The Emotional Resonance of Korean Films

The popularity of Korean cinema overseas has seen much attention paid to the high production values and how Korean directors tackle social themes tapping into the zeitgeist. Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (2019) is certainly illustrative of that.

Perhaps less written about is their emotional resonance. The dark and sometimes morbid themes of Korean films could be difficult to swallow if it wasn’t for how they connect emotionally. Indeed, despite the violent aesthetic in some Korean films like Oldboy (2003) and A Bittersweet Life (2005) they are able to draw audiences into the narratives through characters that audiences feel empathy towards. After all film is a form that interacts with its audience and caring about the characters is crucial in bringing viewers into the story.

Central to this is character development and in Korean films this can take place over a longer duration compared to Hollywood films. This is evident in tentpole features as melodrama is an important component in ensuring the film appeals to a wide demographic. Take for instance the long buildup in Haeundae (2009) or the birthday party scenes in Exit (2019), or even Korean limited series like Squid Game (2021-2025) with the early episodes echoing Korean TV dramas introducing the show’s key characters. This helps offset some of the show’s more brutal scenes.

This week we explore some of the emotional threads of Korean films beginning with Kim Ki-young’s seminal feature The Housemaid (1960) looking at its combination of melodrama, horror and themes of revenge that would come to characterize much of Korean cinema in different ways. It will then turn to some of these key genres and subgenres in Korean cinema that have struck a chord overseas: horror films and revenge-thrillers, while we also examine the importance of melodrama.

The Housemaid (1960)

It’s hard to overstate the influence The Housemaid would have on Korean cinema with its resonance still felt amongst more contemporary filmmakers like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon Ho. There are clear parallels, for instance, between The Housemaid and Parasite and that theme of attempting to climb up the social ladder and the rage that ensues when things go awry.

 Coming in the same year as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) that also proved to be ahead of its time as a psychological thriller delving into the Oedipus complex, The Housemaid too explored themes of gender as well as social class and retribution – key characteristics that would be evident in Korean cinema decades later. Filmmakers of this era would often turn to realism, all be it in complex ways in titles such as An Aimless Bullet (1960) but what separated The Housemaid (1960) was its approach to genre cinema and its revenge-driven narrative. Even by today’s standards it’s emotionally charged.

The film is largely set in a house where a woman (Lee Eun-shim) is brought in to help with some of the housework. She seduces the husband (Kim Jin-gyu) and father of two children, and when the wife (Ju Jeung-ryu) forces the housemaid to have an abortion it sets in motion a disastrous chain of events for the family as she is determined to seek retribution for the baby she has lost. There would be two other films (Woman of Fire (1971) and Woman of Fire ’82 (1982) that would form The Housemaid trilogy while he would approach similar themes of adultery and revenge in some of his other films including his last film Angel, Become An Evil Woman (1995). 

Kim’s final feature was found in Kim Ki-young’s garage and had its premiere at a retrospective of his work at the Busan International Film Festival in 1997.  It generated much excitement amongst the international critics, researchers and programmers there leading to a further retrospective at the Berlin Film Festival a few months later. The Housemaid would screen at both festivals.  He was being rediscovered after having largely been largely forgotten. Interestingly just a few years later it was a new generation of genre filmmakers that were sparking similar interest in festivals in Europe.

The Housemaid with its focus on family, relationships, gender and revenge along with its innovative approach to cinematography, lighting and staging that at times feels like a horror film was an earlier illustration of the kind of film that would travel widely. Its emotional impact is so raw that it concludes with the protagonist breaking the fourth wall addressing the audience and warning them of the dangers and consequences of infidelity in what feels like an attempt to make it more palatable for viewers – especially in the early 1960s.

Retribution – K-Horror and the Revenge Thriller

Korean cinema is diverse featuring a range of themes, styles and the films have continued to evolve both in the commercial sector and independent industry. But one theme that continues to find an audience overseas is revenge. As we’ve seen with The Housemaid it’s a thematic trait that was evident back in the 1960s but it goes back even further – Korea’s first film or Kinodrama was called Righteous Revenge (1919). 

