With the increasing global success and globalization of the Korean film industry, the past two decades have seen Korean actors like Lee Byung-hun and Bae Doona star in American films, Korean auteurs such as Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho direct English-language works, Korean American actors crossover to star in Korean films as with Steven Yeun and Ma Dong-seok, and Korean films be remade in the United States, China, and other markets. The Busan International Film Festival has also grown to become Asia's largest and most important film festival.
American film studios have also set up local subsidiaries like Warner Bros. Korea and 20th Century Fox Korea to finance Korean films like The Age of Shadows (2016) and The Wailing (2016), putting them in direct competition with Korea's Big Four vertically integrated domestic film production and distribution companies: Lotte Cultureworks (formerly Lotte Entertainment), CJ Entertainment, Next Entertainment World (NEW), and Showbox. Netflix has also entered Korea as a film producer and distributor as part of both its international growth strategy in search of new markets and its drive to find new content for consumers in the U.S. market amid the "streaming wars" with Disney, which has a Korean subsidiary, and other competitors.
With the surrender of Japan in 1945 and the subsequent liberation of Korea, freedom became the predominant theme in South Korean cinema in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[5] One of the most significant films from this era is director Choi In-gyu's Viva Freedom! (1946), which is notable for depicting the Korean independence movement. The film was a major commercial success because it tapped into the public's excitement about the country's recent liberation.[13]
However, during the Korean War, the South Korean film industry stagnated, and only 14 films were produced from 1950 to 1953. All of the films from that era have since been lost.[14] Following the Korean War armistice in 1953, South Korean president Syngman Rhee attempted to rejuvenate the film industry by exempting it from taxation. Additionally foreign aid arrived in the country after the war that provided South Korean filmmakers with equipment and technology to begin producing more films.[15]
Though filmmakers were still subject to government censorship, South Korea experienced a golden age of cinema, mostly consisting of melodramas, starting in the mid-1950s.[5] The number of films made in South Korea increased from only 15 in 1954 to 111 in 1959.[16]
One of the most popular films of the era, director Lee Kyu-hwan's now lost remake of Chunhyang-jeon (1955), drew 10 percent of Seoul's population to movie theaters[15] However, while Chunhyang-jeon re-told a traditional Korean story, another popular film of the era, Han Hyung-mo's Madame Freedom (1956), told a modern story about female sexuality and Western values.[17]
South Korean filmmakers enjoyed a brief freedom from censorship in the early 1960s, between the administrations of Syngman Rhee and Park Chung Hee.[18]Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid (1960) and Yu Hyun-mok's Obaltan (1960), now considered among the best South Korean films ever made, were produced during this time.[7] Kang Dae-jin's The Coachman (1961) became the first South Korean film to win an award at an international film festival when it took home the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the 1961 Berlin International Film Festival.[19][20]
When Park Chung Hee became acting president in 1962, government control over the film industry increased substantially. Under the Motion Picture Law of 1962, a series of increasingly restrictive measures was enacted that limited imported films under a quota system. The new regulations also reduced the number of domestic film-production companies from 71 to 16 within a year. Government censorship targeted obscenity, communism, and unpatriotic themes in films.[21][22] Nonetheless, the Motion Picture Law's limit on imported films resulted in a boom of domestic films. South Korean filmmakers had to work quickly to meet public demand, and many films were shot in only a few weeks. During the 1960s, the most popular South Korean filmmakers released six to eight films per year. Notably, director Kim Soo-yong released ten films in 1967, including Mist, which is considered to be his greatest work.[19]
In 1967, South Korea's first animated feature film, Hong Kil-dong, was released. A handful of animated films followed including Golden Iron Man (1968), South Korea's first science-fiction animated film.[19]
Censorship and propaganda (1973–1979)
