DO YOU KNOW? Korea Once Had “Video Rooms” 🔞
Before Netflix, before smartphones, and even before DVD rooms, young Koreans had a very different place to watch movies.
Warning: This story may be hard on the knees. 🔞
When I was an elementary school kid in Korea, we had a VCR at home.
There was also a video rental shop in our neighborhood.
You would walk in, look through rows of VHS cases, choose a movie, take the tape home and return it later.
Eventually, many of those shops began renting comic books too.
That part isn’t just my memory. Video rental stores spread rapidly across Korea in the 1980s, and by the 1990s, many had expanded into book and comic rentals as well.
But honestly, I wasn’t that interested in movies yet.
I was a comic-book kid.
Sometimes my father would rent a movie and I would watch it with him. I remember movies like Once Upon a Time in China.
Otherwise, movies usually meant holiday specials on TV or something good appearing on a weekend movie program.
And then there were the VHS tapes hidden deep inside our wardrobe.
No title.
No label.
Nothing.
I never asked my father what was on those tapes.
Some mysteries are better left unsolved. 😂
Then I Grew Up
By the time I became an adult and started dating, movies had become a much bigger part of my life.
Of course, my girlfriend and I went to movie theaters.
But theaters had one problem.
You could only watch what was currently playing.
And you had to follow their schedule.
If there was nothing interesting showing — or if, for some reason, the movie wasn’t really the main purpose of the evening — Korea had another option.
The video room.
Or in Korean:
비디오방 — video bang.
This wasn’t a video rental store.
You chose a VHS movie and watched it right there, inside a small private room.
Video rooms began spreading across Korea in the early 1990s, particularly around university districts and busy downtown areas. By 1994, newspapers were already describing video-room franchises as a promising new business.
But those early video rooms weren’t exactly luxury cinemas.
At least, not the ones I remember.
There was a TV.
There was a VCR.
There was a room.
And sometimes…
there was basically just the floor.
No luxurious reclining sofa.
No premium mattress.
Just a hard floor.
Remember that detail.
It becomes important later.
People Went There to Watch Movies
At least, that was the official explanation.
😂
A friend of mine once worked part-time at a video room, so I occasionally stopped by.
When customers left, part of his job was pretty simple.
Clean the room.
Wipe the floor.
Replace the tissues.
A lot of tissues.
I have absolutely no statistical evidence to support what I’m about to say.
None.
But if you ask me,
half the operating budget of a Korean video room probably went to tissues.
😂
And remember that hard floor I mentioned?
Let’s just say some customers probably left with more than memories of the movie.
Their knees remembered too.
You Could Even Stay Until Morning
Video rooms were also surprisingly flexible.
Unlike a theater, you weren’t waiting for a fixed screening time.
And at some places, if you went late in the evening, you could stay until morning.
Watch a movie.
Maybe watch another one.
Fall asleep.
Or…
whatever.
😂
For young Koreans without much money, that made the video room something more than a tiny cinema.
It was affordable entertainment.
It was somewhere to spend time.
And for couples, it was one of the relatively few places where you could close a door and have some privacy.
Contemporary reporting confirms that video rooms had become a major part of Korea’s 1990s youth “room culture”; later DVD businesses would deliberately try to distance themselves from the somewhat notorious reputation video rooms had acquired.
Those reports use much more serious language than I would.
I just remember the tissues.
Then I Went to the Military
And Korea kept changing while I was away.
By the time I returned from military service, the places I remembered as video rooms were increasingly becoming something newer.
DVD rooms.
This part of my memory lines up almost perfectly with the technology.
Korea’s DVD market began taking shape around 2000, and by 2001 newspapers were already describing DVD rooms as the new cultural space replacing the old video-room experience.
The difference was obvious.
Better picture.
Better sound.
Bigger screens.
Better interiors.
And, importantly…
better sofas.
A 2001 report described DVD rooms equipped with large projection TVs, surround speakers and comfortable seating, with two-person admission typically around 11,000–12,000 won. Their main customers were people in their 20s — university students and young workers.
The technology had changed.
The basic idea hadn’t.
Choose something to watch.
Rent a private room.
Close the door.
And Then I Stopped Going
Not because DVD rooms suddenly disappeared.
They disappeared from my life first.
I finished military service.
I started working.
I started making money.
The internet became faster, and movies became much easier to find at home.
And if you wanted privacy, there were more comfortable places where you could watch movies too.
So eventually I had to ask myself:
Why am I paying money to sit in a tiny room?
Especially when…
my knees are worth protecting. 😂
The Room Kept Evolving Without Me
Korea’s “room” culture didn’t simply vanish.
Video rooms became DVD rooms.
Some of the idea continued through multi-bangs — multi-rooms where people could watch movies, play games, use computers and spend time together in one private space.
And presumably engage in certain activities that were not listed on the price board.
😂
But the bigger change was happening outside those rooms.
The internet brought movies into our computers.
Then smartphones brought them into our pockets.
Then streaming services made thousands of movies and shows instantly available almost anywhere.
By 2010, reports were already describing the collapse of Korea’s once enormous video/DVD rental ecosystem, with online downloads and other forms of digital viewing rapidly replacing physical rental culture.
Eventually, you didn’t need to go somewhere to find the movie.
The movie came with you.
Maybe This Story Sounds Familiar
While writing about Korea’s old comic-book rooms recently, I realized something.
My comics followed almost the same path as my movies.
I once went to a comic rental shop to get comics.
Then comics moved onto my computer.
Then they moved onto my phone.
And eventually became webtoons.
Movies did the same thing.
I once went to a video rental shop to get movies.
Then I went to a video room to watch them.
Then came DVD rooms.
Then computers.
Then smartphones.
Then streaming.
The technology changed.
The places disappeared.
But I’m not sure we changed all that much.
We still want stories.
We still want entertainment.
And apparently, we still want privacy.
One Small Problem
There is one funny thing I remember about video rooms.
Sometimes, years later, a movie I had supposedly watched there would appear on TV.
Maybe on a weekend movie program.
I’d sit down and watch it.
And after a while I’d think:
“Wait… I’ve seen this movie before.”
Strange.
I remembered going to the video room.
I remembered the room.
I even remembered who I went with.
I just didn’t remember very much of the movie.
😂
So yes.
Korea once had video rooms.
They were part cinema, part hangout, part date spot, and part product of a very particular moment in Korean youth culture.
Today, most of us can watch almost anything we want from the palm of our hand.
It’s much more convenient.
Probably much cleaner.
And definitely easier on the knees.
Still… I wonder how much those places really spent on tissues. 😂
Sources / Further Reading
- Kyunghyang Shinmun — “Goodbye Video Rooms, Hello DVD Rooms” (2001)
A contemporary report on the transition from Korea’s video rooms to DVD rooms, including their popularity among university students and young workers, typical prices, and the effort to move away from the old image of video rooms.
Read the article - Electronic Times — “DVD Rooms: Huge Screens and Impressive Sound” (2001)
A look at the rise of DVD rooms as a new cultural space, with larger screens, improved sound systems, comfortable seating, and private rooms for young customers.
Read the article - Electronic Times — “DVD Rooms Emerge as a New Space for Video Culture” (2001)
Reports how DVD rooms spread around university districts and became popular not only for watching movies but also as meeting places and dating spots.
Read the article