Cinema of Korea

File:Advertisement in a 1919 newspaper for the kino-drama Uirijeok guto.jpg, which is sometimes considered to be the first Korean film]]

American traveler and lecturer Burton Holmes was the first to film in Korea as part of his travelogue programs.{{cite book|editor-last=James |editor-first=David E. |editor2=Kyung Hyun Kim |year=2002|title=Im Kwon-Taek: The Making of a Korean National Cinema |publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-2869-9|page=267}} In addition to displaying his films abroad, he showed them to the Korean royal family in 1899.{{cite web|first=Chris|last=Berry|url=http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/reruns/rr1298/CBrr5a.html|title=Recovering the past: rare films screened in Korea|date=December 18, 1998|access-date=2008-03-13|publisher=LA Trobe University |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303004856/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/reruns/rr1298/CBrr5a.html|archive-date=March 3, 2008}}

Korea's first film studio, Dongdaemun Motion Picture Studio, was opened in 1903. There are several competing claims for which is the first movie theater in the country. Dansungsa, which opened in Seoul in November 1907, is widely considered the first theater. However, a 2021 article in The Hankyoreh claims that the Incheon-based Ae Kwan Theater, which first opened as Hyŏmnyulsa ({{Korean|hangul=협률사|hanja=協律舍|labels=no}}) in 1895, is the first.{{Cite web |last1=오 |first1=승훈 |last2=김 |first2=경애 |date=2021-11-02 |script-title=ko:"한국 최초의 영화관 '애관극장' 사라지면 안되잖아요" |trans-title="We Can't Let Korea's First Movie Theater, 'Ae Kwan Theater', Disappear" |url=https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/movie/1017695.html |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=The Hankyoreh |language=ko |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929000230/https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/movie/1017695.html |url-status=live }}

Righteous Revenge, a 1919 kino-drama (stageplay with a film backdrop) is widely considered the first Korean film, although this label is disputed. It premiered at Dansungsa, on the same day and just after the premiere of the companion documentary film Panoramic View of the Whole City of Gyeongseong.{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Gyu-lee |date=2019-10-13 |title=Centennial of Korean cinema - From humble beginnings to mega hits |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2023/10/689_277051.html |access-date=2023-10-08 |website=The Korea Times |language=en |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009193946/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2023/10/689_277051.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Jae-lim |date=2020-02-20 |title=Century of Korean film: 100 years after first local movie, industry makes history on global stage |url=https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/02/20/features/Century-of-Korean-film-100-years-after-first-local-movie-industry-makes-history-on-global-stage/3074093.html |access-date=2023-10-08 |website=Korea JoongAng Daily |language=en |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009193947/https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/02/20/features/Century-of-Korean-film-100-years-after-first-local-movie-industry-makes-history-on-global-stage/3074093.html |url-status=live }} The anniversary of its release is celebrated as Korean Film Day in South Korea.{{Cite web |date=2019-07-03 |title=Korean cinema celebrates 100th year anniversary |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2023/10/689_271680.html |access-date=2023-10-08 |website=The Korea Times |language=en |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009193947/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2023/10/689_271680.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Boram |first=Kim |date=2019-04-17 |title=S. Korean movie industry to celebrate centennial in Oct. |url=https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20190417005100315 |access-date=2023-10-08 |website=Yonhap News Agency |language=en |archive-date=27 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827154102/https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20190417005100315 |url-status=live }}

For the next few years, film production in Korea consisted of kino-dramas and documentaries. As with the first showing of a film in Korea, the first feature film produced in Korea also appears to be unclear. Some name a filming of Chunhyang-Jeon ({{korean|춘향전|labels=no}}) in 1921 (released in 1922) as the first Korean feature film. The traditional story, Chunhyang, was to become Korea's most-filmed story later. It was possibly the first Korean feature film, and was certainly the first Korean sound film, color film and widescreen film. Im Kwon-taek's 2000 pansori version of Chunhyang brought the number of films based on Chunyang to 14.{{cite book |last=Wade|first=James|title=Korean Dance, Theater & Cinema|chapter=The Cinema in Korea: A Robust Invalid|page=176|year=1983|publisher=Si-sa-yong-o-sa Publishers |location=Seoul |isbn=978-0-89209-017-4}} Other sources, however, name Yun Baek-nam's Ulha ui Mengse ("Plighted Love Under the Moon"), released in April, 1923, as the first Korean feature film.{{cite web|first=Darcy|last=Paquet|url=http://www.koreanfilm.org/history.html|title=A Short History of Korean Film|access-date=2008-03-13|website=Korean Film|archive-date=25 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825134525/http://koreanfilm.org/history.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|first=Young-Il|last=Lee|url=http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/reruns/rr0499/PUfrr6.htm|title=The Establishment of a National Cinema Under Colonialism: The History of Early Korean Cinema|access-date=2008-03-13|publisher=LA Trobe University|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624051843/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/reruns/rr0499/PUfrr6.htm|archive-date=2012-06-24}}