Government control of South Korea's film industry reached its height during the 1970s under President Park Chung Hee's authoritarian "Yusin System." The Korean Motion Picture Promotion Corporation was created in 1973, ostensibly to support and promote the South Korean film industry, but its primary purpose was to control the film industry and promote "politically correct" support for censorship and government ideals.[23] According to the 1981 International Film Guide, "No country has a stricter code of film censorship than South Korea – with the possible exception of the North Koreans and some other Communist bloc countries."[24]
Only filmmakers who had previously produced "ideologically sound" films and who were considered to be loyal to the government were allowed to release new films. Members of the film industry who tried to bypass censorship laws were blacklisted and sometimes imprisoned.[25] One such blacklisted filmmaker, the prolific director Shin Sang-ok, was kidnapped by the North Korean government in 1978 after the South Korean government revoked his film-making license in 1975.[26]
The propaganda-laden movies (or "policy films") produced in the 1970s were unpopular with audiences who had become accustomed to seeing real-life social issues onscreen during the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to government interference, South Korean filmmakers began losing their audience to television, and movie-theater attendance dropped by over 60 percent from 1969 to 1979.[27]
Films that were popular among audiences during this era include Yeong-ja's Heydays (1975) and Winter Woman (1977), both box office hits directed by Kim Ho-sun.[26]Yeong-ja's Heydays and Winter Women are classified as "hostess films," which are movies about prostitutes and bargirls. Despite their overt sexual content, the government allowed the films to be released, and the genre was extremely popular during the 1970s and 1980s.[22]
Recovery (1980–1996)
In the 1980s, the South Korean government began to relax its censorship and control of the film industry. The Motion Picture Law of 1984 allowed independent filmmakers to begin producing films, and the 1986 revision of the law allowed more films to be imported into South Korea.[21]
In 1988, the South Korean government lifted all restrictions on foreign films, and American film companies began to set up offices in South Korea. In order for domestic films to compete, the government once again enforced a screen quota that required movie theaters to show domestic films for at least 146 days per year. However, despite the quota, the market share of domestic films was only 16 percent by 1993.[21]
The South Korean film industry was once again changed in 1992 with Kim Ui-seok's hit film Marriage Story, released by Samsung. It was the first South Korean movie to be released by business conglomerate known as a chaebol, and it paved the way for other chaebols to enter the film industry, using an integrated system of financing, producing, and distributing films.[29]
Renaissance (1997–present)
As a result of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, many chaebols began to scale back their involvement in the film industry. However, they had already laid the groundwork for a renaissance in South Korean film-making by supporting young directors and introducing good business practices into the industry.[29] "New Korean Cinema," including glossy blockbusters and creative genre films, began to emerge in the late 1990s and 2000s.[6]
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.[30] 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).[31] In February 2006, South Korean movie workers responded to the reduction by staging mass rallies in protest.[32] 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 and imported $35.9 million-worth".[33]
Director Bong Joon-ho's The Host (2006) and later the English-language film Snowpiercer (2013), are among the highest-grossing films of all time in South Korea and were praised by foreign film critics.[37][9][38]Yeon Sang-ho's Train to Busan (2016), also one of the highest-grossing films of all time in South Korea, became the second highest-grossing film in Hong Kong in 2016.[39]
LGBTQ films and representations of LGBTQ characters in South Korean cinema can be seen since the beginning of South Korean cinema despite public perceptions of South Korea as being largely anti-LGBT. Defining "queer cinema" has been up for debate by critics of cinema because of the difficulties in defining "queer" in film contexts. The term "queer" has its roots in the English language and although its origins held negative connotations, reclamation of the term began in the 1980s in the U.S. and has come to encompass non-heteronormative sexualities even outside of the U.S.[42] Thus, queer cinema in South Korea can be thought of as encompassing depictions of non-heteronormative sexualities. On this note, LGBTQ and queer have been used interchangeably by critics of South Korean cinema.[43] While the characteristics that constitute a film as LGBTQ can be subjective due to defining the term "queer" as well as how explicit or implicit LGBTQ representation is in a film, there are a number of films that have been considered as such in Korean cinema.
