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Cinema of Korea

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The cinema of Korea encompasses the film industries of North Korea and South Korea, as well as the historical film industries of Korea as the kingdom of Joseon and under Japanese occupation. While both countries have relatively robust film industries today, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. North Korean films typically portray Juche ideology or revolutionary themes.

South Korean films enjoyed a "golden age" during the late 1950s and 1960s, but by the 1970s had become generally considered to be of low quality. Nonetheless, by 2005 South Korea became a nation that watched more domestic than imported films in theatres.[1] This was partially a result of laws placing limits on the number of foreign films able to be shown per theatre per year,[2] but this was mostly due to the growth of the Korean entertainment industry, which quadrupled in size during this period.[3] It has been noted that Korean movies have consistently outperformed foreign with very few exceptions in the Korean box office.[4]

Early period (until 1926)

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Still from Chunhyang-Jeon (Korean: 춘향전) (1923)

It has been widely reported that an 1897 issue of The Times claimed that the first films to be introduced to Korea were from France's Pathe Pictures and were screened in Bukchon in October 1897.[5] However, researcher Brian Yecies has stated that this apocryphal issue does not actually exist, and he considers the 1897 introduction date to be a myth.[6]

American traveler and lecturer Burton Holmes was the first to film in Korea as part of his travelogue programs.[7] In addition to displaying his films abroad, he showed them to the Korean royal family in 1899.[8] An announcement in the contemporary newspaper, Hwangseong sinmun (The Imperial), names another early public screening on June 23, 1903. Advertised by the Dongdaemun Electric Company, the price for admission to the viewing of scenic photography was 10 jeon.[5]

Korea's first film studio, Dongdaemun Motion Picture Studio, was opened in 1903.[7] There are several competing claims for which is the first movie theater in the country. Dansungsa, which opened in Seoul in November 1907, is widely considered the first theater. However, a 2021 article in The Hankyoreh claims that the Incheon-based Ae Kwan Theater, which first opened as Hyŏmnyulsa (협률사; 協律舍) in 1895, is the first.[9]

Righteous Revenge, a 1919 kino-drama (stageplay with a film backdrop) is widely considered the first Korean film, although this label is disputed. It premiered at Dansungsa, on the same day and just after the premiere of the companion documentary film Panoramic View of the Whole City of Gyeongseong.[10][11] The anniversary of its release is celebrated as Korean Film Day in South Korea.[11][12][13]

For the next few years, film production in Korea consisted of kino-dramas and documentaries. As with the first showing of a film in Korea, the first feature film produced in Korea also appears to be unclear. Some name a filming of Chunhyang-Jeon (춘향전) in 1921 (released in 1922) as the first Korean feature film. The traditional story, Chunhyang, was to become Korea's most-filmed story later. It was possibly the first Korean feature film, and was certainly the first Korean sound film, color film and widescreen film. Im Kwon-taek's 2000 pansori version of Chunhyang brought the number of films based on Chunyang to 14.[14] Other sources, however, name Yun Baek-nam's Ulha ui Mengse ("Plighted Love Under the Moon"), released in April, 1923, as the first Korean feature film.[15][16]

In 1925, the German priest Norbert Weber captured footage of Korea in order to document Korean culture in case it was wiped out by Japanese colonization. He then returned to Bavaria and edited the footage into a feature-length documentary, Im Lande der Morgenstille (lit. 'In the Land of Morning Calm'), as well as five other short films. The documentary aired until the 1930s in Germany and Austria and was largely forgotten about until it was rediscovered in the late 1970s by South Korean researchers. The film has since been digitized and is now available for free online.[17][18][19][20]

The golden era of silent films (1926–1930)

