Discover great cinema and the connections that made it possible.
Film Movement
1990s–present
Korean New Wave
East Asian Cinema
Genre crossed with political memory and class anxiety. Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook, and Lee Chang-dong — films with the formal ambition of art cinema and the urgency of popular storytelling. Violence as suppressed history erupting.
South Korean films have been heavily influenced by such events and forces as the Korea under Japanese rule, the Korean War, government censorship, the business sector, globalization, and the democratization of South Korea.
Key Directors
No. 05 · South Korea · Daegu
The genre alchemist. He moves between thriller, comedy, horror, and social drama in a single scene. His films are about class — they make you laugh until you realize you are the punchline.
South Korea
There are few filmmakers as distinctive as the South Korean master Hong Sang-soo, a writer-director whose films are immediately recognisable to even those with very little investment in auteurism. At the same time, he is not easy to pin down and describe, as his style is subtle a
South Korea
By just about any measure, Lee Chang-dong is one of the principal architects of the director-driven Korean independent cinema that has enjoyed much critical acclaim around the world since the millennium. His initial foray into filmmaking was as the co-writer and assistant directo
Related Movements in East Asian Cinema