According to Pil Ho Kim, Korean queer cinema can be categorized into three different categories regarding visibility and public reception. There is the Invisible Age (1945-1997), where films with queer themes have received limited attention as well as discrete representations due to societal pressures, the Camouflage Age (1998-2004) characterized by a more liberal political and social sphere that encouraged filmmakers to increase production of LGBTQ films and experiment more with their overt depictions but still remaining hesitant, and finally, the Blockbuster Age (2005–present) where LGBTQ themed films began to enter the mainstream following the push against censorship by independent films prior.[44]
Though queer Korean cinema has mainly been represented through independent films and short films, there exists a push for the inclusion of LGBTQ representation in the cinema as well as a call for attention to these films. Turning points include the dismantling of the much stricter Korean Performing Arts Ethics Committee and the emergence of the Korean Council for Performing Arts Promotions and the "Seoul Queer Film and Video Festival" in 1998 after the original gay and lesbian film festival was shut down by Korean authorities.[45] The Korea Queer Film Festival, part of the Korea Queer Culture Festival, has also pushed for visibility of queer Korean films.
LGBTQ films by openly LGBTQ directors
LGBTQ films by openly LGBTQ identifying directors have historically been released independently, with a majority of them being short films. The films listed reflect such films and reveal how diverse the representations can be.
Everyday is Like Sunday (Lee Song Hee-il 1997): The independent, short film directed by openly-LGBTQ identifying Lee Hee-il follows two male characters who meet then become separated, with direct representation of their relationship as homosexual. The independent aspect of the film may have had a role in allowing for a more obvious representation of homosexuality since there is less pressure for appealing to a mainstream audience and does not require government sponsorship.[45]
No Regret (Lee Song Hee-il, 2006): An independent film co-directed by Lee Hee-il and Kim-Cho Kwang-su, both of whom had ties to the gay activist group Ch’in’gusai, portrays LGBTQ characters in a way that normalizes their identities.[44] The film was also able to see more success than usual for independent films for its marketing strategy that targeted a primarily female audience with an interest in what is known as Boys' Love.[44][46]
Boy Meets Boy (Kimjo Kwang-soo, 2008): Claimed by the director to be inspired by their own personal experience, the independent short film tells an optimistic story of two men, with the possibility of mutual feelings of attraction after a brief encounter.[47] Even though there is homosexual attraction, it is told through a heterosexual lens, since the masculinity of one character and the femininity of the other are in contrast with each other, creating ambiguity about their queerness due in part to homophobia in society and the political climate.[46]
Just Friends? (Kimjo Kwang-soo, 2009): This independent short film by Kimjo Kwang-soo, also written as Kim Cho Kwang-soo, represents LGBTQ characters, with the main character, Min-soo, having to deal with his mother's disapproval of his relationship with another male character. This short film, like Boy Meets Boy also offers a more optimistic ending.[48]
Stateless Things (Kim Kyung-mook, 2011): In the film, both LGBT characters and Korean-Chinese immigrant workers are considered non-normative and are marginalized.[43] The film can be considered to have a queer point-of-view in the sense that it has an experimental quality that creates ambiguity when it comes to non-normative themes. However, the film does depict graphic, homoeroticism, making the representation of homosexuality clear.[49]
LGBTQ films not by openly LGBTQ directors
The Pollen of Flowers (Ha Gil-jong, 1972): Regarded as the first gay Korean film by the director's brother Ha Myong-jung, the film depicts homosexuality in the film through tension in LGBTQ relationships though it was not typically regarded as a queer film at the time of release.[44] The film's political message and critique of the president at the time, Park Chung Hee, may be the reason that queer relationships were overshadowed.[50] In spite of being an earlier Korean film depicting homosexuality, the film is more explicit in these relationships than might be expected at the time.[50]
Ascetic: Woman and Woman (Kim Su-hyeong, 1976): Though the film was given award-winning status by the Korean press, during the time of the release, Ascetic remained an under-recognized film by the public.[45] The film is seen as the first lesbian film by Korean magazine Buddy and tells the story of two women who develop feelings for each other.[44] Though the homosexual feelings between the women are implied through “thinly-veiled sex acts” that could be more explicit, it was considered homosexual given the context of the heavy censorship regulations of the 1970s.[44] Despite the film's status as a lesbian film, it has been noted that the director did not intend to make an LGBTQ film, but rather a feminist film by emphasizing the meaningfulness of the two women's interactions and relationships. Even so, Kim Su-hyeong has said the film can be seen as both lesbian and feminist.[45]
Road Movie (Kim In-shik, 2002): Even though the film was released through a large distribution company, the film did not reach the expected mainstream box office success, yet it is still seen as a precursor to queer blockbuster films to come.[44] The film is explicit in its homosexual content[46] and portrays a complicated love triangle between two men and a woman while focusing primarily on a character who is homosexual.[46] It is noteworthy that Road Movie is one of the few full-length feature films in South Korea to revolve around a queer main character.[46]
The King and the Clown (Lee Joon-ik, 2005): The King and the Clown is seen as having a major impact in queer cinema for its great mainstream success. In the film, one of the characters is seen as representing queer-ness through his embodiment of femininity, which is often regarded as the character trope of the “flower boy” or kkonminam.[44] However, actual depictions of homosexuality are limited and are depicted only through a kiss.[44]The King and the Clown is seen as influential because of its representation of suggested gay characters that preceded other queer films to come after it.[46] The film depicts undertones of a love triangle between two jesters and a king and suggests homosexuality in a pre-modern time period (Joseon Dynasty)[46] and is based on the play Yi (2000) which drew on the passage The Annals of the Choseon Dynasty, two pieces that were more explicit in their homosexuality in comparison the film.[46] The representation of gay intimacy and attraction remains ambiguous in the film and has been criticized by the LGBT community for its portrayal of queerness.[46]
Frozen Flower (Yoo Ha, 2008): A Frozen Flower followed other queer films such as The King and the Clown, Broken Branches, and Road Movie.[43] This film reached a mainstream audience which may have been due in part to a well-received actor playing a homosexual character. Critiques of the film have questioned the character Hong Lim's homosexuality, however, it may be suggested that his character is actually bisexual.[51] Despite the explicit homosexual/queer love scenes in the film that brought a shock to mainstream audiences,[51] the film still managed to be successful and expose a large audience to a story about queer relationships.[43]
The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016): The film is a cross-cultural adaptation of the lesbian novel Fingersmith written by Sarah Waters.[52]The Handmaiden includes representation of lesbian characters who are seen expressing romantic feelings towards each other in a sensual way that has been critiqued as voyeuristic for its fetishization of the female body.[53] Explicitly depicting the homosexual attraction of the characters Sook-hee and Lady Hideko is a bath scene where the act of filing down the other's tooth has underlying sexual tension.[53] The film had mainstream box-office success and "over the first six weeks of play [reached a gross] of £1.25 million".[53]
Horror Cinema
Korean horror entered its first fertile period in the 1960s.[54] Modern South Korean horror films are typically distinguished by stylish directing, themes of social commentary, and genre blending.[55] Horror films are designed to 'cool' the audience; traditionally, horror films are screened domestically during the summer months, as they are thought to be effective at lowering body temperature by providing 'chills'.[54]
The Korean Film Council has published box office data on South Korean films since 2004. As of March 2021, the top ten highest-grossing domestic films in South Korea since 2004 are as follows.[37]
Founded in 1996, the Busan International Film Festival is South Korea's major film festival and has grown to become one of the largest and most prestigious film events in Asia.[57]
South Korea at international festivals
The first South Korean film to win an award at an international film festival was Kang Dae-jin's The Coachman (1961), which was awarded the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the 1961 Berlin International Film Festival.[19][20] The tables below list South Korean films that have since won major international film festival prizes.
Im Kwon-taek is one of South Korea's most renowned film directors. In an active and prolific career, his films have won many domestic and international film festival awards, as well as considerable box-office success, and helped bring international attention to the Korean film industry. As of spring 2015, he has directed 102 films.