In 1925, the German priest Norbert Weber captured footage of Korea in order to document Korean culture in case it was wiped out by Japanese colonization. He then returned to Bavaria and edited the footage into a feature-length documentary, Im Lande der Morgenstille ({{Literally|In the Land of Morning Calm}}), as well as five other short films. The documentary aired until the 1930s in Germany and Austria and was largely forgotten about until it was rediscovered in the late 1970s by South Korean researchers. The film has since been digitized and is now available for free online.{{Citation |last=Norbert Weber |title=In the Land of Morning Calm |date=1925 |url=http://archive.org/details/silent-in-the-land-of-morning-calm |access-date=2023-10-09 |language=}}{{Cite web |script-title=ko:노르베르트 베버 필름 컬렉션 |url=https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/collection/CI_00000008 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Korean Film Archive |language=ko |archive-date=20 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230920210228/https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/collection/CI_00000008 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=차 |first=미애 |date=2021-01-30 |script-title=ko:독일인 신부가 수집한 겸재화첩, 50억 거절하고 한국 오기까지 |url=https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2021012709340002369?t=20230915162021 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Hankook Ilbo |language=ko-KR |archive-date=11 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231011030448/https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2021012709340002369?t=20230915162021 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Newly discovered films shed light on Korean life under Japanese rule |url=http://kpopherald.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=201602251704515479703_2 |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=Kpop Herald}}

File:Arirang 1957 film.jpg]]

Korean film studios at this time were Japanese-operated. A hat-merchant known as Yodo Orajo established a film company called Choson Kinema Productions. After appearing in the Choson Kinema's 1926 production Nongjungjo, the young actor Na Woon-gyu got the chance to write, direct and star in his own film. The release of Na's film, Arirang (1926) is the start of the era of silent film in Korea.[https://web.archive.org/web/20150103061541/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/common/printpreview.asp?categoryCode=142&newsIdx=23142 Books Map Out Korean Film History] Lee Hyo Won Hidden or subtle messages could be magnified through the common use of a live narrator at the theater, a tradition known as byeonsa (benshi in Japanese). The tradition of byeonsa was imported from Japan and provided an economical and entertaining alternative to translating intertitles. When Japanese authorities were not present, the narrators could inject satire and criticism of the occupation into the film narrative, giving the film a political subtext invisible to Japanese government censors.Wade, p.176-177. The byeonsa operated as "a narrator that introduces the characters and the setting, and explains the physical actions and psychological dilemmas during silent film screenings." The byeonsa also functioned "as a cultural intermediary during the Korean audience's film-viewing experience, and utilized his narration to complement censorship or technological limitations during the silent film period."Areum Jeong, "How the Byeonsa Stole the Show: The Performance of the Korean Silent Film Narrators," 언론문화연구 [Journalism and Media Studies] 25 (2018), 25–54 (25). Some of the more popular byeonsa were better-paid than the film actors.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.imageandnarrative.be/worldmusica/roaldhmaliangkay.htm|title=Classifying Performances: The Art of Korean Film Narrators |access-date=2008-03-13 |last=Maliangkay |first=Roald H. |magazine=Image & Narrative |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080128002556/http://www.imageandnarrative.be/worldmusica/roaldhmaliangkay.htm |archive-date = 2008-01-28 |date=March 2005}}

The success of Arirang inspired a burst of activity in the Korean film industry in the late 1920s, causing this period to become known as "The Golden Era of Silent Films". More than seventy films were produced at this time, and the quality of film improved as well as the quantity.{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Young-il|year=1988|title=The History of Korean Cinema|publisher=Motion Picture Promotion Corporation|isbn=978-89-88095-12-6|page=53}}

