Abstract
This study set out to compare and analyze the spaces in the images and sets of the representative movies that led the new heyday of Korean film since 1997 and examine the characteristics of contemporary Korean modernism in the movies, thus building an academic foundation for future exchanges between contemporary Korean architecture and contemporary Korean cinema. As for methodologies, the study first examined the film theories on how to utilize spaces projected onto moving images. Secondly, the study made an overall comparison of the characteristics of spaces in the representative movies of contemporary Korean cinema since 1997. Finally, the study compared and analyzed them with the intrinsic characteristics of modernism architecture space. The research findings were as follows: first, the representative movies of contemporary Korean cinema since 1997 either had a backdrop of everyday modernism space in the 1970s and 1980s or created a new space of late or post modernism in them that escaped from daily life for the mise-en-$Sc\grave{e}ne$ composition. Secondly, the contemporary Korean cinemas used the unornamented modernism architecture in Korea as the props of revealing the personalities and emotional aspects of the characters in a prominent fashion. Thirdly, they also used communication between internal and external space and spatial severance via the facade window in modernism architecture as important devices for narration organization. Finally, they selected the camera positions by applying the principle of open space, which allows for the expansion, reduction, and distinction of space according to functions, and thus established a methodology to create a space fit for the personalities of characters and stories.