The term "Cinema of Korea" encompasses the motion picture industries of North and South Korea. As with all aspects of Korean life during the past century, the film industry has often been at the mercy of political events, from the late Joseon dynasty to the Korean War to domestic governmental interference. While both countries have relatively robust film industries today, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. North Korean films tend to portray their communist or revolutionary themes.
Park Kwang-su is a South Korean filmmaker. He was born in Sokcho, Gangwon Province and grew up in Busan. Park joined the Yallasung Film Group as a student of Fine Arts at Seoul National University. Upon graduation, he founded and led the Seoul Film Group which was dedicated to renewing Korean film culture and closely tied to the student protest movement. The Seoul Film Group was a significant part of the independent film movement and a strong voice speaking out against the military dictatorship. Park studied film at the ESEC film school in Paris, then returned to Korea to work as an assistant director to Lee Chang-Ho. He made his own first feature in 1988, and in 1993 became the first Korean filmmaker to found his own production company.
Kim Ki-young was a South Korean film director, known for his intensely psychosexual and melodramatic horror films, often focusing on the psychology of their female characters. Kim was born in Seoul during the colonial period, raised in Pyongyang, where he became interested in theater and cinema. In Korea after the end of World War II, he studied dentistry while becoming involved in the theater. During the Korean War, he made propaganda films for the United States Information Service. In 1955, he used discarded movie equipments to produce his first two films. With the success of these two films Kim formed his own production company and produced popular melodramas for the rest of the decade.
Hong Sang-soo is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. An acclaimed and prolific filmmaker, Hong is known for his slow-paced films about love affairs and everyday dilemmas in contemporary South Korea.
Bungee Jumping of Their Own is a 2001 South Korean romantic drama film starring Lee Byung-hun and Lee Eun-ju. The film had 947,000 admissions, making it the 10th most attended film of the year.
Yellow Hair is a 1999 South Korean erotic thriller film, written and directed by Kim Yu-min, and starring former child actress Lee Jae-eun. The film caused controversy for its strong sexual content, and was only approved for release after some of the more explicit material was cut. The film's English title is sometimes given as The Blonde.
Chilsu and Mansu is a 1988 South Korean film, and noted director Park Kwang-su's debut film. Though not a box-office hit, the film is remembered as a major step towards freedom of expression in South Korean cinema.
Joo Hyun is a South Korean actor.
Lee Yeong-hoon is a South Korean actor.
At various points in South Korea's history, the social influence of film prompted the government to place strict regulations setting out guidelines that films must follow in order to be viewed by the public. There are two major periods where film censorship strongly impacted the growth of the film industry in South Korea: the period of colonial Korea under Japanese rule and the period of military dictatorship in the mid-twentieth century, when the film industry was placed under heavy surveillance. During these two periods, filmmakers were barred from freely expressing their creativity, thoughts, and ideas, some believe these restrictions led to the decline of the film industry in South Korea.
Kim Tae-yong is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. After his feature directorial debut Memento Mori (1999), he helmed the critically-acclaimed Family Ties (2006), and the English-language remake Late Autumn (2010).
The modern South Korean LGBT rights movement arose in the 1990s, with several small organizations seeking to combat sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.
Hallyuwood, a compound word combining the word Hallyu with wood from Hollywood, is the informal term popularly used to describe the Korean-language entertainment and film industry in South Korea. Koreans use the term Hallyu to describe the growth in popularity of South Korean cultural export, prevalent in most countries of Asia and many others around the world. The trend has been reported by CNN as "hallyu-wood". The term Hallyuwood has been used and quoted in various news articles, journals, books and symposiums to describe people, places and events related to the Korean Wave such as a planned "Hallyuwood Walk of Fame" in the glitzy Gangnam District in Seoul to a bibimbap dish called Bibigo: The Hallyuwood hopeful.
Yim Soon-rye is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. She is considered one of the few leading female auteurs of Korean New Wave cinema.
Chung Ji-young is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Among his most well-known films are North Korean Partisan in South Korea (1990), White Badge (1992), Life and Death of the Hollywood Kid (1994), Unbowed (2012) and National Security (2012).
