A Hundred Cities Within Seoul

The Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho turned from the street into a passageway barely wide enough for two people. “Look at these dirty stairs,” he said rhapsodically, pausing to peer through a doorway at tiles of perhaps ’70s-era vintage. The passageway descended farther and took a hairpin turn into a pedestrian alley of uneven brick walls, overhead knots of electrical wire and drying laundry.