The Rise of the Religious Thriller

Compared to most countries, Korea has a very eclectic religious makeup, and when the various beliefs of the country’s constituents influence cinema, the results on screen have been equally eclectic. Of the 44% of Koreans who declare a religion, about 45% are P...

Korean Cinema Comes Out of the Gate Strong in 2019

If 2018 ended on a down note for the Korean film industry, in the wake of several major box office disappointments, the mood has quickly turned around in 2019 as the first few months of the year have welcomed record returns for local films with more promising ...

UNDERDOG Continues the Varied Tradition of Korean Animation

While not as famous as its Eastern neighbor Japan for animated content, the Korean film industry has steadily been releasing notable animations since the turn of the millennium and joining their ranks last month was the new offering Underdog, from co-directors...

Rocky Returns for Korean Box Office in 2018

There’s a strange mood around the Korean film industry these days as the final figures for 2018 have rolled in and the hits, misses and trends of the past year are being tallied up. The overall figures, which are only slightly down from the previous year, may ...

Korean Theaters Prepare for Busy Winter Season

As 2018 winds to a close, the Korean film industry is readying for one last onslaught as theaters gear up for the fruitful end-of-year box office season, one of the year’s four busy cinema periods, along with the Lunar New Year, school summer holidays and Chus...

2018 Korean Film Industry Yearly Report

Once again, Korean films have been thriving in 2018. Now is a good time to look back at the past year before wrapping up. Let’s talk about the meaningful changes that occurred within the Korean film industry this year. This year, Korean cinema saw the appariti...

Seoul Independent Film Festival Goes OF(F) COURSE for 44th Edition

Korea’s longest running film festival (though it has employed different names over the decades), the Seoul Independent Film Festival will be back later this month for its 44th edition, which will be presented under the subtitle OF(F) COURSE. As of this writing...

A Chronicle of Korean Zombie Movies

Zombie movies, one of the classic genres of Hollywood films, have recently been the talk of the town in the Korean film industry. Although the Korean audience was already familiarized with the genre thanks to many TV series and Hollywood films, it wasn’t until...

Broad Korean Lineup Sums It Up at 51st Sitges

Despite pulling out all the stops for last year’s massive 50th anniversary celebration, the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival returned with an even bigger 51st edition in 2018, as the Catalonian region was inundated with stars, genre cinema addicts ...

Busan Film Festival Back on Track for Strong 23rd Edition

Following the reinstallation of LEE Yong-kwan as Festival Chairman and Jay JEON as Festival Director and an end to all of the industry boycotts against it, the Busan International Film Festival(BIFF) returned with a powerhouse 23rd edition early this month. Op...