East Asian Cinema

David Carter

• Publisher: Kamera Books
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781842433805
• Topic: Medien & darstellende Kunst
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Film directors from East Asia frequently win top prizes at international film festivals, and are proving a strong influence on Western filmmakers but few books have yet been published about them. China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and North and South Korea have been through periods of great political turmoil and the films of these countries reflect the changes and the conflicts between modern lifestyles and traditional values. This book considers the incredibly rich and diverse range of material on offer, exploring their cultural heritage and mutual influence. An ideal reference work on all the major directors, with details of their films and checklists for the films of each country.

KOREA

CINEMA IN SOUTH AND NORTH KOREA: A LITTLE HISTORY

Korea is in a special situation with regard to its history in the twentieth and twenty-first century. During the period of the birth and growth of cinema in most other countries, Korea was in fact a Japanese colony. Then with the collapse of Japanese hegemony at the end of World War II, Koreans scarcely had time to recover and celebrate their freedom before they were plunged into the civil strife of the Korean War. This resulted in the division of the country into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The North has been and still is run as an old-style Stalinist dictatorship with close government control of all forms of expression, while the South has, until the early 1990s, been run by a series of military dictatorships, also wary of too much freedom of expression. It was not until the advent of democracy in the South that Korean cinema could truly blossom and establish an international reputation for itself. South Korean cinema and North Korean cinema are now as different as chalk and cheese, but they do have common roots in their shared history prior to the Japanese colonial period and in their experiences of film production under Japanese control. It makes sense therefore to examine the history of Korean cinema first as a whole, and then as two separate national wholes for the period since the Korean War.

THE JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA

In the nineteenth century, Korea was still known as ‘Joseon’, sometimes written as ‘Chosun’, a name adopted later by North Korea in many of the designations for its country. In the latter part of the nineteenth century the whole country became the object of the aggressive attention of several great powers. The USA, Britain, France, Russia and Japan all wanted to force the ‘Hermit Kingdom’ to open its doors to trade, and to exert their political influence in the area. The policy of seclusion, and especially Korea’s suppression of Catholic missions, amongst other factors, led to conflict initially with France and America. Then in 1876 Japan forced the Korean government to sign the Treaty of Peace and Amity. After the Sino-Japanese War from 1894 to 1895 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Korea was occupied by the Japanese, and after public riots and guerrilla activity by elements of the disbanded Korean army, Japan annexed the country and abolished the monarchy in 1910.

As well as introducing many programmes designed to change the economic structure of Korea, the Japanese also attempted to eradicate many aspects of Korean culture. This involved the mutilation and destruction of buildings and burial sites, and also the prohibition of the Korean language in schools. Koreans were forced to change their names into a standardised Japanese style.

THE FIRST WESTERN FILMS IN KOREA

After the Treaty of Peace and Amity of 1876, western goods and cultural products began to flow into Korea for the first time in any large amounts. Films were first introduced as forms of propaganda by the foreign powers in an attempt to win over the Koreans for economic and political ends. They were shown through the agency of foreign companies, missionaries and diplomatic corps. Many western diplomats, for example, would show films to high-ranking groups patronised by the government whom they wished to influence. There is no certain evidence for when a film was first shown in Korea. Some claim that it was in 1899, shown by an American traveller called Elia Burton Homes, others that it was the British who first showed a French-made film by the Pathé company in the same year. There is also a claim that two Americans, Henry Collbran and HR Bostwick, who built the first electric railway in Seoul, first showed a film in 1898. It is, however, generally agreed that it was in 1903 that a film was first shown to the general public and was advertised in a newspaper. Many western-owned companies gave concessionary entrance fees to films on proof of purchase of their products.

THE FIRST KOREAN FILM

There is still no firm agreement among film historians in Korea as to what should be considered the first Korean film, especially as all the early films were made under Japanese domination. Many historians believe that The Righteous Revenge (Eurijok Kutu), directed by the Korean director Kim Do-san and released in 1919, was the first Korean film. Strictly speaking however this was not wholly a film because it was a combination of film and stage play (what was known as ‘kino drama’) and used film as an auxiliary part of a stage play. Its status is also complicated by the fact that it was shot by a Japanese cameraman. However in 1966 the government felt sufficiently confident that this was the first Korean film to name a day in its honour. The film was premiered on 27 October 1919, and this day has been celebrated since 1966 as the ‘Day of Cinema’. Other historians and critics have suggested that the 1923 film The Plighted Love under the Moon (Weolha-eui Maengse) should be regarded as the first Korean feature. Yet while it was written and directed by a Korean, Yun Paengnam, it was produced by the Japanese colonial government, with the aim of instilling a sense of responsibility and obedience in the Korean people. It is the story of a man who squanders all his money and has to be saved by his fiancée, who uses her own savings to help him. The colonial government forced Koreans to see the film. Recently another candidate has come forward as a possible first film, The National Borders (Gukkyeong), which was first shown on 13 January 1923, also by Kim Dosan. It had not previously been considered because many critics claimed that it was an unfinished work, but evidence in the form of a newspaper advertisement for its premiere emerged. The reason for its uncertain status appeared to be the colonial government ban immediately after its premiere, due to its ‘undesirable’ political content.

THE FIRST KOREAN SOUND FILM

There is no uncertainty about the first Korean sound film, though it was financed by the Japanese: The Tale of Chunhyang (Chunhyangjeon), 1935, directed by Korean Lee Myeong-woo, produced at the Kyeongseong Studios. It was based on a story which was to become a genre all of its own, telling of the relationship between a lower-class woman and an upper-class man in the rigid class system of the Joseon dynasty. Most Korean film production companies were too small to produce sound films and the Japanese subjected those films which were recorded in Korean to very strict censorship.

PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION UNDER JAPANESE DOMINATION

In the period of Japanese domination certain foreign film distributors could show their films with the permission of the Japanese government. American traders such as HG Morris, George R Allen and G Taylor were able, together with Japanese partners, to import films made by the major American studios, such as Warner Bros, Fox and Paramount, and the French companies Pathé and Méliès. Two distributors established by Koreans, the Kishin Yanghaeng and the Tongyang Stock Company, also imported films from Paramount and from the British International Film Company, as well as from Sovkino of Russia. Due to the popularity of the foreign films more and more cinemas were built. In 1912 two new cinemas were built, the Kodeung Yeonyegwan and the Hwangeum Yeonyegwan, and the Yaejeonggwan was opened for the exclusive use of Japanese living in Seoul. The Danseongsa, which was originally opened as a normal theatre in 1907, was converted into a cinema in 1918. By 1935 there were approximately 39 cinemas throughout the country. By the same year it has been estimated that about one third of the population of the country were going to the cinema regularly.

Korean filmmakers attempted to establish their own companies at this time but encountered many problems. They were very dependent on finance from the Japanese owners of the majority of cinemas. Projects were often started but abandoned for lack of finance and even if one film was successful at the box office there was no guarantee of financial support for the next film. Audiences were also becoming used to the style and production values of the imported films. During the whole p...