Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today

Korean film tends to blend technical excellence with idiosyncratic individual expression and an entrepreneurial spirit—filmmakers often write and direct their work, and both actors and filmmakers benefit from the country’s homegrown “star system”—while embracing a wide variety of styles and subjects. These factors have helped to endear Korean cinema to filmgoers the world over. Korean cinema is generally made for a national audience, so its vision is rarely diminished by compromises in the name of global appeal. Instead, these films provide a revealing window into a rich culture that for many Americans appears at once alien and oddly familiar.