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A film poster for Arirang

Korean film studios at this time were Japanese-operated. A hat-merchant known as Yodo Orajo established a film company called Choson Kinema Productions. After appearing in the Choson Kinema's 1926 production Nongjungjo, the young actor Na Woon-gyu got the chance to write, direct and star in his own film. The release of Na's film, Arirang (1926) is the start of the era of silent film in Korea.[21] Hidden or subtle messages could be magnified through the common use of a live narrator at the theater, a tradition known as byeonsa (benshi in Japanese). The tradition of byeonsa was imported from Japan and provided an economical and entertaining alternative to translating intertitles. When Japanese authorities were not present, the narrators could inject satire and criticism of the occupation into the film narrative, giving the film a political subtext invisible to Japanese government censors.[22] The byeonsa operated as "a narrator that introduces the characters and the setting, and explains the physical actions and psychological dilemmas during silent film screenings." The byeonsa also functioned "as a cultural intermediary during the Korean audience's film-viewing experience, and utilized his narration to complement censorship or technological limitations during the silent film period."[23] Some of the more popular byeonsa were better-paid than the film actors.[24]

The success of Arirang inspired a burst of activity in the Korean film industry in the late 1920s, causing this period to become known as "The Golden Era of Silent Films". More than seventy films were produced at this time, and the quality of film improved as well as the quantity.[25]

Another important director of this period, Shim Hun, directed only one film, Mondongi Tultte (먼동이 틀 때; At Daybreak). Though the reviews for this film were as strong as those for Arirang, Shim died at the age of 35 while directing his second film, based on his own novel, Sangroksu (상록수; The Evergreens).[26] The novel was later adapted by director Shin Sang-ok in 1961 and by Im Kwon-taek in 1978.[27]

The later silent era (1930–1935)

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The first half of the 1930s saw a decline in the domestic film industry in Korea. Censorship and oppression on the part of the occupying authorities played a part in reducing the number of films produced at this time to only two or three per year, and some filmmakers fled Korea for the more robust film-industry in Shanghai at this time.[28]

Imported films largely replaced domestic films, although with Korean General Law No. 40 of 1933, the Japanese mandated that all foreign films distributed in Korea should be imported through Japan. Some of the films from Japan were popular, but the film reels were often so heavily used that the image was of low quality. Narrators could nevertheless make even worn-out movies interesting to audiences.[29]

Perhaps the most important film of this era was Imjaeobtneun naleutbae (Ferryboat with no Ferryman) (1932), directed by Lee Gyu-hwan (1904–1981) and starring Na Woon-gyu. Increasing governmental censorship meant that commentators have called this the last pre-liberation film to present a significant nationalistic message.[30][31]

Early sound era (1935–1945)

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Korea's first sound film was Lee Myeong-woo's 1935 Chunhyang-jeon.[32]

Korea was one of Japan's first and most important centers of colonial film production. Japanese-sponsored shorts, newsreels, and feature films heavily promoted cultural assimilation to colonized Korean audiences. To this end the Korean Colonial Cinema Unit (朝鮮総督府キネマ) was established to produce and distribute a mixture of films that promoted Japanese culture and customs as well as the supposed benefits of modernization under the Japanese.[33][34][35]

Sound films in Korea faced much harsher censorship from the Japanese government than previous silent films. The loss of the byeonsa narrators with the coming of sound film meant that anti-authority messages could no longer be inserted without the knowledge of censors.[36] Japanese film censors replaced American and European films with Japanese films as part of the larger colonial project to culturally colonize Korea. Suicide Troops of the Watchtower (望楼の決死隊, 1943) was one of several propaganda features that promoted the Japanese colonial notion of naisen ittai or "Japan and Korea as one body."[35][37]

Although Japanese film production in Korea began in the early 1930s, total mobilization and consolidation of the Korean film industry under the Japanese would not begin until after Japan's full-scale invasion of China in 1937. Film was an important way by which the Japanese maintained colonial control in Korea through the promotion of assimilationist policies. For example, in 1941 Japan's Shochiku Studios together with the Japanese-sponsored Korean Military Information Division co-produced the film You and I (君と僕). The film was directed by Hae Yeong, a Korean who had worked extensively in the Japanese film industry using the name "Hinatsu Eitaro". You and I promoted the "volunteer" enlistment of Koreans into the imperial Japanese Army and carried as a subplot the interracial marriage between a Japanese woman and a Korean man. After the film was completed, Hae went to Java in Indonesia where he continued to make documentaries for the Japanese. After the war, he changed his name to Dr. Huyung, married an Indonesian woman with whom he had two sons, and produced three important Indonesian films. Before his death in 1952, he told a close friend, "If I returned to Japan now there wouldn't be any jobs for me and if I returned to Korea, I'd most likely be branded a Japanese collaborator."[38]

