The landscape of South Korean cinema has undergone a dramatic transformation in a handful of decades, evolving from a domestically focused industry to a global cultural force. This cinematic evolution is linked to the nation’s broader political, economic, and historical shifts. Emerging from the shadows of a military dictatorship, South Korea’s film industry experienced a renaissance, allowing for a newfound creative freedom, while facing challenges and becoming a challenger to the status quo.
Things began to change drastically due to major political and financial shifts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Starting with the liberation of film production in 1987, accompanied by chaebol investment in the industry, this led to a revitalization of the Chungmuro mainstream film industry. This era — labelled the Korean New Wave — saw the release of works by filmmakers addressing historical events that were previously deemed inappropriate under President Chun Doo-hwan’s regime of military dictatorship. Political films from this period explored conflicts between the conservatives and liberals, the mistrust between the people and their government, and the Vietnam War. Examples include Park Kwang-su’s Chilsu and Mansu (1988), Park Jong-won’s Guro Arirang (1989), and Shin Seung-soo’s Rooster (1990).
While directors who were prominent in the ‘80s focused on real-life hardships and turned a critical lens to the status quo, the directors of the ‘90s turned their attention to highlighting small stories and the genre aspects of cinema. This shift is displayed by the success of the film Marriage Story (1992) by Kim Eui-suk, which was financed by Samsung. Its accomplishment not only pushed large conglomerates to further invest in the film market but also ushered in a boom of the new comedy genre, previously absent in Korean cinema. However, this change raised concerns among some directors, who were troubled that traditions and auteur cinema would become less appreciated.
The ‘90s further saw efforts to foster a fruitful film community — Cine 21, the first weekly movie magazine in South Korea, was published in April 1995, followed by KINO, a monthly magazine for cinephiles, the following month. The Constitutional Court ruled the pre-censorship of films unconstitutional in 1996, and with the election of Kim Dae-jung, who promised to implement policies and actions to support the industry, as president in 1997, the stage was set for the South Korean film industry to welcome a rebirth at last.
This renaissance was triggered by the huge success of Kang Je-gyu’s Shiri (1999), a South Korean action thriller that attracted an audience of 6 million people — a new record high at the time — and popularized the term “Korean Blockbuster.” In the wake of the Korean blockbuster genre, movies such as Park Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area (2000), Kwak Kyung-taek’s Friend (2001), Kang Woo-suk’s Silmido (2003), and Kang Je-gyu’s Tae Guk Gi: Brotherhood of War (2004) set new records every year. Silmido also made history by becoming the first-ever movie in South Korea to garner an audience of 10 million people. Simultaneously, the term “well-made film” arose, highlighting narratively strong films that didn’t require epic-sized productions. These films include Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), E J-yong’s Untold Scandal (2003), Kim Jee-woon’s A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), and Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2003).
As expected, with the robust environment of the film industry, the late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise of new directors who remain key figures in Korean cinema today. Among these filmmakers were Hong Sang-soo, beloved at international film festivals for his multi-part narratives and dense yet spontaneous direction; Kim Jee-woon, a versatile director known for his wide range of direction styles, including film noir and the Korean western; and Hur Jin-ho, acclaimed for his simple yet deeply moving approaches to love. Other directors who started to spread their creative wings during this era include award-winning directors Kim Ki-duk, Lee Chang-dong, Kim Tae-yong, Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, and Ryoo Seung-wan. During this period, local films reached a 50.1% market share, making South Korea the first film industry to reclaim its domestic market from Hollywood in 2001.
Korean cinema also began to gain international recognition. In 2002, Im Kwon-taek received the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Chi-hwa-seon, while Lee Chang-dong and Moon So-ri received a Special Director’s Award and the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice International Film Festival for Oasis in the same year. Park Chan-wook won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes for Oldboy in 2004, and Kim Ki-duk won the Best Director Award for Samaritan Girl (2004) and 3-Iron (2004) at the Berlin International Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival, respectively.
While South Korean cinema seemed to secure its place as a robust, growing industry, the mid- and late-2000s presented new challenges. In 2006, pressure from the United States led to a reduction in South Korea’s screen quota system from 146 days to 73 days annually. This policy was initially implemented to protect the growth of local cinema by limiting the number of days that foreign films — especially Hollywood films — could be shown in theatres, ultimately providing more screen time for local projects. Therefore, the reduction in the quota was destined to cause an uproar among film enthusiasts and those in the industry, as it raised significant concerns about the potential dominance of foreign films over local ones.
While there was supposed hope for a robust globalization of cinema, and a chance to diversify the audience’s choices in theatres, there were also concerns that, with the state of the South Korean film scene as it was, it would be nearly impossible to compete against American capital and investment in Hollywood productions. Notably, this motivated many filmmakers to engage in protest against the change, including prominent industry figures like Hwang Jung-min, Lee Byung-hun, Ahn Sung-ki, Hong Sang-soo, and many more. Famously, Oldboy star Choi Min-sik staged a one-person protest with a memorable picket: “Without the screen quota policy, there would be no Oldboy.”
Unsurprisingly, Hollywood films continued to secure their place at the box office from then on. A political shift in the nation began in 2008 with the election of President Lee Myung-bak, who opted for a conservative regime after more than a decade of liberal approaches. As a result, the film industry inevitably received less support from the government. Ultimately, the industry saw significant financial losses, with box office numbers turning negative in 2007 and 2008.
