Korean films and shows that continue to attract much attention have benefited from the country’s advanced technological infrastructure that has been developed over the last two decades. It’s evolved at such a quick pace with the help of its huge pool of talent both in front and behind the camera that it has turned Korea into one of the leading content hubs in the region with local and global studios/streamers pumping significant amounts into the country’s content industry.

South Korea’s first content hub was Chungmuro located in the heart of Seoul next to Namsan’s iconic Tower. In the 1950s when filmmakers were beginning to congregate in cafes in the neighboring Myeong-dong district, many directors felt it was becoming too crowded and noisy and so they moved a few minutes down the road to Chungmuro. By the late 1950s, most of the seventy-one film companies were situated in Chungmuro that would become the center of Korea’s film industry until the 1980s. Its significance as Korean cinema’s first home is still felt to this day as the industry is often referred to locally as Chungmuro.

With the arrival of the Chaebols and the influx of financing in the 1990s, many film companies moved out of downtown Seoul towards Gangnam, south of the Han River. Many talent agencies would also be located in Gangnam as Korea’s star system was being established. While many of these companies are still in Seoul’s most affluent district, local governments have offered film companies and broadcasting stations incentives to relocate. As hubs have developed, other studios and film-related companies have also been drawn to these areas that include Seoul’s Digital Media City (DMC) where CJ ENM’s headquarters are located and Goyang-si situated Northwest of Seoul that is home to Aqua Studios.

This week we examine some of the areas in Korea that have developed into K-content hubs beginning with the DMC before then turning to Goyang/Paju and then Incheon before concluding with Busan.

Digital Media City (DMC), Sangam

Located next to the Seoul World Cup Stadium that was opened in 2001, the Digital Media City (DMC) in Sangam, West Seoul, was once a landfill site but has since turned into a buzzling district home to some of Korea’s leading terrestrial TV channels such as MBC and SBS. KBS still is largely located in Yeouido across the river, but it also has offices in Sangam.

One of Korea’s leading cable channels, JTBC owned by the JoongAng Group (that also owns Megabox and Plus M Entertainment) is located in Sangam along with Studio Lululala (SLL) (formerly JTBC Studios). The cable news network YTN along with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) are also situated there.

The CJ ENM Center that was completed in 2010 houses not just CJ ENM (one of Korea’s leading studios) but its subsidiaries such as Mnet too. It was a sign of its commitment to the area that has since become a prominent location for media companies and their affiliates. Visual effects company Dexter Studios (Along with the Gods (2017)), which CJ is its second-largest shareholder, is also in the area.

Its transformation from a landfill site reflects how quickly Seoul and Korea has developed. The landfill site scene in Memories of Murder (2003) that was shot there is now a public park adjacent to the DMZ overseeing the picturesque Han River and the Jayu-ro Motorway making it ideally located for productions that are using studios in Goyang and Paju that are accessible within 30 minutes and 45 minutes, respectively.

Goyang/Paju

Goyang has a population of just over a million people. Its close proximity to Seoul makes it an ideal location with its excellent transport links. Ilsan is the most populated area of Goyang, which is a satellite city – one of several that also includes Bucheon to the West of Seoul and Bundang Southeast. They were built in the 1990s to entice people to move out of the capital when Seoul was overpopulated.  Lee Chang-dong’s A Green Fish (1997) was partly set in Ilsan featuring a young man (Han Suk-kyu) who sees his hometown being transformed into a satellite city.

Over the years, Ilsan and the wider Goyang area have lured both the broadcasters, production companies and studios. Lee Chang-dong’s production company Pinehouse Film was located in Hwajeong, next to Ilsan before relocating to Seoul. Park Chan-wook’s Moho Films is based in Ilsan. MBC, SBS, JTBC and EBS all have studios in the satellite city and Korea’s biggest Aqua Studios where the scenes from the subbasement in Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite were shot is also located in Goyang. Many camera and film equipment rental stores are in the area and its common for both dramas and films to be shot on the streets of Goyang and in the cafes and restaurants.

