Cinema of Korea

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Korean cinema is the term used to describe the motion picture industries of North Korea and South Korea. While both countries have relatively robust film industries, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. Though for decades South Korean films were (with some exceptions) generally considered to be of low quality even by Korean audiences, as of 2005 South Korea is one of only three nations to watch more domestic than imported films in theatres.[1] South Korean films generally differ from Hollywood films by their exploration of social issues in South Korea and their often unpredictable plotting. North Korean films tend to portray Communist or revolutionary themes.

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Early period (until 1926)

The earliest showing of a film in Korea is somewhat in question. There are reports of a showing of a film to the public in 1897, and another in 1898 near Namdaemun. A newspaper account, however names a public screening on June 23, 1903, as the first showing of a film.

Dansung-sa, Korea's first movie theater, opened in Seoul in November, 1907 and is still in operation today. Park Sung-pil, the owner of Dansung-sa, financed the first Korean domestic film, Uirijeok Gutu or Loyal Revenge, as well as the first Korean documentary film, Scenes of Kyoungsoung City and showed both at his theater on October 27, 1919. Uirijeok Gutu was used as a kino drama-- a live theatrical production, against the backdrop of film projected on stage.

The production of movies in Korea rapidly increased in volume after the release of the first feature film, Yun Baek-nam's Ulha ui Mengse, in April 1923.

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The Golden Era of Silent Films (1926-1935)

The period from 1926 until 1935 is known as "The Golden Era of Silent Films" in Korea. Though a few films of some quality had been produced in the year before its production, the release of Na Woon-gyu's 1926 film, Arirang is generally considered the first nationalistic film, and the film which started the era of high-quality silent film in Korea. With the success of Arirang, Na Un-gyu formed Na Un-gyu Productions with Park Sung-pil.

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Early sound era (1935-1945)

Lee Myeong-woo's 1935 Chunhyang-Jeon (춘향전) was Korea's first sound film. Chunhyang was to become Korea's most-filmed story, with Im Kwon-taek's 2000 Pansori version of Chunhyang bringing the number of films based on the story to 14.

Coming as they did during the mid- to late-1930s, sound films in Korea faced much harsher censorship from the occupying forces than did the silent films before them. Film became a propaganda tool for the government of the Japanese occupation, and by 1942 the use of Korean language in film was banned.

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Divided Korea -- South Korea

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Liberty (1945-1950) and War (1950-1955) eras

With the surrender of Japan in 1945, Korean cinema enjoyed a burst of liberty-- and liberty itself, understandably, became the major theme of films at this time. Choi In-gyu's Hurrah! For Freedom (자유만세), about Korean freedom-fighters during the waning days of the Japanese occupation, is considered the major film of this era.

The rebirth of Korean cinema which seemed to be coming had to wait, however. First the country was divided into North and South, and then civil war was to break out in 1950. Though film production did not completely cease during the war years, only five or six films were produced each year from 1950 to 1953. Much worse for Korea's film legacy, the vast majority of Korea's film history was lost in this devastating war.

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Second Golden Age (1955-1973)

The rebirth that almost occurred after 1945 can be said to have truly begun in 1955 with the remake of Chunhyang-jon. 1955 also saw the release of Yangsan do by the renowned director, Kim Ki-young, marking the beginning of a career that would remain productive until his death in 1998. He would go on to direct The Housemaid (하녀) in 1960, which is considered one of the best Korean films ever made.

With Korean cinema for the first time working under something similar to conditions in other countries, both the quality and quantity of film-making increased rapidly. By 1959, 111 films were produced in South Korea within the year.

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Breakthrough

Today South Korea is one of the few countries where Hollywood productions do not enjoy a dominant share of the domestic market.

The 1999 film Shiri about a North Korean spy preparing a coup in Seoul was the first in Korean history to sell more than 2 million tickets in Seoul alone. This helped Shiri to surpass box office hits such as Titanic, The Matrix and Star Wars. The success of Shiri motivated other Korean films with large budgets for Korean circumstances.

In 2000 the film JSA (Joint Security Area) was a huge success and even surpassed the benchmark set by Shiri. One year later, the film Friend managed the same. In South Korea the romantic comedy My Sassy Girl outsold The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter which ran at the same time. As of 2004 new films continue to outperform older releases, and many Korean productions are more popular than Hollywood films. Both Silmido and Taegukgi were watched by over 10 million people per film, which is a quarter of the Korean population. Silmido is a film based on a true story about a secret special force. The other is a blockbuster movie about Korean War directed by the director of Shiri.