Fortunately, 2012 saw a revival of national cinema — South Korean movie attendance reached 114.6 million, exceeding 100 million for the first time. This resurgence was due to successful Korean blockbusters made by talented filmmakers and featuring actors with immense celebrity star power. Examples include The Thieves (2012) by director Choi Dong-hoon and Masquerade (2012), starring actor Lee Byung-hun. Box office numbers for Korean films turned positive for the first time in seven years, as 2013 further saw South Korean directors, such as Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, making waves internationally (Park’s Stoker and Bong’s Snowpiercer were released that year).
In 2014, the whole nation was deeply impacted by the Sewol Ferry incident, where 304 passengers, most of them high school students, died due to government incompetence. Soon, tension arose between the film industry and the regime of President Park Geun-hye with the release of the documentary Diving Bell at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival. The administration attempted to restrict screenings, as the film scrutinized the government’s reaction to the tragedy that cost hundreds of lives and damaged the president’s reputation. Expectedly, many people protested against government interference in artistic freedom.
With a further corruption scandal surrounding Park and her confidante Choi Soon-sil in 2017, films during this time heavily reflected issues of government incompetence and mistrust. Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016) — one of the most defining Korean zombie films — made commentary on governmental neglect, and Kim Seong-hun’s Tunnel (2016) elaborated upon government ineptitude with a story of a citizen trapped in a collapsed tunnel. Jang Hoon’s A Taxi Driver (2017), while a story about the Gwangju Uprising in the late 1980s, also reverberated with continued generational trauma due to the government’s lack of responsibility. With films speaking on behalf of an upset nation, the theatre admissions per capita in South Korea reached 4.25 at this time. Compared to 1.1 in 1998 and 2.98 in 2005, there was a great increase in the public’s attention to films.
Then, a major presidential scandal in 2016 rocked the movie industry. A corruption investigation revealed a detailed blacklist of the government’s active attempts in silencing the film industry during both the Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak administrations. Going against the spirit of freedom in the arts, the administrations listed over 9,000 cultural figures — including many directors, actors, artists, and writers in the film industry — who were restricted from receiving government funding and support. The scandal was followed by an uproar as the conversation on censorship, political interference, and freedom of expression was brought up by the creative industry.
Slightly more recently, Bong Joon-ho’s film, Parasite (2019), was released to great acclaim. Becoming the first-ever South Korean director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Bong’s film triggered conversations about capitalism and the unbridgeable gap between classes that resonated globally. Parasite won four Academy Awards in 2020, including Best Picture, making it the first-ever non-English-language film to win in the category. The director’s notable remark about overcoming the “one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” highlighted the importance of embracing diversity in the film industry beyond the American and Western spheres. Furthermore, his acute observation of the Oscars being “very local” brought attention to the Academy’s and other film festivals’ myopic focus on what these institutions had deemed worthy of a nomination and a win.
Of course, 2020 saw a halt in film production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Yeon Sang-ho’s Peninsula, the sequel to the film Train to Busan, and Hong Won-chan’s Deliver Us from Evil, showcasing popular movie stars Hwang Jung-min and Lee Jung-Jae, saw decent success at the box office that year, theatrical releases struggled to garner attention due to social distancing policies and the exponential rise of ticket prices.
Understanding the limitations of theatrical releases during such dire times, the creative sector of South Korean entertainment adapted by expanding to streaming platforms, like Netflix in particular. Among the streaming giant’s successful shows such as Sweet Home (2020), and Space Sweepers (2021), the survival drama Squid Game (2021) became a global phenomenon, making it Netflix’s most-watched series ever at the time. In 2022, it won six Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Drama Series.
Also of note, South Korean actress Youn Yuh-Jung won Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for her performance in Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical film, Minari (2020), making her the first Korean actress and second Asian woman to win an Academy Award in the acting category. Her win represented how South Korean talent continued to dominate the world stage.
While 2022 saw a recovery from the pandemic, the aftermath still presented challenges. Ticket prices were higher than ever, as people resorted to watching movies with guaranteed entertainment, which usually meant opting for Hollywood blockbusters over local films. Despite Decision to Leave (2022), Park Chan-wook’s eighth feature film, winning him the Best Director Award at Cannes, it was never able to reach the number one place at the box office at its release. Ultimately, while Decision to Leave made it to its break-even point, the box office performance was disappointing. When compared to Park’s previous successes, Decision to Leave failed to garner much attention. Many critics suspected an irrevocable change in the South Korean film scene due to the pandemic; concerns about whether cinema culture will be revived were also a common topic.
2023 saw two local films surpass 10 million audiences at the South Korean box office — action crime flick The Roundup: No Way Out and historical action drama 12.12: The Day — suggesting a nearly recovered local movie industry. While the South Korean audience’s interest in local films continue throughout 2024, exemplified by the success of Exhuma and The Roundup: Punishment, the case of only few movies dominating screens remains an issue. Excluding the aforementioned two successful films of 2024, no local South Korean films have surpassed 2 million moviegoers.
As South Korean cinema and the film industry continue to evolve, it remains critical to keep a keen eye on audience expectations and market trends. Hopefully by making a full recovery from the pandemic’s effect on the industry, addressing issues of big-versus-small audience polarization, and maintaining a fair balance between foreign Hollywood films and local cinema, we can anticipate that exciting new projects will emerge from South Korea.
