Shiri (Hangul: 쉬리; RR: Swiri) is a 1999 South Korean action film, written and directed by Kang Je-gyu and starring Han Suk Kyu, Yunjin Kim and Song Kang Ho.
Swiri was the first Hollywood-style big-budget blockbuster to be produced in the “new” Korean film industry (i.e. after Korea’s major economic boom in late 1990s).
The movie was released under the name Shiri outside of South Korea; in Korea, the title was spelled Swiri. The name refers to Coreoleuciscus splendidus, a fish found in Korean fresh-water streams. At one point Park has a monologue wherein he describes how the waters from both North and South Korea flow freely together, and how the fish can be found in either water without knowing which it belongs to. This ties into the film’s ambitions to be the first major-release film to directly address the still-thorny issue of Korean reunification.
The total budget of the film was US$8.5 million, at the time the single biggest budget allocated to a Korean movie. Part of the funding was covered by the Korean electronics giant Samsung. The film was a critical and financial success in Korea and broke box office records. Shiri was seen in South Korean cinemas by 6.5 million people, beating the previous record set by Titanic of 4.3 million.