Gustavus Library Movie Guide: Korean Cinema

"South Korean cinema is a striking example of non-Western contemporary cinematic success. Thanks to the increasing numbers of moviegoers and domestic films produced, South Korea has become one of the world's major film markets. In 2001, the South Korean film industry became the first in recent history to reclaim its domestic market from Hollywood and continues to maintain around a 50 percent market share today. High-quality South Korean films are increasingly entering global film markets and connecting with international audiences in commercial cinemas and art theatres, and at major international film festivals. Despite this growing recognition of the films themselves, Korean cinema's rich heritage has not heretofore received significant scholarly attention in English-language publications. This groundbreaking collection of thirty-five essays by a wide range of academic specialists situates current scholarship on Korean cinema within the ongoing theoretical debates in contemporary global film studies. Chapters explore key films of Korean cinema, from Sweet Dream, Madame Freedom, The Housemaid, and The March of Fools to Oldboy, The Host, and Train to Busan, as well as major directors such as Shin Sang-ok, Kim Ki-young, Im Kwon-taek, Bong Joon-ho, Hong Sang-soo, Park Chan-wook, and Lee Chang-dong. While the chapters provide in-depth analyses of particular films, together they cohere into a detailed and multidimensional presentation of Korean cinema's cumulative history and broader significance. With its historical and critical scope, abundance of new research, and detailed discussion of important individual films, Rediscovering Korean Cinema is at once an accessible classroom text and a deeply informative compendium for scholars of Korean and East Asian studies, cinema and media studies, and communications. It will also be an essential resource for film industry professionals and anyone interested in international cinema." - from the publisher

"The rapid development of Korean cinema during the decades of the 1960s and 2000s reveals a dynamic cinematic history which runs parallel to the nation's political, social, economic and cultural transformation during these formative periods. This book examines the ways in which South Korean cinema has undergone a transformation from an antiquated local industry in the 1960s into a thriving international cinema in the 21st century. It investigates the circumstances that allowed these two eras to emerge as creative watersheds, and demonstrates the forces behind Korea's positioning of itself as an important contributor to regional and global culture, and especially its interplay with Japan, Greater China, and the United States. Beginning with an explanation of the understudied operations of the film industry during its 1960s take-off, it then offers insight into the challenges that producers, directors, and policy makers faced in the 1970s and 1980s during the most volatile part of Park Chung-hee's authoritarian rule and the subsequent Chun Doo-hwan military government. It moves on to explore the film industry's professionalization in the 1990s and subsequent international expansion in the 2000s. In doing so, it explores the nexus and tensions between film policy, producing, directing, genre, and the internationalization of Korean cinema over half a century." - from the publisher

"While making reference to dozens of films from the first decade of the twenty-first century, 'Sovereign Violence' performs sustained, comprehensive readings of twenty-one of the most well-known contemporary South Korean films directed by eight auteurs: Hong Sang-soo, Im Sang-soo, Gok and Sun Kim, Kim Ji-woon, Kim Ki-duk, Lee Chang-dong, and Park Chan-wook. Drawing from contemporary film theory and philosophy, as well as reviews, filmmaker interviews, and other primary sources, Sovereign Violence argues that their often violent, contentious films pose urgent ethical dilemmas around life in the age of neoliberal globalization and subsequently point toward new modes of social existence." - from the publisher

"In the late 1990s, South Korean film and other cultural products, broadly known as hallyu (Korean wave), gained unprecedented international popularity. Korean films earned an all-time high of $60.3 million in Japan in 2005, and they outperformed their Hollywood competitors at Korean box offices. In Virtual Hallyu, Kyung Hyun Kim reflects on the precariousness of Korean cinema's success over the past decade. Arguing that state film policies and socioeconomic factors cannot fully explain cinema's true potentiality, Kim draws on Deleuze's concept of the virtual--according to which past and present and truth and falsehood coexist--to analyze the temporal anxieties and cinematic ironies embedded in screen figures such as a made-in-the-USA aquatic monster (The Host), a postmodern Chosun-era wizard (Jeon Woo-chi), a schizo man-child (Oasis), a weepy North Korean terrorist (Typhoon), a salary man turned vengeful fighting machine (Oldboy), and a sick nationalist (the repatriated colonial-era film Spring of Korean Peninsula). Kim maintains that the full significance of hallyu can only be understood by exposing the implicit and explicit ideologies of protonationalism and capitalism that, along with Korea's ambiguous post-democratization and neoliberalism, are etched against the celluloid surfaces." - from the publisher

"The first detailed English-language book on Korean horror introduces the cultural specificity of the genre to an international audience, from the iconic monsters of gothic horror, to the avenging killers of Oldboy and Death Bell. Beginning in the 1960s, it traces a path through the history of Korean horror, offering new interpretations of classic films, demarcating the shifting patterns of production and consumption across the decades, and acquainting readers with films rarely seen and discussed outside of Korea. It explores the importance of folklore and myth on horror film narratives, the impact of political and social change upon the genre, and accounts for the transnational triumph of some of Korea's contemporary horror films." - from the publisher