About 20-30 minutes further North and close to the North Korean border is Paju where some of Lee Chang-dong’s Burning was set. There are several studios in the city that are frequently used for film shoots transforming them into different interiors such as the lavish mansion in Im Sang-soo’s The Taste of Money (2012).

Netflix has also leased three sound stages at a studio in Paju in 2021, along with half a dozen stages in Yeoncheon-gun – 60km further Northeast of Paju – underscoring the streamer’s commitment to Korea. In 2023, it announced it would invest $2.5 billion dollars on Korean content over the next four years. It also spent $500 million in 2021.

K-Con Land - Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ)

Going west now to Incheon that is part of the Seoul Metropolitan Region, which also encompasses Gyeonggi Province and the capital itself. This region is home to half (26 million) of Korea’s population.

In 2003, Songdo, Yeongjongdo (it contains Incheon International Airport) and Cheongna in Incheon were designated as Korea’s first free economic zone known as IFEF. Tax incentives, deregulation, local investment have helped encourage foreign capital to the area. In 2024, the area attracted $605.5m investments from overseas.

Songdo, for instance, is an international smart city and has a population of 167,000, while the Incheon Global Campus is situated there featuring different US and European colleges that have campuses there. The Songdo project that has cost 21.5442 trillion won ($15.5 billion) has come in different stages and is about 86 percent competed.

Yeongjongdo and Cheongna, meanwhile, are being earmarked for a Visual Culture Complex Cluster also known as K-Con Land. This will include companies, universities and research institutes that will facilitate production, distribution and consumption in a single locality. By 2035, in line with the government’s plans to turn Korea’s content industry as among the top four in the world, it features plans for the complex to also include museums, start-up centers and festivals. It hopes to attract 50 million visitors annually and is projected to create 50,000 jobs. A global studio company MBS Group along with Ametrust have expressed interest in investing into the project.

With universities in Songdo featuring film programs, while there are also ongoing discussions to open the Vancouver Film School in Cheongna, the area could develop into a training hub for future filmmakers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

What potentially differentiates K-Con Land from other hubs is its focus on securing overseas investment and English-taught programs that comes at a time when Korean content is booming overseas.

Busan

Moving now 400km south to the port city of Busan. While it is true that many of Korea’s film distributors, production companies and studios (including the Korean Film Council’s (KOFIC) Namyangju Studios) are located in the Seoul Metropolitan Region, Busan is a major hub for Korean content, especially film. It is home to the Busan International Film Festival, one of the most significant events of the film festival calendar in Asia.  KOFIC is located there along with the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) – one of Korea’s leading film schools – and the Busan Asian Film School. Busan was made a UNESCO city of film in 2014 illustrating its growing status as a key location not only for Korea’s film industry but for the wider Asian region and further afield.  Some key scenes from Black Panther were shot in the city.

With its idyllic coastal areas and bridges, it offers locations that are not possible in Seoul attracting numerous productions. It also has sound stages at Busan Cinema Studios that opened in 2001 and were further expanded in 2004. Its biggest studio is 1,682 square meters, while the smaller one is 837 square meters. Productions can also hire the Arri Alexa cameras that are increasingly used in Korea, along with other equipment.

Films shot in these studios include Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave (2022), Lee Jung-jae’s Hunt (2020), Woo Min-ho’s The Man Standing Next (2020), and Kim Yong-hoon’s Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020). The Busan Film Commission (BFC) has also been active in supporting productions filming in the city such as Hwang Byeong-guk’s Yadang: The Snitch (2024), Min Kyu-dong’s The Old Woman with the Knife (2025), and Kim Young-joo’s The Match (2025).

The Busan International Film Festival, KOFIC, the Busan Film Commission and the sound stages are all conveniently located in Haeundae (famous for its sandy urban beach), while KAFA and the Busan Asian Film School are only a few minutes away in Gwangan-dong. Busan, therefore, as a content hub is a training ground for filmmakers, and with its renowned festival and cultural institutions, it’s a city of film culture, while it is also an ideal part of the country for filming.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic