# Art Museum by the Zoo (미술관 옆 동물원)
**Art Museum by the Zoo** (미술관 옆 동물원) is a 1998 South Korean romantic comedy-drama directed by Lee Jeong-hyang (이정향), her feature debut, about a wedding videographer and a soldier on leave who end up sharing an apartment and writing a screenplay together. It was released in South Korea on December 19, 1998, runs 108 minutes, and was rated for audiences 15 and older.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | December 19, 1998, South Korea; 108 minutes; genres melodrama/romance and drama[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) |
| Director | Lee Jeong-hyang, her first feature film[2](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=655&page=7&pyear=1999) |
| Lead cast | Shim Eun-ha (Chun-hee), Lee Sung-jae (Chul-soo), Ahn Sung-ki (In-gong), Song Seon-mi (Da-hye)[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) |
| Admissions | 413,216 in South Korea[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) |
| Production | Cine 2000; distributed by Cinema Service[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) |
| Major awards | 1999 Daejong Film Awards: Best Actress (Shim Eun-ha), Best New Director, Best New Actor; Blue Dragon Awards: Best Screenplay, Best New Actor[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001) |
| Screenplay origin | Won the scenario section of the 1997 Blue Dragon Film Festival before production[4](https://www.hankyung.com/article/1998081301381) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Chun-hee (Shim Eun-ha) shoots wedding videos for a living and secretly loves In-gong (Ahn Sung-ki), a tidy, polished aide to a National Assembly member whom she keeps running into at weddings.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) Chul-soo ([Lee Sung-jae](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-sung-jae)), a soldier on his final leave, goes to his girlfriend Da-hye's apartment to surprise her, only to find she has moved out; he learns she is about to marry another man.[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001) With nowhere to go, he stays in the apartment over the strong objection of Chun-hee, its new tenant.[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001)
The two are opposites in nearly every way. Chul-soo is loud and forthright and likes the zoo with its crowds; Chun-hee keeps her distance and likes art museums and rooms with a view.[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001) After quarreling constantly, they reach a compromise in the screenplay Chun-hee is writing for a contest: they write it together and title it *Art Museum by the Zoo*, using In-gong and Da-hye as stand-ins for the loves they could not achieve in reality.[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001) • [1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) As they write, affection grows between them.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094)
## Production and director
Lee Jeong-hyang, born in 1964, majored in French Language and [Literature](https://www.edgepedia.org/literature) at Sogang University and studied film at the Korean Academy of Film Art; *Art Museum by the Zoo* is her first feature film.[2](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=655&page=7&pyear=1999) The project was developed by the production company Cine 2000, which had made *Whispering Corridors* the same year, and the film was announced in August 1998 with Ahn Sung-ki, Shim Eun-ha, Lee Sung-jae, and Song Seon-mi cast as its leads.[4](https://www.hankyung.com/article/1998081301381) • [1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) Cho Yong-kyu was the director of photography, Kim Sang-bum the editor, and Kim Yang-hee the composer.[2](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=655&page=7&pyear=1999)
Scenes set around the art museum and zoo were filmed at [Seoul Grand Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/seoul-grand-park), where the reservoir plaza and the goldfish plaza in front of the South American animal house are promoted as the film's shooting locations.[5](https://www.tour.go.kr/FileSystem/UploadTemp/SendNewsLetter/%EC%A0%9C426%ED%98%B8_%EA%B4%80%EA%B4%91%EA%B4%80%EB%A0%A8%EC%A0%95%EB%B6%80%EC%A0%95%EC%B1%85%282014%EB%85%84%209%EC%9B%944%EC%A3%BC%29.pdf)
## Reception and awards
The film drew 413,216 admissions in South Korea, and Cine21's registered expert rating is 7.80 against an audience rating of 8.33.[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094) At the 1999 award season it collected a broad set of honors: the Daejong Film Awards named Shim Eun-ha Best Actress and gave Best New Director and Best New Actor prizes; the Blue Dragon Awards gave Best Screenplay and Best New Actor; the Chunsa Film Festival gave Best Screenplay, Best New Director, and Best New Actor; and the Paeksang Arts Awards gave Best New Actor.[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001) The film was also invited to festivals including Fantas Porto, where it screened in the New Directors section in 2001, and the Durban International Film Festival.[3](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001)
**Audience standing.** In a survey of 1,142 women aged 16 and over conducted in December 1999, the film was chosen as the best film of 1999 by women audiences, ahead of *[A Single Spark](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-single-spark)* in second place; Lee Jeong-hyang ranked third among directors women liked, after [Lee Chang-dong](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-chang-dong) and Lee Myung-se.[6](https://www.imaeil.com/page/view/2000020314320254392) Reviewers abroad noted that the film avoids throwing its leads into a conventional romantic maelstrom despite the familiar setup, and that its appeal lies in the journey rather than the destination.[7](https://fareastfilms.com/review/art-museum-by-the-zoo/)
## The screenplay within the film
The film's central device is a picture-within-a-picture: the script the two leads write together presents the loves of four people, with In-gong and Da-hye serving both as characters in the script and as idealized images of Chun-hee and Chul-soo.[2](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=655&page=7&pyear=1999) A 2018 academic study of the film argues that writing forms its main plot: Chun-hee's script is first advanced with Chul-soo's help, then Chul-soo increasingly takes over the writing and ultimately completes it, so that the reader becomes the writer while the two characters move past their painful past loves and fall for each other; the study reads this as showing writing and reading in a relationship of coexistence rather than hierarchy.[8](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002343577)
## Legacy
The film is regularly cited as a representative work of 1990s Korean romantic comedy, and its everyday ordinariness is given as the reason it is still mentioned as a representative Korean melodrama.[9](https://www.biff.kr/pop/20250903/Ticket-Catalogue.pdf) Lee Jeong-hyang followed it with *The Way Home* (2002), and critics have traced a continuity between the two films in their focus on women protagonists and quiet, small-voice storytelling.[10](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=4868) At the 2025 Busan International Film Festival, one of five emerging women directors invited to name the Korean film that most shaped their own cinema chose *Art Museum by the Zoo*.[11](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250807048900051) The film remains available on streaming services in Korea.[12](https://embed.beta.netflix.com/kr/title/80230605)
## References
1. [미술관 옆 동물원 (Art Museum by the Zoo) 상세정보, Cine21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=2094)
2. [Art Museum by the Zoo, Busan International Film Festival archive (4th, 1999, Korean Panorama)](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=655&page=7&pyear=1999)
3. [Art Museum By The Zoo (1998), Korean Film Council/KOFIC database](https://koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19980001)
4. [미술관 옆 동물원에 안성기/심은하 캐스팅, 한국경제 (1998-08-13)](https://www.hankyung.com/article/1998081301381)
5. [관광관련 정부정책, Korea Culture & Tourism Institute newsletter no. 426 (2014)](https://www.tour.go.kr/FileSystem/UploadTemp/SendNewsLetter/%EC%A0%9C426%ED%98%B8_%EA%B4%80%EA%B4%91%EA%B4%80%EB%A0%A8%EC%A0%95%EB%B6%80%EC%A0%95%EC%B1%85%282014%EB%85%84%209%EC%9B%944%EC%A3%BC%29.pdf)
6. [여성이 뽑은 '99 최고의 영화-'미술관 옆 동물원', 매일신문 (2000-02-03)](https://www.imaeil.com/page/view/2000020314320254392)
7. [Art Museum by the Zoo (1998) Review, Far East Films](https://fareastfilms.com/review/art-museum-by-the-zoo/)
8. [김중철 (2018). 영화 <미술관 옆 동물원>으로 본 쓰기와 읽기의 관계, 사고와표현 11(1), 157-176](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART002343577)
9. [Busan International Film Festival, Special Program in Focus IV catalogue (2025)](https://www.biff.kr/pop/20250903/Ticket-Catalogue.pdf)
10. [말없이, 미소가 싹트다, Cine21 (2001-10-31)](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=4868)
11. [부산국제영화제, 신인 여성 감독이 추천한 한국영화 특별기획전, 연합뉴스 (2025-08-07)](https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250807048900051)
12. [미술관 옆 동물원, Netflix](https://embed.beta.netflix.com/kr/title/80230605)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 1995 to 1999 › Black and satirical comedies › Released 1995 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license