"Lee Chang Dong's films question the status of the visible and the invisible, in a world saturated with images and information that oscillates between reality and fantasy, history and fiction. Against a backdrop of social and political critique, his films explore the aesthetics of disappearance through the off-screen, and capture the loss of our memory of history and nature. His 'perceptive' images create empathy with young adults as they grapple with existential despair, trapped in a hopeless world despite their rage. Lee Chang-dong's films plays with cinematographic categories, concealing stories in nested narratives and chronological ellipses, or layering them into the soundtrack. Halfway between fiction and a documentary testimony of our times, Lee Chang-dong invents a universe of images that appeal to perception and imagination by conjuring up the viewer's (invisible) mental images. Memory resurges to perceive a 'little something' that blurs the contour of reality, while the world evaporates and disappears into the virtual." - from the publisher

"Mija is a beautiful woman in her sixties who moves gracefully through life, contemplating a trivial daily routine that is ill-suited to her refined persona. On a whim, Mija enrolls in a poetry class at the local cultural center and begins a personal quest to find the perfect words to describe her feelings. She appreciates the wonders of the natural world, but a school girl's suicide initiates a chain of tragic events that will change her life forever."A sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class." - from IMDB.com

"BURNING is the searing examination of an alienated young man, Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), a frustrated introvert whose already difficult life is complicated by the appearance of two people in his orbit: first, Haemi (newcomer Jong-seo Jun), a spirited woman who offers the romantic possibility, and then, Ben (Steven Yeun, THE WALKING DEAD, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU), a wealthy and sophisticated young man she returns from a trip with. However, when Jongsu learns of Ben’s mysterious hobby and Haemi suddenly disappears, his confusion and obsessions begin to mount, culminating in a stunning finale." - from Well Go Entertainment

"In the extremely sensitive, highly-armed Korean DMZ, 16 shots are fired and a North Korean soldier is killed. A South Korean soldier and a North Korean soldier give completely contradictory accounts of the event and another witness attempts to commit suicide rather than submit to questioning. A Swiss military team from the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission is asked to investigate this mysterious incident before it escalates."

"The first installment of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, is a brutal and uncompromising portrayal of spiralling circumstances and the horrors of revenge. It tells the harrowing tale of a young deaf-mute man, Ryu, who kidnaps a wealthy businessman's daughter in an attempt to extort money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant. A terrible accident sets the child's father on a fateful path of revenge."

"After a drunken night on the town, an ordinary Seoul businessman, OH Dae-su, wakes up in the morning to discover he has been locked up without explanation in a mysterious prison. After fifteen years, Dae-su suddenly and inexplicably finds himself freed. A voice on a cellphone taunts him into discovering who kept him imprisoned. Dae-su plunges into a world of competing vengeance, his own drive for revenge matched by the equally implacable and Byzantine scheming of his mysterious nemesis."

"The third installment of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy. At the age of 19, Geum-ja is imprisoned for the murder of a child - a murder committed by her accomplice Mr Baek. Geum-ja prepares her revenge by winning the hearts of her fellow prisoners. Upon release 13 years later and with the help of her former inmates, she orchestrates a careful plot to seek brutal revenge."

"In 1930s Korea, during Japanese occupation, Sookee is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress who lives a secluded life on an enchanting and lavish estate with her domineering uncle. Yet Sookee has a secret, she has been recruited by a swindler posing as an illustrious Count to spy on the Lady so he can eventually seduce her and steal her fortune. However, this swindler is not the only one with desire to seduce."

"The Films of Bong Joon-ho is the first single-authored, book-length study of the world-renowned Korean director who is known for his unique construction of genre films. Although his films enjoy tremendous transnational appeal globally, they cannot be fully appreciated without contextualizing them within the concrete local realities from which they were conceived and produced. Lee provides a detailed account of Korean contemporary cultural and political history that is critical to a full appreciation of Bong's oeuvre. The book accomplish this in part by drawing on both Korean and English scholarly references, bringing together different perspectives in viewing and interpreting Bong's cinematic arts. Including discussion of The Host, Snowpiercer, Parasite and many others, the aesthetics and the cinematic in Bong's unique genre films are firmly situated within the history and politics of his time." - from the publisher

"Driven crazy by the incessant yapping of a noisy dog in a nearby apartment, a part-time college lecturer with an expectant wife eventually snaps and takes matters into his own hands, but soon his actions begin to snowball as the apartment building owner becomes increasingly determined to resolve the mounting complaints of missing pets.An unemployed and unmotivated grad student, looking for a job as a professor, is driven to distraction by a yapping dog somewhere on the block of his apartment complex. In a fit of anger he takes extreme action to deal with his tormentor, an action that will come to haunt him."

