Horror film genre in Korean Cinema

Whispering Corridors (Park Ki-hyung, 1998)

Horror film genre in Korea has experienced a big boost during the beginning of the XXI century. Since 1999 to 2010, 75 horror films were released. This boost was partly pushed because of the success of the Japanese film Ring (Hideo Nakata, 1998). The worldwide triumph of the movie in international markets produced a contagious cinematographic 'virus'1. Soon the East Asian film markets were full filled of horror movies with characteristic of ‘Sadako image’2 (a young female ghost, without eyes, and with long hair that walk dragging the feet).

At the beginning, films such as 'Evil staircase' (Lee Man-hee, 1964) depicted the horror genre as movies characterized by supernatural elements, old myths and legends full of monsters.

During 70s and 80s the declining of Korean Cinema in general also affected this genre. In this period Korean horror films were imitations of previous American and European successful films. After this period, one important representation of the genre was ‘Whispering Corridors’ (Park Ki-hyung, 1998). It was a change in the way the genre was depicted. Although this movie was based on a Japanese series of teenagers horror films called Scary School Stories, finally it wasn’t just copies. The whole series has reached a personal identity in each film. The 1^st and 2^nd part were considered in a better way by the critics and they had a very important role in the renaissance of horror film genre.

One of them, 'Memento mori' (Kim Tae-yong, 1999) had a great repercussion as well because of the ‘two-girl taboo friendship’ depicted in the film. The representation of a romantic relationship between two girls was out of mind before this film.

Little by little, the horror genre in Korea would get the recognition that deserve. In 2003, with the movie ‘A tale of two sisters’ (Kim Ji-won), the Korean horror cinema reached its golden age. The critic toward this film was really good and it won the Best Price in the International Fantasy Film Award and even the America made a remake titled as ‘The Uninvited’ (The Guard brothers, 2009).

Another film that was internationally recognized was ‘The host’ (Boon Joon-ho). That film got 18 awards in seven different festivals plus 10 more nominations.

Nowadays, horror film genre is ranked at the third position in terms of audience. Although drama and action genre audience is further higher, it is remarkable the increased influence.

1. NOSFERATU, Nº 54-56
2. Idem

International projection of Korean cinema and culture

Breath (Kim Ki-duk, 2007) main actors in Cannes Film Festival

In the 80s Korea gave its first steps to show to international markets its cinema and culture. However the real international repercussion was during the 90s. The country was facing at that moment an economic crisis. But the boost of cinema production, the first-ever multiscreen cinema (which attracted the interest of a great mass of population), and the emergence of the Korean ‘blockbuster’ phenomenon, were the principal reasons that provoked the promotion of the national cinematography. The quote of screen time in Korea for national cinema reached a rate of approximately 50%.

Dalmaga Dongjjokeuro gan kkadakeun?, directed by Bae yong-kyun and awarded internationally with the great prize of Locarno Festival, was the most representative film talking about the internationalization of the Korean cinema. But probably the most emblematic one was Chilsu and Mansu (1988), for the first time international circuits start to be interested on Korean cinema1. In 1992, it is organized the first great exhibition of South Korean cinema, by Pesaro Festival, in western countries. By this time, Korean film market was the second best one behind Japanese one and, what’s more, now it is considered one of the best film industries in the world. In fact, it is impressive how in the last 10 years, Korean cinema have spread out. Many festivals around the world have proliferated such as NY Korean Film Festival (2001), London Korean Film Festival (2003), one in Australia (2000) and other one in New Zealand (2004).

The rapid increase in the number of festivals denotes the importance that Korean culture products are reaching nowadays. But not just films, also Korean Tv dramas are being spread out to occidental audience, mostly through internet. The seek of the terms “Korean culture”, “Korean films”, and “Korean dramas” in three different languages (English, Spanish, and French) on one of the most popular search web page ‘google’ have offered very disparate results. The greater amount of searches in English than in French, or the small amount of the searches in Spanish, just show how the presence of these products are probably more significant in English-speaking countries.

By the results it seams that the interest about Korean cultures in Spanish-speaking countries is less developed. But in the last 10 years it has been noticeable the growth of the Korean films showed in festivals such as Sitges or BAFF. Sitges started to increase the number of korean films showed in each edition from one film in 2000 (Seom, Kim Ki-duk) to seven movies of 2010. Even, it was created a new section called Orient Express in the festival that just showed asian films. The modest Malaga Fantastic Film Festival also have included in its program Korean movies and, in fact, in 2010 among the activities that were organized it was included a samulnori spectacle.

