2019 is a year where the South Korean film fraternity made history. Not only did it mark 100 long year’s of the country’s film industry but it also brought the Koreans their first Palme d’Or – The highest prize at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. While the South Korean film industry is currently notable for the kind of audacious films that are produced in the subcontinent, their film history goes beyond the past few decades or so. There’s an instant fix to this, though. Recently, as reported by The Guardian, more than 150 Classic Korean Films are Streaming for Free on YouTube.
The film history of South Korea is a little less known to the hearsays. The Korean Film Archive is here to fix that glitch. Film lovers need to rejoice as more than 150 Classic Korean films are now streaming on the film archive’s ever-expanding library on their YouTube channel. The upside to this is that these films are absolutely free for everyone which makes it a huge step to avail the country’s cinema to a wider audience.
While we might have to wait for a few more months to official see Bong Joon-ho’s Palme D’Or-winning black comedy Parasite, this step by the country’s film archive give us a chance to dive into the history and influences that might have shaped Joon-ho’s influential cinema.
Current more than 100 feature-length classics are available to stream on the Korean Film Archive’s YouTube channel including erotic drams Between the Knees. The erotic film obviously holds as the highest viewed film on the channel with over 10 million views. Korean auteur Im Kwon-taek – One of the most essential New Korean cinema connoisseurs is also a part of the channel with period films like Sopyonje and Chunhyang. His 2002 film Painted Fire earned Korea it’s first Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. While there is an overabundance of films on the channel there’s no way one can suggest where to really start.
Check Out Which Classic Korean Films are Streaming for Free Here
