CJ ENM

Background

CJ Entertainment (CJ 엔터테인먼트) 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 CJ Corporation. 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 took over distribution of Paramount titles in Korea and the DWA arrangement would last until 2018 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 three years prior.

1st Logo (2000-2003)

Logo: We see a starfield with a comet flying across. Suddenly all stars fold into a glowing orange 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:

Exists a short variant that begins with the blundle 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 in a gold color.
Blu-ray releases of the aforementioned movie have a green tint instead. In this case, the animation had an aqua green color for the forming text.

FX/SFX: Nice CGI.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized woodwind and bell theme.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be seen on the early films by the company, such as The Way Home and Memories Of Murder. The short variant is more common and was spotted on VCD releases of its productions.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (2003-June 24, 2022)

Logo: We start at a night sea landscape, colored in deep blue. 3 children jump around and play with fireworks on a rocky peninsula. 3 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 logo name poses around it and glows. The background clears out.

Variants:

A later variant exists where the background does not clear out, except it stays dark blue all the time.
Starting in 2011, the text is now in the corporate font, all capitalized, and a byline appears in the same font saying "A CJ E&M CORPORATION COMPANY". Since 2018, the byline now reads "A CJ ENM CORPORATION COMPANY" due to the parents' rebranding.
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.
Starting with On the Line (2021), the text simply reads "CJ ENM". Also, it now clears out like the early variant.

FX/SFX: An amazing combination of CGI and live-action.

Music/Sounds: 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 5-note chime sounder. 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.

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

Availability: 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 when CJ previously distributed. Don't expect this to appear in Father Stu, despite CJ being involved in the film's production, as well as Korean theatrical prints of Paramount titles.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (June 29, 2022-)

Scope variant

Logo: 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, each colored red, blue and orange. As the three children set off their fireworks, the camera pans up and follows the fireworks, which spin and explode to form the logo, with "CJ" and "ENM" fading in between the logo, like the 2021 variant of the previous logo.

Variant: A scope variant exists.

FX/SFX: This is pretty much a remake of the previous logo, only redone in CGI by Elastic.

Music/Sounds: A soft piano tune, then the sounds of children giggling, which is different. This is followed by a string piece and the explosion of the fireworks. A 6-note tune is heard as "CJ ENM" fades in.

Availability: Brand new. First appeared on Decision to Leave. This is expected to appear on future films from the company.

Editor's Note: None.