Also international well known festivals such as Cannes or Sundance have included Korean films in their editions. Cannes has taken in 37 South Korean movies in the last 12 years and Sitges for example has shown 58 films in the last 10 years while Sundance has shown 18 movies since 1995.

These facts just denote the growing impact of Korean cinema and culture in western societies and the increasing interest about them. But the most important point would be how this can affect to the image that western and eastern people have about the country.

1 ELENA, Alberto. Seul Express. La renovación del cine coreano. Madrid: 1st edition, TB.

May 18



May 18, 2007 dir. Kim Ji-hun



“Do you know what is more powerful than weapons? People”

-         Park Heung-Soo (May 18, 2007)

This quotation of the film denotes the nature of the events that took place in Gwangju in May 1980. It shows the spirit of a city fighting against the repression of Chun Doo-hwan’s military dictatorship, students looking forward the democracy after the death of Park Chung-hee.

May 18 is another example of the awakening of the social conscience in the Korean cinema, product of this historical situation. Other films such as A petal (1996) or Peppermint Candy (2000) depicted, previously, Gwangju slaughter.

May 18 relates a very critic, realistic and hard images of the event. On one side, a group of soldiers (they don’t even know at the begining) sent to the south to control the student’s demonstration against the martial law, and on the other side, a group of young people enjoying their life without knowing what will happen to them.

Kang Min-woo and his brother Kang Jin-woo

The martial law and the military presence in Gwangju triggered the protest of the university students what finally derived in the ‘brutal’ attack of the military army. This situation would not finish till 27^th of May.

The movie depicts with a very hard reality what happened in Gwangju. One of the most powerful images in terms of significance it’s when Gwangju citizens joined by the belief that the military army will leave Gwangju, and suddenly while they are singing the anthem, being proud of their nation, the army starts to shoot them. The cruelty showed in this moment with the korean anthem as background music is not unique. A child crying with his father dying in his hands or Kang Min-woo in shock after seeing the assassination of his younger brother are some other examples.

Comparing these images with some of the real ones (available on the internet), the film seems to represent the situation very close to the reality and it is impossible not to think that, what is on the film, really happened; soldiers hitting and shooting without any compassion toward people without weapons. And the Gwangju’s citizens finally will start a rebellion taking weapons to finally die defending a cause.

Maybe the most appealing point of the movie is that it is based on a true story. And, although not excellent, the cast is fine and the characters, still being quite typical roles, are able to capture the attention of the audience and move them.

And the last message is clear “please remember us, don’t forget us”

The Awakenning of Korean Cinema:

New social compromise

PART II

The death of Park Chung-hee in 1979, the Gwangju slaughter in 1980, and the end of the censorship were the beginning point of the change in Korean cinema, it was the awakening of the social conscience in the cinema. The films started to talk about topics that were taboo. Films about the social reality, about the division of Korea and the terrible event in Gwangju, were filling the cinemas and, curiously, the reception by the audience was very favourable (‘a petal’, ‘May, 18’).

At the same time, the 80s were the first step in the international acknowledgement of Korean cinema. The first recognition in an international festival was in Venice with the price that ‘The surrogate mother’ gets to the best actress in 1987. This is the beginning of the international broadening of Korean cinema which now has a growing influence in film festivals over the world such as Cannes, Sitges, and Sundance. Even in the last 10 years, the increasing international reputation of Korean films have proliferated the number of film festivals focused on the subject and among of them we can find NY Korean Film Festival, Korea Film Fest in Italy, the one in New Zealand and the one in Australia.

The democratic process and the investment of the Chaebols started to improve the film industry, but till the end of the economical crisis in Korea (1997-1998), the industry did not start to take off. In 1999, the economy was growing and the Korean cinema start its resurgence with thousand of people going to the cinema because of the release of Shiri, the first blockbuster in the history of Korean cinema. This was a change in the trend, the locals increased their interest in Korean cinema and the number of films per year went from 49 in 1999 to 112 in 2007.

This change was aimed at building a more commercial sense of cinema. Films such as JSA, Shiri, Taegugki, Friend, The king and the Clown, Welcome to Dongmakgol are some examples with good results in the box office. Most of them show the new reconciliation feeling, an unification hope that is always frustrated.

MY SASSY GIRL

This image is probably one of the descriptive about the relationship narrated in the film. Directed by kwak Jae-young and released in 2001 is one of the most successful films in terms of box office. The fact that a romantic comedy gets such success of the audience not just nationally but also outside of Korea, in the Asian market, was not common because of the Korean taste for dramas most of the times. Even the proper character refers to this in the dialogue of the film “Koreans love drama”.

The favorable outcome of the film was such that Hollywood tried to reach it as well with a remake but with a poor result.

