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When something works, people tend to take notice. For film studios and producers, that means looking at what films score at the box office, why and how their good fortunes can be replicated. For example, Quentin Tarantino’s success in the early 1990s inspired a wealth of copycats, not to mention the often-used critical descriptor Tarantinoesque. On the macro scale, comic book adaptions at the beginning of the millennium paved the way for the massive cross-pollinated franchises that dominate the lineups of most major Hollywood studios today.

Whether by strategy of coincidence, blockbusters in Korean cinema also tend to come in waves, grouping around certain themes or genres until the next big thing comes along. Last year, a thirst for Japanese Occupation Era films continued after kicking off in 2015, continuing to mine an interest in stories from a period that filmmakers had rarely dared to explore before. 

In 2017, it appears that at least one of the dominant trends in Korean blockbuster cinema will be films about North Korea. With KIM Sung-hoon’s Confidential Assignment, PARK Hoon-jung’s V.I.P., YOON Jong-bin’s Duke and YANG Woo-suk’s Gang-cheol-bi (Steel Rain - WT) all on the horizon. Let’s take a look at the rich history of South Korean films dealing with complicated cross-border politics.

 

If we look at the modern era of Korean cinema, as one of the world’s most stable film industries, we can go all the way back to KANG Je-kyu’s Swiri in 1999. Swiri was celebrated for its unparalleled technical sheen and ambition at the time, and while the whole industry took steps towards more sophisticated production values, some more enterprising filmmakers took note of its subject. KANG’s advanced craft was impressive, but ultimately it was most effective as a way of foregrounding the film’s theme of Korean unification. Furthermore, while North Korea-themed films were far from uncommon, Swiri cast a more sympathetic and complex light on its North Korean protagonists than previous works.

Six years later, five of the top six Korean films of all time (all released during the intervening five years) featured North Korean themes, while four of them had sympathetic North Korean protagonists. These included the aforementioned Swiri, PARK Chan-wook’s Joint Security Area / JSA (2000), KANG Woo-suk’s Silmido (2003), KANG Je-kyu’s TaeGukGi: Brotherhood Of War (2004) and PARK Kwang-hyun’s Welcome To Dongmakgol (2005). 

In PARK Chan-wook’s film, a pair of South Korean soldiers on duty along the demilitarized zone accidentally make contact with a North Korean pair over the border, and the four become friends. KANG Woo-suk’s Silmido featured a group of South Korean convicts in the 1970s secretly assembled at a training camp in order to eventually assassinate the North Korean president KIM Il-sung. In KANG Je-kyu’s Swiri follow-up TaeGukGi: Brotherhood Of War, two brothers are separated during the Korean War and find themselves fighting on opposite sides. Welcome To Dongmakgol, written and produced by JANG Jin, who had explored North Korean narratives before with his directorial debut The Spy in 1999, takes place in a remote mountain village during the Korean War where soldiers from opposite sides converge and fraternize.

North Korea has been a fixture of Korean cinema since the end of the Korean War. In the mid-50s many anti-communist titles were bankrolled by the US Army, including KIM Ki-young’s debut feature The Boxes of Death (1955). The ‘commie’ narrative remained the go-to for North Korean stories in the South until the late 90s, at which point Swiri ushered in more complex readings of the North. Yet the favor for North Korean films died down in the mid-noughts. Studios stopped bankrolling films dealing with North Korea, perhaps due to fears over their significant costs or because of changes in the political climate. 

Yet the popular combination of spectacle and sociopolitical themes made a return to screens in 2010 with the release of John H. LEE’s Korean War film 71-Into The Fire, which was a modest success, but particularly JANG Hun’s smash hit drama Secret Reunion, featuring SONG Kang-ho as a disgraced South Korean agent who forms a bond with a former North Korean spy played by GANG Dong-won.

The next wave of North Korean films came in 2013, with the release of four major titles, including RYOO Seung-wan’s The Berlin File, JANG Cheol-soo’s Secretly Greatly, PARK Hong-soo’s Commitment and WON Shin-yun’s The Suspect. All of these titles featured sympathetic North Korean spies who defy their orders while on missions abroad. While the films were mostly reasonably successful, the more popular Joseon Era titles pushed them out of the spotlight until more recently. 

A pair of patriot films with wholly negative portrayals of North Korea scored at the box office in 2015 and 2016. First was KIM Hak-soon’s naval skirmish drama Northern Limit Line in 2015, which was followed by John H. LEE’s Korean War title Operation Chromite last summer, featuring Liam Neeson in a supporting role as General MacArthur.

2017 looks to once again deliver more nuanced portrayals of North Korean characters with its quartet of major blockbusters. Kicking things off is KIM Sung-hoon’s Confidential Assignment, which is one of the major Lunar New Year holiday film this year. The film features Hyun-bin as a slick North Korean agent who teams up with YOO Hae-jin’s South Korean police officer to track down a rogue North Korean officer in Seoul.

Next up will be V.I.P. from PARK Hoon-jung, director of New World (2013) and The Tiger (2015), which is the third Korean film from Hollywood major Warner Bros. The story features LEE Jong-suk as the son of a North Korean official suspected of being a serial killer. JANG Dong-gun and KIM Myung-min head the cast as members of intelligence agencies from the North and South who join forces to track him down. V.I.P. is still in production following its October start date.

Meanwhile YOON Jong-bin’s new work Duke just began production. The film features HWANG Jung-min as a South Korean spy who infiltrates the North in the mid-90s to gather intelligence on the country’s nuclear arms development. The CJ Entertainment film, which is being produced by SANAI Pictures, co-stars CHO Jin-woong, LEE Sung-min and HWANG’s Asura : The City of Madness co-star JU Ji-hoon.

Finally, YANG Woo-suk, the director of The Attorney (2013) is currently working on pre-production for his new film Gang-cheol-bi (Steel Rain - W/T), which features another pair of actors from Asura : The City of Madness in the lead, JUNG Woo-sung and KWAK Do-won. JUNG and KWAK play government operatives from North and South Korea who work together to prevent a grave geopolitical situation on the Korean peninsula. The film, which is based on YANG’s own webcomic of the same name, will be distributed by Next Entertainment World.

At the time of this writing, Confidential Assignment is off to a strong start in local multiplexes and should play well throughout the holidays. Time and box office returns will dictate how many North Korea protagonists will appear on screens in the next few years, but for now, 2017 looks to be the year of the spy.