Cinema of South Korea

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Main article: Cinema of South Korea
Further information: List of highest-grossing films in South Korea
The cast of Parasite, the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or and Academy Award for Best Picture

The golden age of South Korean cinema in the mid-20th century produced what are considered two of the best South Korean films of all time, The Housemaid (1960) and Obaltan (1961),[39] while the industry's revival with the Korean New Wave from the late 1990s to the present produced both of the country's highest-grossing films, The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014) and Extreme Job (2019), as well as prize winners on the festival circuit including Golden Lion recipient Pietà (2012) and Palme d'Or recipient and Academy Award winner Parasite (2019) and international cult classics including Oldboy (2003),[40] Snowpiercer (2013),[41] and Train to Busan (2016).[42]

South Korean cinema saw domestic box-office success exceeding that of Hollywood films in the late 1990s largely due to screen quota laws that limited the public showing foreign films.[2] First enacted in 1967, South Korea's screen quota placed restrictions on the number of days per year that foreign films could be shown at any given theater—garnering criticism from film distributors outside South Korea as unfair. As a prerequisite for negotiations with the United States for a free-trade agreement, the Korean government cut its annual screen quota for domestic films from 146 days to 73 (allowing more foreign films to enter the market).[43] In February 2006, South Korean movie workers responded to the reduction by staging mass rallies in protest.[44] According to Kim Hyun, "South Korea's movie industry, like that of most countries, is grossly overshadowed by Hollywood. The nation exported US$2 million-worth of movies to the United States last year [2005] and imported $35.9 million-worth".[45]

Cinema of North Korea

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Main article: Cinema of North Korea
See also: Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
A mural dedicated to the art of filmmaking at the Korean Art Film Studio in Pyongyang

The film industry of North Korea is sometimes known as "Chollywood", a portmanteau of "chollima" and "Hollywood". According to Koryo Tours, films are a popular and inexpensive pastime for North Koreans, and films play on televisions every day. The largest film studio in the country is the Korean Art Film Studio in Pyongyang, which has produced hundreds of films.[46] North Korean films typically feature propaganda themes, and The Flower Girl is an especially popular film in the country. Foreign films are played at the biennial Pyongyang International Film Festival.[47]

Kim Jong Il, the second Supreme Leader of North Korea, was an avid film buff. In 1973 he published the treatise On the Art of the Cinema, which details his views on filmmaking as both an art form and a tool of propaganda.[48] The book deals comprehensively with aspects of cinema, including film and literary theory, acting, performance, score music, the screen,[49] camerawork, costumes, make-up, and props.[50] Of particular importance are themes of directing and producing as the driving forces of filmmaking.[49] Ideas in the book are elucidated by drawing examples from North Korean films, of which Sea of Blood is the most referred one.[48] On the Art of the Cinema presents two major theories: the theory of literature as "humanics" and the "seed theory". Both are considered justifications for the party's control over artistic creation.[51] Other ideas developed by the treatise are the so-called "modeling theory" and "speed campaign". Compliance with these principles earns an artwork the title of "collective work".[52]

In 1978, the North Korean government abducted the South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife, the actress Choi Eun-hee. While in North Korea, Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee were forced to create seven films, including, most famously, Pulgasari, a science-fiction kaiju film heavily influenced by Japanese tokusatsu films such as the Godzilla franchise.[53] The two escaped in 1986. The films produced by the two while in North Korea are considered to have been significant milestones in the history of Korean cinema, and Pulgasari later became the first North Korean film to be shown in South Korean theaters.[54]

