The purpose of this essay is to explore the peculiar physiological-mental state of the running body as a significant locale of filmic representation, which facilitates a number of epistemological and stylistic maneuvers that are crucial in the development of cinematic modernism. Prioritizing the body as a source of energy channeled into the constant motion of leg strides, swinging arms, heaving chest and panting, the act of running often serves as a cinematic vehicle for conveying the dynamic sense of the desiring subject in trying to surmount conflicting situations. In European postwar modernist films overlaid with the mood of homelessness and loss, running figures emerge as rare moments of physiological-symbolic coherence forged by the sustained momentum of the desiring body. These figures momentarily supersede the instrumentalist grids of modern space bound up in various technological-ideological imperatives, which render human experiences confined and fragmented. The essay argues that the images of running as an ideal counterweight to the debilitating qualities of modern experience promote a series of visual and stylistic experiments that potentially question the epistemological primacy of the subject in relating to the world. Ultimately, the essay aims to develop this insight into a unique approach to the history of Korean modern films, outlining what can be considered as a creative legacy of modernist films centered on images of running bodies. In doing so, the essay explores how this legacy gains a critical resonance against the dismal backdrop of 1970s Korea set in oppressive ideological-cultural rules and imperatives. To this end, the essay accounts for Ha Gil-jong’s The March of Fools (1975) as one of the most significant modernist films noted for its depictions of running.