What makes Korean films great: Expert lessons for Filipinos’ Oscars aspirations

Park Hee Seong, senior researcher at KOFIC and director of International Affairs at the Korean Cinema Association.
Photograph courtesy of KCC

HUNTRIX members Zoey, Rumi and Mira.
Photograph courtesy of Netflix

MA Dong Seok and Gong Yoo in 'Train to Busan.'
Photograph courtesy of NETFLIX

From 'Parasite' to 'KPop Demon Hunters'

Since establishing the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) in 1984, KOFIC has consistently nurtured talents for over 40 years. Bong Joon Ho, who graduated from KAFA in 1994 with his short film Incoherence, made his feature debut six years later with Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), though it initially failed to attract much attention.

Nevertheless, through various programs and support from KOFIC, Bong Joon Ho was able to continue making films, and ultimately, 25 years after graduating from KAFA, he rose to become a world-renowned director.

Before the outbreak of Covid-19, the Korean film industry had reached its peak in 2019. Domestically, the number of theatergoers in Korea reached 226.68 million, and the box office revenue amounted to 1.914 trillion Korean Won, both marking the highest figures in history, said Park. The pandemic, however, drastically reduced audience numbers and even after the transition to the endemic phase, theater attendance has not fully recovered. The challenge for the Korean film industry now is to overcome this crisis.

According to Park, to do so, the industry must respond to the rapid and profound changes by redefining the concept of “film,” seeking ways to coexist with OTT platforms and addressing issues related to nurturing and supporting creators.

KPop Demon Hunters, for example, has now become the second most-watched English film on Netflix. It attracted huge audiences worldwide since its release in June.

“First of all, I believe that the inclusion of K-pop in the film strongly appealed to audiences. Moreover, the narrative naturally incorporates elements of Korean traditional culture, while also encompassing K-food such as Gimbap and Ramyeon and even aspects of K-medical. Furthermore, the fact that it was produced as an animation rather than live-action allowed it to freely move between fantasy and reality, creating a rich visual experience that satisfied viewers,” Park said.

K-pop culture has developed through mutual influence. Long before K-films gained international recognition, K-dramas were already driving the Korean Wave. When a drama becomes popular, its actors naturally gain recognition, which in turn promotes the films they appear in. There have been cases where films starring actors who first rose to fame through K-dramas in several Asian countries, such as China, Japan and Taiwan, gained opportunities to be introduced abroad as well. Likewise, original soundtracks (OST) featured in Korean films have often served as a gateway for K-pop and its artists to become more widely known.

“The director and producers of the globally-acclaimed Squid Game originally honed their skills in the Korean film industry. In this way, different areas of Korean popular culture have grown both independently and in close connection with one another,” Park said.

Apart from the film itself, the two fictional bands featured in Kpop Demon Hunters are surpassing real K-pop powerhouses in charts and streaming platforms.

“The K-pop featured in the film is not only familiar and sophisticated in melody, but its lyrics also function almost like those of a musical, accurately reflecting the inner thoughts and emotions of the characters and merging seamlessly with the narrative,” she added. “As a result, audiences were able to emotionally immerse themselves in the songs, which seems to have succeeded in creating a powerful sense of empathy.”

Critics are praising the animated movie for its remarkable authenticity, using animation as a way to introduce the Korean culture to mainstream platforms.

“Since this is the first animation featuring K-pop to be released on a globally accessible OTT platform, it is only natural that it accurately representing Korean culture is of great importance. Some critics argue that creators of this film — although they are of Korean heritage — are foreigners, they may fall short in authentically portraying Korean culture. However, this work marks the first instance of such a refined and seamless fusion of traditional Korean culture with contemporary K-pop,” Park said.

The film provides audiences around the world with an opportunity to encounter and engage more closely with Korean culture, and in that respect alone, has made a significant contribution to promoting it, she added.

Streaming platforms, particularly global services such as Netflix, are exerting a profound influence on the ecosystem of the Korean film industry. Through the pandemic, the number of Netflix subscribers in Korea increased five-fold, while theater audiences declined and have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

In response to the current situation where streaming platforms are getting ahead of the theater, KOFIC has been implementing new initiatives to bring audiences back to cinemas. For example, beginning 25 July, KOFIC distributed a total of 4.5 million vouchers offering a 6,000 KRW discount on movie tickets, which helped attract audiences to new Korean releases such as My Daughter is a Zombie. In addition, to encourage the production of innovative films that balance artistic merit with commercial appeal, KOFIC allocated 10 billion KRW in 2025 to support the production of mid-budget live-action feature films (with net production costs between two and eight billion KRW).

Globally-recognized Korean films can largely be divided into two categories. First is composed of highly commercial, big-budget productions such as Train to Busan and Along with the Gods. The second includes more artistically-driven works by directors like Bong Joon Ho, who produced Parasite, Park Chan Wook who directed Decision to Leave and Lee Chang Dong of Poetry, which have garnered acclaim and awards at international film festivals.

For the former, KOFIC provides indirect support by establishing funds such as film-specialized investment fund. It also enhances industry transparency and encourages private capital inflows into film production by building and operating infrastructures like the KOBIS (Korea Box-office Information System, https://www.kobis.or.kr/), which compiles and processes nationwide theater ticket sales in real time to deliver prompt box-office data.

“I believe it is time to reconsider the very concept of‘Korean film that KOFIC has supported until this point. Until now, KOFIC has operated under a support paradigm rooted in the material definition of ‘film.’ It determined eligibility for support based on financial and physical criteria such as sources of capital and filming locations, and provided assistance only to works defined as ‘Korean films,” Park said.

The new Korean government is also deliberating on the policy direction for popular culture and audiovisual media, which includes film.