Individuals buy film tickets at a theater in Seoul. Newsis
Korean audiences are turning away from formulaic style movies and gravitating as an alternative towards extra human-centered tales that strip away extra spectacle. In a cultural second saturated with ever-intensifying stimuli, viewers seem more and more drawn to movies that supply heat, emotion and on a regular basis expertise quite than scale or shock worth.
In 2025, range movies — works that break from standard style formulation and current unfamiliar views — discovered notable success within the Korean market. As an alternative of large-scale conflicts between good and evil or visually elaborate, incident-driven plots, audiences embraced tales rooted in private emotion and lived expertise.
The box-office chief amongst Korean movies launched this 12 months was “My Daughter Is a Zombie,” which earned reward for mixing zombie motion with household drama. Not like typical zombie narratives centered on survival, the movie targeted on a father’s battle to guard his daughter, combining style thrills with human-centered storytelling.
Director Yeon Sang-ho’s low-budget movie “The Ugly” additionally turned successful. Produced with simply 200 million received ($150,000), the movie generated near 11 billion received in income. Critics mentioned it succeeded by stripping away cinematic gildings to focus on the distinctiveness of its occasions, themes and characters. Moderately than counting on fast scene transitions, the movie allowed its working time to circulation in line with the emotional shifts of its narrator — a method viewers discovered refreshing.
Impartial movies additionally made a notable mark. “The World of Love” drew 150,000 viewers regardless of restricted screenings, incomes popularity of its recent portrayal of teenage relationships and company.
Style fatigue drives audiences away
Korean blockbusters have lengthy been dominated by crime, thriller and motion. Lots of the nation’s greatest hits from the 2010s — together with “Veteran,” “The Roundup,” “The Thieves,” “Anonymous Gangster,” “New World,” “Prepare to Busan” and the “Alongside With the Gods” sequence — constructed a loyal following and even impressed repeat viewings.
However familiarity finally become predictability. As comparable formulation have been repeated — fierce battles between good and evil, male-centered narratives, strategically positioned humor and large-scale motion — audiences grew weary. Viewers mentioned they may typically guess the movie’s plot improvement from the title alone.
The business additionally noticed a sequence of high-budget releases that emphasised scale over substance. Regardless of abroad places, placing visuals and star-studded casts, many failed to fulfill viewers expectations and quietly exited theaters after harsh critiques.
Audiences immediately need greater than genre-derived thrills. With huge content material choices out there, they selectively hunt down well-crafted movies. Theaters perform not solely as areas for grand-scale spectacles but in addition as locations the place viewers hope to really feel emotionally moved.
Advertising approaches should adapt as nicely. That is the period of word-of-mouth, with actual viewer reactions on social media shaping the choices of potential audiences. Movies equivalent to “The World of Love” and “Individuals and Meat” demonstrated the ability of viewer-driven momentum, with on-line demand for wider launch instantly contributing to an growth in screening places.
Cultural critic Kim Heon-sik mentioned latest years have confirmed {that a} movie doesn’t want a large price range to win audiences. “Good motion pictures will all the time be chosen by viewers, even with out large capital,” he mentioned. “The business should overcome uniformity and enhance alternatives for various mid-scale movies to succeed in audiences.”
This text from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Occasions, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Occasions.