Another important director of this period, Shim Hun, directed only one film, Mondongi Tultte (먼동이 틀 때; At Daybreak). Though the reviews for this film were as strong as those for Arirang, Shim died at the age of 35 while directing his second film, based on his own novel, Sangroksu (상록수; The Evergreens).{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l731xt57mM4C&q=shim%20hun%20movie&pg=PA111 |access-date=2015-01-03|last=Yecies |first=Brian |title=Korea's Occupied Cinemas, 1893–1948: The Untold History of the Film Industry |publisher=Routledge|date=2012|isbn=9781136674730}}

File:Imjaeobtneun naleutbae.jpg and Moon Ye-bong in A Ferry Boat That Has No Owner]]

The first half of the 1930s saw a decline in the domestic film industry in Korea. Censorship and oppression on the part of the occupying authorities played a part in reducing the number of films produced at this time to only two or three per year, and some filmmakers fled Korea for the more robust film-industry in Shanghai at this time.[http://bbs88.com.ne.kr/right/movieright.htm 영화(MOVIE-Motionpicture)이야기] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908230629/http://bbs88.com.ne.kr/right/movieright.htm |date=2014-09-08 }}

Imported films largely replaced domestic films, although with Korean General Law No. 40 of 1933, the Japanese mandated that all foreign films distributed in Korea should be imported through Japan. Some of the films from Japan were popular, but the film reels were often so heavily used that the image was of low quality. Narrators could nevertheless make even worn-out movies interesting to audiences.Roald Maliangkay, " Dirt, Noise, and Naughtiness: Cinema and the Working Class During Korea's Silent Film Era," Asian Ethnology 70 (2011), 1–31 (17).

Perhaps the most important film of this era was A Ferry Boat That Has No Owner (1932), directed by Lee Gyu-hwan (1904–1981) and starring Na Woon-gyu. Increasing governmental censorship meant that commentators have called this the last pre-liberation film to present a significant nationalistic message.

{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Young-il|year=1988|title=The History of Korean Cinema|publisher=Motion Picture Promotion Corporation|isbn=978-89-88095-12-6|pages=57–59}}

{{cite book|last=Min|first=Eungjun |author2=Joo Jinsook |author3=Kwak HanJu|year=2003|title=Korean Film : History, Resistance, and Democratic Imagination |publisher=Praeger Publishers|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-275-95811-4|page=11}}

Korea's first sound film was Lee Myeong-woo's 1935 Chunhyang-jeon.{{cite web|url=http://www.koreafilm.org/english/db_detail_eng.asp?p_dataid=00111|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927021056/http://www.koreafilm.org/english/db_detail_eng.asp?p_dataid=00111|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-09-27|title=The story of Chun-hyang (Chunhyangjeon )|access-date=2007-05-04|work=Korean Film Archive}}

Korea was one of Japan's first and most important centers of colonial film production. Japanese-sponsored shorts, newsreels, and feature films heavily promoted cultural assimilation to colonized Korean audiences. To this end the Korean Colonial Cinema Unit (朝鮮総督府キネマ) was established to produce and distribute a mixture of films that promoted Japanese culture and customs as well as the supposed benefits of modernization under the Japanese.{{cite book | last = Baskett | first = Michael | year = 2008 | title = The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan | publisher = University of Hawai'i Press | location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3223-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lx4QfrTyvWEC}}, pp. 20-28.Brian Yecies, The Korean "Cinema of Assimilation" and the Construction of Cultural Hegemony in the Final Years of Japanese Rule 日本統治下最晩年の韓国における「同化のシネマ」と文化的ヘゲモニーの構築Mika Ko, Japanese Cinema and Otherness, p.138

Sound films in Korea faced much harsher censorship from the Japanese government than previous silent films. The loss of the byeonsa narrators with the coming of sound film meant that anti-authority messages could no longer be inserted without the knowledge of censors.Baskett, The Attractive Empire, pp. 21–22. Japanese film censors replaced American and European films with Japanese films as part of the larger colonial project to culturally colonize Korea. Suicide Troops of the Watchtower (望楼の決死隊, 1943) was one of several propaganda features that promoted the Japanese colonial notion of naisen ittai or "Japan and Korea as one body."Baskett, The Attractive Empire, pp. 90–93.

