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by Magdalena Nieświec

“The Sense of Violence” premiered at the 29th Busan International Film Festival and was screened in the Forum Section at 64th Berlinale in 2025. It is a semi-found-footage documentary made in the shape of an almost two-hour long video-essay and narrated by the delicate female voice that describes how anti-communism in South Korea was created after World War II, propagated during Park Chung-hee regime and persisted within time till this day.

The Sense of Violence is sceening at Berlin International Film Festival

The opening sequence of “The Sense of Violence” shows a brutalist building and neglected, conformist monuments. The construction is a Freedom Center, which is located on Namsan Mountain in Seoul. It was designed by Kim Swoo-geun in 1963 and built by the military that took power during the coup d’etat on May 16th, 1960. At that time, this place was a proud symbol of the anti-communist ideology...

While today many cinephiles and critics alike focus on directors such as Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook, much of their work's political narratives, social commentary and indeed their visuals can be traced all the way back to filmmakers such as Yu Hyun-mok. Even though his most famous work is the brilliant “The Aimless Bullet”, one of the most influential works of the 1960s, he has directed many features worth discussing and also discovering, as many of them have not even been screened outside of Korea. Throughout his career, Yu was never fixed on one approach in terms of storytelling or visuals, but rather experimented, which is very much the case for his 1965 feature “Empty Dream”,a work based on a Japanese pink film by the title “Daydream”. However, Yu transcends the foundation of the story in many ways, creating a movie that is sometimes deeply funny and silly, while also...

Film at Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema - in collaboration with the Korean Film Archive and the Korean Cultural Center NY - have partnered to showcase a major retrospective of 1960s Korean Cinema, highlighting the country's rapid growth and diverse cinematic styles during this era. The screenings feature English subtitles and sometimes 35mm archival prints, providing audiences with a unique opportunity to explore the innovations and stylistic choices of acclaimed directors from this golden decade. The series includes a mix of genres, from melodramas to monster movies, and some screenings will offer discussions to further delve into the growth of Korea's film industry and the artistic vision of renowned filmmakers. Sponsored by Mubi Go, tickets are available on Film at Lincoln Center's website.

The Hallyu wave has brought Korean entertainment and culture to Western shores more than ever before in recent years, thanks to the global expansion of Kpop and Kdramas.

Film at Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema announce “Korean Cinema's Golden Decade: The 1960s,” a sweeping retrospective that features 24 films from this remarkable period in Korean film history. The series will run from September 1–17 and is one of the largest retrospectives ever of 1960s Korean Cinema outside of Korea, including many rarely screened films, several presented on 35mm archival prints.

Long before Bong Joon Ho, Hong Sangsoo, and Park Chan-wook catapulted South Korean cinema onto the world stage, the foundation of their country's film industry formed in the aftermath of the Korean War. The period kickstarted a wealth of eclectic and innovative filmmaking that culminated in the 1960s. Closer inspection of this decade, now widely considered Korea's premier film renaissance, reveals the arrival of seminal works from auteurs such as Kim Ki-young, Shin Sang-ok, Yu Hyun-mok, Kim Soo-yong, and Lee Man-hee, alongside a meteoric rise and reinvention of genres—from...

The US filmmaker delivered a masterclass at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea.

At the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (Bifan), Beau Is Afraid director Ari Aster gave a masterclass ahead of the film’s screening on opening night (June 29), in which he discussed working with actor Joaquin Phoenix and his affinity for Korean cinema.

On his first trip to South Korea, Aster sat down with his mentor from the American Film Institute (AFI), Barry Sabath, who is also dean of Bifan’s Fantastic Film School (Ffs) workshop, to talk about surrealist drama Beau Is Afraid.

The film stars Phoenix as Beau,...

After making history at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival by becoming the first South Korean director to win the Palme d’Or, “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho encouraged cinephiles around the world to seek out more works of South Korean cinema. Thanks to the Korean Film Archive’s official YouTube page, Bong’s wish could not be easier for American moviegoers to fulfill. The Kfa is streaming over 200 feature films for free right now on YouTube, many of which have been uploaded to the platform in restored versions.

The Guardian was the first to shine a spotlight on the massive list of Korean films now streaming for free. Major Korean filmmakers such as the New Korean Cinema icon Im Kwon-taek are represented with multiple films available for viewing. The archive goes back to films released in the 1960s, such as Hyun-mok Yoo’s postwar drama “Aimless Bullet,” and also spotlights early work...