The New York Korean Film Festival, which begins its 10-day program Friday at Cinema Village and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is delivering the latest offerings from Asia’s most vibrant movie industry while they’re still hot. Indeed, 11 of the 14 titles to be screened are making either their international, North American, or American premiere at the festival.

There’s something for every taste, as well. Hee-chan Ra’s superb policier “Going by the Book” doubles as droll social satire. The lush historical chamber drama “Hwang Jin-yi” is the latest offering from Chang Yoon-hyun, director of the dark murder mystery “Tell Me Something.” “A Love” is the twisted new thriller from “Typhoon” director Kwak Kyung-taek. The chilling ghost story “Epitaph” also returns to New York for those who missed this haunting masterpiece at the New Directors/New Films showcase in March. All told, these are Asian blockbusters that beat Hollywood at its own game.

South Korea is one of very few countries able to sustain its own film industry as well as export successfully to other markets. A few of its films, such as “The Host,” “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring,” and “Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War,” have even become hits on the American art-house circuit in recent years. But South Korean cinema still hasn’t received its proper due on these shores. Many cinephiles seem to hold on to the notion that France is the epicenter of film culture even three decades after its New Wave reached its apex. Americans aren’t actively seeking the latest Korean import, and cash-strapped distributors are hedging their bets elsewhere.

Still, Yuni Cho, the program officer for the Korea Society, which puts on the festival, is puzzled that the New York Korean Film Festival isn’t generating the kind of buzz it deserves.

“In 2001, the New York Korean Film Festival and New York Asian Film Festival started together and split up the following year,” she said. “They have an emphasis on cult movies, and we want to show more mainstream films.”

Due in part, perhaps, to that focus on underground films and cult favorites, the New York Asian Film Festival has generated more fanfare than its sibling. But the Korea Society’s vice president and executive director, Frederick Carriere, is adamant about continuing his orgnaization’s annual tradition.

“Most Americans understand that France is not the same as Germany or the U.K.,” he said. “So having an Asian festival is not enough to represent films from all different cultures.”

Considering that Korean cinema was practically unknown in America before 2001, Ms. Cho said, she has noticed the country making some headway in American popular culture. Hollywood has nodded in acknowledgment by casting Korean faces in popular television shows such as “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” But the senior program officer for the Korea Society, Samuel Jamier, still has reservations about the mainstream viewpoint. He said, for example, that many Koreans had misgivings about their biggest cinema star, Rain, playing a thankless bit part in “Speed Racer.”

“That’s a sensitive subject for many people,” Mr. Jamier said. “They definitely don’t view it as a positive because the role is so small and he speaks English in it. ‘Lost’ is a better example because the characters speak Korean. But it’s still not perfect. Scenes that take place in their apartment back in Korea get many details wrong.”

For Mr. Jamier, the remedy is to show the ways in which Koreans choose to present and view themselves in the vastly different genres of film in South Korean cinema.

Mr. Carriere would even have liked to include films from North Korea at the festival. “Filmmakers in both North and South Korea have tackled the 17th-century Robin Hood story, ‘Hong Kil-dong,’ and the North Korean version is actually superior,” Mr. Carriere said. “In a sense, the two different Koreas are united by cinema.”

Fortunately, the South Korean film industry is prolific enough that there are plenty of decent titles to go around — even if a burgeoning American interest has seen plum titles scooped up by the Tribeca Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival.

Both Ms. Cho and Mr. Jamier are devoted film buffs, versed on the auteurs and their reception by notable critics. As they spoke with the Sun, they took turns shuffling a stack of DVDs prepared for a reviewer, arranging them in the order of personal taste. And they’re not the only ones. Some Korean expatriates have apparently written the Korea Society with their own festival wish lists. Indeed, as Mr. Carriere noted, the passion for cinema and the tradition of excellence in filmmaking are integral to Korean art and culture on both sides of the DMZ.

Through August 31 at Cinema Village (22 E. 12th St., between Fifth Avenue and University Place, 212-924-3363) and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (30 Lafayette Ave., between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 718-636-4100).