Why Korean cinema is so unusual and why everyone is in love with it

When there was an explosion of interest in Korean cinema

Korean cinema has always had fans raised on Park Chan-wook's Oldboy and Kim Ki-duk's exquisite work. But earlier his audience outside his native country was limited to a narrow layer of moviegoers.

The mass audience, on the other hand, was almost not interested in these authors: the public was frightened off by the trademark cruelty and specific comedy of their films. However, director Yong Sang-ho's debut zombie thriller, Train to Busan, was released in 2016 and immediately changed the rules of the game.

It turned out that the film zombie can be both action-packed, intelligent and moderately funny. But the tape also struck people with sincerity, which is rarely seen in Western cinema: the director's enthusiasm for the topic was felt in every frame.

The recognition of just one film triggered a snowball effect. Following "Train to Busan", the work of other Korean directors gradually gained popularity. The same year, Oldboy writer Park Chan-wook returned with The Handmaid. Two years later, Lee Chang-dong's film Burning, based on a story by Murakami, received the highest critical acclaim at Cannes.

Finally, the triumph of "Parasite" Bong Joon-ho at the Oscars 2020 became the apotheosis. In total, the tape received six gold statuettes and became the first picture in a foreign language in the history of the film academy to receive an award as the film of the year.

A phenomenal successsquid games”, “Sea of ​​Tranquility” and “call of hellshowed that Korean dramas are more than just soap operas about the relationship of handsome young guys and girls.

Why is Korean cinema so unusual?

Korean films are fundamentally different from Western ones. Their authors do not hesitate to do everything differently than overseas colleagues. This is also due to the fact that the cinema in the country was formed quite late and with minimal influence of genre conventions familiar to us. And these are the peculiar features of Korean cinema that are so loved all over the world.

1. You never know how it will end

In Korean cinema, genre boundaries are very blurred, and it is often difficult for the viewer to predict what will happen on the screen in the next second. For example, all the same “Parasite” or “The Squid Game” is a crazy cocktail of several genres at once: drama, thriller, detective story, and sometimes, unexpectedly, even comedy.

And this can be said literally about any film, from the classic "Island", which opened the world to Kim Ki-duk, and ending with Lee Gwon's recent horror "The Door Lock". Korean cinema manages to be both violent and sweet, bloody and funny at the same time. It would seem that the combination comes out paradoxical, but how much charm and novelty is in it!

So, the western Kim Ji-un "The Good, the Bad, the Fucking" borrows genre tropes from the West and dilutes them with purely Asian humor, which we will touch on later. The result is a film like no other, which is likely to shock the unprepared viewer. But such a crazy mix will certainly be remembered.

2. The visuals are not only beautiful, but also make sense.

Koreans are true masters of aesthetically staged shots. But at the same time, external beauty helps the director to reveal the ideas embedded in the film. Here again you can return to the "Parasite". They serve as a perfect illustration of how each location in the picture can work as an allegory, reflecting a variety of meanings.

When viewing, you can’t even immediately notice that the story is told with the help of finely thought out little things. Heroes, for example, often have to overcome ladders that refer to the steps of the social hierarchy. The poor need to go down to get to their house, and to enter the rich people's house, they have to climb up the hill. The difference in the social status of the characters is also conveyed by the colors: a wealthy house is decorated in warm colors, while the poor slum painted in shades of blue and green.

An even more striking (in the literal sense) example is the famous images from The Squid Game. One of the reasons for the show's wild popularity is its catchy visual style. The show drew attention even at the trailer launch stage: future viewers were attracted by the players' contrasting turquoise tracksuits and crimson security uniforms.

And these colors are chosen for a reason. First, the participants' attire refers to the sports uniform that Korean kindergarten students are required to wear during physical education classes. Secondly, green and pink shades are opposite each other on the color wheel, which reflects the players' fear of guards and their drastically different roles.

3. Koreans know how to arouse interest in the viewer, not disgust

As we wrote above, Korean paintings of previous decades were not created for the faint of heart. For clarity, we can recall "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" (2002) and "Oldboy" (2003) by Park Chan-wook or "I Saw the Devil" (2010) by Kim Ji-woon. These are truly cruel stories where the characters constantly torture and cut each other.

Modern directors also do not shy away from showing self-mutilation on the screen: even the mainstream “The Squid Game” could not do without crushed fingers and bleeding wounds. And at first glance, this approach should only scare the public.

But it's not all that simple. Censorship often prevents Hollywood authors from showing explicit enough scenes on the screen. Korean directors are emotional and open. Therefore, they are much easier to relate to the topics of sexual perversions or crueltytaboo in Western culture.

In addition, due to the peculiarities of the mentality, Koreans tend to exaggerate everything that is possible. If they show suffering in the cinema, then they do it as authentically as possible, in close-up, savoring the most unpleasant or intimate details.

4. The emotions of Korean actors are easy to read and understand for everyone.

This trademark Korean expression is also visible in the acting. Western audiences are accustomed to a more subdued style, so the replays that are common in Korean cinema can be surprising at first. But this is the norm here: the artists portray anger, surprise or delight at 11 points out of 10, speak unnaturally and suffer pretentiously.

For the hypertrophied approach to the performance of roles, Korean actors are often criticized in the West, but still it is often impossible to break away from their performance. After all, sincerity is visible in naked emotions, and this cannot but attract.

In addition, expressive play is a universal language that can be understood by viewers anywhere in the world.

5. Korean cinema explores the theme of social inequality

In Korea, inequality and unemployment are rising at a shocking rate. Therefore, it is not surprising that almost every second film in a metaphorical form touches upon the problem of the economic gap between the rich and the poor.

So, in "Parasite" Bong Joon-ho clearly shows how the hierarchical system of society that has developed in Korea makes people parasitize on each other. Previously, the director directed the post-apocalyptic thriller "Through the snow”, where the action took place in a strange train: the rich lived in the first cars, and the proletariat lived in the last.

Train to Busan director Yong Sang-ho also added a social comment to the film: if only the characters held together, ignoring class barriers, could have done with less losses.

In The Squid Game, no one forced the heroes to become participants survival games. They were all just stuck in a terrible system, mired in debt and trying to survive. And this is a very urgent problem not only for Korea, but for the whole world.

But at the same time, in many works by Korean authors (even in the same "Parasite"), there is a hope for positive changes. Moreover, some directors manage to really change the world around with their films.

For example, the director of "The Squid Game" Hwang Dong-hyuk directed the drama "The Crucible" in 2011 about the physical and sexual abuse of children at school. This picture is based on a real case, and the perpetrators did not suffer the deserved punishment.

The tape caused such a public outcry that, against the backdrop of heated discussions of the film, the authorities were forced to cancel the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against children and the disabled.

6. Rare Korean Movie Doesn't Have Humor

Even in the most poignant and darkest Korean films, there is sure to be a place for a joke. And from the point of view of a Western viewer, periodically emerging humor may seem inappropriate or superfluous.

But such a game with expectations just perfectly takes the audience out of the comfort zone. And as soon as you relax, you begin to enjoy the non-trivial sense of humor of Koreans:

In a word, if American, European or Russian cinema has tired you or you just want something new, you urgently need to join Korean cinema. There are enough reasons for this: it is original, paradoxical and popular. But most importantly, the South Korean authors are extraordinarily talented, and their work pleases with energy and clarity of view.