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The marketplace in Korean films is a recurring space. It is where the single mother sells goods in solitude or a couple in love goes shopping. Its atmosphere is full of liveliness of the ordinary people. In an action film, it is often used as a backdrop of a chasing scene. It can even be used for a pace changer to accentuate drama. It is barely the main background of a film, but it appears so often in many movies. It is a very useful space to develop the story of a film.

Ode to My Father is one of few films which take a market as the main setting. In the film, the market is a space that embraces history. Korea had to suffer the turbulent period of the Korean War after the Second World War. Gukje Market, which was established when war supplies were surplus, also bear a lot of stories. ‘Kkot-ppun-i-ne’, a miscellaneous store run by Deok-su (HWANG Jung-min), is not merely just a store, but it is what the unstable modern history of Korea created.

Pyeonghwa Market in A Single Spark is another example of a market with a historical meaning. The main character JEON Tae-il is a symbolic figure in the labor movement history of Korea. In the film about his life, the market is a significant space. Pyeonghwa Market was the most ‘humble place’ in Korea during the 1970s. Lowest paid young workers had to work day and night at sewing factories in corners around the market. JEON Tae-il (HONG Kyung-in) spoke out their rights saying, “Obey the Labor Standards Law!” before he burned himself right at the market. The market of Once Upon A Time in Seoul (2008) is similar to that of Ode to My Father in a sense, yet they are quite different. After the war ended in 1953, war orphans had to jump into the life of grown-ups to survive.

One of the well known market scenes is the racing scene in Friend (2001). Four friends sprint in the middle of Jagalchi Market in Busan. There is now an information sign at the shooting spot for tourists. Jagalchi Market appears again in Wish (2009), a coming-of-age film. However, among many Korean films the genres that best fit a marketplace are thriller and action. The most impressive market scene in recent years can be found in Cold Eyes (2013). The chasers (cops) go after the fugitive (the perpetrator) through web-like alleyways, and their paths are spread within a market. The market in The Divine Move (2014) is a big den of evil. It is the hideout of Sal-su (LEE Beom-su) and it is packed with people who play the game of go for money. Gangster Tae-il (HWANG Jung-min) walks around the market to collect money in Man in Love (2013) and a wild chase happens at Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market in The Chaser (2008). A market chase scene is a cliché in action movies because its complicated structure and various props arouse tension.

There is another cliché related to a marketplace in romance films. When the relationship of a couple develops, they sometimes go on a date at a market. In A Promise (1998), JEON Do-yeon and PARK Shin-yang have a good time at a market, where they have a friendly chat with a middle aged female merchant. JEON Do-yeon later goes to another market with HWANG Jung-min in You Are My Sunshine (2005). The couple who just started a relationship becomes closer to each other there. BAE Chang-ho, the director of Love Story (1996), appears in the film with his real wife to show what they were like when they first started dating in their younger days. They meet at a flea market and fall in love.

In Radio Star (2006) directed by LEE Joon-ik, a traditional market at Yeongwol, Gangwon-do is depicted as if in a documentary. The market in a music video of the film looks affectionate and warm.