As a high-school student, Na was involved in theater and acting, but also in anti-Japanese activities including the March 1, 1919 protest against the occupation.

He would fill notebooks with jottings while watching films in theaters, and would carry a hand mirror with him wherever he went to practice facial expressions.

After leaving the troupe, he sold all of his books to buy a train ticket to Busan, where he applied for a job acting at the Choson Film Company.

Na first came to public attention in the role of the father of the title character in Lee Kyong-son's 1925 film, Simchong-jon (The Story of Shim Chong).

Na's innovation in Arirang was finding a way to express Korean opposition to the Japanese occupation metaphorically by unifying the shinpa style with a spirit of nationalism.

He thereby made cinema in Korea no longer mere entertainment, but a vehicle for an expression of national resistance to the Japanese occupation.

Na's funeral procession was led by a band playing Arirang, and was attended by mourning crowds in spite of the rain.

[10] The newspaper Chosun Ilbo's November 1938 audience poll for the best silent Korean films put Arirang in the number one spot.

Two other films by Na Woon-gyu were also on the top ten list: Sarangul Chajaso (Looking for Love), and Punguna (The Man with Great Ambition) (1926).