"In Seoul, an American army doctor forces his assistant to dump bottle after bottle of formaldehyde into the drain. The drain runs into the Han River, the major river running through the middle of Seoul. His only reason is that the bottles are covered with a layer of dust. Six years later, a food cart operator, Gang-du falls asleep every time his dad, Hie-bong, is away from the stand for more than a few minutes. Soon, his daughter, Hyun-Seo returns from school. Then a monster appears in the river and starts to attack the people lounging at its banks. Gang-du and Hyun-Seo are chased by the beast. Hie-bong tries valiantly to save his daughter, but the beast soon captures her and drags her away. They receive a call from the daughter's cell phone and try to rescue her from the large monster."

"A mother desperately tries to overturn her son's murder conviction, find the killer who set him up, and have him released from prison."

"The film is set in the future (AD 2031) where, after a failed experiment to stop global warming, an ice age kills off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine. Its inhabitants are divided by class; the lower-class passengers in one of the last cars stage an uprising, moving car by car up to the front of the train, where the oppressive rich and powerful live." Based on the Francophone graphic novel series, Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette.

"Mija is a South Korean girl growing up on an Edenic mountainside with her grandfather and best friend: Okja, a giant, empathetic 'super pig' created as part of a secretive GMO experiment. When Okja is abruptly torn away from her, Mija embarks on a perilous rescue mission that places her at the center of a sinister corporate conspiracy. While Bong's trademark virtuosic set-pieces dazzle, Okja's beating heart is the connection between a girl and her super pig, made all the more poignant by the brilliant special effects that bring the animal star to unforgettable life."

"Kim Ki-teak's family are all unemployed and living in a squalid basement. When his son gets a tutoring job at the lavish home of the Park family, the Kim family's luck changes. One by one they gradually infiltrate the wealthy Parks' home, attempting to take over their affluent lifestyle." Academy Award Winner for Best Picture.

"Set in 18th century Korea. Mongryong, the son of a governor, falls in love with Chunhyang, the daughter of a proud former courtesan, and they secretly marry out of fear of reprisal. Trouble results when Mongryong is ordered to Seoul to finish his education, and a new, vindictive governor pursues Chunhyang and then imprisons her when she refuses his advances. This movie unfolds through a p'ansori presentation."

"A film about two brothers drafted into the army during the Korean War (1950-1953).After independence, Korea is full of hope for the future. However, everything changes when the Korean War breaks out. Two brothers are immediately drafted and sent to the front lines, where their bond is put to the test and their fate is uncertain."

"A chronicle of the life of a Buddhist monk from childhood to the end of his days."

"2009 South Korean television series based on Japanese shōjo manga series written by Yoko Kamio. The series is the fifth television adaptation of the manga. It spins the modern-day Cinderella tale of a poor, but spunky schoolgirl at an exclusive academy who attracts the interest of the four ultra-rich and ultra-handsome princes of the school known as F4."

"Amid national chaos and fear for his life, tyrannical King Gwanghae orders his trusted counselor to find a royal body double. He recruits a crude, working-class peasant, Ha-seon, a village performer who bears a startling resemblance to the ruler. When the king falls into a coma from poisoning, he is secreted away to recover and Ha-seon reluctantly assumes the throne, forced to pull off history's biggest masquerade."

"After an international auto theft sting, dimwitted detective Do-chul is treated at a night club where he meets Tae-oh, the tyrannical heir to an untouchable mega-corporation, whose rude behavior rubs Do-chul the wrong way. One day, a truck driver that helped Do-chul with a case gets beaten and humiliated by Tae-oh in front of his nine-year-old son in a protest to get his overdue wages. The son finds Do-chul's business card and calls for help due to the father's near death coma."

"Train to Busan: When a mysterious virus breaks out across the country, the infected turn into the murderous undead. A few terrified travelers find themselves trapped on a bullet train from hell, fighting for their lives as hordes of the living dead crash towards them, crawling closer with every stop. Suspicion is rife and tensions run high as some will do anything to survive and make it to the safe zone.Peninsula: Four years after South Korea's total decimation in Train to Busan, the zombie thriller that captivated audiences worldwide, a former soldier returns to the peninsula on a mission with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether the best--or worst--of human nature prevails in the direst of circumstances."

"A rash of brutal murders sweeps a quiet rural village where a mysterious stranger just appeared. When the investigating officer watches his daughter fall under the same savage spell, he consults a shaman for answers, unknowingly escalating the situation into something far more dangerous."

"Bloody revenge is at the heart of this stylish, kinetic action-thriller that gives a welcome shot of adrenaline to the classic femme fatale story. Honed from childhood into a merciless killing machine by a criminal organization, assassin Sook-hee is recruited as a sleeper agent with the promise of freedom after ten years of service - and she jumps at the chance for a normal life. But soon enough, secrets from her past destroy everything she s worked for, and now nobody can stand in her way as she embarks on a roaring rampage of revenge." - from Amazon.com