Intro Korean Cinema in Global Contexts (original) (raw)
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Locating contemporary South Korean cinema : between the universal and the particular
2013
The thesis analyses contemporary South Korean films from the late 1980s up to the present day. It asks whether Korean films have produced a new cinema, by critically examining the criteria by which Korean films are said to be new. Have Korean films really changed aesthetically? What are the limitations, and even pitfalls in contemporary Korean film aesthetics? If there appears to be a true radicalism in Korean films, under which conditions does it emerge? Which films convey its core features? To answer these questions, the study attempts to posit a universalising theory rather than making particular claims about Korean films. Where many other scholars have focused on the historical context of the film texts’ production and their reception, this thesis privileges the film texts themselves, by suggesting that whether those films are new or not will depend on a film text’s individual mode of address. To explore this problem further, this study draws on the concept of ‘concrete universa...
Rediscovering Korean Cinema, 2019
The idea for Rediscovering Korean Cinema struck me unexpectedly during the BIFF Film Conference and Forum held at the Twentieth Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in October 2015. I was a respondent to the panel "Re-evaluating Korean Film Authors. " Four well-established panelists, Seung-hoon Jeong, Hyangjin Lee, Nam Lee, and Mi-Jeong Lee, discussed such distinguished authors as Bong Joon-ho (Pong Chun-ho), Hong Sang-soo (Hong Sang-su), and Kim Ki-duk (Kim Ki-dŏk). After their thought-provoking talks, during the question and answer session, two audience members raised questions about the availability of an appropriate textbook for teaching Korean cinema in their home countries. One of them strongly requested that we write an accessible and readable book that would cover canonical film texts for students and general readers alike. After the panel, we discussed the request. All of us took this matter seriously and indeed had already acknowledged the absence of such a textbook. Despite the quantum leap in Korean film scholarship in recent years, there is still a shortage of essays on individual films and directors. Yi Man-hŭi (Lee Man-hee), Han Hyŏng-mo (Han Hyung-mo), Kim Su-yong (Kim Soo-yong), Ha Kil-chong (Ha Gil-jong), Yi Chang-ho (Lee Jang-ho), Yi Tu-yong (Lee Doo-yong), Chŏng Chi-yŏng (Chung Ji-young), and Pae Ch'ang-ho (Bae Chang-ho) are among the many Korean directors whose cinematic treasures have not been written about in the English language. Even worse, no systematically structured book-length textbook offering a comprehensive history of Korean cinema had been published when the idea for this book was proposed. I began this project to fill this gap in the field. Three panelists-Seung-hoon Jeong, Hyangjin Lee, and Nam Lee
Introduction: Rethinking Asian Media and Film
Special issue of The Asian Journal of Social Science, 2013
This Introduction pulls together the main themes of the papers in this special issue, which covers major regions in Asia from Japan, Korea and China to Indonesia, India and Iran. The papers are all critical of the implications of imposing Eurocentric and metropolitan frameworks on the diverse assemblages of practices of producing, distributing and engaging with Asian media and film. Bringing a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to bear, the contributors question exist- ing approaches and concepts, reconsider what should count as objects of study and propose new theoretical approaches appropriate to the study of such large and rapidly changing industries. What emerges, however, is the extent to which issues of knowledge and power permeate not just the debates, but also the critiques. Drawing upon the papers, the Introduction concludes by sug- gesting the possibilities of a more rigorous and sustained analysis in terms of practice.
Two Golden Ages of Korean Cinema
2015
The two books by Steven Chung and Young-a Park that I discuss in this essay signal the growth of Korean studies by simply beginning in medias res. That is, unlike many books that came before them, they offer no lengthy exposition to set things up, to declare and justify the need for the study at hand. These new books also reflect the recent scholarly trend of reaching beyond the established area studies or Korean studies models to present studies that are interdisciplinary and transnational in scope. Park’s Unexpected Alliances is a narrative at once of South Korea’s transition to a (truly) civil society, of its artistic struggle for independence and integrity, of the individual’s negotiations with the state, and of feminist awakenings in unlikely circumstances. Chung’s Split Screen Korea, which I will discuss first, is similarly expansive in scope. As he lays out in the beginning, the book follow[s] the trajectories that Shin Sang-ok took, the ways in which his work continued throu...
Arts, 2019
The general concepts in theorising the aesthetics of film are still rooted in occidental traditions. Thus, thinking about film is dominated by Western terms and aesthetic paradigms-such as "pieces of work", the representation of reality or regarding the arts as an act of communication. From such an angle, it is difficult to describe different characteristics of the cinematic image, for example, its ephemeral character. In contrast to occidental thinking, the cultural traditions of East Asia are based on the concept of the way (dō or dao), which allow for the description of aesthetics of transitions and transformations. Inspired by the concept of kire-tsuzuki, as developed by the Japanese-German philosopher RyōsukeŌhashi, I shall, in this paper, describe some alternative ways of understanding appearance and occurrence in relation to the cinematic picture.