When I saw the name of the series coming up at Film at Lincoln Center — “Relentless Invention: New Korean Cinema, 1996-2003” — I thought that it would probably include the greatest unknown movie of the century so far. Sure enough, it does.

All right, let’s stipulate that saying a movie is the “greatest unknown” this or the “most underrated” that is a problematic enterprise. Unknown by whom? Underrated compared to what?

So where do I get off singling out Lee Myung-se’s crime thriller “Nowhere to Hide,” which opened in New York 19 years ago ?

To begin with, there’s a good circumstantial case. A hit at Sundance, the recipient of buoyant reviews (including one from Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times), “Nowhere to Hide” virtually disappeared after its opening. The screenings at Lincoln Center on Nov. 25 and 30 appear to be the film’s first in New York since a single showing at the Korean Cultural Center in 2004.