In the contemporary era this theme of retribution has appeared in an array of films. Korean horror films that have traditionally featured ghost stories that sees a virgin ghost inflicting revenge on those mistreating her – examples include Public Cemetery Under the Moon (1958) – took on a more contemporary themes and settings in the 1990s with the series Whispering Corridors (1998-2020) that takes place in a Girls’ High School. In the first film, a ghost of a student comes back to seek revenge on those responsible for her death.

Revenge-thrillers have also been frequently invited to festivals overseas. Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy that is the second installment of his Vengeance trilogy won the Grand Prix in Cannes, Kim Jee-woon’s A Bittersweet Life was also invited to the Cannes Film Festival, while other illustrations include I Saw the Devil (2010) that screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. The Netflix series The Glory (2022) was also a hit with viewers on the platform.

In the contemporary era, Korea’s revenge-themed films often focus on one central character – Oh Daesu in Oldboy, Soo-hyeon in I Saw the Devil. Their anger and rage manifests differently with Choi Min-sik’s energetic performance as Oh Daesu going to desperate measures while Lee Byung-hun’s Soo-hyeon is more calculative and methodical but in both cases, audiences do feel compassion for them as they channel their emotions differently.

Revenge is also apparent in other films such as Parasite as rage boils over in the garden scene towards the end of the film. Akin to much of Bong Joon Ho’s work the villain in the film is society itself and the anger experienced by Song Kang-ho’s Ki-taek is triggered by complaints of a bad odor, a running motif in the film that in the end sees him unable to control his emotions stabbing Dong-ik (Lee Sun-kyun). It’s a powerful scene capturing some of the film’s main themes: social inequality and its ensuing rage that evidently connected with audiences globally.

Melodrama

Similar to revenge, the origins of melodrama can be traced back to the Japanese colonial period. They later grew further in prominence in the 1950s with titles including Madame Freedom (1956) that follows a woman played by Kim Yong-rim who works in a boutique store as it depicts a conflict between traditional conservative values and more liberal ones when popular American culture was being felt in Korea. The female character in the film is not content staying at home being a housewife and wants more independence, later dating a neighbor. In the film, the protagonist wears a hanbok (a traditional Korean costume) signifying the role she is expected to play. This is also true of the mother in The Housemaid.

The heyday for Korean melodramas were in the late 1990s and 2000s but they took on a different form compared to some of the more dramatic television series. Features like Hur Jin-ho’s Christmas in August (1998) were more understated with characters not clearly expressing their feelings. Often dealing with terminal illnesses or grief; Jung-won (Han Suk-kyu) in Hur Jin-ho’s feature debut Christmas in August is dying, other examples include A Moment to Remember (2004) with the lead suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.  

Other genres too would feature elements associated with melodrama, Kwak Jae-yong’s My Sassy Girl (2001) centers on a character acted by Jun Ji-hyun who can’t articulate why she behaves strangely - yelling at strangers - until the end of the film when its revealed what is the cause behind her struggles. Instead of dialogue, emotions are largely conveyed through performances, and mise-en-scene. In other words, these are examples of “show, don’t tell.”

In more recent years, melodrama as it has further evolved has been central in a wide range of films in providing audiences with that emotional depth and connection even in what are often otherwise genre-driven narratives. Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016) is one such case that relies heavily on its riveting sequences both inside and out of the train but one of its most affecting scenes is when the father (Gong Yoo) has to say goodbye to his daughter (Kim Su-an) at the end of the film.

Both characters haven’t really expressed to each other how they feel. The daughter uses quite formal Korean for much of the film implying some distance between them but the scene in the locomotive finally sees them coming together only for them to separate in what is the emotional climax in the film. It’s hard to see the film working as well as it does globally without that scene. It underscores how Korean directors have developed characters in ways that allows them to create a tangible connection with the audience even in worlds as chaotic and dystopian as Train to Busan.  

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic