Cinema of Korea

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The term "Cinema of Korea" (or "Korean cinema") encompasses the motion picture industries of North and South Korea. As with all aspects of Korean life during the past century, the film industry has often been at the mercy of political events, from the late Joseon dynasty to the Korean War to domestic governmental interference. While both countries have relatively robust film industries today, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. North Korean films tend to portray their communist or revolutionary themes.

South Korean films enjoyed a "Golden age" during the late 1950s and 1960s, but by the 1970s had become generally considered to be of low quality. Nonetheless, by 2005 South Korea became a nation that watched more domestic than imported films in theatres.^[1] This was partially a result of laws placing limits on the number of foreign films able to be shown per theatre per year,^[2] but this was mostly due to the growth of the Korean entertainment industry, which quadrupled in size during this period.^[3] In the theaters, Korean films must be played for 73 days per year since 2006, a similar restriction that exists in countries like the UK and France.^{[citation needed]} On cable TV 25% domestic film quota will be reduced to 20% after KOR-US FTA. It has been noted that Korean movies have consistently outperformed foreign with very few exceptions in the Korean box office.^[4]