Christmas in August

Christmas in August (8월의 크리스마스, Palwolui Christmas) is a 1998 South Korean romance drama film. It was director Hur Jin-ho's debut and stars Han Suk-kyu and Shim Eun-ha.

With 422,930 admissions in Seoul and screenings at the Singapore and Pusan, the film to date has enduring fanbase in Asia and is often used for teaching screenwriting and cinematography in China and South Korea. Also in 1998, this film was invited to screen in the International Critics Week section at the Cannes International Film Festival. It placed 4th in the box-office among Korean films in 1998. Because of its success, this film was playing at the Hong Kong Art Center on August 3, 1999. Since it became so popular, it had a full commercial release on Broadway Cinematheque from September 30 till November 24. It was one of the titles garnering critical and popular support for the emerging Korean film industry, as well as inspiring subsequent works made in its tribute.

The film has also had an enduring influence within the Korean film industry. Actor Jang Hyuk reportedly studied the film in preparation for his comeback role in MBC drama "Thank You". Assistant Director Park Heung-shik was influenced by particular scenes of Jung-won washing rice and teaching his father the VCR remote control, for his film Bravo, My Life!. The muffled weeping scene also found its way into My Mother, the Mermaid. Characters in Barking Dogs Never Bite and Girls' Night Out are shown, respectively, watching scenes of the VCR remote and lovers' stroll. Han and Shim are named as ideal casting choices by the eponymous aspiring script writer in My Sassy Girl.

The film recently landed in the top spot of Movie Week's special feature of 10 Best Korean Romance/Melodrama from 1980-2007, touting the lead performances as gold standards of the genre. In the same feature, noted director Song Hae-seong of Failan, names the scene of a lonely Jung-won singing "In the Street" by Kim Kwang Suk (whose funeral portrait inspired Hur Jin-ho's debut film), as a particularly resonant example of melodrama transcending its genre to express humanity's essence.