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The best day to visit this street is when it rains. Rain does not give the area a more sentimental look but does alleviate exhaust fumes, dust and noise from the nearby construction site and shabby old commercial buildings on both sides of the road.
The 1.5 km street is a gentle hill leading from the Donam-dong intersection to Chungreung. Nicknamed “Arirang Hill,” the downtown street is always crowded with pedestrians and cars. During rush hour, the six-lane street often suffers from traffic congestion due to the flood of commuters from outer regions like the Sungbuk, Gangbuk and Dobong districts.
The street’s claim to fame is that many shops there have the word “Arirang” on their signboards, such as Arirang Supermarket, Arirang Pet Shop or Arirang Realtor. There are many theories on how the street got its name. According to a document on the history of Sungbuk, the owners of high-class restaurants began to use the word “Arirang,” the name of a popular folk song, to attract more customers back in 1935, when the nation was under Japanese rule. Another theory is that the road was one of the shooting locations for the movie “Arirang,” which told the painful story of a young Korean man under Japanese oppression.
Rumors aside, the road has lately drawn fresh attention after Sungbuk-gu Office decided to turn the district into a tourist attraction. The office will hold an annual film festival there and designated it “street of motion pictures.”
“Arirang,” a silent cinema masterpiece directed by legendary filmmaker Na Woon-gyu, has greatly contributed to Sungbuk’s efforts. The film starts with the narration, “Arirang Hill is seen farther down.” Debuting at Dansungsa Theater in September 1926, the movie touched the hearts of Koreans during the gloomy days of Japanese rule. The theme song “Arirang” was also a great hit across the nation.
The film’s plot centers on Young-jin, who goes insane due to hardships under Japanese occupation. He stabs a pro-Japanese landlord who tries to rape his younger sister, Young-hee, during a party in his village. Shocked by the blood, Young-jin regains his sanity. In the last scene, the hero is bound by rope and walks over Arirang Hill with the theme song playing in the background. Director Na, just 24 years old at the time, not only directed the film but also played the lead role, wrote the script and produced the movie.
However, finding signs of cinema life on the street is hard. A demolition of a slum area two or three years ago has now completely destroyed all traces of the previous area. High-rise apartment buildings have taken up the site as part of a project to establish a new town in the Gangbuk region.
Visitors are reminded of the street’s importance in movies from movie-related facilities and structures scattered about, such as copper plates on the sidewalks, a small and shabby theme park and the newly-opened Arirang Cine Center on the hill.
The copper plates carry engravings of famous films and are embedded in the sidewalk at five-meter intervals. Take exit 5 of Sungshin Women’s University station on subway line 4, and plates of Korean films will come into sight such as “The March of Fools,” “Shiri” and “Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East.” Exit 6 will lead to plates of famous foreign films like “From Here to Eternity,” “Rebel Without a Cause” and “The Seventh Seal.”
A small theme park recently opened on the street with the sign “Movie Set for Arirang” and a thatched hut. The new Arirang Cine Center and Arirang Information Library at the hilltop may earn the street its nickname “Street of Motion Pictures” after all.
The four-story Arirang Cine Center has two underground levels, movie theaters and a media center with facilities or equipment for filming, editing or recording available for rent. The library is equipped with books on movies and DVDs.
In front of the Center stands a monument to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the birth of Director Na. The poem “Song of a Star” by Kim Kyu-dong is engraved on the monument.
People visit streets shown in a movie to get a feel for the film’s setting. In that sense, Arirang Hill will probably disappoint since not much is left of what was depicted in the movie “Arirang,” except a few artificial facilities which will soon be surrounded by high-rise apartments.
The best day to visit this street is when it rains. Rain does not give the area a more sentimental look but does alleviate exhaust fumes, dust and noise from the nearby construction site and shabby old commercial buildings on both sides of the road. 
The film’s plot centers on Young-jin, who goes insane due to hardships under Japanese occupation. He stabs a pro-Japanese landlord who tries to rape his younger sister, Young-hee, during a party in his village. Shocked by the blood, Young-jin regains his sanity. In the last scene, the hero is bound by rope and walks over Arirang Hill with the theme song playing in the background. Director Na, just 24 years old at the time, not only directed the film but also played the lead role, wrote the script and produced the movie.
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