How cinema introduced me to Korean culture

I've been keeping an eye on this community and I think it's one that has great potential given how strong the Korean culture is these days, particularly referring to pop culture. The television series, the movies, the music, and now even the comics! Everything from the nation has really blown up in the past decade, and it's something I'm really happy to see given how rich of a nation it is regarding such subjects. I wanted to contribute to this little contest and share some of my own thoughts, some of the foundations that paved the way to introducing me to Korea. I've told some similar stories in the past here on Hive regarding how I got into cinema, but Korea helped push me into this creative field, helped me discover the photography interest and grow as a person, even if I am still yet to step foot on Korean soil.

When I was growing up, I lived in a small village that was mostly just corn fields in the summer, and more a grey wasteland throughout the rest of the year. It was mostly elderly people that lived there, a more normal part of English life growing up in the countryside. Few young people as the countryside was more a place for retiring. You were either a farmer, or an old person with a small garden you'd tend to. This meant I spent most of the time alone and struggling to find things to do. Also growing up in the golden age of video games, most of my time was spent playing those. Though late at night, on the small boxed television I had in my room, two of the four channels I had access to would air foreign films. I always loved watching them, it had already been a ritual of mine to stay up late over the weekends and watch them, but rarely had I paid attention to the foreign side of things. This would introduce me to Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and of course Korean cinema.

Fast-forward a few more years and I'd be in my teens. I had family that had big DVD collections and animals that needed taking care of while they travelled. Being me with all that free time, I'd accept happily knowing it got me out of the village and into a more populated area. My now brother-in-law decided to give me a selection of recommendations from his collection to watch while he was away. Each of these were Korean titles: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance, and Oldboy. I watched each of these, one after the other, finding them incredibly refreshing after the films from the west I had been watching at the time. It was like these films had something that was missing, they provided something more that felt significantly more human to me. Perhaps it was their stories, their environments, and the frequent discussion of human condition itself, and how things like revenge can fuel us, but also damage us more.

It didn't end here. While I was introduced to Park Chan-wook's work, I was also introduced to the now much more famous Bong Joon Ho with Memories of Murder. This one really stood out to me. An incredible score. A story that was beautifully crafted and tragic, while also showing the difficult lifestyles of those in such remote areas of Korea. Away from the cities and the neon, and into the fields that looked so different to the ones I had always known. Films like The Host would soon follow, and I was hooked. I fell in love with international cinema through Korean cinema. Only later would that New Wave Hong Kong cinema inspire me in different ways. As I grew more fascinated in cinema, particularly international cinema, I would spend countless hours online searching for similar films. I'd discover the total opposite type of stories with Hong Sang-soo's works. The cheaply made and very connected stories that spoke on love and creativity. Right Now, Wrong Then. On The Beach at Night Alone. Nobody's Daughter Haewon. These were a look into how Korean people lived and thought, but also felt.

Through cinema I didn't just get some exposure on the environments and people of Korea. I was also introduced to something that's most definitely highly regarded by most around the world today: the food. Through the discoveries made from watching Korean cinema, I was curious about the food. And I discovered a small Korean-owned restaurant in central London: On The Bab. It was a pricey place, and most of the time you'd have to stand outside in a line waiting for a spot to get in. I'd save up my money for trips there and feast upon incredibly spicy Bibimbap (instantly becoming a major favourite of mine to this day). Tteok-bokki. Korean fried chicken. And I'd wash it all down with a beer brand I can't remember the name of. Stumbling out of the restaurant into the cobblestone street, a little drunk from washing down the spice with alcohol, and my face burning. A similar sight to what you might see on the screen. Though it reminded me heavily of a Korean series I watched once that was basically food porn: Let's Eat.

These days I don't watch films and shows enough to really keep track with the international market like I used to, but I'm really glad that the time I had in the past led me to discovering more about the world in this manner, making it feel significantly larger and more fascinating to me, having grown up in the countryside with a small town nearby. I do hope to visit Korea one day, though I'm sure by that point the Korea I saw in the films and shows back then won't be the same Korea I end up seeing in person.