Current Events > Why is S.Korea so damn morbid with its movies?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Maybe this is just selection bias and it's just that morose films make it to western popularity, but whatever the case is, whenever I'm watching a Korean movie I just prepare myself in advance for the worst possible outcome.

It's not even enough to think, "ok, this character is cool but he's probably going to die". No, that's not how Korea rolls. It's more like, "this guy is cool. For the next 60 minutes we are going to watch him go through bankruptcy, lose a couple limbs, descend into madness, have the villain steal his wife and children and ultimately watch him never achieve the revenge that was the entire purpose of the film."


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that sounds a lot like russian media

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idk if it's necessarily that their movies are morbid or that they're known for their morbid movies in the west, so it kinda seems that way because it's what we're looking for.

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The culture here is under incredible societal pressure from work, familial expectations, body expectations, romantic expectations, and it's incredibly competitive here.

So seeing a person you really want to root for overcome all of those obstacles is kind of like a reflection of the viewer. Like "Hey, if they can do that, there is still hope" kinda thing.

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The Host had a kinda good ending

well, as good as you can expect from a monster movie.

incidentally, anyone who says why would anyone watch a monster movie and care about the humans? needs to stfu and watch The Host.

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i mostly prefer korean comedy like my boss my hero 1 and 2

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I really like Snowpiercer a lot. It gets dark in places, but it's also this crazy over the top surreal thing.

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Kastrada posted...

The culture here is under incredible societal pressure from work, familial expectations, body expectations, romantic expectations, and it's incredibly competitive here.

So seeing a person you really want to root for overcome all of those obstacles is kind of like a reflection of the viewer. Like "Hey, if they can do that, there is still hope" kinda thing.

What I mean is that in many of the korean movies I've seen, there isn't a happy aspirational ending - the good guys lose.

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yeah they usually go all out with the tragedy

wouldnt mind if they toned it down a little


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pinky0926 posted...

For the next 60 minutes we are going to watch him go through bankruptcy, lose a couple limbs, descend into madness, have the villain steal his wife and children and ultimately watch him never achieve the revenge that was the entire purpose of the film."

Id be wary of assigning a purpose, especially a traditionally Western one, to any Korean film. It is not uncommon that the purpose is not the revenge, for example, but to show that events in life have effects that could be devastating and unavoidable. The suffering or the hopelessness could be the point.

Watch The Wailing to see this in action.


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pinky0926 posted...

What I mean is that in many of the korean movies I've seen, there isn't a happy aspirational ending - the good guys lose.

Ohhhh. I missed that last part. I think it's more what this poster said:

g0ldie posted...

idk if it's necessarily that their movies are morbid or that they're known for their morbid movies in the west, so it kinda seems that way because it's what we're looking for.

If anything most of the movies that are popular-ish here are the painfully unfunny rom-coms, historical epics, or gangster flicks. Even more so if they star some idol moving into the acting realm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_South_Korea

Most of those fall under one of those three categories I mentioned before. The outliers are Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook because they are the most critically acclaimed and well respected directors in the country. The only non Bong/Park movie there that would go with the morbid route would be The Wailing.

I think it's just that Bong/Park and Lee Chang-dong and the like are so fucking phenomenal that they translate very well to foreign audiences and it can cloud a person's view of what Korean cinema is actually like.

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Interesting. Thanks for the post.

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Name of movies, please

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The only popular movie from their I could think of is parasite.

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Castaway On The Moon
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
Sunny
Extreme Job
A Werewolf Boy
My Sassy Girl
The Thieves
The Good, The Bad, The Weird

Bad_Mojo posted...

Name of movies, please

What came to mind when making this topic

• Oldboy
• Train to Busan
• Parasite
• I saw the devil

Thinking about it, maybe the real problem here is that I like horror movies >_>

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pinky0926 posted...

I saw the devil

he got his revenge though

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Koreans have had a harsh history and even harsher reality. And people tend to grin and bear it.

It comes out in art and cinema I guess.

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