The Rise (and Wane) of Korean New Wave Cinema

Korean cinema has a long history dating back to the silent era. It's had it's peaks and valleys, but for the most part remained pretty much under the radar, at least in America. In 1999 something happened though, something that would send shock waves through the world of cinema fans. A film was released in South Korea called "Swiri" (or "Shiri") and it blew the doors wide open. At the time of it's release it was the highest grossing movie in South Korea's history, even topping grosses of movies like "Titanic" and "Star Wars". South Korea was ready to make their voices heard, and some of the world was ready to hear it.

I really don't think it's fair to jump to 1999 so quickly though, because the groundwork for the Korean movie boom was really laid out in the early 90's. Many of the directors who would take the cinematic world by storm had started to lay their foundations. Directors like Park Chan-Wook, who would go on to make the South Korean movie "Old Boy" were trying to find an outlet for their voices and shot down. Lee Chang-Dong, a director who is widely respected for his art house films had released his movie "Green Fish" in the later nineties, and was starting to get noticed. Kim Ki-Duk, who is among one of South Korea's finest directors had released a couple movies as well. Once 1999 hit though there was a whole new surge to Korean cinema. Once the Korean companies saw that there was a market for their films they started to pour tons of money into it.