SEOUL International Women's Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Seoul, South Korea. The first festival took place on April 1, 1997, which marked the second appearance of the international film festival in Korea following Busan International Film Festival launched in 1996. This was a time when there was not a clear idea on how to define a film festival. During this time, SEOUL International Women's Film Festival came up with the catchphrase "See The World Through Women's Eyes." This phrase set its main goal to introduce women's films that explore “women’s reality from the women’s perspectives.”
The Korea Queer Film Festival (KQFF) (Korean: 퀴어영화제) is a film festival held annually in Seoul that showcases the lives of sexual minorities, which seeks to increase diversity in Korean films and the human rights of LGBTQ+ people and give insight into queer culture. KQFF was established in 2001 and has been held annually ever since. KQFF is the oldest gay and lesbian film festival in Korea, and is part of the Korea Queer Culture Festival. It aims to screen rare modern and older films on a wide range of LGBT topics. KQFF was originally named the "Rainbow Film Festival" (무지개영화제) for its 1st through 6th years, then changed its name to the "Seoul LGBT Film Festival" (서울LGBT영화제) for its 7th through 13th years, and since the 14th year has been referred to as the “Korean Queer Film Festival” (한국퀴어영화제). The festival aims to support and celebrate the LGBT community, to contribute to the development of LGBT films, to build a network among domestic and international filmmakers, establish cultural diversity and to be actively involved in cultural activism for LGBT rights.
Chingusai is a South Korean gay men's human rights group founded in February 1994. It originated from Chodonghwe, the first organization that advocated for the human rights of the Korean LGBTQ+ community. Chingusai's main focus is to raise awareness on the importance of LGBTQ+ human rights and fight against the prejudices on sexual minorities in South Korea through social activism.
Portrayals of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters or themes within South Korean film and television make up a relatively small part of the overall body of South Korean motion picture media. The topic has consistently generated discussions both in academia and in the public LGBT movements. As the South Korean LGBT rights movement emerged in the 1990s, film portrayals of queer characters and non-heterosexual relationships grew more common. South Korea has historically not been an LGBT-affirming country, which bleeds into the culture, justice system and general public sense. However, recent study conducted in Chonnam National University states that the attitudes toward homosexuality are becoming increasingly positive.
↑ 오, 승훈; 김, 경애 (2 November 2021). ""한국 최초의 영화관 '애관극장' 사라지면 안되잖아요""["We Can't Let the First Movie Theater in Korea, 'Ae Kwan Theater' Disappear"]. The Hankyoreh (in Korean). Retrieved 10 September 2023.
↑ Kai Hong, "Korea (South)", International Film Guide 1981, p.214. quoted in Armes, Roy (1987). "East and Southeast Asia". Third World Film Making and the West. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p.156. ISBN0-520-05690-6.
↑ Leanne Dawson (2015) Queer European Cinema: queering cinematic time and space, Studies in European Cinema, 12:3, 185-204, doi:10.1080/17411548.2015.1115696.
↑ Giammarco, Tom. (2013). Queer Cinema. In C. Balmain (Ed.), Directory of World Cinema: South Korea (pp. 170-171) Chicago, IL: Intellect.
↑ Balmain, Colette. (2013). Queer Cinema. In C. Balmain (Ed.), Directory of World Cinema: South Korea (pp. 175-176) Chicago, IL: Intellect.
↑ Kim, Ungsan (2 January 2017). "Queer Korean cinema, national others, and making of queer space in Stateless Things (2011)". Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema. 9 (1): 61–79. doi:10.1080/17564905.2017.1296803. ISSN1756-4905. S2CID152116199.
1 2 Conran, Pierce. (2013). Queer Cinema. In C. Balmain (Ed.), Directory of World Cinema: South Korea (pp. 178-179) Chicago, IL: Intellect.
1 2 Giammarco, Tom. (2013). Queer Cinema. In C. Balmain (Ed.), Directory of World Cinema: South Korea (pp. 173-174) Chicago, IL: Intellect.
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