Korean Cinema

Korean cinema underwent one of the most rapid transformations in modern film history. Following democratisation and the relaxation of censorship in the late 1980s, and a screen-quota system that protected domestic production, a generation of directors built a national cinema with unusual tonal range.

Its defining characteristic is genre fluidity: films move between comedy, horror, melodrama and political thriller within a single work, often without the tonal signposting Western cinema uses. Combined with sharp attention to class and social structure, this produced work that reads as both commercial and severe.

International recognition followed: festival prizes, an Academy Award for Best Picture, and a streaming audience that made Korean film and television a global default rather than a specialist interest.