The film tells the story about a young couple that gets to know in a very awkward and funny situation in the metro. The girl, that is drunk, asked a young boy to show respect letting an older man to seat in his place and after that, she vomited on the top off the old man and fainted calling honey to the protagonist. From this point they start a weird relationship dominated by the girl’s strong character. Finally, we appreciate that her personality is influenced by the death of her previous boyfriend. Once again Korean cinema shows another typical example of its preference for mixing genre.

 Plot and characters are quite different from any other occidental romantic comedy with many cultural clichés; maybe these are the reason why the American remake got such awful results. The film was very unique in terms of cultural topics and obviously it was impossible to get a good adaptation in English culture.

The movie resembles a large number of Korean typical situation most of them related with Confucianism thoughts.

The respect to the elders very important point to Korean society, the fact that is a patriarchal society in which the father, maximum authority (below the elders) at home, is very strict to girls and men are supposed to care about women, the importance of the marriage,…The family press both characters to get married and even by the end of the film the aunt tried to introduce a good girl to her nephew. Introducing this popular blind date culture in which the family usually gets involved and it’s something very common there.

Appealing to common situations based on their drinking culture, the circumstances that emerge when a man and a woman go to a motel in Korea, situations that maybe local audience can interpret better. It was a film that many Koreans could identify with and probably that was the main point of its success.

SHIRI

dir. Kang Je-gyu

   Released in 1999, just after one of the most important economic crisis, Shiri was the first Korean blockbuster. The film with its roots in a Hollywood style got a great economic profit in the box office; it was a boom in the Korean film industry with 6.5 million of audience.

   This movie marked the start of the commercial Korean cinema, the reactivation of the industry that now is one of the biggest one in the world.

   Shiri, with a very occidental action film style, depicts the division of the country and the permanent situation of tension through a crime thriller in which two South Korean agents, Yu Jong-won and Lee Jong-gil, are searching for Bang-hee, a spy from a elite group of North Korean soldiers. Yu Jong-won and his partner Lee Jong-gil have to investigate several assassinations that leads them to the robbery of CTX a liquid explosive that South Korea has recently develop and everything seems to be connected with Bang-hee.

This elite group of soldiers was subjected to a violent and bloody training, showing that just the faster will survive, and this one is Bang-hee; probably, one of the first films in Korea that gives such strong and representative role to a woman.

   This story line is mixed with the romance story between the agent Yu Jong-won, and Myung-hyun, the owner of a fish store. Later, on the film, both Yu Jong-won get to know that the identity of Bang-hee and Myung-hyun are the same.

   This one will be the most complex character, on one side, in love with Yu Jong-won, won’t be able to confront him and on the other side, she will feel the duty she was trained for.

   Kang Je-gyu seeks to appeal the feeling of reconciliation and unification of Koreans. Under the expression “for the unification”, North Korean soldiers, acting outside of the government, try to provoke a war to reunify the country.

   This film, example of the resurgence of Korean cinema base on a very deep nationalistic feeling, leads to a new genre about reunification that later on will produce other films, also with a great success such as JSA or Taegukgi.

The Awakenning of Korean Cinema

PART I

France, 28 of December of 1894, the Lumiere screen for the first time the images of workers and the cinema start as the social phenomenon that we know now. Few years later, 1903, for the first time a film is released in Korea at the time that the Japanese army is invading the peninsula. By this time, Korea has to be considered as an occupied country what has been influence for the evolution and the development of the cinema.

If we take a look to the Korean cinema history over the last century we can clearly appreciate 2 stages that have Korean War as point of inflexion.

The Beginning of the cinema in Korea was characterized by the Japanese occupation, a very repressive period that much of the time was characterize by a strong censorship. Most of the films created in this time were destroyed. From the over 160 movies of this stage, just few of them survived and are still conserved (Arirang, 1930 or, The turning point of the Youngsters, 1934).

Was in 1935 when Japan start a very repressive politic censorship over Korean films, allowing just dramas and historic but always pro-Japanese. But when Japan start to conquer China (1937), the Korean film industry start to be used for propaganda and it’s during this period that the censorship gets stronger, the Japanese government pretended to eradicate any kind of nationalistic feeling with the prohibition of Korean language movies and forcing the use of Japanese language.

Owing to the geographical situation, Korea has always been the target of many surrounded countries.

Once Japan was defeated during the II World War, the pro-Japanese films that were so frequent during the occupation were replaced for anti-Japanese movies. After the Triumph over Japan, Korea found itself under the guardianship, “protection”, of USA and URSS.