Although Japanese film production in Korea began in the early 1930s, total mobilization and consolidation of the Korean film industry under the Japanese would not begin until after Japan's full-scale invasion of China in 1937. Film was an important way by which the Japanese maintained colonial control in Korea through the promotion of assimilationist policies. For example, in 1941 Japan's Shochiku Studios together with the Japanese-sponsored Korean Military Information Division co-produced the film You and I (君と僕). The film was directed by Hae Yeong, a Korean who had worked extensively in the Japanese film industry using the name "Hinatsu Eitaro". You and I promoted the "volunteer" enlistment of Koreans into the imperial Japanese Army and carried as a subplot the interracial marriage between a Japanese woman and a Korean man. After the film was completed, Hae went to Java in Indonesia where he continued to make documentaries for the Japanese. After the war, he changed his name to Dr. Huyung, married an Indonesian woman with whom he had two sons, and produced three important Indonesian films. Before his death in 1952, he told a close friend, "If I returned to Japan now there wouldn't be any jobs for me and if I returned to Korea, I'd most likely be branded a Japanese collaborator."Baskett, The Attractive Empire, pp. 88–90.

{{Main|Cinema of South Korea}}{{see also|List of highest-grossing films in South Korea|Korean Wave}}

File:Parasite2019 (cropped).jpg, which won four Academy Awards and became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture]]

The golden age of South Korean cinema in the mid-20th century produced what are considered two of the best South Korean films of all time, The Housemaid (1960) and Obaltan (1961),Min, p.46. while the industry's revival with the Korean New Wave from the late 1990s to the present produced both of the country's highest-grossing films, The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014) and Extreme Job (2019), as well as prize winners on the festival circuit including Golden Lion recipient Pietà (2012) and Palme d'Or recipient and Academy Award winner Parasite (2019) and international cult classics including Oldboy (2003),{{Cite news |last=Chee |first=Alexander |date=2017-10-16 |title=Park Chan-wook, the Man Who Put Korean Cinema on the Map |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/t-magazine/park-chan-wook.html |access-date=2018-03-13 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=1 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401080942/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/t-magazine/park-chan-wook.html |url-status=live }} Snowpiercer (2013),{{Cite news |last=Nayman |first=Adam |date=2017-06-27 |title=Bong Joon-ho Could Be the New Steven Spielberg |url=https://www.theringer.com/2017/6/27/16045786/bong-joon-ho-steven-spielberg-okja-947a148ad39f |access-date=2018-03-13 |work=The Ringer |archive-date=1 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801102938/https://www.theringer.com/2017/6/27/16045786/bong-joon-ho-steven-spielberg-okja-947a148ad39f |url-status=live }} and Train to Busan (2016).{{Cite web |last=Jin |first=Min-ji |date=2018-02-13 |title=Third 'Detective K' movie tops the local box office |url=http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3044504 |access-date=2018-03-13 |website=Korea JoongAng Daily |archive-date=25 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625075532/http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3044504 |url-status=live }} Parasite won several awards at international film festivals, including four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Film.{{Cite journal |last=Song |first=Sooho |date=2020 |title=The Evolution of the Korean Wave: How Is the Third Generation Different from Previous Ones? |url=https://scholar.kyobobook.co.kr/article/detail/4010027618126 |url-status=live |journal=Korea Observer |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=125–150 |doi=10.29152/KOIKS.2020.51.1.125 |s2cid=216401610 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307210143/https://scholar.kyobobook.co.kr/article/detail/4010027618126 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |access-date=7 March 2023}} Parasite also made history as the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.{{cite news |author=N. B. |date=10 February 2020 |title="Parasite" becomes the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture |url=https://www.economist.com/prospero/2020/02/10/parasite-becomes-the-first-foreign-language-film-to-win-best-picture |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326181546/https://www.economist.com/prospero/2020/02/10/parasite-becomes-the-first-foreign-language-film-to-win-best-picture |archive-date=26 March 2023 |access-date=26 March 2023 |magazine=The Economist}}

