RE: How cinema introduced me to Korean culture

Few people are interested in films from different countries.

I am really thankful for those two (of four) channels that would air foreign films at night when I was growing up. I was never good at sleeping, even if I had to go to school the following day. That TV was a small 14" CRT. Channel Four in the UK would air Asian cinema a lot. I remember seeing films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the first time. An introduction into the more chaotic films like Battle Royale. Also the more artistic films from Wong Kar-wai.

So I definitely ended up growing up curious about the world. Especially since this was still dial-up Internet era and my PC access was incredibly thin, so all I knew about the world was from the documentaries and films I was seeing on TV, or reading about in books. And as it felt like I had seen most films from a certain country, I'd just look up another country's cinema to check that out.

I also don't think that any foreigner on Hive, except you, watches Soviet cinema :)

Russia and the former republics of the USSR are still heavily unknown to most around the world. Part of that will be the language differences, but some of it will also be just a general lack of education into the regions themselves. But fortunately I do think there's a big increase in foreign film viewership these days. People caring less about subtitles. Things like Squid Game show that. Perhaps in a few years we'll see a bit more interest in the Soviet world too ;^)

I do/did watch Soviet cinema but then again I studied film in Uni ( in the 2000s ).