Frédéric Ambroisine Launches Sales On Rare Whapung Films Korean Classics
A collection of rare Korean films, produced by Chung Chang-wha’s Whapung Films in the 1980s, is being restored and offered for international sales by French film curator and producer Frédéric Ambroisine.
The restoration and sales of 13 films, produced by Whapung Films between 1979 and 1985, is being developed in collaboration with French company Karmax-910. It marks the first coordinated international effort to restore, preserve and reintroduce these films to global audiences.
While Chung Chang-wha is best known internationally for directing Hong Kong classics such as King Boxer and Broken Oath, the films he produced in Korea through Whapung Films remain largely unseen outside South Korea.
The restoration programme officially launched in February 2026, with the first titles being restored from original camera negatives preserved at the Korean Film Archive (KOFA), where the elements were deposited by Chung Chang-wha in the early 2000s.
The films were produced by Whapung during a highly regulated period of the South Korean film industry marked by censorship, strict production quotas and limited international distribution. As a result, most of the films were never released internationally, despite surviving today in original negative elements preserved at KOFA.
The first restorations include The Swamp Of The Firebird (1983), a drama blending folklore, spirituality and social tensions within a remote island community; and Shaolin Bridal Room (1982), a cross-cultural martial arts comedy with erotic elements, inspired by the work of Hong Kong filmmaker Lau Kar-leung.
Ambroisine, who initiated the project and brought it to Karmax-910, has been mandated to handle worldwide sales on the catalogue, enabling a global circulation strategy including festivals, retrospective screenings and curated home video releases.
Separately, Ambroisine is also presenting Hong Kong cult horror film The Black Magic With Buddha (1983), directed by Lo Lieh, which has also been restored, with Le Chat qui Fume acquiring French home video rights, while North American rights were acquired by Mondo Macabro. The restored film is scheduled for release in two different cuts in 2026, highlighting the film’s complex production history.