South Korean cinema saw domestic box-office success exceeding that of Hollywood films in the late 1990s largely due to screen quota laws that limited the public showing foreign films. First enacted in 1967, South Korea's screen quota placed restrictions on the number of days per year that foreign films could be shown at any given theater—garnering criticism from film distributors outside South Korea as unfair. As a prerequisite for negotiations with the United States for a free-trade agreement, the Korean government cut its annual screen quota for domestic films from 146 days to 73 (allowing more foreign films to enter the market).{{Cite web |title='Movie Industry Heading for Crisis' |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=13183 |website=The Korea Times |access-date=14 June 2025 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117202551/http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=13183 |url-status=live }} In February 2006, South Korean movie workers responded to the reduction by staging mass rallies in protest.{{cite news |last=Brown |first=James |date=2007-02-09 |title=Screen quotas raise tricky issues |url=https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/screen-quotas-raise-tricky-issues-1117959026/ |work=Variety |archive-date=28 July 2020 |access-date=14 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728150858/https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/screen-quotas-raise-tricky-issues-1117959026/ |url-status=live }} According to Kim Hyun, "South Korea's movie industry, like that of most countries, is grossly overshadowed by Hollywood. The nation exported US$2 million-worth of movies to the United States last year [2005] and imported $35.9 million-worth".{{cite web |title=Korean movie workers stage mass rally to protest quota cut |url=http://www.korea-is-one.org/article.php3?id_article=2336 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060526152110/http://www.korea-is-one.org/article.php3?id_article=2336 |archive-date=2006-05-26 |access-date=2010-02-11 |publisher=Korea Is One}}

{{Main|Cinema of North Korea}}

{{see also|Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee|On the Art of the Cinema}}

File:Pyongyang Film Studio mural detail.jpg in Pyongyang]]

The first film to be produced in North Korea was Our Construction, a 1946 silent documentary film about the then-newly created socialist government of the country.{{Citation |title=Our Construction |trans-title=Our Construction |script-title=ko:우리의건설 (우리의建設) |url=https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0074406 |access-date=20 June 2025 |language=ko |ref={{SfnRef|Encyclopedia Culture}} |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Korean Culture}} The film industry of North Korea is sometimes known as "Chollywood", a portmanteau of "chollima" and "Hollywood". According to Koryo Tours, films are a popular and inexpensive pastime for North Koreans, and films play on televisions every day. The largest film studio in the country is the Korean Art Film Studio in Pyongyang, which has produced hundreds of films.{{Cite web |date=2019-01-28 |title=Korean Art Film Studio |url=https://koryogroup.com/blog/north-korea-guide-korean-art-film-studio |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Koryo Tours |language=en}}

North Korean films typically feature propaganda themes, and The Flower Girl is one of the most popular films in the country. Foreign films are played at the biennial Pyongyang International Film Festival.{{Cite web |last=Bell |first=James |date=2015-06-12 |title=In a lonely place: North Korea’s Pyongyang International Film Festival |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/lonely-place-north-koreas-pyongyang-international-film-festival |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=British Film Institute |language=en}} Several North Korean films make use of American defectors as actors, especially to portray Western villains. Notable American actors in North Korean films include Charles Robert Jenkins, James Joseph Dresnok, Larry Allen Abshier, and Jerry Wayne Parrish. All four of them starred in the 20-part epic series Unsung Heroes.{{Cite web |last=Fowler |first=Simon |date=2017-12-12 |title=The US defectors who became film stars in North Korea |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150923-the-us-defectors-who-became-film-stars-in-north-korea |access-date=2025-06-22 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}

