[Anchor]

Many of you have likely felt disappointed when a film you really wanted to see left theaters too quickly. To ensure that great movies can be enjoyed for a longer time, filmmakers and audiences are launching the "Slow Cinema" movement.

Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung has more.

[Reporter]

Unearthing buried modern history,

[Then we have no choice but to fight for our lives anyway.]

Looking back at the lives of a married couple of songwriters who wrote immortal masterpieces,

[When everyone hears it, they will say, "This is the song, this is my song."]

Turning attention to youths overlooked by society,

[Can I learn welding here?]

[From now on, use this when you look.]

These are entertaining and meaningful independent films that were released last autumn.

Though not blockbusters like The Odyssey, these films serve as the salt and light of our society, yet they disappear even from the few theaters screening them just two to three weeks after release.

[Park Bong-nam / Director of "Sabuk 1980": Completing a film is possible through the tenacity and effort of the director and production team, but theatrical screenings have nothing to do with our capabilities...]

Films that took years of painstaking effort to make are ending their runs without ever truly seeing the light of day.

To change this reality, filmmakers and audiences have stepped up.

It is called the "Slow Cinema" movement.

The idea is for filmmakers and audiences to unite so that good movies can be watched in theaters for a long time.

It is a method where audiences who feel a desire to share the film with others after watching it sponsor and rent out theaters for screenings.

[Yang Hee / Director of "What the Wind Tells": Since the run ended, there have been around 60 rented screenings, most of which have recorded sold-out seats. We are meeting audiences truly slowly.]

On the 2nd, at the request of vocational high school students, a screening of "The Second Semester of the Third Year" invited even adults,

[Kim Hye-jin / Audience: The emotional impact of the movie was so great that I hope we can watch it right in our neighborhood, and since vocational high school students suggested watching it together, we are preparing a screening.]

And on the day before yesterday (the 21st), a "Slow Cinema Day" event was held at a theater in Seoul, where three films were screened consecutively.

The production teams of the three films are determined not to hand them over to OTT platforms until at least the end of the year, continuing their slow theatrical run.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Kim Hyun-sang, Video edited by So Ji-hye, Design by Seo Seung-hyun, VJ by Oh Se-gwan)