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The late twentieth century saw all manner of ‘new waves’ and ‘new cinemas’ from around the world capture the attention of critics and scholars. Film movements are generally defined as an injection of creative energy and new talent into a filmmaking community, resulting for a given time in a new kind of film. David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson define film movements with two statements: ‘(1) films that are produced within a particular period and/or nation and that share significant traits of style and form; and (2) filmmakers who operate within a common production structure and who share certain assumptions about filmmaking’ (1997: 441).
Certainly New Korean Cinema conforms in a broad sense to the latter statement, given filmmakers’ collective efforts to modernise the film industry, and their consensus on the need to distance themselves from the Korean films of their recent past. Regarding the former statement, although it is not primarily an aesthetic or thematic-based movement such as Italian Neorealism, young Korean directors’ prioritising of imagery, their targeting of young audiences and their experimentation with genre also provide for a degree of stylistic continuity within the overall diversity of the movement.
Nonetheless, New Korean Cinema was a phenomenon that differed from most other film movements. What happened between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s was more than just the arrival of a new generation of directors or the flowering of a new cinematic style. Throughout much of the twentieth century, the Korean film industry had been pinned into an unnatural position by regulations and restrictions that hampered its growth and prevented a normal course of development. When change finally came, it manifested itself not as a brilliant offshoot of an otherwise stable system, but as a broad-based slide towards a new equilibrium. The Korean film community had moved beyond its authoritarian past and finally succeeded in creating a ‘normal’ film industry.
After a decade of rapid change, by the mid- to late-2000s many people in the Korean film industry began to sense that a new era was beginning. It was not that the aesthetics of Korean cinema had moved in a new direction, or that the major figures of the movement had experienced a change in fortune. By the mid-2000s, the directors most commonly associated with New Korean Cinema, such as Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Lee Chang-dong and others, were still at the start of what may turn out to be long and fruitful careers. Large numbers of new directors continued to make their debut each year. In this sense, the movement was still very much alive.
However, the burst of energy that had been released by broader social changes and structural reforms to the industry had begun to dissipate. The year 2006 can be seen as a meaningful endpoint for several important aspects of New Korean Cinema. That dramatic year, which saw two films (King and the Clown and The Host) set box-office records, was seen even at the time as a likely high water mark for the commercial industry. At the same time, the bursting of the film finance bubble and the retreat of the Korean Wave caused widespread anxiety among producers and filmmakers.
What had run its course by 2007 and 2008 was the feverish rate of change that had done so much to transform Korean cinema over the previous two decades. Much of that change – from regulatory reforms to new industrial practices to the turbulent social shifts that accompanied Korea’s democratisation – had created an environment in which new visions and new voices were given an unusual freedom to experiment. Not only that, but the more successful of those voices were quickly able to take up positions of leadership in the evolving industry.
The more mature industry that emerged at the end of those years was also in many ways supportive of creative talent. Film directors continued to retain a significant degree of creative control compared to their counterparts in other countries including the US. The continually evolving technological capabilities of the industry gave filmmakers a wide range of choices in realising their creative vision. South Korean society remained, on the whole, highly supportive of domestic cinema in terms of audience interest, prominent coverage in the media and the level of investment received from government and industry.
However, the era that had passed was unique in Korean film history, standing out for its combination of new talent, risk taking, rapid change and quickly rising ambitions. An entirely new filmmaking community had emerged in those years, and refashioned public perceptions of local cinema. Korean film had also moved from the fringes of world cinema to become an influential contributor to Asian cultural currents and a mainstay on the international festival circuit. Not so much a renewal, the process might better be described as a rebirth. Korean cinema had entered the twenty-first century with a new identity.