The film Passerby #3, released on November 18th, is based on the autobiography of director SHIN Su-won. Just like the director who has challenged film production after quitting his job as a teacher at junior high school for 7 years, the woman in the film works hard to make her own film in her middle age.

Korean cinema’s most notable phenomenon in 2010 was various tests experimented on genre films. Significant changes had occurred to popular genres and genre film directors too showed certain change in their way of thinking. If genre is where desires collide and interact in excuse of public expectations, such change has quite an implication on dynamics of future genres. In the midst of overall market recession, preferring genre films has become more evident leading to diversification and experiments of genres.

The holiday season at the end of year is a big ticket season for Korea as much as summer season, so the blockbusters are held and opened in this season. The movie Warrior’s Way opened at the holiday season with a huge welcoming buzz that JANG Dong-gun made his Hollywood debut. However, the box office turned out a bit disappointing at the opening week, following movies like The Petty Love and Finding Mr. Destiny that appealed to the young audience for their familiar romantic comedy genre.

As the ‘Action Kid’ of the new millennium, RYOO Seung-wan has been representing the young generation of Korean cinema. The 6 feature films he has directed so far were either homage to the history of genre films (Arahan, Dachimawa Lee), or tended to be the action film version of realism where low lives fight for their survival (The City of Violence, Crying Fist).