Why films from South Korea are so well received in Europe and the USA

Success in Europe and the USA What's behind the hype about films from South Korea As of: November 12, 2026 • 1:37 p.m

The South Korean cinema market is the fifth largest in the world - and the films from the country are usually also celebrated in Europe and the USA. The most recent example: “Possible Love” is considered one of the best of the year.

The New York Times named Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" the best film of the 21st century in 2025. This year, South Korea is sending “Possible Love” by director Lee Chang-dong into the running for the Oscar for “Best International Film”. The social drama won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

The South Korean cinema market is the fifth largest in the world. With an estimated 150 million cinema visits per year, the country's film industry has enjoyed an unprecedented rise in recent years. When a film from South Korea is released in cinemas in this country, it is usually popular with critics. “Possible Love” is the latest example.

The social drama quietly tells the story of two opposing couples. On one side is the South Korean working class with the welder Choi Ho-seok and his wife, the mask seamstress Ahn Mi-ok. On the other, the upper class: documentary filmmaker Lee Ye-ji and her husband, the private investor and Porsche driver Han Sang-woo. The couples meet because Ye-ji wants to make a film about a workers' strike in the automobile industry. When she meets Ho-Seok, it is clear that he should be the star of the documentary. The strike ultimately cost him his job.

In "Possible Love" two couples collide: one from the wealthy upper class and one from the working class. The film is South Korea's hope in the Oscar category of Best International Film.

The critics are enthusiastic about "Possible Love": "Again a sensation from South Korea," writes Die Zeit. "The best film of the year," is the headline of Rolling Stone magazine. According to film critic Wolfgang M. Schmitt, "Possible Love" brings Karl Marx's theory of surplus value into the present day. The film shows that labor and capital are in contradiction to each other. Because capitalists make profits by producing more value for workers than they receive in wages. In the film, this contradiction is made clear by the fact that the working class has to toil in front of the camera of the rich, independent filmmaker. The director taps into the workers' feelings "in order to be able to sell the film," says Schmitt in his film analysis.

"Possible Love" is the third widely acclaimed film from South Korea in 2026. Previously, the working class drama "No Other Choice" by Park Chan-wook and the monster action thriller "Hope" by Na Hong-jin stood out positively.

So does the future of cinema really lie in South Korea? “As far as the film is concerned, I wouldn’t speak of takeover,” says cultural scientist Sulgi Lie from the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. There are some well-respected auteur filmmakers in the West, including Bong Joon-ho, Park Chan-wook and Lee Chang-dong. But South Korean cinema is more diverse.

The action thriller "Hope" with police officers fighting monsters has attracted more than four million cinema admissions worldwide.

Cultural scientist Sulgi Lie, whose parents come from South Korea, is nevertheless observing a boom in South Korean cinema in Europe and the USA. Especially since the success of “Parasite”. Bong Joon-ho's horror thriller was the first South Korean production to win the Oscar for Best Film in 2020. This film showed what high political aspirations South Korean films can have, says Sulgi Lie.

That also has to do with the history of the country. South Korea is "a country full of contradictions, which is why class contradictions are also discussed in the films," says the scientist. South Korea quickly rose from an agricultural developing country to a turbo-capitalist nation. Many of the successful directors were politicized by the South Korean democracy movement in the 1980s. At a time when the country was still a military dictatorship, explains Sulgi Lie.

Bong Joon Ho's South Korean social satire "Parasite" won four Oscars. more

The boom in K-pop in the West has also helped South Korean films achieve success in recent years. In addition, South Korean filmmakers have long been oriented towards Hollywood, which makes the films more accessible in the West.

Sulgi Lie explains the dynamic: "The American models are being Koreanized, but the Koreanized form is spreading globally again." The best example of this is the Korean class struggle series “Squid Game,” which can be seen on the US streaming service Netflix. In his opinion, such contradictions would also make South Korean cinema interesting.

“Possible Love” can be seen in cinemas in some places – and on Netflix.

This topic in the program: Bayern2 | Ignition radio | 11/11/2026 | 7:04 p.m