Premiere of Na Un-gyu’s Film "Arirang"

The silent film "Arirang", written, directed and starring Na Un-gyu, opened at the Dansungsa theatre and became a great hit — a landmark of Korean cinema voicing the anger of a colonized people.

Opening at Dansungsa in Seoul in October 1926, "Arirang" tells of Yeong-jin, a young man driven mad, who kills the landlord’s overseer O Gi-ho when he tries to assault his sister, and is led away by a Japanese policeman over Arirang Pass. It was shown with a narrator (byeonsa), and audiences sang the theme song "Arirang" together.

Evading censorship while carrying a spirit of resistance to colonial reality, it is regarded as the start of national cinema. Around the same time the Towolhoe (1923), founded by students in Tokyo, led the "new drama" movement in modern theatre.