo is either intact or is replaced by the English distributor's logo.
This logo was also used on Korean prints of DreamWorks Animation titles released from 2004 to 2017 (from 2013 to 2017, the logo plastered the 20th Century Fox logo on Korean prints of DreamWorks titles Fox distributed due to CJ keeping Korean distribution rights to DWA's catalog). Starting in 2018, the Universal logo now plasters this logo (due to Universal's acquisition of DWA being completed in 2016) on titles CJ previously distributed.

4th Logo (June 8, 2022-)

Scope variant

Visuals: On an ocean at nighttime, a yellow light flies as the camera pans up to reveal a refined version of the same peninsula and children from the previous logo, with each firework colored red, blue and yellow. As the three children set off their fireworks, the camera pans up and follows them, which spin and explode to form the dots, with "CJ" and "ENM" fading in between the logo, like the 2021 variant of the previous logo.

Closing Title: Simply the final seconds of the previous logo.

Variants:

A scope variant exists.
On the Filipino adaptation of Start-Up, the print logo is in a white box beside the Studio Dragon logo, and also in-credit.
A short version exists. In that version, the fireworks explode to form the dots, now at a faster rate, with "CJ" and "ENM" fading in as the camera pans down to the peninsula and the children.

Technique: A remake of the previous logo, entirely redone in CGI by Elastic. Plenty of concept art can be found here.

Audio: A soft piano tune, then the sounds of children giggling, with the end sounding much better than before. This is followed by a string piece and the explosion of the fireworks. A 6-note tune is heard as "CJ ENM" fades in.

Audio Variant: In the short version, explosions of the fireworks are heard before the 6-note jingle is heard as "CJ ENM" fades in.

Availability: Appeared on current movies produced by CJ ENM, since Beurokeo.

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