Poster Design of Korean Films ④ - In the 1990s

Ahn Sung-ki's tired face and Lee Kyoung-young's fearful and tense expression correspond with the head copy ‘I have to go back to being dashingly alive. I have to go back to being alive no matter what.’ This is one of the famous Korean movie posters of the early 1990s. The green-toned visuals, which give a washed-out feeling, are images generated by computer graphics. Designs incorporating computer-manipulated images have appeared a lot since the early 1990s.

It is a poster made from photos taken expressly for the design. Both the photo and the title are designed in blue tone, the key color of the movie. Perhaps because dir. Lee majored in design, the names of designers in each field appear in the credits more than the others. Photos by Son Gi-chul, design by the late CEO Jeong Seung-hye of Achim Pictures, and the copy written by Shim Jae-myung, who planned this film at the time and is now the CEO of Myung Films.

Korean movie posters in the 1990s developed dramatically with the influx of professional designers. This poster is also beautifully designed. It can be seen as a poster attempting a kind of ‘color marketing,’ which was designed in a consistent tone with a brown color representative of the movie.

The poster, featuring semi-nude photos of Shim Hye-jin and Jin Hee-kyung to advertise an erotic thriller, was quite a sensation at the time of its release. The black and white photo gives the first impression that it is classy and sophisticated rather than titillating. The pose, with the actress’ long-nailed hands covering her chest and the phrase "If I can't have it, I will dig into it!" are the perfect match. Photographer Son Gi-chul took the picture.

In the early 1990s, Choi Jin-sil was 'a bright and cute actress.' So, when this poster was released, her transformation was, in short, a "shock" to the public. Choi’s new look was surprising enough to give the impression that the main character in Yang Gui-ja's novel of the same title was embodied in Choi. This is a good example of how strong an impression an actor's photo can leave on the audience.

This poster appropriates the motif of Klimt's "Kiss" and became a hot topic when it was released. This was designed by 'Cineworld' that produced the vast majority of ads of Korean movies in the early and mid-1990s. The picture was drawn by Lee Jong-hyeok, a painter and film director. In order to match the movie title, the designer scanned real bark and fallen leaves and completed the poster with computer graphics so that the audience can feel wood texture.

This movie had a unique theme and advertising campaign. This movie attracted a lot of attention for its brochure design of an unconventional and sensational series that does not feature the actors’ faces. The inter-relation between food and sex is well expressed using visual metaphors of cucumbers, peaches, dolls, and so on. It was designed by Baek Jong-ryeol, a former graphic designer.

The poster, with the actors' photos placed small on the frame and hundreds of dogs packed in the center, gives the exact impression of the original Korean title, Dog Day Afternoon. It is a poster of a metaphorical expression that remains faithful to the title without directly explaining the story. I would like to applaud the hard work of the marketing and design teams who completed this unique film by a rookie director with such challenging visuals.

There is a South Korean flag in the distance, and a girl with a sad face stands helplessly with a petal-shaped pin in her hair. As if taken at the site of the 1980 Gwangju, the gripping power of this photo shows how great emotions a poster can convey to the audience. The photo, taken in b/w, conveys the sense of realism of the time and the typography delivers a hopeful feeling. The photo is the work of artist O Hyeong-geun.

It is a poster that expresses the sensibility of the generation which experienced the electronically connectedness with fresh typography whose consonants and vowels are separated. The bluntly smeared photo by O Hyun-geun also strengthened its mood. Graphic designer Kim Sang-man's debut work. His works include Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Parasite and so on. Later, he became a director and helmed Girl Scout, Midnight F.M., and The Tenor-Lirico Spinto.

In the 1990s, posters of foreign films such as Grand Blue and A River Runs through It were hung in cafes across the country and became popular as interior props. At that time, posters of sophisticated Korean movies also began to sell as interior props, and this poster, taken by photographer Yun Hyeong-mun was one of the most popular at the time. In the late '90s, Korean movie posters began to attract attention as a "a work of design" audiences wanted to own.

Busy police vehicles stand under the bridge, and streetlights and car headlights flash brightly over the bridge. A murder seems to have occurred on a night when the soggy humidity engulfs the whole body. When looking at this international poster painted in oil, the first attempt in the Korean movie posters, the feeling would be felt at once. This is one of the best Korean movie posters of the 1990s, worthy even of being hung in the Museum of Modern Art.