Monday, 27 December 2010

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 1st and 2nd 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
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2 comments:

  1. PlaboPein10 January 2011 at 12:01

    La verdad es que me tengo que poner al día en esto de las pelis coreanas... pero he de decir que vi "The Host" en el cine y, a pesar de tener unos efectos especiales de la ostia, era bastante mediocre. Regulera, vamos xDD. Me esperaba otra cosa mucho más novedosa que la típica peli del bicho que come gente y punto. Supongo que la pila de premios que recibió iban por lo que comento, por los efectos.

    Tengo que repasar las pelis asiáticas que he visto, porque recuerdo unas cuantas pero me parece que la mayoría son japonesas. Por cierto, dentro de poco veré "Oldboy" de una vez, ¡que ya va siendo hora!

    La próxima comento en inglérl, que estoy en clase y no es plan de traducir xDD.

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