Kim Jong Il, the second Supreme Leader of North Korea, was an avid film buff. In 1973 he published the treatise On the Art of the Cinema, which details his views on filmmaking as both an art form and a tool of propaganda.{{Cite web |last=Mallett |first=Whitney |date=March 14, 2014 |title=Hollywood North Korea: How to Make Movies the Kim Jong-il Way |url=http://hazlitt.net/blog/hollywood-north-korea-how-make-movies-kim-jong-il-way |access-date=July 11, 2015 |work=Hazlitt Magazine |publisher=Penguin Random House Canada |archive-date=18 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200918074443/https://hazlitt.net/blog/hollywood-north-korea-how-make-movies-kim-jong-il-way |url-status=live }} The book deals comprehensively with aspects of cinema, including film and literary theory, acting, performance, score music, the screen,{{cite journal |last=Kwak |first=Dong Hun |date=March 2013 |title=Strategic Propaganda Through North Korean Films: A New Approach |url=http://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=268340 |journal=Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, Philologia |publisher=National University Research Council |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=231–244 |access-date=April 4, 2015 |archive-date=25 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211125172626/https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=268340 |url-status=live }} camerawork, costumes, make-up, and props.{{cite journal |last=David-West |first=Alzo |date=January 2009 |title=The Literary Ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il: An Introduction to North Korean Meta-Authorial Perspectives |url=http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/david-west.pdf |journal=Cultural Logic |volume=12 |pages=1–34 |issn=1097-3087 |access-date=April 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123131224/http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/David-west.pdf |archive-date=November 23, 2015 }} Of particular importance are themes of directing and producing as the driving forces of filmmaking. Ideas in the book are elucidated by drawing examples from North Korean films, of which Sea of Blood is the most referred one. On the Art of the Cinema presents two major theories: the theory of literature as "humanics" and the "seed theory". Both are considered justifications for the party's control over artistic creation.{{cite journal |last=David-West |first=Alzo |date=January 2009 |title=The Literary Ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il: An Introduction to North Korean Meta-Authorial Perspectives |url=http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/david-west.pdf |journal=Cultural Logic |volume=12 |pages=1–34 |issn=1097-3087 |access-date=April 4, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123131224/http://clogic.eserver.org/2009/David-west.pdf |archive-date=November 23, 2015 }} Other ideas developed by the treatise are the so-called "modeling theory" and "speed campaign". Compliance with these principles earns an artwork the title of "collective work".{{Cite journal |last=Lee |first=Hyang-Jin |year=2001 |title=CINEMA AND CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONHOOD IN CONTEMPORARY KOREA |url=http://www.kinu.or.kr/servlet/Download?num=737&fno=776&bid=DATA03&callback=http://www.kinu.or.kr/eng/pub/pub_03_01.jsp&ses= |journal=International Journal of Korean Unification Studies |publisher=Korea Institute for National Unification |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=151 |access-date=April 9, 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031536/http://www.kinu.or.kr/servlet/Download?num=737&fno=776&bid=DATA03&callback=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kinu.or.kr%2Feng%2Fpub%2Fpub_03_01.jsp&ses= |url-status=live }}

In 1978, the North Korean government abducted the South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife, the actress Choi Eun-hee. While in North Korea, Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee were forced to create seven films, including, most famously, Pulgasari, a kaiju film heavily influenced by Japanese tokusatsu films such as the Godzilla franchise.{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Paul |title=A Kim Jong-Il production: the extraordinary true story of a kidnapped filmmaker, his star actress, and a young dictator's rise to power |date=2015 |publisher=Flatiron Books |isbn=978-1-250-05426-5 |edition=1st |location=New York}} The two escaped in 1986. The films produced by the two while in North Korea are considered to have been significant milestones in the history of Korean cinema, and Pulgasari later became the first North Korean film to be shown in South Korean theaters.{{cite news |last=Park |first=Kyung-il |date=April 12, 2006 |title=故 신상옥 감독, 납북 → 탈북 → 망명… 영화같은 삶 |trans-title=The late director Shin Sang-ok, kidnapped → defected → asylum... A life like a movie |url=https://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2006041201032930024004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241227025026/https://www.munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2006041201032930024004 |archive-date=December 27, 2024 |access-date=February 24, 2025 |work=Munhwa Ilbo |language=ko}} Pulgasari has also become a cult classic outside of North Korea.{{Cite news |last=Fischer |first=Paul |date=2015-02-21 |title=Kim Jong-il and the great movie-star kidnap |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/21/kim-jong-il-movie-star-kidnap-plot-north-south-korea-godzilla |access-date=2025-06-20 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |last=Theis |first=Gabriel |date=2023-06-19 |title='Pulgasari': The History of North Korea's Own Kaiju |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/456524/pulgasari-the-history-of-north-koreas-own-kaiju/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Dread Central |language=en-US}}