See also

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References

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Notes

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  1. ^ "Future Korean Filmmakers Visit UCLA". Archived from the original on 24 December 2007. Retrieved 18 November 2007.
  2. ^ a b Sam Jameson (19 June 1989). "U.S. Films Troubled by New Sabotage in South Korea Theater". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  3. ^ Roper, Willem (11 February 2020) The Rise of the South Korean Film Industry Archived 23 June 2020 at the Wayback Machine statista.com
  4. ^ Tai, Crystal (5 August 2020) Korean K-dramas and Hallyu films are #Alive and well, but Bollywood hits rock Bellbottom amid coronavirus slump Archived 16 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine South China Morning Post
  5. ^ a b Kim, So-young. "Korean Film History and 'Chihwaseon'" (PDF). Korean Film Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  6. ^ Robert Neff (12 December 2010). "(49) Motion picture first came to Korea at turn of 20th century". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  7. ^ a b James, David E.; Kyung Hyun Kim, eds. (2002). Im Kwon-Taek: The Making of a Korean National Cinema. Wayne State University Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-8143-2869-9.
  8. ^ Berry, Chris (18 December 1998). "Recovering the past: rare films screened in Korea". LA Trobe University. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  9. ^ 오, 승훈; 김, 경애 (2 November 2021). "한국 최초의 영화관 '애관극장' 사라지면 안되잖아요" ["We Can't Let Korea's First Movie Theater, 'Ae Kwan Theater', Disappear"]. The Hankyoreh (in Korean). Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  10. ^ Lee, Gyu-lee (13 October 2019). "Centennial of Korean cinema - From humble beginnings to mega hits". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  11. ^ a b Lee, Jae-lim (20 February 2020). "Century of Korean film: 100 years after first local movie, industry makes history on global stage". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  12. ^ "Korean cinema celebrates 100th year anniversary". The Korea Times. 3 July 2019. Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  13. ^ Boram, Kim (17 April 2019). "S. Korean movie industry to celebrate centennial in Oct". Yonhap News Agency. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  14. ^ Wade, James (1983). "The Cinema in Korea: A Robust Invalid". Korean Dance, Theater & Cinema. Seoul: Si-sa-yong-o-sa Publishers. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-89209-017-4.
  15. ^ Paquet, Darcy. "A Short History of Korean Film". Korean Film. Archived from the original on 25 August 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  16. ^ Lee, Young-Il. "The Establishment of a National Cinema Under Colonialism: The History of Early Korean Cinema". LA Trobe University. Archived from the original on 24 June 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  17. ^ Norbert Weber (1925), In the Land of Morning Calm, retrieved 9 October 2023
  18. ^ 노르베르트 베버 필름 컬렉션. Korean Film Archive (in Korean). Archived from the original on 20 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  19. ^ 차, 미애 (30 January 2021). 독일인 신부가 수집한 겸재화첩, 50억 거절하고 한국 오기까지. Hankook Ilbo (in Korean). Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  20. ^ "Newly discovered films shed light on Korean life under Japanese rule". Kpop Herald. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
  21. ^ Books Map Out Korean Film History Lee Hyo Won
  22. ^ Wade, p.176-177.
  23. ^ Areum Jeong, "How the Byeonsa Stole the Show: The Performance of the Korean Silent Film Narrators," 언론문화연구 [Journalism and Media Studies] 25 (2018), 25–54 (25).
  24. ^ Maliangkay, Roald H. (March 2005). "Classifying Performances: The Art of Korean Film Narrators". Image & Narrative. Archived from the original on 28 January 2008. Retrieved 13 March 2008.
  25. ^ Lee, Young-il (1988). The History of Korean Cinema. Motion Picture Promotion Corporation. p. 53. ISBN 978-89-88095-12-6.
  26. ^ Yecies, Brian (2012). Korea's Occupied Cinemas, 1893–1948: The Untold History of the Film Industry. Routledge. ISBN 9781136674730. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  27. ^ Hun Shim at IMDb
