The release of Woo Min-ho’s colonial-era drama Harbin (2024) signified yet another achievement for Korean cinema as it was the first Korean film to be produced in the IMAX format. While Korean films has been released on IMAX screens before they were not able to utilize the premium large format because they were not shot using 65mm digital cameras.

In the era of streaming, there is an even greater emphasis on formats that can entice audiences back into the cinemas. With total admissions in 2024 down 45.6 percent on pre-pandemic levels, it’s further evidence that viewers now watch content differently. The success of films like Christoper Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023) that was also shot using IMAX cameras - have demonstrated how audiences will return to the theaters but only for certain films.

In Korea, while there appears to be a trend in lower-mid-sized budget films with eight of the 13 films that broke even in 2024 costing less than 10 billion won to produce, the industry has played a pivotal role in premium large formats pioneering Screen X and 4DX. Furthermore, Korean blockbusters and now content produced for streaming platforms has seen a wave of technological developments for the Korean content industry.

This week we track some of these innovations beginning with the early blockbusters The Soul Guardians (1998), Swiri (1999), Joint Security Area (JSA) (2000). It will then examine some of the developments under Dexter Studios Mr. Go (2013), Along with the Gods (2017-2018), Parasite (2019) before looking at Screen X, 4DX, IMAX The X (2013), Snowpiercer (2013), Harbin (2024) and then concluding with the science fiction content available on streaming platforms Space Sweepers (2021), JUNG_E (2023).

Early Blockbusters

The Soul Guardians (1998), Swiri (1999), JSA (2000)

For two decades the local industry was heavily dependent on tentpole features emulating the successful Hollywood blockbuster with spectacle, A-list stars, mass marketing and releasing them during peak seasons at the box office, while also tailoring them for local audiences. Although not all have been popular with viewers with The Soul Guardians failing to strike a chord in the late 1990s, Swiri that came a year later was a gamechanger for the industry demonstrating how Korea could beat Hollywood at its own game.

Blockbusters by definition are meant to enthrall audiences with audacious visuals and set-pieces requiring significant finance and expertise. Korean films have continued to do so but even in the infancy of “New Korean Cinema” when there were fewer resources there were notable achievements in blockbuster visuals.

Park K.C’s The Soul Guardians released in the summer of 1998 stars Ahn Sung-ki, Shin Hyun-joon and Choo Sang-mee as guardians of souls who come up against satanic forces. Delving into religious cults that has been evident in some of the work of Yeon Sang-ho Hellbound, the psychological thriller was the first Korean feature film to use computer graphics. 

Kang Je-gyu’s Swiri combined Hollywood action sequences with a local backdrop incorporating inter-Korean relations as two NIS agents are in pursuit of North Korean terrorists who seek to detonate a liquid explosive at a football game between the two Koreas. Starring Han Suk-kyu, Choi Min-sik, Song Kang-ho and Kim Yun-jin, the climatic sequence in the football stadium brings together elements of Hong Kong action cinema and Hollywood spectacle marking a new era for the industry in blockbuster filmmaking.

Park Chan-wook’s JSA (2000) that screened in Seoul in early February celebrating its 25^th Anniversary bringing back together director Park and many of his cast (Lee Byung-hun, Song Kang-ho, Lee Young-ae and Kim Tae-woo) was also significant for its production values. Since parts of the film were set in Panmunjom where filming was impossible, a full replica set was built in Namyangju costing 900 million won forming a large part of the film’s budget.

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Dexter Studios Ushers New Era for Korea’s Visual Effects 

Mr. Go (2013), Along with the Gods (2017-2018) Parasite (2019)

In the 2000s, and early 2010s when Korean films required extensive visual effects, they often turned to overseas studios. For instance, the CGI for Bong Joon Ho’s The Host (2006) was done by The Orphanage located in California while Scaline VFX was brought in for Bong’s Snowpiercer (2013).

This changed in the 2010s with visual effects studios emerging in Korea and taking on increasingly ambitious work as the industry hit new heights with films such as Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017) and The Last 49 Days (2018) that was a two-part production shot concurrently and employing visual effects that could compete with the Hollywood studios.

In many respects this began with Kim Yong-hwa’s Mr. Go (2013). Although the film about a gorilla who turns into a baseball superstar was commercially unsuccessful selling just 1.3 million admissions in Korea, it led to the birth of Dexter Studios that have participated in dozens of projects in Korea and overseas, especially China The Monkey King (2014).

Taking more than four years to make, a team of hundreds of animators and visual effects professionals led by Jeong Seong-jin was put together for the production of Mr. Go. They created the motion picture technology and software that made the gorilla and his fur a reality.  

Even more audacious was Along with the Gods that involved 300 artists and technicians to create the world of the afterlife as grim reapers played by Ha Jung-woo, Ju Ji-hoon and Kim Hyang-gi escort the dead through a series of trials. Mixing elements of spectacle that was a draw for younger audiences with themes of death that resonated with the older demographic, both films were not just a technical marvel, but a gargantuan box office hit collectively accruing more than 26 million admissions.