This success attracted the attention of Hollywood. Films such as Shiri are now distributed in the USA. In 2001, Miramax even bought the rights to an Americanized remake of the successful Korean action comedy movie, My Wife is a Gangster.

The 2003 suspense thriller Janghwa, Hongryeon (A Tale of Two Sisters) was successful as well, leading Dreamworks to pay $2 million (US) for the rights to a remake, topping the $1 million (US) paid for the Japanese movie The Ring.

Many Korean films reflect how much the Korean people long for reunification and suffer from the division of the peninsula. Many of the films underline feelings, which causes Korean films to be likened to French films. The Korean film industry, however, now produces all genres with widely varying themes.

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Festival success

Korean film first garnered serious international recognition in 2002 at the Venice Film Festival when the film Oasis won the second prize award. The film not only revealed much about traditional Korean culture, but also highlighted the plight of handicapped Koreans and the general public's inability to understand and accept them. In the story an isolated young woman with cerebral palsy falls in love with a simple minded man who has recently completed a term in prison for the hit and run accident that killed her father. Quite possibly Korea's most symbolic and rich film to date, "Oasis" remains the turning point for Korean avante garde film.

Oldboy is the second great victory for Korean film when it came in second place in the Cannes Film Festival, second to Fahrenheit 9/11. The story traces the life of a man who is put into solitary confinement by someone he does not know. He lives there for many years until he is released to find out the bizarre reason for his cruel entrapment. Dark and gloomy, Oldboy experiments with the themes of psychological madness and sexual distortions that exist in Korean modernity. The title is itself an oxymoron that speaks of the boyish innocence with which old Korean culture seeks to grapple with the psychosis of modern life.

In February 2004, the controversial director, Kim Ki Duk won the award for best director at the 54th annual Berlin Film Festival. He was awarded for the film Samaria which is about a teenage prostitute.

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New wave films

There are three important dates in new wave Korean films: first in 1992, "Marriage Story was financed by Samsung, marking the first non-government funded film. In 1999, Shiri was released and led to Korean films taking over 50% of the local market. Ultimately, My Sassy Girl became the most popular and exportable Korean film in history. Each has brought new strength to the unique creation of a Korean film industry that no longer copies Hollywood verbatim. Supporting the Korean film industry have been strong government controls against copying and bootlegging and piracy, which have allowed the film industry to bring out many films, and make a profit and still have very strong DVD and aftermarket sales. In addition, a government-enforced screen quota system since 1967 has limited the number of days per year non-domestic movies can be shown on any one movie screen in South Korea. Recently, this practice has come under fire from non-Korean film distributors as unfair.[2] Fast low cost films with likeable stars, tied to current events, and at affordable prices that speak in a natural vernacular with state of the art cinematography and music have all pushed films ahead.

New wave Korean films came as a result of competition in the film industry, directors trained outside of the USA (in France, Spain, the Netherlands, China and Europe), and new models of scripts that included more Korean situations, and spoke in contemporary vernacular, and used younger actors, younger scriptwriters, and less formulaic Hollywood cliches or 90 minute frames. The impact of the Busan Film Festival and Jeonju Film Festival in screening year after year hundreds of new European, Canadian, South American, Chinese and even Japanese films rewrote the basic templates towards originality.

The increase in competition created more films, faster and unpredictable unique story-lines that were clever and aggressive. Films in turn influenced very quickly traditional Korean network soap operas, and forced a very fast new design in television story-lines, and this then forced even greater innovation in Korean film-making with even stronger writing and higher definition of the art.

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Divided Korea -- North Korea

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Cinema

The majority of films played in North Korean cinemas come from North Korea. Most of these films have a strong political connotation and they reflect and reinforce the communist ideology.

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Animation

A number of well-known animations are produced in North Korea, at SEK Studio. Production costs in North Korea are very low, and the quality of animators is well perceived. Pocahontas and The Lion King are examples of where some of the animation work was subcontracted to SEK (presumably subcontracted, for had it been sourced by Disney directly, they would fall foul of the Trading with the Enemy Act). [3]

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See also

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References


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External links

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