The tension produced with the beginning of the cold War, were the cause of the division of the peninsula in 2 independent states. Both governments were established with a dictatorship, one communist and the other one capitalist, pro- American.

In 1950, Kim Il-sung and North Korean army moved forward to South Korea and this moment fix the beginning of a war that will extend for three years. During this time there was no choice for others films but the propagandistic ones. And, moreover, the production was almost nonexistent, just around 8 movies per year.

Probably the most remarkable film during this period was a documentary about the war, This is Korea!, directed by John Ford. Obviously, this documentary, supported by the US army and the government as well, was shot from a very pro-American point of view.

Korea has gone from the censorship of the Japanese occupation to the one established by the government.

During the war, the film industry was used as a propagandistic instrument, but, by the end of the conflict, the production was completely destroyed. Devastated economically and receiving the economic support of USA, the people started to go to the cinema. Korean movie production went from approximately 8 films per year to more than 100 films a year. But this sector was really re-activated with the industrialization process and the economic development of the country during Park Chung-Hee dictatorship. The importance of the cinema during this period was focused in the necessity of escape.

The government established policies to help the evolution and the enrichment of the industry through the introduction of the quota of screen time and a law that determined a minimum production of 15 films per company per year, keeping the censorship for the perspectives against the government.

The military conflict and the division have been a frequent topic in Korean movies maybe moved by its cultural implications, the sentimental values or just to reaffirm the nationalistic feeling after the war.

North and South over a thin line

This image was broadcasted yesterday in most of the TV news and newspapers all over the world. Last Tuesday North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong Island, located in the Yellow Sea just next to the imaginary frontier line that divides the peninsula since 1953 as a symbol of truce after the Korean War, a war that seems to be just in stand-by period. The military assault from North Korea to South Korea has caused 2 deaths and approximately about 20 wounded. The tension between the two parts has been always present.

Kim Jong-il justifies North Korean attack as a response to South Korean military practical exercise in North Korean territory and did not hesitate to declare that North Korea will attack again if these practices continue, while South Korea assured that the military practice was out of North Korean maritime space.

This conflict situation has released the idea of a possible new war between the two parts. Not much ago, last march a South Korean military ship was sunk and South Korean government accused North Korea, but they have denied their implication in the incident.

Obviously, after these events all the glances have been directed to China as the most conflictive international position because of its international relations with both countries (in fact is almost the only one that has relations with the communist North Korean Government).

Japan, EEUU, Europe and China have condemned the attack; and, China has taken a mediator attitude asking for an effort from both sides to solve the problem.

Naturally, as its unique ally (both politically and commercially), China is the only one that can use its influence to reduce the tension and to make Pyongyang to stop the provocations.

But, do they really want to provoke a war? It seems more an attempt to fortify the strength and reputation of Kim Jong-il successor. There are many opinions about the possible end or disequilibrium when Kim Jong-il son, Kim Jong-un, take the political control of the state after his father dies.

During the last 50 years of tension between both parts, there have been many incidents. A ‘truce’ that seems to be always over a thin line that can disappear whenever. It is a problem that cannot be solve without the intention. The worst part is that people with almost the same historical background and the same language are fighting against themselves. And it does not seem to change.

JSA: Joint Security Area

In 2000, 6 million of Koreans gathered to see this film directed by Park Chan-wook probably moved because of the associations with common situation that Koreans could take of the film such as the background of two young South Korean soldiers sent to DMZ to do the compulsory military service or their loneliness feeling that leads them to develop a close relationship with North Korean soldiers.

The film start with a shooting scene and a bit later the viewer get to know that two North Korean soldiers have been killed, supposedly by a South Korean soldier. Sophie, a Swiss-Korean agent, one of the members of the Swiss team from the Neutral Nation Supervisory Commission, will be the one in charge of the investigation.

The film treats the division of the country in 2, North and South, taking as scenery the frontier line, DMZ.

The conflicting area becomes a witness of the growth of a forbidden friendship between North and South Korean soldiers. The relationship can be interpreted in opposite ways, as a pure feeling or as treason. A proscribed family ties among brothers that can be compared with the division of the country that breaks the most important Confucianism base, ‘the brotherhood’.

The soldiers move during the movie over a thin line between trust and suspicion, protection and damage. That is comparable situation with the actual political tension. The tension in the film is increased with the use of 360º pan, for example when the 4 of them get together, also in the scenes that involve what is called “The Bridge of no return”. This conflicting situation shows at the same time the wish of unification and the difficulty to achieve it.

A great tragic story based on a mixed genre, a political-thriller with comical overtone, which evokes sad feelings about the division of a country, a family; a truncated wish of unification because of the complexity of the situations.

I.M