Dexter Studios were also involved in Bong Joon Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite (2019). As opposed to films like Mr. Go and Along with the Gods, the task here was different – the effects had to look invisible. The second floor of the now famous house in the film had to be digitally created along with the streets nearby. The process involved 200 artists and approximately 500 VFX shots were used.

Dexter also produced Ryoo Seung-wan’s Escape from Mogadishu (2021) that represented a new milestone for the industry with its impeccably and impressively staged scenes set in Mogadishu and shot in Morocco as it depicts the attempts made by North and South Korean embassy personnel fleeing Somalia during the Civil War in the early 1990s. The film was one of several tentpole productions shot outside Korea in the early 2020s. Yim Soon-rye’s The Point Men (2023) was another.

Screen X, 4DX, IMAX 

The X (2013), Snowpiercer (2013), Harbin (2024)

Along with technical accomplishments in the realm of production and post-production, Korea has also been at the center of innovation in the exhibition sector that has proved to be a lucrative investment given the success of titles on premium large formats (PLF).

Korea’s leading exhibitor CJ CGV collaborated with KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) located in Daejeon to put together the technology for Screen X, which enables a film to be projected on both sides of the wall as well as in front of the audience thereby giving viewers a 270-degree viewing experience. It was pioneered in 2012 and Kim Jee-woon’s thirty-minute spy thriller The X (2013) was commissioned by CJ CGV to utilize the new technology using three cameras. It stars Gang Dong-won as a secret agent X who delivers a metal briefcase to Agent R, but things go wrong. It also features Shin Min-ha as X’s girlfriend and premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2013.

Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer that was financed and distributed by CJ ENM was the first Korean Film to be released in the new format treating audiences to a panoramic experience, the first of its kind in Korea. The technology has now been installed in over 370 screens in 40 countries. It was introduced to audiences in Taiwan in 2024 and is already one of the leading premium formats there.

Concert films have benefited from this technology. Lim Young Woong| Im Hero The Stadium generated $1.79 million on Screen X alone from 102,000 admissions in 2024. It accounted for 25.2 percent of its box office gross.

CJ CGV through its subsidiary CJ 4DPlex is also behind 4DX and ultra 4DX.  4DX was first presented in 2009 and treats audiences to a range of practical effects including motion seats, scents, winds and strobe lighting. Ultra 4DX is a combination of 4DX and Screen X. As of December 2024, there were 790 4DX theaters in 70 countries, while Ultra 4DX was installed in 44 sites.

It's not just Korean content that is performing well on these formats; it’s also Hollywood films. James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water (2023) accumulated more than $100m globally on 4DX and screen X marking a new milestone for PLF.

IMAX too is in significant demand illustrated by Harbin becoming the first Korean film to be shot using ARRI ALEXA 65 cameras. Filmed in Latvia, the biographical period film stars Hyun Bin as the independence fighter An Jung-geun who assassinates Itō Hirobumi, the first Prime Minster of Japan.

It screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2024, while it had its Korean premiere at the Yongsan CGV multiplex in Seoul that houses Korea’s largest IMAX screen. It’s one of the biggest in the world measuring 31 meters wide and is 22.4 meters high. The film accumulated a total 4.9 million admissions with 82,143 tickets sold on IMAX.  

The Visual Effects of Korean Sci-fi 

Space Sweepers (2021), JUNG_E (2023)

Compared to other genres, Korean Science fiction has struggled at the box office – The Soul Guardians is such a case. But it is a genre, Korean filmmakers are interested in, and they continue to try and make it work for audiences both home and abroad. Indeed, Bong Joon Ho’s Hollywood film Mickey 17 (2025) is the latest attempt.

As the Korean content industry has grown, particularly during the streaming era there have been an increasing number of science fiction films and shows available on OTT – Jo Sung-hee’s Space Sweepers (2021), Yeon Sang-ho’s JUNG_E (2023) and the series The Silent Sea (2021) are just three examples.

Space Sweepers starring Song Joong-ki and Kim Tae-ri as part of a spaceship crew who discover a 7-year-old inside the spacecraft consists of 2,000 VFX shots and is significant for featuring the industry’s first voice-acted robot character created through motion capture technology.  

Supervised by Jeong Seong-jin Mr. Go the visual effects were rendered by six companies in Korea including Dexter, Madman and LIX Studios along with firms in Asia and the US.

JUNG_E was notable for its protagonist, a researcher Kim Hyun-ju who clones the brain of her mother in a desperate attempt to end a civil war. While it wasn’t the first character to be generated by CGI in a Korean film, few Korean features had ever had the leading protagonist require such extensive computer graphics making it a new challenge. Earlier films featuring robots including the omnibus Doomsday Book (2012) would rely more on practical effects.

VFX Studio eNgine Visual Wave, a subsidiary of NEW were involved in the film’s CGI. The company also worked with Yeon Sang-ho on his dystopian Netflix series Hellbound (2021).

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Editted by kofic