Chungmuro: birthplace of Korean cinema
My passion for film photography brought me to Chungmuro, a long street and its surrounding areas north of Namsan Park. As an avid shooter of 35mm film, I can get some of the best product for my addiction in this working-class downtown neighborhood. A short walk from exit 5 of Chungmuro Station and you can find all the film rolls, film cameras, photo studios and development services you need. Places such as Daejin World and Saeki have awide selection of color and black-and-white film, Photopia and Fotomaru aregood places to get those rolls developed, and numerous stores here sellwell-cared-for used cameras. The basics of film photography have not changed much in the last 70 years and this neighborhood feels much the same.
Chungmuro is a place barely touched by the march of time. This is not Myeong-dong, the neighboring mecca of expensive goods and shiny distractions. Chungmuro has a heart; it’s an area that still makes things.
One of the first things you see coming from Chungmuro Station is a wall of pictures showing winners from the Daejong Film Awards. The browned and faded pictures only span 1984 to 2003, having not been updated for some time. They point to the fact this neighborhood was once a center point for the Korean film industry and the culture of the people who came with it. Even though the movie industry has now moved its doors to the shinier pastures of Gangnam and further south to Busan and Jeju Island, Chungmuro is still a metonym for Korea’s silver screen for a certain generation.
Jumping out exit 8 into the side streets and alleyways, you find the space taken up by reams of paper, loading trucks, courier scooters and workers taking long smoke breaks, their fingers stained with soot or ink. Here is the place to satisfy all your printing needs in Seoul. The staffs in the print shops I have used have been friendly, helpful and, most importantly, quick to deal with my printing needs. Once, a large order of CD inlays I needed was completed in an hour, all cut and ready to go. In that time I wandered the side streets, which are great for candid photography.
These sorts of streets are abundant in Chungmuro. South of the subway station is an area called Pildong that hosts traditional culture spots such as Korea House, Namsangol Hanok Village and Seoul Namsan Gugakdang that educate and enlighten people about Korea’s past. The theater was built to best provide the acoustics needed for pansori, a traditional form of Korean storytelling.
Not far from here you can indulge in tradition of another kind. Pildong Myeonok is a decades-old restaurant specializing in Pyongyang-style cold noodles and dumplings. Not my first choice for a meal, but Pildong Myeonok’s dishes easily prove why they have been open for so long and remain popular. The staff were at first a little cautious when I entered, not an uncommon experience, but they very quickly warmed up, answered my questions about the meal and the restaurant, and even took care of some dietary restrictions I had. Back north of the station is Seoul Ttukbaegi (opposite FotoMaru), a 24-hour eatery that does a fantastic and cheap seafood soybean stew with boisterous side dishes. Finish off your time in Chungmuro with a blood-shaking hand-drip coffee from Cafe Oki, which also functions as a gallery space and venue and often has great exhibitions of local photographers and artists.
Whilst most downtown visitors will be drawn to Myeong-dong, personally I much prefer this low-key area to its east. Chungmuro and its surroundings feel more like what Seoul is really like.