Korean cinema has been at the forefront of technical innovation that has been evident in the high production values. The industry, too, has been pioneering in the adoption of digital technology and has done so quickly adapting to changes in the wider industry.

The independent industry has benefited enormously from the switch to digital as it has made films more affordable to make giving opportunities to young filmmakers to helm shorts and features. This part of the industry has thrived over the last 20 years with directors securing invitations to many of the world’s leading festivals.

This week we will examine some of the significant films in the transition to digital as well as tracking how the industry has evolved with digital technology. It will begin with some of the first films shot on digital before turning to films shot using the Red One Digital Camera (Take Off (2009)), 3D films (Natalie (2010), Sector 7 (2011), Mr. Go (2013)) and then features filmed using the Alexa cameras (The Handmaiden (2016), The Wailing (2016), Burning (2018), Parasite (2019), Harbin (2024)).

Korea’s First films Shot on Digital – Desire (2003), To Catch a Virgin Ghost (2004), The Sundays of August (2006)

The film was also released in cinemas and on IPTV simultaneously becoming the first Korean film to do so – years before day-and-date releases became a source of immense debate in the industry following the release of Netflix title like Okja.  

Desire, which cost just 900 million won ($660,000) to produce – underscoring the affordability of films shot on digital compared to analog - centers on a love triangle between a married couple and a man who has an affair with the husband. It stars Ahn Nae-sang, Choi Ban-ya, Jang So-yeon and Lee Dong-kyu.

Other early titles shot digitally included Yoon Sang-ho’s R.U. Ready? (2002) that was shot using Sony’s HDW F900 camera, and Shin Jung-won’s horror-comedy To Catch a Virgin Ghost (2004) that sold close to 2 million tickets making it then the most successful film to date that had been shot digitally.

In the mid-2000s, there were funding initiatives set up to entice filmmakers to shoot on digital. KBS and the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) collaborated together allocating 300 million won each to five projects. One such title was Jonathan Yu’s romantic drama The Windmill Palm Grove (2005). In addition, CJ CGV put together a Digital Feature Film Production Support Program (CJIP) that included the independent film Fade into You (2004) directed by Chegy that secured an invitation to the Vancouver International Film Festival. It also was the first Korean independent feature to be shot on digital.  

Coming a year later was the independent drama The Sundays of August (2006) directed by Lee Jin-woo that premiered at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in 2005. In the program note on the BIFF’s website, it describes it as a “digital work which explores the uncertainty human relationships and the unstable boundary between memory and reality, life and death.”

The Red One Camera (Take Off (2009))

The first Korean film that was shot with the camera was Kim Yong-hwa’s sports blockbuster Take Off (2009). Featuring Ha Jung-woo, Kim Dong-wook, Kim Ji-seok and Sung Dong-il it follows a team of misfits who compete as ski jumpers after a team is put together so Muju County (in Korea’s North Jeolla Province) can bid to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2002.

The film was a rousing success accruing close to 8.5 million admissions in the summer of 2008 despite a slowdown in the film industry. The film’s impressive visuals of the team embarking on their audacious jumps captured through the Red One Camera evidently were popular with viewers, along with its moments of melodrama. The film wasn’t just notable for its sporting spectacle, the film’s song Butterfly would be an enduring fixture at sporting events and television programs for years to come.

3D films (Natalie (2010), Sector 7 (2011), Mr. Go (2013))

Following the success of James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) the industry for a moment looked like it was heading towards more 3D films. While there were some features that were groundbreaking in their use of the digital medium (Hugo (2011), Gravity (2013)), it was ultimately a premium format that never really took off. Audiences were instead turning to IMAX, screen X, 4DX and Dolby Atmos.

It was a similar story in Korea with some attempts, but they failed to usher in a new era for the industry. The first digital short 3D film directed by was Choi Ik-hwan’s Short! Short! Short! 2009: Show Me The Money (2009) that was produced by KOFIC. The first digital feature-length film was Natalie (2010), an erotic film starring Lee Sung-jae, Kim Ji-hoon and Park Hyun-jin.

With Hollywood blockbusters attempting to lure in audiences through 3D, two high profile Korean films were doing the same. Kim Ji-hoon’s Sector 7 starring Ha Ji-won and Ahn Sung-ki set on an oil rig where a monster is lurking beneath was converted into 3D in post-production. Although the film opened strongly in August 2011, poor word-of-mouth turned the film into a summer flop. It ended up selling 2.2m admissions, a low figure for a summer tentpole.

Kim Yong-hwa’s Mr. Go about a gorilla who becomes a baseball superstar that was released in 3D was also a major box office disappointment mustering just 1.3m admissions in the summer of 2013. Unlike Sector 7, however, the film was entirely shot in 3D using stereoscopic digital cameras.  It also signified Korea’s growing technical prowess when it came to visual effects. The film led to the birth of Dexter Studios, one of the leading visual effects studios in Asia.  

Alexa cameras (The Handmaiden (2016), The Wailing (2016), Burning (2018), Parasite (2019), Harbin (2024))

Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden was shot using the Arri Alexa XT camera – along with vintage lenses – by DP Chung Chung-hoon to capture the Japanese colonial period with Park’s idiosyncratic use of style. It would become the first Korean film to win a BAFTA - it won Best Film not in the English Language.

Much of the filming by Hong Kyung-pyo in Na Hong-jin’s The Wailing was done using an Arri Alexa XT Plus camera. The Wailing is also interesting for its arial footage in the mountains where the shaman played by Hwang Jung-min is driving through the mountains that was filmed through a drone – possible because it used a compact Black Magic Camera. Drones, now a common method when filming scenes from above, which was previously done using helicopters and heavy cameras.

Hong was also the cinematographer on Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (2018) that was also filmed using the Arri Alexa XT Plus camera. The feature made history becoming the first Korean film to be shortlisted for an Academy Award in the Best International Feature Category.

This would be taken several steps further in Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite that was shot by Hong using the Arri Alexa 65 Camera renowned for its image clarity and 65mm format. The camera is coveted among cinematographers with only a limited number available to hire but was put to extraordinary use in Parasite becoming the first non-English language film to win Best Picture.

Hong was again lauded for his cinematography in Woo Min-ho’s Harbin about the independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun that was shot in Korea, Latvia, and Mongolia with the Arri Alexa 65 Camera. While some Korean films were shown on IMAX screens including the one at Yongsan CGV (in Seoul) – one of the biggest in the world – no Korean film (with the exception of Parasite) had been shot with cameras that could be formatted for the IMAX screen ratio of 1.90:1.

Hong was acknowledged for his achievements winning the Grand Prize in film for his work on Harbin at the Baeksang Art Awards held at the COEX in Seoul’s Gangnam district on May 5.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Edited by kofic