The 2005 animated film Empress Chung, directed by Nelson Shin, is a co-production of South and North Korea. In order to save costs, Shin collaborated with the North Korean SEK Studio because North Korean animators are paid less than South Korean animators. The film made use of 500 animators, 400 of which were North Korean. On August 12, 2005, Empress Chung became the first film to have been released simultaneously in both North and South Korea. It played in 6 theaters in North Korea and 51 theaters in South Korea. The film won a prize at the 2003 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and won the top prize at the 2004 Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival.{{cite news |last=Russell |first=Mark |date=August 31, 2005 |title=Uniting the Two Koreas, in Animated Films at Least |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/movies/31chun.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628121905/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/movies/31chun.html?_r=1 |archive-date=June 28, 2022 |access-date=June 24, 2013 |newspaper=The New York Times}}

{{Portal|Film}}

• East Asian cinema
• List of Korean-language films
• List of Korean films of 1919–1948
• List of North Korean films
• List of South Korean films
• Korean animation
• Korean drama
• Korean horror
• Korean Wave
• Sageuk
• LGBTQ representation in South Korean film and television

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite book | last = Baskett | first = Michael | year = 2008 | title = The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan | publisher = University of Hawai'i Press | location = Honolulu | isbn = 978-0-8248-3223-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lx4QfrTyvWEC}}
• {{cite book|last=Bowyer|first=Justin|year=2004|title=24 Frames: The Cinema of Japan and Korea|publisher=Wallflower Press|location=London|isbn=978-1-904764-11-3}}
• {{cite book|last=Han|first=Man-yong|year=1983|title=Korean Dance Theater and Cinema|publisher=Si Sa Yong O Sa Pub|isbn=978-0-89209-017-4}}
• {{Cite book |url=https://press.umich.edu/Books/R/Rediscovering-Korean-Cinema2 |title=Rediscovering Korean Cinema |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780472126095 |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Sangjoon |location=Ann Arbor}}
• {{cite book |last=Kim|first=Dong Hoon|year=2017|title=Eclipsed Cinema: The Film Culture of Colonial Korea |publisher=University of Edinburgh Press|location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-1474421805}}
• {{cite book|last=Lee|first=Young-il|year=1988|title=The History of Korean Cinema|publisher=Motion Picture Promotion Corporation|isbn=978-89-88095-12-6}}
• {{cite book|last=Leong|first=Anthony|year=2003|title=Korean Cinema: The New Hong Kong|publisher=Black Dot Publications|isbn=978-1-55395-461-3}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.imageandnarrative.be/worldmusica/roaldhmaliangkay.htm|title=Classifying Performances: The Art of Korean Film Narrators |access-date=2008-03-13|last=Maliangkay|first=Roald H.|publisher=Image & Narrative|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080128002556/http://www.imageandnarrative.be/worldmusica/roaldhmaliangkay.htm |archive-date = 2008-01-28 |date=March 2005}}
• {{cite book|last=McHugh|first=Kathleen|author2=Albermann, Nancy|year=2005|title=South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, And National Cinema (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television)|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=978-0-8143-3253-5}}
• {{cite book|last=Min|first=Eungjun |author2=Joo Jinsook |author3=Kwak HanJu|year=2003|title=Korean Film : History, Resistance, and Democratic Imagination |publisher=Praeger Publishers|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-275-95811-4}}
• New Korean Cinema (2005), ed. by Chi-Yun Shin and Julian Stringer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. {{ISBN|978-0814740309}}.
• {{cite book |last=Wade|first=James|title=Korean Dance, Theater & Cinema|chapter=The Cinema in Korea: A Robust Invalid|year=1983|publisher=Si-sa-yong-o-sa Publishers |location=Seoul |isbn=978-0-89209-017-4}}.
• {{Cite book |last=Kim |first=Soyoung |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9789048553112/html |title=Korean Cinema in Global Contexts: Post-Colonial Phantom, Blockbuster and Trans-Cinema |date=2022-12-31 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-5311-2 |doi=10.1515/9789048553112}}
• Lee, Nam. (2013). The Minjung Cultural Movement and Korean Cinema of the 1980s. In Storytelling in World Cinemas. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231163378.003.0004

{{commons category|Cinema of Korea}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/user/KoreanFilm/featured Korean Film Council's YouTube Channel with old Korean films subtitled in English]
• [https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/korean-film-archive Korean Film Archive collection] at Google Arts & Culture project

{{Cinema of Korea}}

{{World cinema}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cinema of Korea}}