  28. ^ 영화(MOVIE-Motionpicture)이야기 Archived 2014-09-08 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ Roald Maliangkay, " Dirt, Noise, and Naughtiness: Cinema and the Working Class During Korea's Silent Film Era," Asian Ethnology 70 (2011), 1–31 (17).
  30. ^ Lee, Young-il (1988). The History of Korean Cinema. Motion Picture Promotion Corporation. pp. 57–59. ISBN 978-89-88095-12-6.
  31. ^ Min, Eungjun; Joo Jinsook; Kwak HanJu (2003). Korean Film : History, Resistance, and Democratic Imagination. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-275-95811-4.
  32. ^ "The story of Chun-hyang (Chunhyangjeon )". Korean Film Archive. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
  33. ^ Baskett, Michael (2008). The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3223-0., pp. 20-28.
  34. ^ Brian Yecies, The Korean "Cinema of Assimilation" and the Construction of Cultural Hegemony in the Final Years of Japanese Rule 日本統治下最晩年の韓国における「同化のシネマ」と文化的ヘゲモニーの構築
  35. ^ a b Mika Ko, Japanese Cinema and Otherness, p.138
  36. ^ Baskett, The Attractive Empire, pp. 21–22.
  37. ^ Baskett, The Attractive Empire, pp. 90–93.
  38. ^ Baskett, The Attractive Empire, pp. 88–90.
  39. ^ Min, p.46.
  40. ^ Chee, Alexander (16 October 2017). "Park Chan-wook, the Man Who Put Korean Cinema on the Map". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  41. ^ Nayman, Adam (27 June 2017). "Bong Joon-ho Could Be the New Steven Spielberg". The Ringer. Archived from the original on 1 August 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  42. ^ Jin, Min-ji (13 February 2018). "Third 'Detective K' movie tops the local box office". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  43. ^ "'Movie Industry Heading for Crisis'". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 17 January 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  44. ^ Brown, James (9 February 2007). "Screen quotas raise tricky issues". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
  45. ^ "Korean movie workers stage mass rally to protest quota cut". Korea Is One. Archived from the original on 26 May 2006. Retrieved 11 February 2010.
  46. ^ "Korean Art Film Studio | Koryo Tours". koryogroup.com. 28 January 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
  47. ^ Bell, James (12 June 2015). "In a lonely place: North Korea's Pyongyang International Film Festival". British Film Institute. Retrieved 16 June 2025.
  48. ^ a b Mallett, Whitney (14 March 2014). "Hollywood North Korea: How to Make Movies the Kim Jong-il Way". Hazlitt Magazine. Penguin Random House Canada. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  49. ^ a b Kwak, Dong Hun (March 2013). "Strategic Propaganda Through North Korean Films: A New Approach". Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai, Philologia. 58 (1). National University Research Council: 231–244. Archived from the original on 25 November 2021. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  50. ^ David-West, Alzo (January 2009). "The Literary Ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il: An Introduction to North Korean Meta-Authorial Perspectives" (PDF). Cultural Logic. 12: 1–34. ISSN 1097-3087. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  51. ^ David-West, Alzo (January 2009). "The Literary Ideas of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il: An Introduction to North Korean Meta-Authorial Perspectives" (PDF). Cultural Logic. 12: 1–34. ISSN 1097-3087. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  52. ^ Lee, Hyang-Jin (2001). "CINEMA AND CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONHOOD IN CONTEMPORARY KOREA". International Journal of Korean Unification Studies. 10 (1). Korea Institute for National Unification: 151. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  53. ^ Fischer, Paul (2015). A Kim Jong-Il production: the extraordinary true story of a kidnapped filmmaker, his star actress, and a young dictator's rise to power (1st ed.). New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-05426-5.
  54. ^ Park, Kyung-il (12 April 2006). "故 신상옥 감독, 납북 → 탈북 → 망명… 영화같은 삶" [The late director Shin Sang-ok, kidnapped → defected → asylum... A life like a movie]. Munhwa Ilbo (in Korean). Archived from the original on 27 December 2024. Retrieved 24 February 2025.
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