A Korean film director and actor during the colonial period. He took part in the March First Movement in Hoeryong in 1919, later joined independence activities, and was arrested in 1921 and sentenced to two years in prison. In October 1926, he made and released the film Arirang.
A place in Korean culture
Arirang remains a symbolic work in Korean film history; the Korean Film Archive has made its centenary the focus of scholarly programs on the past and future of Korean cinema. The film also helped bring its theme song, Arirang, to a much wider public.
What else to know
Na Un-gyu matters again today because the loss of the film print did not erase the work’s presence. Surviving stills and records, together with a song that people continue to sing, show how a film can keep meeting new audiences a century later.
The story behind it
2026 marks 100 years since Arirang was first shown. Ahead of the exact centenary on October 1, the Seoul Museum of Korean Folk Music is taking registrations today for a program that revisits both the film and the folk song through listening and communal singing.
