The Awakenning of Korean Cinema:

New social compromise

PART II

The death of Park Chung-hee in 1979, the Gwangju slaughter in 1980, and the end of the censorship were the beginning point of the change in Korean cinema, it was the awakening of the social conscience in the cinema. The films started to talk about topics that were taboo. Films about the social reality, about the division of Korea and the terrible event in Gwangju, were filling the cinemas and, curiously, the reception by the audience was very favourable (‘a petal’, ‘May, 18’).

At the same time, the 80s were the first step in the international acknowledgement of Korean cinema. The first recognition in an international festival was in Venice with the price that ‘The surrogate mother’ gets to the best actress in 1987. This is the beginning of the international broadening of Korean cinema which now has a growing influence in film festivals over the world such as Cannes, Sitges, and Sundance. Even in the last 10 years, the increasing international reputation of Korean films have proliferated the number of film festivals focused on the subject and among of them we can find NY Korean Film Festival, Korea Film Fest in Italy, the one in New Zealand and the one in Australia.

The democratic process and the investment of the Chaebols started to improve the film industry, but till the end of the economical crisis in Korea (1997-1998), the industry did not start to take off. In 1999, the economy was growing and the Korean cinema start its resurgence with thousand of people going to the cinema because of the release of Shiri, the first blockbuster in the history of Korean cinema. This was a change in the trend, the locals increased their interest in Korean cinema and the number of films per year went from 49 in 1999 to 112 in 2007.

This change was aimed at building a more commercial sense of cinema. Films such as JSA, Shiri, Taegugki, Friend, The king and the Clown, Welcome to Dongmakgol are some examples with good results in the box office. Most of them show the new reconciliation feeling, an unification hope that is always frustrated.